Nail Marbling Design Without Water!

On the weekend somehow I got sidetracked and started watching random YouTube videos of nail art and designs. And I was absolutely fascinated by the ones that depicted water marbling. The designs looked so arty and unique and like a pretty kaleidoscope. But the process looked ridiculously tiresome and like it would take hours to achieve to get an average result (for a beginner like me!). So then I googled nail marbling without water to see if there was another way to do it, but everything that popped up looked so average and unimpressive.

So then I thought OK Kate this is a challenge! So then I proceeded to do my take on nail marbling, and I’m actually very pleasantly surprised with the results...

This is what to do to recreate this nail design:

- Paint a base coat. You could also paint a white nail polish base to make the colours POP more, but I skipped this step in my excitement to marble!

- Choose an assortment of colours that complement each other well, I chose pastel colours. I used the following pastel green, blue, pink and purple polishes:

Illamasqua’s Nomad, OPI’s Do You Lilac It?, OPI’s Pink Friday, and Maybelline’s Party Blue.

- Split each finger mentally into thirds and paint a pretty thick line of one colour on the left, one on the right, and one in the middle. Then quickly get a toothpick and drag and swirl the colours into each other. It needs to be fairly thick so you are able to drag enough polish across the nail. Also so you don’t ruin your polishes by combining colours, when you paint the middle joining line of polish, hold it just above the surface without touching and it will drip off into a line in the middle of your nail without getting the adjoining colours on the brush.

- Continue to paint each nail this way using different variations of the 4 pastel colours so that each nail looks unique.

- Once your nails are dry paint a top coat on. I did two layers because I wanted my artwork to last. Tidy up any messiness with a cotton bud and nail polish remover. Or have a warm shower and it just peels off afterwards!

Here is the finished product:

This took me only about 20 minutes to do, which is so quick compared to the water method of marbling. Plus the design is so gorgeous, and I think the pastel mix looks particularly effective. It reminds me of gelato or rainbow ice cream!

Also because there is so much happening on every nail, it’s quite good for hiding little flaws and potential chips. And it’s sure to attract a lot of complements because of the pretty colours and the apparent complexity of the design.

So what do you guys think? Have you ever tried water marbling or any other method of marbling? What is your favourite nail art design to do?