33 Day Challenge Day 25: A New Technique For You

This was a technique that I'd been wanting to try for awhile, the water spotted marble nail (or whatever you want to call it). I was so excited to finally give it a go! I followed (or attempted to) ChelseaQueen's video tutorial. She made it look so easy! With the messy, distressed aesthetic, I figured every nail would be a masterpiece. Well, just like water marbling, I ran into a ton of problems. Buuuut... you can still tell this was the technique I was going for, right? I still think it looks cool.

I love the coppery colors that are peaking through.

For my base colors I used three different polishes and painted them on with the bottle brush in a haphazard way. The easy part was now over. Next was the marbling part. Let's say through a LOT of trial and error, I learned a few things.

#1-DON'T use a foam cup! The polish eats through the foam (if you happen to have drops that fall to the bottom as I tend to). I'm sure everyone knows that already. Well now I know it too.

#2- If you choose to use hairspray, make sure it actually has alcohol in it. I had a proof of purchase label covering the ingredients on my bottle so I wasn't able to check beforehand. I assumed it did. Well, since nothing happened to my polish when I sprayed the hairspray on, I am now assuming it does not.

#3- It's okay if it didn't turn out as you had visualized. Pretend that was your original intention and no one will know!

My thumb nail is my favorite in this mani. It looks pretty rad. My index finger is my second favorite.

What I used:
OPI Warm and Fozzie
OPI Cozu-Melted in the Sun
Wet n' Wild Chrome Penny For Your Thoughts
Sephora by OPI What's a Tire Jack?
body spray

Have you tried this technique? Any pointers? I love the coppery colors that are peaking through. I'm trying this again for sure, just so I can show it who's boss!

I suggest watching Chelsea's tutorial for-in depth instructions. Be ready for some trial and error.

31DC2013 Day 20: Water Marble

Today is the dreaded water marble day. Ug. I think these colors look fantastic. The rest.. didn't turn out so well. I have a number of complaints here. Before we get into that, let's just look at the pretty colors. Oooooo..

Once again, this is another first for me. Typically when I have been trying new techniques, I sort of just jump right in. This time I knew I had to depend on a tutorial to help me out. To prepare, I watched a couple of videos from the Queen of water marbling. Apparently I did not watch enough videos to have a good idea of how to do it.

Once I choose my colors I was pretty dead set on using them together. After not being able to get them to expand well in the water, I just decided to work with them best I could. It was too late at night to be changing the game plan. Some polishes started drying faster than the others. So I have broken gaps especially noticeable on my ring finger.

I'm not happy with how this turned out, but I'm not discouraged. There are way too many successful water marbles out there for me to give up. I want to try again! I need to figure out what polishes work well, and a few other questions I had.
 Even with how sloppy and broken this is, I love that water marbles still always look unique. No one else has one that looks just like this! Want to know my favorite part about this? It was the quickest manicure I've done this whole Challenge!

What I used:
OPI Live and Let Die-deep green
Zoya Bevin- sage
A England Holy Grail-gold

Have you done successful water marbling? What polishes have worked for you?