Watermarble Nail Art Tips by Adi Buki

Hi everyone! How are you?

First of all, I would like to thank the Nail Crimes a.k.a. Lu and Giulia for offering me a guest post :) It honours me a lot!!
I am very lucky to know Lu from Instagram, she is such a cool nail artist. I love her! Giulia is also very talented in my opinion, I love her taste and style. They are also very lucky to have each other and this awesome blog :)

So Hi again!
My name is Adi (known as @adibuki on Instagram). Please excuse my photos, I'm an amateur nail artist from Israel, just having fun with polish. But I know my business in watermarbles. My biggest inspiration for learning watermarbles was My Simple Little Pleasures from Youtube, she's absolutely awesome.

Watermarble with glitter placement and free hand painted roses + heart

Ok, I will try to write the rules of water marbling that I use, and maybe you won't think that it is that hard. It's a bit long but bare with me if you really want to marble.
This is what works for ME and I hope you'll be able to do it after reading this :)


1. Prepare your work surface

Make sure you have all the following ingredients within the reach of your hand:

• A small paper cup (mini take away espresso cup) filled up (about 0.5-1 cm from the top) with room temperature filtered water. Sometimes tap and bottled water work, I guess it depends on the quality of the water
• Tape, to wrap around your nails to speed the clean up process
• Scissors, to later cut the tape off - Now some people prefer to use oils, Elmer's glue or other similar products, and even nothing at all, this is just my choice :)
• Thin brush or an orange stick to create the design on the water
• Que tips or orange stick for cleaning up the surface of the water
• 2-3 polishes, preferably brand new and glitter free, with the brush unscrewed - ready to pick up and drop. Most known brands work, usually even the cheap local ones
• Close windows and doors that might dry the polish and ruin your watermarble design

Latte art inspired watermarble

2. Base

Paint your nails with your base color. Make sure your base is completely dry and clean. You can use a fast dry top coat if you want, sometimes I do use it, sometimes I don't. The most popular base color is white or a light color, so that the watermarble colors will pop out. Your base could also be a gradient - if you're using a clear polish in your marble.

3. Tape

Wrap some tape around your nails, from one side to the other, and then across the nail. Make sure you have a gap between your nail and the tape so you don't have bubbles.

I used Nail Envy by OPI for the clear polish in the watermarble, to create this look

4. Bull's eye

Be calm, and work as fast as you can. Once you started dropping the polish on the water, you shouldn't stop. Try not to breathe on the cup, it can dry the polish. So turn your head an other way. Let each drop to spread at least 80 % completely before adding the next drop. Once you've built the bull's eye, allow 3-10 seconds for it to set.

5. Design the polish on the water

When drawing your design, start from a more inner circle, the first two are probably drier. Use the very tiniest end of the tip of your brush or orange stick, use it slowly rather than fast when you drag across the water, and wipe the excess of polish off of your tool over on the working surface, every 1-2 strokes on the water. This will help keep your design clean and accurate.

Flower design watermarble with studs

6. Dip in

When the design is ready, prepare your finger(s) to dip in by placing it (them) exactly over the part that you want on your nail(s), and try to do it at a 45 degrees angle from the water. Sink your finger in. Not too low, not too deep. This will prevent bubbles on your design (although sometimes it adds a bit of fun to the final outcome)

7. Water clean up

While your finger is still in the water, make sure your other fingers aren't in the way when you pick up the excess polish floating on the water. Try turning the que tip around in the same direction slowly and covering the entire surface. You can also blow on the water a bit to speed up this step.

Sponged glitter polish as a base and the watermarble blue + OPI Nail Envy (clear)

8. Pull out

Once the surface is clear, slowly pull out your finger in that same 45 degrees. If you have a bubble on your cuticle, let it touch the water while your finger is still inside and blend into the design, then pull it all the way out.

Stripes watermarble. You can deep more than one finger with this design

9. Clean up

While the polish is still wet, use an orange stick to separate the polish from your cuticles. Allow the polish to completely dry before you remove the tape from around your nails unless you can do it really carefully not to ruin the design.
Now the one thing I remember from Lu -her most important tip is clean up clean up clean up!| You are so right girl, this is so true.
I just use brushes from eBay.


...and you're done!

Feather inspired watermarble. It's a combination of flower and swirl

There's a 5:30 minutes video I've made on YouTube on how to do a watermarble. I don't talk, just add some music so... feel free to watch it :)

If you want to see some more photos, you're welcome to check out my Facebook - Buki's Nail Art :)

Again, thank you so much for having me here!
I hope you enjoyed this guest post :)

Adi Buki xx

10 comments Adi Buki, guest nail art, how to watermarble, InstaGram, tips, video, watermarble, watermarble tutorial

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