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!

1. Water type matters- filtered, room temperature water works best. If you don't have access to that, use the cleanest room temperature water that you can. It will still work with tap water, but polish spreads best with filtered water. A good video demonstration comes from Colette of My Simple Little Pleasures. Many people call her the queen of water marbling, and I definitely agree! She's super talented and I adore her videos!

2. Test your polishes- try them out ahead of time to ensure that the polishes you try are going to spread in the water. No one brand always works, it's all a matter of trial and error.
3. Drop the polish from close to the water- dropping from too far away can make the polish sink to the bottom and not spread
4. Have all your materials ready- watermarbling is time sensitive and you need to work quickly. Otherwise, the polish can start to dry within the water. So have all your materials ready to go, with your tested polishes uncapped and next to the water you'll be using.
4. Draw your design from 2 or 3 rings into your bullseye- if you draw from too far out, the polish may already too dry to be workable. If you have trouble moving your orange stick/toothpick through the water in your bullseye, it may be because your polish is already too dry!
5. No breezes- avoid fans, breezes or even heavy breathing in the room you're marbling in. See the tip above.  Air makes the polish on the water dry faster, and dry polish is hard to work with.
6. Avoid bubbles- Remove your finger from the water veeerry slowly; this will help to prevent bubbles. Also, don't dip your finger into any part of the bullseye where you can see bubbles- they'll be sure to show up on the nail.

Here are a couple of the great videos I've watched in my efforts to unravel the mysteries of water marbling.

All of you who have struggled with this technique, you are definitely not alone. Water marbling is a technique that is intimidating to a lot of us, even some of the experts on the MUA nail care board. A recent theme week there revealed that lots of us there were total failures at water marbling, even people who I consider to be beyond talented in other areas of nail art. I hope that some of the tips in this post will help you have a successful marbling experience!