Marbled Nail Art | Tutorial

Ciao bella's! 

Or hello beautiful's, if you're not into the whole Italian thing. As for me, you could ship me off in a crate with no hair straighteners and I wouldn't mind as long as I was headed for that shoe shaped beauty of a country!! One day....one day... 

Tangent over, and lets crack on with today's post! I have only recently gotten into nails in a big way. Having been an art student for the past 4 years, and then before that an art A leveller, (congrats on all results today btw!), nails have never been a priority, mainly because there is absolutely no point in painting your nails when the next day you'll have your hands in a bowl full of plaster of paris, or be knee deep in charcoal etc.. 

Having now finished my course, I am relishing in the fact that my nails can be so pretty without fear of ruining or chipping, and I have even begun to delve into the world of nail art! Yesterday, I managed to create the look above, which I have lovingly named my 'marbled nail look', and decided to do my very first tutorial, so hopefully this goes well!

First of all..you will need: 

Tissue paper/ cotton wool balls 

Cotton buds

Nail polish remover 

Vaseline/ lip balm 

A small bowl (I'm using an old shot glass) and access to a tap/water

Cocktail sticks or skewers 

Nail polish - at least two different colours

The first thing to do is to choose your colours. After my short time of doing this, I have come to find that not all nail polishes work well. For example I tried to use my Essie Waltz along with my Bourjois So Laque in Adora Bleu, which didn't work very well, the Bourjois polish, I think, Is a little too thick, as are the Barry M Gelly Nail polishes. It's a lot of trial and error to find out what works for you. To show you, I've chosen Essie Waltz, Rimmel Lycra Pro Fancy Fuchsia and Models Own Coral Reef, however the image featured at the beginning of the post is my own nails, and that was just Waltz and Fancy Fuchsia. 

To begin, fill your container with water. It's much easier to use a small container that you can fit your finger into. An old shot glass is ideal. 

Now, taking it in turns, create a bullseye pattern by allowing drops of nail polish to drop into the water. 

Using the cocktail stick, swirl the colours around until you have created a pattern you are happy with. 

Meanwhile, using your vaseline, smother your finger down to roughly the knuckle being careful not to cover the nail itself. This will stop the nail polish from sticking to your finger. 

Next, find a section of the pattern that you like, and place your nail over that area. Quickly, but without splashing, place your finger into the water. 

Keep your finger in the water, and take your cotton bud. Using the cotton bud, dip into the water and swirl around until the excess nail polish has been mopped up from the surface of the water. DO NOT dip your finger in and then pull it straight out!! It will not work and you'll end up with a mess. 

After mopping up the excess, pull your finger out of the water, and wipe up the excess polish from your finger using tissue or cotton wool. The previously applied vaseline should make this process easy and hassle free. 

HOPEFULLY, you will now have a wonderfully unique marbled nail! Repeat on other nails, and mop up any marks on your fingers with nail polish remover. Give a quick top coat and you're good to go! 

It's important to understand that this is definitely not a quick manicure. Especially the first few times you attempt this, 9/10 times it will probably go wrong. The most important thing is not to give up, and if at first you don't succeed, try again, if you still don't succeed, swap the colours around, the nail polish might be too thick. 

You have to kiss a few frogs to get your prince; the same goes with nails, you have to put up with some disasters (like the image above!) before you get that perfect pattern, but you will get there eventually! 

So there we have it, sorry this has been rather rambly, but I hope you like the effect it gives and I really hope you give it a go yourself, once you get the technique, it's easier than you think! 

My top tips: 

- Vaseline your finger. This really helps to avoid polish sticking to your finger

- Start off by using just two colours. Using white as one of them makes it a little easier to begin with as you can differentiate the colours better. You can always move onto other colours once you've grasped it. 

-Don't be disheartened if it doesn't work first time. I spent around two hours perfecting my first marbled mani, and went through a LOT of nail polish remover before I was happy with the results. 

If you decide to give this a go, please tweet me a picture of your creations, I'd love to see how it goes! @thegemmine