Watermarble Nail Art - Monthly Challenge

Last month I took part in a monthly nail art challenge, not only is there a different theme every couple of days, but I'm doing bestie twin nails for every theme! The theme for the 23rd of September was Marble and I collaborated with @fun.nails.love from IG. We wanted to create a mermaid tail kind of watermarble but both use a different colour scheme. I went for pink and Galia went for purple!

I didn't create a tutorial, honestly dipping my hand in the water and all that clean up... I think it would turn into a huge mess!!

I started off with a white base - 'Ard As Nails White Van Girl.

I then applied a HUGE amount of Practical Magic by Charming Tale around my nails. It's a liquid latex and will REALLY help with clean up.

For marbling I use room temperature bottled water. This works best for me. I added drops from 'Ard As Nails Sharona (nude), Juju (barbie pink) and Gregory's Girl (berry). The polishes spread really easily on the surface of the water. The only one that didn't spread as well was Juju, but I didn't really have any issues.

To get these really thin lines I first drew the floral design. Then I dragged it back and forth. This way the colours are mixed better. I wasn't 100% happy yet so I actually dragged the polish up and down to get the lines even thinner.

I then dipped my fingers in the water (one by one!), removed the liquid latex and did a little bit of cleaning around my cuticles. I finished off with a glossy topcoat.

That's it!
xx

What's Up Nails Watermarble Tool Review

It's summer and I've been obsessed with the Pipe Dream Polish Neons and water marbling. I always struggle with drawing a design in the water. I've used toothpicks and dotting tools and I could kind of create something, but I'd get more and more annoyed along the way.

I always though "naahhh I don't need the water marble tool from What's Up Nails...". Well... I did. I finally placed an order with them and the water marble tool was one of them.

Now, I can't stop marbling!

The tool is called the Pure Color 7 Watermarble Tool. What's Up Nails ships worldwide and the shipping was pretty quick.

The tip of the watermarble tool is shaped like a needle, but not quite as sharp! This way it's very easy drag the polish into a design. I made the floral loops design (whatever it's called!). Normally I'd have three little loops on my nails, but even on my pinky I have 4 loops! I have tons on my thumb!

The needle tip makes the application very precise.

The difference between using this tool and a regular needle is the grip. This has a large handle like any other nail art brush. It's very easy to hold and sits in your hand nicely, again for the most precision and a steady hand. It also has rubbery circles for extra grip.

After every dip in the water, I cleaned the needle with some nail polish remover.

I know my water marble still isn't perfect, but it's a thousand times better than it was.

I actually managed to do both hands without getting frustrated!

If you're thinking of getting the tool, but not too sure... you NEED it. Trust me!

xx Elaine

Pipe Dream Polish Watermarble

I bought the Pipe Dream Polish A Night In Vegas collection almost a year ago before the hype started and thank god I did! These polishes are absolutely stunning! And the hype is definitely worth it.

A Night In Vegas consists of 7 neons which are all beautiful individually, but their real appeal is that they're fantastic at water marbling.

I'm not very good at water marbling and really struggle to create designs, but these polishes literally make is so easy!

The collection is very difficult to get a hold of, and after a year of them being released they're still one of the most wanted indie nail polishes I know of.

I created this watermarble using 6 of the seven colours.

I started off with a white base, and applied Mess Free Mani my Nail Stencils around my cuticles.

As you can tell from the photo... I probably should have applied a little bit more!

I then dripped all the colours from the Pipe Dream Polish A Night In Vegas Collection into my water.

I use room temperate bottles water for best results.

I then swirled it around a bit. To be honest when It comes to water marbling, I don't really know what I'm doing! I definitely need a bit of practice..

I dipped my finger into the water, one at a time, used a toothpick to get rid of all the other polish and carefully pulled my finger out the water.

The polish dries matte and I loved the way it looked so I ended up applying a matte topcoat to finish it all off.

I recently bought a black light and I seriously cannot get enough of it. It's like I'm rediscovering my entire nail polish collection all over again!

The whole A Night In Vegas collection glows under a black light and it looks incredible. I don't know which way I prefer it!

Now I want to play some laser quest and test out my nails haha.

To reuse the mani I applied some straight line stencils from Nail Mail and painted my nails black.

I love the contrast of the bright neons and the black. It makes the neons pop even more!

This time I added a glossy top coat.

Freckles Polish Neon Watermarble

 With all this hot weather in the UK, I want want to do is wear neons! One of my favourite neons recently has been Jelly Shoes by Freckles Polish.

This is such a bright pink, and nothing like any other pinks in my collection. For a full review of click here!

I have been really into watermarble recently. Something about summer and hot weather just tells me to watermarble!

Products used:

Barry M Coconut 

Kester Black Sugar Daddy

Freckles Polish Jelly Shoes

Nails Inc Optic Glow (2014)

Nail Mail Mess Free Mani (Liquid Latex)

I started off painting my pinky and index finger using Coconut by Barry M. This is a slightly creamy off white polish. I also painted Sugar Daddy by Kester Black on my ring finger and middle finger. 

I've been seeing a lot of watermarble where people have used a clear polish over glitter. I have done it before and loved the results. 

Nails Inc Optic Glow is a very very very sheer pink polish and it's fantastic for water marbling. 

I think the final result looks so cool! But I wish I was better at creating shapes and designs. 

Check out Freckles Polish on Etsy and Instagram! 

xx Elaine

Pipe Dream Polish - A Night In Vegas

Everyone has been going cray cray for the Pipe Dream Polish A Night In Vegas collection.... and with good reason! I managed to get my hands on these during the summer from http://meimeisignatures.com, and of course bought them to marble with. I actually water marbled with them before even swatching them!

The collection consists of 7 colours: On The List (pink), 110 Degrees (coral orange), Light Of Day (yellow), High Roller (green), Happy Hour (teal), All In (blue) and V.I.P. Pass (purple). If they weren't so great at marbling, I most definitely wouldn't have bought the whole set.

All of the polishes are gorgeous creams, although a few have some very subtle shimmer. They're easily opaque in 2 coats and no white base needed.

For my water marble nails, I used all 7 colours. They all spread out so smoothly and are easy to play around with on the waters surface. Of course I applied a white base to start off with to really make the colours pop.

I'm literally in love with the result. It's super summery and neon and just gorgeous.

Getting hold of these polishes is pretty tricky, they are VERY popular and always sell out within minutes. Check out http://pipedreampolish.com for their restock info!

H&M Serenity Now

H&M has come out with their own brand of nail polish quite a while ago and ever since I bought Serenity Now I've been using it over any other royal blue! I love the colour, the shine and the formula. It's a jelly-like polish - sheer on the first coat and fully opaque with three coats. It applies really smooth and not at all streaky. I love it.

I decided to create a Dutch style nail art using Orange, Red, White and Blue. I used three coats of Serenity Now on my index finger, ring finger and pinky. Doesn't it look so pretty!?

I applied one coat of Alpine Snow on my middle finger and marbled Alpine Snow, Red Lights Ahead... Where? and A Roll In The Hague.

I originally wanted to do a red white and blue water marble, but I couldn't get any of my blues to marble.




What do you think of the result?
xx Elaine

Yoomoo Frozen Yogurt Competition

A few weeks ago the frozen yogurt brand YooMoo had a competition to create nail art inspired by their brand. The prize was a Nails Inc Nail Polish. There were two competitions, one by YooMoo itself and one by @thepolishlist on Instagram. I entered into the second competition and created this nail art inspired by their strawberry swirl flavour.

I watched YoungWildAndPolished's YouTube video on how to water marble. She had so many great tips and advice and thanks to her I am finally able to water marble properly!

For the water marble I used three Essie colours: Urban Jungle, Cute As A Button, and Go Ginza. For the Ombre I used Essie Urban Jungle, Leighton Denny Babydoll, Essie Cute As A Button and OPI Koala Bear-y For the Yoomoo logo I used Urban Jungle by Essie as the background and Leighton Denny Babydoll for the cow.

I am so excited... I WON! @thepolishlist chose my entry as well as @firefly5 and @lisas_nails1 to win an exclusive YooMoo Nails Inc nail polish.

The polish is called Udderly Shocking Pink, and it's this beautiful bright pink. I love Nails Inc polishes are they're always super easy to apply.

I used two easy coats for the swatch and it dried with an incredible shine.

I'm so happy and proud of myself that I won a competition!

Nail Art Challenge June - Sky & Matte

Since I have a bit more free time this month, I decided to take part in a monthly nail art challenge on Instagram. Californails has been making nail art challenges since I've been on Instagram so I decided to do her June challenge! I'm also taking part in a second one created by a friend of mine on Instagram, Glamournailart. Click the photos to enlarge!

The first theme for #nailartjun (by californails) was the sky. I decided I wanted to recreate a photo I took in Byron Bay in Australia. Byron Bay was my favourite place from our travels in Australia and we saw the most incredible sunset. I wanted to watermarble using neon shades inspired by the sunset.

I really wanted to use this new colour by Sally Hansen called Pretty in Hot Pink. I bought it from Fragrance Direct for £1.15. It was a limited addition shade last year and I found it thanks to Nicole from Youngwildandpolished. This photo is just a quick one from my phone, but I will have a Fragrance Direct haul up soon!

Anyway the theme was the sky and I created this water marble inspired by the photo above. I was actually really happy with how it turned out and was scared to draw on it! I used Sally Hansen Pretty in Hot Pink, China Glaze Sun Worshipper and Kester Black Paradise Punch.

I'm really happy with the final result. I didn't want to make the trees too large and be too overpowering. The mountains in the background were beautiful in real life and I wanted to add them to my nails, without them looking to overpowering either.

The theme for the first #nailartchallengejune was matte, and these themes fit together perfectly. I prefer the look of watermarble when it's matte anyway!