Grey Lilac Teal Watermarbling - TPTC

Hey y'all!

I decided that maybe I should throw together another TriPolish Tuesday look for you before the challenge ends, and after seeing Anne's water marble decals a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try my hand at making some while the weather was still warm enough to get the water temperature right, and I actually had really good results!  This month the colors are grey/silver, teal, and lilac.

Also highly surprising was that I was able to use Barry M Gelly polishes to achieve the water marble.  I had the colors picked out for TPT, but figured the thick consistency would keep them from spreading well in the water.  Boy howdy, was I wrong about that!

L-R: Barry M Chai, Guava, and Prickly Pear

I recently picked up the entire Barry M Fall 2014 Gelly collection, which consists of 6 gorgeous shades which I plan to continue featuring as I use them.  I pulled out Chai and paired it with Guava and Prickly Pear because I thought they looked so nice together in their bottles.

After applying two coats of Chai on all my nails, I created my water marble using the three polishes, and after creating my design in the water, I just left it alone for about 20 minutes.  When it was dry, I pulled it off the water with tweezers and laid it on a paper towel to drain off the excess water.  Then I cut it into quarters and placed each decal over my nail, smoothing out as many air bubbles as I could.  Here;s where my technique varied from Anne's - I applied over a dry base, because I find that it sticks just as well, and if I need to move it I can gently peel it off and place it again.  One I have it in place, I seal it in with topcoat and gently trim off the excess with nail scissors and/or tweezers, and cleanup with acetone as usual.  I did have a couple of air bubbles, which I gently popped with a pin and then covered with the tiniest dots of corresponding polish.  They are visible in the pics but they were practically invisible to the naked eye.

I LOVE this technique!  One of my biggest problems with water marbling is the mess.  I hate taping off my fingers, but I also hate having to clean buckets of polish up to my knuckles.  This technique completely eliminated all that faffing around and the results are just beautiful!

I hope you love this look as much as I do.  This technique may very well have saved my water marbling future!  Have you tried it?  Would you like to?  Should I make a video demonstration?  HUGE props to Anne at Betty's Beauty Bombs for accidentally discovering this technique!

While you're here, please take a moment to check out some of the other grey, teal, and lilac looks this week in the inlinkz below.

An InLinkz Link-up

Hope you're all having a fantastic week, and I'll see ya soon!