Tuesday 8 April 2014

Water Marbling Nail Art Tutorial

Water marbling on my nails is something which I have tried before and failed. However I didn't want to give in, so I gave it another shot today and I thought I would share some tips and tricks with you as well as a step-by-step pictorial! It is quite a time consuming and messy technique, so you may want to create this look on a few accent nails, as i did, if you are tight for time! Please excuse the state of my nails, I have had a very busy week but I really wanted to get a post up today!


There are two main factors which play a huge part in the success of water marbling, succeed in these and you will end up with a very successful marble nail art:

  1. The water needs to be at room temperature in order to allow the nail varnishes to spread.
  2. The nail varnishes you use need to be fairly new and of a reasonably high quality.

Step-By-Step Tutorial:


Step 1: To begin, ensure you have a container/cup full of water at room temperature, a tooth pick, a selection of nail varnishes in a range of contrasting colours and the nails painted white which you wish to add the marbling to. 

Step 2: Drop a small blob of each nail varnish into the water one by one, letting the first fully expand before you move onto the next colour. Complete this until you have the desired amount of layers.

Step 3 & 4: Using the toothpick create a pattern of your choice. I desired to create a star shape, moving the nail varnishes inwards and outwards to ensure there was a nice mix of colours in the centre. 

Step 5: Drop your finger on top of your marbling, placing it onto the section of your choice. I chose to place my finger in the centre of the star.

Step 6: Blow gently on the surface of the water to dry the remaining nail varnish, then take the toothpick again and sweep up the remains surrounding your finger.

Step 7: Remove your finger slowly from the water.

Step 8: Clean up around your finger to reveal your marbling pattern on the nail. Alternatively you could apply tape to the finger in step 1 in order to decrease the amount of nail varnish needing to be cleaned up around the nail. 

And there you have the technique I use to successfully create a marbled nail using water! 


Have you ever tried water marbling on your nails before? Let me know what you think of this look in the comments below!

Happy Water Marbling! Samantha xx

2 comments:

  1. Great tutorial! I'd never heard or nail marbling before but the results are amazing! I may have to try this myself! :) x

    ItsTheBlueBow

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  2. This is such an incredible technique! I think I might give this one a go at some point, but I'll save it for when I have plenty of time to play around with it and don't mind getting a bit messy!

    Becky @ The Little Blog of Beauty

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