A Water Marble Tutorial... kind of.

As I type, I am waiting for my mini tripod to arrive.  I want to film a Water Marble tutorial, but I will need that tripod in order to do it, so I figured why not try to photograph it?  Easier said, than done... especially when I decide to try it on one of the hottest days of the summer!  I do my nails outside when I can, because I live with three Asthmatics.  The smell can get overpowering, even for myself.  So, without further adieu,  here is how I do a water marble.

I always start off by painting my nails in either one of the colors I intend to include in my marbling design, or I paint them white.  I usually do this the night before I intend to marble. You can do it minutes prior, too.    White allows the colors to POP!  And don't forget:  Always use a Bonder (I swear by Orly Rubberized Bonder) and/or a base coat (OPI Nail Envy line is fab).

The first thing I do is gather everything I need:

Polishes, Scotch tape for taping fingers, Q-tips for removing polish on top of water, a small dotting tool for dragging through polish and a cup of filtered, room-temp water.  Keep some paper towels handy as well for cleaning off your dragging tool.

The next thing I do is to loosen the brushes on the polishes I intend to use.  Then I prep my fingers with Scotch tape.  I do one at a time... you can tape one entire hand.  I've done it both ways, and I like one at a time.  I first put a strip on the side of my nail as close to it as possible.  DO NOT let the tape touch the nail as the polish will adhere to the tape and not to your nail.  Pull the tape tightly around the underside of your nail and again as close to the other side of your nail as you can.  Then take another strip and place it on top of your digit, right over the cuticle.  I then smoosh the pieces under my digit together.  Now, we are ready to make our bulls-eye.

Begin by using two drops of the first color.  Then alternate as you wish.  For this mani, I am using only two colors:  Sinful Colors in White On White and OPI Over The Taupe.  Put as many 'rings' or dots as you wish but remember, the more concentric circles, or the larger your 'bulls-eye,' the murkier the marble.

Because it was so hot out when I did this, the polishes had a tendency to bubble in the water. When you have enough circles, it's time to start designing... and that requires a sharp tool.  I've tried using orange sticks, but they are simply too fat.  I either use a very fine dotting tool (shown here), or my favorite: A turkey trussing needle.  For this design, I started by inserting my dotting tool into the center of the 'bulls-eye' -  do not just dip in;  all you need to do is to just break the surface of the lacquer.  Gently pull the tool away from you and touch the inside of the cup with your dotting tool. *** Clean off your tool after each drag.  This is LAW.  Otherwise, you can possibly ruin the design. ***  Then go back to the center and then pull toward you:

Then insert your tool at the top of the design and drag across the polish.  Come back and repeat, over and over until you have the design in the far right corner of the above photo.

Now, we are ready to DUNK!  But before you take that plunge, look at the design.  Turn your cup and find a spot that you like.  Depending on where you place your nail, the design will either be straight across your nail, or vertical.  Diagonal is always fun and that is my favorite.  Position the cup so you can comfortably place your fingernail into the polish.  You want to make sure you are placing the surface of your nail into the polish in one fluid motion. (Try not to exceed where the tape on your finger ends, or you'll have marbled skin!) DO NOT STOP.   Now, keeping your nail still, grab your Q-tip and carefully begin removing the excess polish from the surface of the water.  You sometimes have to reach around behind your submerged finger, but get as much off as you possibly can;  if you don't, that remaining 'scum' will adhere to your nail as you remove it - EW!

It's hard to see, but my nail is just under the surface of the water on an angle.  The tape keeps the polish off of your skin! 

Once you have removed the excess polish from the water, slowly begin pulling your finger out of the water.  If you happen to notice an air bubble on your nail, use your dotting tool while your nail is still submerged and try to pop it.  If you can't, don't worry.  It'll just be an interesting addition to your design... and you can design over it later - that's the next blog!

Now you can see why I tape my skin!  Still, the tape can't cover all of your skin - note the areas of marbled skin next to the nail.

 

After you get used to doing water marbles, you'll find that the adherence is a lot stronger than it looks!  Sometimes when you remove your nail, the marble will be too 'muddy' or it just looks like a hot mess.  Simply do another bulls-eye!  Keep the tape on, make your design and dunk your wet nail again!  Amazing, but it works!

Now I personally have a system that I stick to:  I leave the tape on the finger I just dunked and tape my next finger and dunk... and when I remove that finger from the water, the polish on the previous nail has dried enough to safely remove it without doing serious damage to the design should the tape touch it.  ALWAYS use tweezers (sorry, forgot to include them in my set up photo) to remove tape.

When you have completed your nails, you will still have some clean up as you will have some skin marbled where the tape did not cover.  I let stay on.  I put one coat of Seche Vite on all of my nails and let them dry for a half hour.  Then I use an orange stick dipped into polish remover and clean up my cuticles, the skin with polish and the area just above my cuticle on my skin.  I think manicures look really good if there is a bare space next to the cuticle.  That's just me.

A shower will remove anything your orange stick missed.  Sometimes, if I am not in any hurry, I skip the remover and just shower and the polish on my skin is gone with no effort.  Then I can do the detail clean-up

So, there you have it.  Later today, I will show you a few more tricks, including how to disguise a messy water marble, and how to avoid doing what I discussed earlier...  Remember 'Less is more?"  I broke that rule.  That's coming up next!

Thanks for reading, and remember:

Stay Polished!

I'm back!

Four months.  WAY too long, but honestly, my nails were not even worth painting, anyway.  They broke; or rather two broke and I hated the way they looked, so I just bit the bullet and cut them all off.  Plus, I have been busy having numerous surgeries and recoveries.  It's been crazy!  Finally, my nails are looking good again and just in time for summer!  I am wearing my newest water marble.  I wanted to do a black and white swirl, but alas;  my black polish is way too thick.  So, I opted for a deep raspberry in Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear in Flirt, with China Glaze White On White.  It reminds me of my favorite raspberry chocolate chip ice cream... sans the chocolate color (next time).  If you look closely at the photo below and look at my thumb, you can see what happens when you are not careful with your tape placement. Same thing on my middle finger.  You an see the base white color.  From now on, I'll just bring the tape a bit lower than I usually place it.  I can always clean it off when it dries.

Click on photos to enlarge.

I wasn't really looking for a certain design this time.  Just yummy swirls of color.  

As always, thanks for reading!  Next time, I will show you how I prepare for water marbling.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Miss April Revealed!

Last Spring, I started taking extra special care of my nails.  I have always wanted nice nails and with a bit of patience and work, and a few dollars spent on not only good quality items to care for them, I did just that.  I also discovered OPI nail lacquer.  It's sold only in salons and it's not cheap stuff.  I decided to spend the extra on it.  I have never been disappointed!


I started photographing my painted nails.  Why?  Well, for starters, I knew that my nails could not possibly look this nice for long;  They'd all break off or I'd stop caring about them.  On the contrary;  only twice in one year has a nail completely broken off. Taking care of them, diligently, has paid off!   When I do get a tear, I now know how to save it until it grows out.  Matter of fact, I'm in that dilemma right now.  Thanks to a spare tea bag and some OPI Nail Envy Maintenance Nail Strengthener, my left middle nail is strong again (had a fight with the bathroom door and lost... sort of).

Through the wonderful powers of the internet, I found a blog that a woman out west was doing.  Her name is Colette and she writes  My Simple Little Pleasures  It is from her wonderful tutorials that she taught me (and thousands of other nail polish lovers) the lovely art of 'Water Marbling';  It's very similar to the timeless art of paper marbling that has been used for centuries to create beautiful works of art.  Open any classic piece of literature and look at the inside cover;  I bet it's paper marbled.  So, I got brave and tried it.  My very first water marble was a real mess, but I did it!  Not only had I succeeded, but I was amazed at how easy it was.  I am a person that thrives on instant gratification.  This did it!  Here is a photo of my very first attempt:  

My very first nail marbling!

Okay, so they're not consistent.  Still it worked!

I kept at it and with each marbling, I kept getting better at it.  Not only that, but it was fun!  I was having a blast!  I kept up with Colette and her tutorials. Her designs are so elegant and the colors she uses inspire me.   Soon I found others were making tutorials and though most were nowhere near as good as Colette's were, one more lady caught my eye.  I just found out that her name is Sophie!  Her cheery voice welcomes you instantly, and her bright, vibrant water marbles were screaming "TRY ME!"   The word was spreading, even 'across the pond,' about how much fun water marbling for nails was!  Here is Sophie from her "Ilovemylongnails' YouTube page, showing us her technique for water marbling: I adore Sophie; she has the sweetest greetings;  "Hello!  It's ME, again!"  Love her!

Sophie's I Love My Long Nails

Sophie's YouTube page and Colette's blog became my favorite places to visit for nail marbling tutorials.  It is such an exciting moment when I see that Colette has another swatch or tutorial uploaded.

I found that OPI had an official fan page.  Of course, I "Liked" it, immediately.  Soon I found myself bravely posting photos of my latest nail swatches.  I was taking great care of my nails by now, but even so, my nails don't grow very long.  I can't let them;  they curl.  It's not pretty.  So, I am happy when I get nice comments on my nails.  There are so many sets of lovely hands on OPI's wall!  It's a great place for inspiration!  

A few days after Easter, I did a water marble using OPI colors, exclusively.  While purple is not my favorite color, I decided on using them:  Funky Dunky, Do You Lilac It? and Funny Bunny.  They came out great.  Matter of fact, it was the best I had done to date.  So I decided to share my first water marbling photo -- taken by yours truly (not an easy task when you are trying to pose one hand and holding a huge Nikon DSLR with the other)!  This is the photo I submitted to OPI's wall:

Taken by yours truly... who knew?

As soon as this was uploaded, I became ill.  I will not go into detail, but let's just say I was in a lot of pain for most of the summer and fall and ultimately ended up having major surgery in October.  I wasn't online as much as I had been earlier on, and missed two very important messages on the OPI wall.  I happened to find it one day.  OPI wanted to contact me in regards to a photo I had submitted.  They were working on a project and wanted to us my photo!  I scrambled with my response and soon received a reply;  OPI wanted to use my photograph for their 2011 calendar.  Would I allow them to use my photo?  WOW.  Of course they could!  I was so shocked that they thought my photo... and my marbling ... was nice enough to put on their calendar, which I was told, would be seen by professionals world-wide that I nearly fainted!  I gave them permission, of course! Here is the page my photo is on:

Miss April! Click to enlarge!

I am so proud of this.  It is such an honor to represent a company that I truly love.  I will proudly display this long after 2011 ends!  I do owe a big THANK you to Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures and to my friend across the pond, Sophie!   Thank you for all of your wonderful tutorials, and inspiration.  If it were not for you two, I would not have ever started water marbling!

I also owe a big thank you to O.P.I.  Again, I am honored.  The calendar is so well put together!  Even if I wasn't chosen to represent, I would have loved to have purchased this calendar!  I love the format and it's a joy to display!


Happy New Year!

Peace!

Welcome to Mary's Nail Files!

I know what you're thinking... 'Another nail swatch blog... *yawn*...'  Okay, you got me.  I am giving this a go because normally I would post my nail pictures on my Facebook wall... and proceed to bore the Hell out of most of my friends.  So, I started thinking about creating a blog about them.  There are hundreds if not thousands of blogs out there pertaining to nail polish, but still I thought it would be better to do this than to do it on Facebook.

 I am not a professional manicurist.  My knowledge of nail polish is simply that I love buying it and I love using it.  There.  That's it.  Now, for a bit of history.

When I was really young, I bit my nails.  All the time.  My mother was blessed with thick, hard, and very long fingernails.  I wanted  mine to be just like hers.  My nail-biting habit broke her heart.  She would promise me that if I stopped biting them, not only would she paint them for me, but would let me buy any color I wanted.  Never happened.  My nails were chewed way past the quick-line to the point of bloody nibs.  Plus, being a tomboy, pretty nails were simply not on my list of priorities.

Fast-forward to high school.  I finally stopped biting them, but still, never truly took care of them.  I have learned throughout the years that it takes a lot more than simply not biting them to have pretty and healthy nails.  I am pretty sure that if my mother could see my nails now, she would be very proud of me.  I could paint HER nails, now... in ways she would find fascinating.

So here it is, my first post on my new blog.  There is no real rhyme or reason to it.  I'll just post cool colors (or warm) that I find.  I do love water marbling, so I will be posting pics of those, too.
One thing I will do soon is post how I care for my nails.  Tips (ha) and a few tricks I've learned.  I thank all of those wonderful nail bloggers out there that have also inspired me.

Without further adieu,  here is my first water marbling post!

China Glaze Secret Peri-Wink-Le, Frostbite, OPI Yodel Me On My Cell, Kyoto Pearl and topped with one coat of China Glaze Fairy Dust and one coat of Seche Vite. 

Shade

Sun

Let me know what you think!  I'm off to help my son with homework...until next time...

Don't bite!
Peace.