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