Another Water Marble!

Just a quick little post to show you the water marble I did for Lacquer Dreams Halloween challenge.  Today's prompt is "Trick or Treat".  Last year in October I made my first attempt at water marbling with candy corn colors.  It turned out a muddled mess!  Since I have improved my water marble skills, I thought I would try again and give you some of my "secrets".  Oh, and it is a return of Bria's nails to the blog!  When not in school she has less interest in having her nails done.

The colors I used for this are as follows:

• Orange - Sinful Colors Cloud 9
• Yellow - Sinful Colors Lets Meet
• White - Snow White

This was "finished" at 11:00 pm on a school night, which means we weren't too picky about clean up.

 This is after a full weeks wear.  Hardly any tip wear and only one chip near the cuticle on one nail.  Here you can see the shimmer from both the Sinful Colors.  Bria loved these and I was so glad that they were successful!

If you have ever Googled "water marble nail art" you will have found lots of tips for success so I am not going to list them all here.  In experimenting, I found some additional ones that I hadn't seen before, so I figured I would share them for those who may still be having difficulty with water marbling (WM from here on out).

• A small container - When I first tried WM, I was using a glass that had a smaller mouth than a typical glass.  I had trouble with the polish drying to quickly and therefore not spreading.  I started using a "large" shot glass.  This means that the polish doesn't spread too thin and dry to fast.  It also means that you can only dip two fingers at a time, but I think it is worth not having to try again and again.
• With more than three colors, I found that it was better to use fewer "circles" in the bullseye.  Too many rings means more chance that the colors get "muddled" together.
• I found I was never successful unless I anchored the polish to the side of the glass.  If you don't know what I mean, search YouTube.  Sometimes I only anchor the outer ring for more design potential.
• I found that you cannot use the same water too many times, although you can use the same glass.  Using room temp water helps, unless it is cold in the house, like it has been the last few days.  Too early to turn on the heat, at least according to the hubby.  For these I used slightly warm tap water.
• I found I got the most detailed patterns using a needle to drag instead of an orange stick or a dotting tool.  I suppose that a toothpick might work well too, but I didn't try it.
• This last tip is a personal preference.  My cuticles tend to run dry and tape does a number on them, so I don't like taping around my fingers like many suggest.  I also HATE WM cleanup.  Instead I use a small detail brush to carefully apply Vaseline around my cuticles and then all over the back and front of my fingers, being careful to not get any on the nail itself.  After you dip you can clean up with a clean cotton swab (no remover needed) and the polish comes off easily.  This tends to be a bit messy though as you have globs of wet polish on the swab.  An alternative is to let the polish dry on the skin.  Usually the polish will peel right off, but sometimes you will need to use a little remover to get the stubborn areas.

So, those are my tips.  I hope they will help you be successful too!   Let me know if they have helped you at all!
Tina