nail art: an easier way to marble

I have now (well my dad has now) invested in a tripod so I can film all my tutorials from now without the scary balance of my phone on a stack of books! SO without further a due I give to you my dry marbling tutorial!

This design is a super easy way of getting an interesting 'how did you do that?!' design. It works great as a feature nail and you can use just 2 colours or as many as you want!

I used:

• Models Own Polish in Pukka Purple
• Barry M Nail Paint in Matt White
• GOSH Cosmetics Polish in Deep Purple
• Maybelline Super Stay 7 Days Polish in Crystal Clear
• 1 small dotting tool (smallest you can find - a needle or anything sharp & pointy can work)

Tips:

• Use a fair bit of polish for your base colour
• Act fast
• EXPERIMENT with design
• I use my nail to clean up any wonky lines or leaks in the polish (this can happen when applying a big dollop at once.. use a fine brush dipped in polish remover if you aren't a fan of the nail to nail clean up I use)
• Enjoy :)

nail art: losing my video virginity

For this post I have put in many hours filming and editing the below video, now I am not 100% impressed by the quality of my nails, I usually am much more of a perfectionist but given the resulting video I am quite happy. I more or less just wanted to demonstrate these two techniques and simplify them for you.

What I Used:

Barry M Nail Paint in White (a current favourite)

Barry M Gelly Hi Shine Nail Pain in Key Lime (a pretty new addition to my collection)

Maybelline Super Strong Gel Nail Colour in Crystal Clear

Pointed dotting tool

Make-up sponge

Sally Hansen Moisturising Nail Polish Remover

Cotton buds & pads

Masking tape

Glass of luke warm water

Avon Quick Dry Polish Spray

10 Essential Tips:

1. Always start water marbling with a clean white base
2. Always use tape to limit clean up
3. Make sure the water is luke warm/room temperature so the polish can spread
4. Shake the glass is the polish is struggling to spread
5. Add each drop quick as you can
6. Blow on the polish once you have dipped the nail in to make removing the excess easier
7. Wait until the nail is dry before removing the tape and cleaning
8. Do a few tester nails - practice makes perfect!
9. When making the design in the polish - act fast, but not too fast (again practice!)
10. If you can - use a brush to clean up your nail also as well as a cotton bud

giving in to the gradient

So I promised all my insta-followers I would pop up a tutorial of the latest marbling I've done.

This is probably my favourite design (however it's not in my favourite colours) and I am going to do a black/white version tonight (for a little competition) that I'll post up tomorrow for you all to see. Either way everyone that has seen them has asked 'How did you do that?' 

And when I say 'With a tool, its actually much easier than it looks' - They do not believe me! 

So a quick tutorial to show how easy it is is just want we need. I'd love to do a video but I can't video myself! - however much a tried holding the camera with my chin/propping it up on my dvds/getting my teddy to hold it - I failed everytime.

Hopefully though this step by step will still help and you can have a go yourself and instagram/tweet me the results because I would love to see if it really is as easy I think!

what you need:  

a small dotting tool/needle if you don't have tools

two shades of polish you think work perfectly together - 

I chose Cheeky's Minted and Purpl-exed shades (these are currently available on the website at £7.00 each, just click the names to get to wear you want to go)

step one

 Apply - to a primped and prepped nail with a shiny base coat - your first polish to the bottom half of the nail like below, (don't worry if it isn't neat or straight or over half way for that matter).

step two

Apply your second polish to the top of the nail - making sure as much of the nail is covered as possible, like below:

step three

Now, quickly before it dries, swirl the tool/needle through the nail polish. Working from one colour to another in circle motions creating the below:

Now if you aren't happy with your design you can always redo it, like I did...

Once happy with your design you can carry on with the rest of the nails and then give yourself a shiny or matte top coat and you can end up with something like the below:

You can use this design as a feature nail or use three colours to make things more interesting!

Have fun lovelies x

@pawsandclaws101 for instagramming

@pawsnclaws101 for tweeting

Marble Tutorial

Step by step guide to a really easy way to marble.. no water.. no mess.

What you will need:

• A small dotting tool/A needle
• Clear base and top coat
• Two colours of nail polish

1. Apply a light base coat to a clean & filed nail, then apply a generous coat of either colour of polish.

2. Quickly dip the needle/dotting tool end into the other colour of polish and dab into the centre of the nail while the first colour is still wet. Start to swirl the needle/dotting tool around making a pattern like below:

3. Complete the design by making as many swirls as you like. Then allow to dry and clean around the nail. finally apply a shiny top coat and you have your finished design.

And tah dah!

You have gorgeous nails. Good luck :)

TIP: Be as quick as possible but make sure your hand stays steady.

Check out my instagram for more designs:
http://instagram.com/abigaiilll1

Start date

This is the first ever post on my new nail blog. I have been posting my nail art on Instagram for a while now through my personal profile but would love to see if people really like the art I do. So here I go ...

This is some marble nail art I did yesterday.. I am going to post a tutorial later so you can do it yourself.