Watermarble Nail Art Tutorial

This week I have created some watermarble nail art. 

Over the past few weeks a lot of my non-nailie friends have been sharing pictures of watermarble nails on Facebook, so I thought I would create a tutorial to show them how to do it! :)

The polishes I used were Essence, That's What I Mint!, OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian and OPI Where Did Suzi's Man-Go?

Here is a pictorial. See below for step by step instructions to go with it!

1. First paint the nails you intend to watermarble onto in a light colour: white or nude are good options.

2. Now, gather together everything you will need. Water, polishes (open the lids), cocktail sticks, Vaseline, kitchen roll.

Some people recommend filtered water, however I just use tap water. I do let it sit for about an hour beforehand though, to ensure it is room temperature otherwise the polish will dry too quickly.

3. Cover your cuticles and the backs of your fingers in Vaseline. This makes cleaning up afterwards so much easier! Careful not to get it on your nails though.

4. Now you are ready to start. Drip your polish into the water and allow it to spread.

5. Working quickly add drops of your other chosen polishes into the centre.

6. Once you have plenty of polish in there take a cocktail stick and move the polish around to create a pattern.

7. When you are happy with the pattern you have created dip your fingers in, nails down and leave them in the water. Use a cocktail stick to gather up any leftover polish floating on the water, otherwise this will ruin your mani when you remove your fingers.

8. Take the fingers out of the water. Ta Da! You have a beautiful watermarble design. Don't be tempted to dry your fingers yet, allow them to air dry or you risk smudging your marble.

9. The excess polish on your fingers should wipe away easily with kitchen roll, because you used the Vaseline. More accurate clean up can be done around the cuticles with acetone and a small angled paintbrush.

10. Now all thats left to do is paint the rest of your nails and topcoat. I like to use one of the polishes I used for the marble, to keep it matchy!

I hope this has helped.

Try it yourself!

Gradient Tutorial

I created this amazing gradient a few days ago. After posting on Instagram there was a lot of interest and questions from friends, so here I have created a tutorial for everyone to have a go!! :)

First, I would recommend gathering together everything you will need.

• At least 2 different coloured polishes
• Base coat
• Top coat, 
• Nail polish remover/acetone (I use both, but one or the other will do!)
• A sponge
• Scissors (you may not need these depending whether you would rather use the sponge whole)
• Clean up brush.

I am using Neon colours so the polishes I need are Barry M Matt White, Sinful Colours Cream Pink and W7 Fluorescent Yellow.

I started with a base coat. I use Sally Hansen Nail Nutrition, followed by a white layer of Barry M, as I am using neon colours and the white base helps make sure the colours stand out.

Once the white was dry I got my sponge. Some people say make up sponges are the best, but I just use a regular washing up sponge and have never had any problems! I find it easier to work with a smaller piece for better precision, so I cut a chunk off the sponge.

Now I would recommend opening all the polishes you want to use for your gradient, so you can easily get at them.

Hold the sponge, then using the other hand paint a small line of your first colour. Directly below this, paint a line of your second colour.

Now, the messy part! Sponge the paint onto the nail. Make sure you dab the sponge up and down a bit, so the colours blend in the middle and don't forget about the sides of your nails! It will end up all over your fingers, but don't worry about that!!
You can probably do 2 or 3 nails before you need to put more polish on the sponge, depending how fast you work. If it is starting to get tacky, or not transferring well, just put fresh polish lines on the sponge!

Now, depending how bright you want the colours, once the first layer is dry you can dab more polish on. In this picture you can see the colour difference between one layer and two layers.

That's the main part done, hopefully you're gradient should look something like this:

Now for the clean up. I use another piece of sponge and some Nail Polish Remover to clean the worst off my fingers.. It would take forever to clean all that with a clean-up brush.

Then I use some acetone and a clean-up brush to make sure my cuticles are all clean and tidy!
Follow with a layer of topcoat and you're done! I use Barry M 3 in 1 topcoat.

Ta Da!! Happy Gradient-ing!!

You can create lots of different effects with this technique, just by using different colours.
Here are a few other gradient manicures I have done:

Magazine Nails

This week the challenge prompt on Llama Nails is 'Newspaper Nails'.
I don't read Newspaper's, so I wasn't going to go buy one just for my nails! Instead, I improvised and used a magazine. You could use any kind of image/text on paper to do this really.

I love these nails! They are so unique and different! 

The polishes I used were; an old limited edition Barry M pink which I don't know the name of; Maybelline, Dark Denim; Barry M Matte White.

I'm so glad I discovered how to do this, so now I'm going to share the method with you. 

Yay, my first tutorial! 

All I used for this was:

• Magazine
• Scissors
• Cotton Wool
• Water
• Nail Polish

1. First I painted my nails! Lighter colours such as white will work best for this. Wait for it to dry before moving on.

2. Now, find the pattern/type you want to use and cut a square around it.

3. Place the piece of magazine over your nail.

4. Grab some cotton wool, dip it in water and press onto the paper. Make sure the paper is nice and wet and you press on it. I didn't time how long I pressed for, but I'd say at least 30 seconds. The longer and harder you press, the better the image will transfer.

5. Now peel the paper off your nail. Some paper will be left behind. Don't worry about that, we'll sort it out in the next step.

6. Once your nail has dried, dip a finger into the water and very gently rub on the nails you have used magazine on. This will remove any leftover paper. Don't rub too hard though, or your pattern will start to rub off, as mine did on my middle finger! Finish with a clear topcoat to stop the prettiness washing away!!

And now you have beautiful, unique magazine nails! :)

I hope I have explained this clearly enough!