First attempt on water marble~

I saw this design on YouTube, and I just couldn't resist to try!

It is harder than it looks and requires a bit cleaning.  It does look quite nice and fun!

I will quickly summarize what needs to be done, assuming you have watched the video above!

 

Base Color:  OPI Alpine Snow
Yellow: OPI Fiercely Fiona
Purple: OPI Do you lilac it?
Green: OPI Gargantuan Green Grape

Tools 

1. A dollar store bowl 
2. Tooth pick 
3. Paper towels
4. Scissor
5. Scotch tape

Instructions and Tips

1.  Fill the bowl with room temperature water - no cold water, not warm either
2. Apply Base coat
3. Apply base color - OPI Alpine Snow and wait for it to try a little
1. Question:  Why do I need a base color?
1. The water marble makes the layer of the color really thin.  Without a base color, it does not look as good on the nails.
4. Start making scotch tape strips
1. Each nail will need 2 strips.
2. One strip is used to cover the top; the second strip is used to wrap circular around the area  from one side of the nail, bottom, and up to the other side and touch the other tape.
5. Loose up the cap for the other three colors (yellow, green, and purple).
6. Once the white coat is try, apply the tapes on the finger around the nail area
1. Apply the tape strips exactly on top of the line if possible.
2. If it's hard to decide, leave the strip a little away from the nail into the skin area.
3. In general, the tape should stick to the skin around the nails.
4. To stabilize the strips, you can make it completely stick to the skin as well.   
7.   Question:  How many nails should I do at a time?
1. After quite a few experiments, 2 is recommended, at most 3 for beginners.
2. Only tape 2-3 fingers at a time instead of all the fingers to make the marbles. 
8.  Time to make the marbles in the water!
1. Question:  Which color should I start first.
1. Recommend:  Lightest color to darkest: yellow -> green -> purple
2. I used green -> yellow -> purple.  Yellow ends up looking light green. 
2.  Drop colors in the water - *Very important tips*
1. Make sure the brush from nail polisher bottle has enough nail polisher to make a drop but not too much to make 2.  
2. Dropping color must be fast.
3. If the color is dropped to the water and it doesn't spread, tap the bowl to make it spread
4. Drop next color in the center ASAP ; tap the bowl a little if it doesn't spread
5. Alternate as fast as you can so the nail colors don't dry up.
6. Once getting a lot layers in the water, time to stop.
7. To make  the pattern interesting, use the very tip of *pointy* toothpick to tap-swirl the colors up - do not stick the toothpick all the way into the water.  It'll destroy the marble.
8. Separate the fingers with tapes, and aim for the patterns desired.
1. If the fingers are too close, it'll be different patterns
9. Slide the fingers in at 45 degree angle to 70 degree into the water
1. You can shake the finger a little if there's bubble on it.
10. Blow dry the top layer, and use the toothpick to remove the entire layer on top.
11. Stretch the fingers up and remove from the water. 
12. Blow dry the finger a little, and cut / remove the tapes off the finger. 
13. Use toothpick to clean up the rest of the nail polisher in the bowl for the next run
9.  Clean off the excessive from the finger with nail polisher remover/Q-tip.
10. Once the nail is dry, apply top coat and drip dry.

 

Trying beads and stickers for the first time!

I can't remember where I saw this design - I think it was from the advertisement for the stickers.  This design has satisfied my curiosity for both beads and sticker experiments.

Tip: OPI Alpine Snow
Top:  OPI Black Onyx
V shape Sticker 
beads (image from amazon.com)

Instructions and Tips 

1. Apply the base coat and wait for it to dry
1. I use OPI Start to Finish because it dries faster than OPI Base Coat and easier to work with for this design.
2. Apply the v shape sticker to the nails 
1. Caution:  The sticker is too sticky for base coat.  Directly apply to the nail will take off the base coat and leave some of the stickers on the nail.
2. After peeling sticker off the package, stick and take off skin a few times until it's less sticky before placing it on the nail.
3. Place the pointy part of V to center of nail
4. Make sure  the tip of V does not go over the nail part where it's not attached to the skin (just like the regular French manicure where it's not suppose to show the white visible part)
5. Lightly press the sticker on nail - only enough that it doesn't move.
3. Paint the bottom half of the nail with OPI Alphone Snow - try not to cover the sticker too much, only enough so the color won't mix with the other color on top.
4. Paint the upper half with OPI Black Onyx
5. Take off the V sticker on the nail has both colors applied with thin layer - Note both step 3 & 4 have to be completed rather quickly, so it's less likely to leave a solid line when it gets dry.
6. Apply the top coat
7. Quickly drop a bead to the desired position after applying the top coat - In this picture I drop it in-between two colors.
8. Apply additional top coat
1. Also dab around the bead with top coat.  After all top coat is the holder for the bead. 
9. Apply Drip dry on top coat to help the nails dry faster.

Challenges

1.    The beads don't stay on if you plan on doing housework
1. One thing I find helpful is to apply top coat around the beads every other day with drip dry.
2. However, if you do plan on doing housework, the chance of it staying on is pretty low after a few hours. 
3. An alternative is to use silver nail art polisher to dot it.  
2.  Different colors!
1. Personally I think this design is a little busy on short nails, but for dressing up in black/white, it worked well.  It can be more vibrant to mix with colors are friendly to pink - Pastel colors should look great, or you can look up internet some some resources on color scheme with pink.