Tips and Tricks Tuesday-Water Marbling 101

Think you can't watermarble? My tips might change your mind!

Like many people, I really struggled with watermarbling. I was a total failure the first few times I did it. Now that I've watched a lot of Youtube videos on the subject, I feel like I'm a lot better at it.  At least, I haven't wanted to tear my hair out the last few times I did it, which is progress for me. ;)  I wanted to share all these tips in a concise post so that other people who were struggling like me could find it all in written form rather than having to a bunch of videos. (Although watching water marbling videos can be quite enjoyable, also!)

I have a few videos links in this post, so please jump to begin unraveling the mysteries of watermarbling!

Comparison: Butter London Tart With a Heart vs. Nina Holographic Topcoat

Here's a quick post comparing Butter London Tart With a Heart with Nina Holographic Topcoat. I had a hard time finding Tart With a Heart at the sample counters at my local Nordstroms, and then only got a few pictures before the polish peeled off my nail wheel. As you can see, the Nina Holographic Topcoat is very close to Tart With a Heart, but it's not an exact dupe.

Butter London Tart With a Heart on left, Nina Holographic Topcoat on right

Here is a picture from the very kind MissCarley. She's a fellow regular at the Makeup Alley nail care forum. I really recommend visiting, it's such a great resource for us nail polish nuts! Anyway, Miss Carley was nice enough to give me permission to use her pictures of the Butter London Tart With a Heart and Nina Holographic Topcoat. Here's one pic: 

Nina Holographic Topcoat on left and Butter London Tart With a Heart on right 

In MissCarley's pictures, Nina Holographic topcoat is on the left and TwaH is on the right. She tried it over American Apparel Hassid (a black creme) and Butter London The Black Knight.  

I hope you can see in these pictures that the concentration of microglitter in TwaH is a little denser than the Nina Holographic topcoat. However, the polishes are so similar that I think Nina Holographic Topcoat will be close enough for those of you lemming Butter London Tart With a Heart. Since Nina polishes retail for around $5 at Sally's and Butter London polishes retail for around $13, many of us will find the Nina Holographic to be an affordable way to satisfy a high end lemming!  Join me after the jump for a couple more pictures comparing this duo.