Black, White and Turquoise Watermarble Tutorial

Hey guys, sorry for not posting last week, stupid uni has been taking up my precious nail art time! I hadn't done a watermarble design in a long time so I thought I'd try one this week and I was so surprised by how well it turned out! I just ADORE this colour combination and I was so pleased to get such a consistent pattern. Watermarbling is also a great option for me at the moment because it looks just as good on your right hand as it does on your left! Read on to find out how to get this look for yourself :) 

What I Used:

- OPI Ridge Filler Base Coat
- OPI Fly
- OPI Alpine Snow
- OPI Black Onyx
- Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat
- Plastic cup
- Small dotting tool
- Cottonbuds
- Tape 
- Tweezers
- Nail polish remover and cleanup brush 

1. Apply a base coat to protect your natural nails from stains and provide a smooth base for polish.

2. Paint your nails one coat of a white polish to act as an undercoat for your watermarble to make the colours really pop.

3. Once your white base colour is dry, tape up around your nails to limit the amount of cleanup. 

4. Once all your nails are prepped and taped, fill a plastic or paper cup with room-temperature water. Unscrew all the lids of your three polish bottles so you can work quickly, and add a drop of your first colour into the cup of water (I started with black). Hold the brush, fully loaded with polish, about 1cm away from the water and let the polish drop into the cup, and it should spread out on the surface of the water. If it doesn't spread like this, try a different polish - newer, thinner polishes work best.

5. Immediately add a drop of your second colour into the centre of the circle your first colour made, and allow that to spread (I went with white next). Follow with your third colour, and you should see a bullseye of rings forming. Continue with that sequence of colours (black, white, turquoise) until you have a number of rings that fill up the cup. The more rings you have, the more detailed your pattern will be. 

6. Take a toothpick or a small dotting tool and gently draw a horizontal line through your bullseye, starting in the centre and out to the edge of the cup, and do the same to the other side. Wipe off your tool often so your lines stay clean and smooth. Then, draw vertical lines right through your design, up and then down in a zigzag pattern. Finally, criss-cross those vertical lines with horizontal ones using that same zigzag technique.

7. Once you're happy with your design, choose the part you want to capture and carefully dip your nail parallel into the water and hold it under the surface for ten seconds, trying not to dip them in further than where your tape covers. You can dip two nails in at once to speed up the process. Gently blow on the surface of the water to dry the polish on top, and then clean up this excess polish with a cottonbud before removing your fingers from the water.

8. Shake off the excess water and remove the tape from your fingers with some tweezers. Clean up what's left around your nail with polish remover and a brush or cottonbud.

9. Once everything is dry, finish with a top coat for protection and shine. 

Watermarbling can be quite daunting the first time you try it, but with a little practice you can make it your bitch! I've still got to find out how to avoid those pesky airbubbles, but practice does make perfect so I'll update this if I figure that out! Thanks for reading, feel free to comment below or on Facebook or Instagram, and I'll see you next time!

Lisa xx