Dry Watermarble Tutorial

Yes. You read that right. DRY "watermarble" tutorial. What?! Dry? Where's the water? Exactly. Today we are going to learn how to create the marbling effect with out the hassle of water! I'm sure a lot of you have seen gorgeous watermarbles and have always wanted to create them, but they're honestly just a LOT of work and mess and you waste a lot of nail polish trying. At least that's the way when I do it. So let's try a new technique called dry marbling! As always, look below. :) Warning right now -- This is going to be more of a "learning" tutorial more than "Hey look at my pretty nails" because this was the first time I tried this technique out, and the tutorial is the important part haha. For way better photos and the gal I learned this from, check out MakeupMyLack Marble Without Water Tutorial HERE. :)

I am so sorry about my pointer finger nail... It took a hard hit a few days ago. :( Dang it. But hopefully you can tell that the linear marble effect is pretty cool. ;) 

Let's get started! So for marbling without water tutorial, you will need a plastic baggy (I used a sandwich bag, but I think you can use Saran Wrap or any other similar surface as well), a toothpick (I used a mechanical pencil since I was out), 2 nail polishes at least (I used Smoke and Ashes by China Glaze and Silvivor by Wet n Wild), and some scissors or cuticle clippers (which I forgot to picture). MakeupMyLack did use the cuticle clippers but I don't have any. So I used some super tiny emobroidery scissors. You can also use some "child" or any other small sciccors, but it'll be just a bit harder to use, but it works! I tried it out on a couple nails. ;) 

There are just too many pictures that it'd be silly to post them all so I made a collage. :) Basically, once you have gathered your materials, I'd suggest ripping your plastic baggy into halves so you use both sides if you need more space to start with. ;) Now get your polishes ready to paint! As you can see, I just used 2 colors. You can use as many as you'd like, but I prefer just 2. ;) So let's start! Make a THICK line onto your plastic baggy. How long? Just as wide as your nail is. And by THICK line, I mean glob a lot of nail polish on it. When it dries, the polish will thin out. You want it to be thick when you start with so that it doesn't break when it dries or is too see-through. That's why I suggest using thick nail polishes, not watery ones. Next you'll just continue adding lines in the same fashion. Paint them thick! Just continue until your number of lines is as long as your nails. I made 4 lines. :) Now, we are to step 5. Using your pencil (toothpick), gently drag it through the top to the bottom. And go ALL the way through -- Do you see how I stopped? Yeah, that's not good. You want to go all go from tippy top to the very bottom. And you'll notice your first color makes a line. Repeat this process but this next time go from bottom to top and then repeat step 5 again. I did this 4 times to make 4 lines. Step 9 is just saying to let dry. I think the safest thing is to let them dry overnight, but you could check after 3 hours. Now repeat this process to make enough for all your nails plus a few more if you make a mistake. ;)

Here are how mine for my left hand turned out. Yes, even I had to practice a few times. ;) Another good reason why to make extras are to use as "checkers" to see if the other ones are done drying.

Now you want to GENTLY peel these little... dried up nail polish designs off.

I peeled this little guy off and now will use it. :)

Okay, you're going to want to paint your nail a base color to make it nice and sticky so that the design will stick. Yay, I have I need a Re-Freshmint by Wet n Wild on already. I was too lazy to take it off and for my color combo, the black and silver was going to color it so I didn't really care haha. So I am applying just a clear base coat on top.

Stick your nail design on top of your wet nail. (Yeah, do these one at a time ;))

This is the trickiest part and the most work. But if you do it right, it's worth it. So you want to trim the excess design off with your tiny scissors. Don't worry about the bottom (around your cuticle) because I just cleaned up using the q-tip method. :) Didn't feel like dangering my skin by cutting around it!

After clean up, you'll want to apply another clear top coat on top to your beautiful marbled design!

Hehe.. "One of these is not like the other, one of these things just isn't the same." ;) Part of the song from Sesame Street! Anyway! Look how cool that one finger is. ;)

And here is another picture of the final result!

 

I am SOOOOO trying this technique out again! I apologize for the wonkyness of this one, but like I said earlier, this should be more focused on the process. My nails just aren't very long for this design at the moment *cough cough* POINTER FINGER. ;) So I hope this really helped you and you can actually do anything with this "dry" technique. Say you want some pretty flowers but still aren't comfortable with painting them on your nails? (Especially your dominant hand) Well, just paint the design, MAKE SURE IT'S THICKLY APPLIED, let dry, peel and "glue" on with clear nail polish! This "dry" technique can be used for many things. ;) Oh and since this is dry watermarbling with a plastic bag, you can make ANY type of marble. I just liked the linear type, but you can sure throw in some swirls or just random patterns! Let me know if this worked for you, and until next time, Your Polish Pal, Jenna :)