Learning how to use marbling in your nail art is an excellent way to hone several of your nail art skills at once. You will learn how to use a steady hand to produce sharp free hand designs, but you will also learn about colour theory, the intuitive rules by which you decide which colours should go together in a particular design.
When something is referred to as “Abstract,” this means that it is non-representational. With an abstract marbling design, you are not trying to represent anything in specific, but rather to create an emotional landscape in your design. This provides endless opportunities for creativity. The only rule is to work quickly as nail polish can harden almost instantly.
For this technique, thinner nail polishes are preferred. You should try out a few different varieties as you practise with this technique. Make a note of which polishes work well and which do not. This way, you'll know that you have the best equipment possible when you try this technique on your clients.
Necessary Equipment: Nail polish (pink, white, black), base coat, top coat, needle or brush, dotting tool, rhinestones or Swarovski rhinestones.
Technique: Marbling
Skill Level: Intermediate
Step 1 – You will start by applying a thick, even layer of base coat to the first nail. It is important to do each nail one at a time, since otherwise the polish will dry before you can go on to the next step.
Step 2 – Now, before the base coat has dried, apply a thick layer of black nail polish to the nail. The polish should be ample enough to almost drip from the brush.
Step 3 – Still moving as quickly as possible, drop some white polish on top of your layer of black polish. Make as many white drops as you'd like. This simply depends on how many flowers you would like to have in the completed design. When you're just starting out with this technique, it might be best to stick with just a single flower.
Step 4 – Now, drop an even smaller pink dot at the centre of your white circle.
Step 5 – Continuing to work as quickly as possible, grab a needle (or really any instrument with a sharp edge) and use it to smudge the design from the outer edge of the white circle inwards toward the centre of the pink circle. However, MAKE SURE not to actually touch the surface of the nail with the needle. You should gently move your instrument above the surface of the nail, actually touching on the polish.
Step 6 – Now, repeat step number five from as many angles as you'd like depending on how many petals you would like your flowers to have. The first few times you do this, it's best to keep the number of petals down to three or four. Otherwise, the process will become much more cumbersome. Make sure that your lines are always moving towards the centre of the flower. Trust me, trying to make your lines move in any other direction is unlikely to produce pleasing results.
Step 7 – At this point, I like to embellish the design using a doting tool to add several coloured dots or lines in the spaces in between the flowers. You can really do this in any manner that seems pleasing to you. You can add little stars, squares, really whatever you think looks good.
Step 8 – I just love attaching fine Swarovski crystals to the centres of the completed flowers. This gives them an extravagant appearance. Of course, you can also try using pearls, nail art stones, or any other small ornament for this purpose. After you have done this, wait for the nail polish to dry completely before moving on.
Step 9– Now, simply apply a single layer of top coat to seal your design and you’re done!
Remember, this technique looks a lot easier than it actually is. Don't get frustrated if it takes you several practice runs to achieve satisfactory results. As for myself, it took me hours upon hours to get this right the first time. I'm hoping that with my instructions in hand, you'll be able to complete your training a little faster!
Once you've perfected this technique, you'll be ready to move on to experimenting with coloured gels in order to create three dimensional designs. Once you really get these techniques mastered, there's no limit to what you can accomplish!
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