notd | water marbling

Before I even start this post, I'm aware that some people won't know what water marbling is, so, being the ever helpful person that I am, I've provided a link to my favourite tutorial - hopefully this will explain everything (and be an excuse for me not to write out instructions here)!

I've never attempted to try water marbling, simply because I've heard loads people say that it's too difficult and they keep mucking it up. But while snooping around YouTube, I saw some water marble tutorials that make it look so easy and the results were beautiful! Well let me tell you it is not easy.

 The first problem is that most nail polishes won't "spread" across the water and will stay in their clumps, so you will need to test if your polishes do that, or else if you dip your finger into the water and there's a big clump of nail polish it will be really really thick on your nail. I encountered this problem when I decided I wanted to do an Easter-ish design with pastel colours, however none of the polishes wanted to collaborate with me so no Easter-themed nails today :(. A tip I've found is that thinner, runnier polishes will be more likely to spread, and thick nail polishes will sink to the bottom.

Did not know that my cuticles were that messy. Sorry, macro reveals all!

 Another problem is that it's just so messy! You really need to tape up your whole finger to stop the nail polish getting at it - you'll know what I mean if you've watched the video in the link. It's also incredibly time-consuming.

To be honest I couldn't be bothered to do my right hand, so I did a water marbled accent  finger on my ring finger, and painted the rest of my nails in No7 Totally Teal (two coats). If I were to do the look again, I would paint a base layer with the yellow nail polish (or whatever polish is the lightest shade), as on some of my nails the colour is very sheer and you can see my nail line, which kinda bugs me.

L-R OPI Original Nail Envy, Rimmel Green Grass, No7 Totally Teal, Rimmel Sunshine, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri

Does anyone know a really good base coat that's less expensive than OPI Nail Envy? I'm at the end of my second bottle of this stuff, and I really can't justify spending £18 (or £9 on eBay) on it. It's good, but not that good.

Oh, and Happy Easter! I had to blog my Easter chocolate - aren't they so cute?

Buy: OPI Original Nail Envy, £18.55

Rimmel Lasting Finish Green Grass, £2.99

No7 Totally Teal, £7

Rimmel Lasting Finish Sunshine, £2.99

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, £5.99

Let me know if you give this a go!