Kenickie
Bluelight Crew
i got a manicure the other day and got white.
now my fingers match my mac and it's really effing cool.
now my fingers match my mac and it's really effing cool.
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Life Advice & Visual Arts
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LAVA Moderator: Shinji Ikari
Girly thread v. soft hair and pretty faces
- Thread starter n3ophy7e
- Start date
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wah wah this sucks
How long until you become eligible?
Are you back to getting yourself back together?
this is me caring and supporting not accusing
i can never be eligible, in the us if u get convicted of a drug offense u cant get financial aid loans . i got my aid before i got coinvicted twice so its revoked and thats it. I been clean like 3 mos tho i been got back together but im beat on school, i cant afford to go w.out aid so i guess i just cant go to school now, its life o well.
Perpetual Indulgence
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Messages
- 20,518
So much for rehabilitation of young adults.
I am pleased that you have been clean for 3 months.
So should I start organizing pasta dinners to raise money for your tuition?
I like your sense of esthetic. It's soft with an edge.
You could bring a different energy to the profession. ANY profession you choose, really.
I am pleased that you have been clean for 3 months.
So should I start organizing pasta dinners to raise money for your tuition?
I like your sense of esthetic. It's soft with an edge.
You could bring a different energy to the profession. ANY profession you choose, really.
poopie
Bluelighter
ooh, way fun nails lacey! i like that they're not too long.
oh and for brushes? i now swear by coastalscents.com
oh and for brushes? i now swear by coastalscents.com
Speaking of coastalscents.com.... I LOVE these eyeshadow palettes. I have this 88pc set and you just can't beat it for $20! Actually, I spent almost 40 at Ricky's in NYC and I still think it was worth every penny. The colors are vibrant and with a primer, they stay on foreverrrrrr. I think I'll be buying one for every lady in my life this Christmas 
http://www.coastalscents.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=122
http://www.coastalscents.com/cfwebstore/index.cfm?fuseaction=category.display&category_id=122
CHiLD-0F-THE-BEAT
Bluelighter
ZOMG poops and chrissie - you ladies are after my own heart! I have a pink travel brush kit and the 88 piece set from that site. I also now buy all of my mineral foundation from there as well - I made a post about it a few pages back, it worked out so so so much cheaper [and better for my skin!] than MAC.
I adore how they always send samples, and everything is such great quality! I'm a customer for life, now.
Also - Lacey, those nails are wicked-hot! I wish I knew how / had the patience to do funky patterns like that..
But truth be told, for the first time in years I haven't even got any nail-polish on at all.
End of school-year stress does that to a girl. 
I adore how they always send samples, and everything is such great quality! I'm a customer for life, now.
Also - Lacey, those nails are wicked-hot! I wish I knew how / had the patience to do funky patterns like that..
But truth be told, for the first time in years I haven't even got any nail-polish on at all.
End of school-year stress does that to a girl. Ummm that's it, I am convinced, we are in fact the same person
I haven't got any on my nails for the first time in years, but not for any other reason than to just give them a rest and let them see the sunlight for a bit :D
lacey, congrats on being clean hun, I am really proud of you
That really sucks about your loan being revoked though, that boils my blood
Nail marbling guide....warning.....super long post!!!!!
NSFW for PI (only cuz its kind of off topic n i dont wanna clog up the thread with it)
Aight, as promised here is my
NAIL ART MARBLING TUTORIAL!!
For MzThizzle as u requested, and anybody else that wants to kno the secrets of marbled nail art. lol. this is how to do it in my own words from the experience I have playing around with the different techniques. theres a few other tutorials online that u can find on girly girl nail blogs and shit like that, so if mines dont cut it u could always check those out but I wanted to write from my point of view instead of just cut n paste somebody elses, so here u go.
Anyways...the 2 ways i mentioned is this. Ima put a * after certain things all that means is that there is a note or somethin important that goes along with it, but i dont want to make too much extra confusion and parentheses talk in the directions so i explain it at the bottom of the instructions. So when ever u see that lil *, just scroll down to the bottom and read the note that goes with it, (theres a couple of em so i matched em up by color to make it easy), becuz its shit u need to know to do it right and if u wait til the end u might not see it til its too late so check em out as you go along. Aight here goes.
#1: WATER MARBLING
you will need:
2-4 nail polish colors*
artificial glue-on nails (You dont NEED these, but its waaay easier to do marbling on nails that aint attached to your finger. If you want to use ur own nails go ahead but its gonna be much harder for your first time, and also messy as hell.)
small bowl that u dont mind if it gets messed up
nail polish remover
straight pin or needle or something real thin like that like open end of safety pin or wtfever u got, if u use something thicker it wont work
q tips
orange wood stick with pointy or slanted end (cuticle pusher stick)
optional: skewer or chopstickand tape*(if you are using glue on nails)
optional: cuticle oil* (if u are using your own nails)
Wat is it? marbling is when you drop the colors of polish you want in blobs onto the surface of a bowl full of WARM water*. the colors float on the top and make a "skin" of polish. you know those weird "stick on nailpolish" things they got now, that you peel off the paper and press onto your nail and trim around the edges, and it makes it look like a manicure? Well this is kind of like that, but messier and you make the pattern.
How to marble: Ok you take the bowl of warm water, and drop a couple blobs of each color on top of the water in the middle of the bowl in wat ever amounts you want of each. dont worry just do it, there aint no rules to how many drops of each or watever. Just make sure the blobs are touching so you make a solid "island" of color and not just randomly floating around the bowl without touching, and switch up the size a little, some bigger some smaller, so you dont get a controlled, planned steez goin with the marbling, cuz that would be lame.
aight, when when you have the color balance you want you take the tip of the pin or w/ever and stick it into the film of polish ontop of the water, and just kind of swirl the colors around til they are in a swirled marbley type pattern that you like.you can do more or less swirled it just depends how you want it, but dont do it too much or its just gonna end up mixing the colors and looking shitty so dont go overboard with the swirling. you can really have fun with this part. You can just kinda stir it around in a spiral pattern, or make waves or zigzags...you can draw lines across the polish to get the pattern like either one of these, depending which direction u draw the lines in:
)))) <---- ((((
)))) <---- ((((
)))) <---- ))))
)))) <---- ))))
Anyways, back to how to do it. So, You drop the polish onto the water and i aint too sure how it works, but when the drops touch they stick together, and once you done gettin it all mixed and swirled, its all one piece, like a film/skin floating on the water that will cling to the nail the second it touches. so, now time for the kinda hard part.
like i said before ima suggest that u do this, at least the first time , with artificial nails, that way you can marble them before u put them on and its much cleaner. u CAN do this on your natural nails, but the clean up is a bitch and its just harder all around. Up to you. anyways. If you using the artificial nails, theres a shortcut, and cleaner, way to dip the nails.*
OK now you Take the nail and hold it horizontal, parallel to the surface of the water. you dip it face down onto the polish island, placing the nail onto the area of the island with the design that you like best, and the polish will cling to the nail. Now make sure, You want it to be parallell to the surface of the water , not at a angle or up and down, becuz u want it to transfer the right way. lay it on flat and youll get the mirror image, but If you dip it at a angle, or straight down, its gonna just make a bunch of long multi color wavey stripes on your nail and probably still look kind of cool but nothin close to how cool it looks if the marbling is done right. also, make sure u Dont go all the way thru the polish skin and tear the skin by dipping the nail too deep into the water. just lightly dip it onto the polish enough for it to grab on. dont worry, It will just stick right on.
OK, Now probably the hardest step is this. the most important thing , is that while its still dipped in, NOT after you pull it out, you gotta use your cuticle stick and kinda press down as you trace around the edge of the nail, de attaching the rest of the polish film. Because it acts like its all one piece. so lets say you got a big sheet of sticky plastic wrap that youre applying to your nail. you stick it on but then you got to trim the rest of the sheet off once the part that covers your nail is stuck on. thats like how this works since the skin of polish is gonna want to all stick on your nail, the extra that you dont need aint gonna just break away once you lift your nail out. if you dont trim around the edges of the nail and remove the excess polish film thats clingin on, the whole floating puddle is gonna try and stick to the nail and the pattern will get messed up. cuz as you draw it outta the water the polish will keep sticking on and stretch out in sticky-ass strings, and theyll stick to your nail and cover over the nice pattern and just look fucked up and striped and blobby.
it sounds complicated here,but when you try it youll see wat i mean. I did it wrong at first cuz i was like oh ill just clean it up when Im done, its easier. but it fucks up the entire point cuz your pattern gets covered up by the extra if you dont get rid of it when you supposed to. So take it from me that it matters. it aint too hard, just take the stick and lightly press all around the outside of the nail while its still laying in the dip like you are tracing it.
when u see this type of look it was most likely made using the water marbling technique
just ignore the lame tags on the photo, lol "i love you" anyways, U can see from the pics, that depending on how you swirl the polish around, you can get different degrees of "marbleyness" you can have it basically simple, with just a little swirling, or u can really get some crazy psychedelic looking patterns, and u can also see in the second nail from the left there, that they did a back and forth motion like I did on my nails when I used dry marbling. so theres alot of potential to do some sick lookin patterns with this, its just a more messy and time consuming way to use.
notes from the *'s
*why did i stress that fact? cuz If it aint warm, the polish dries faster the colder it is. U will have to use new water each time u dip a nail to keep the temperature right. the water should not be HOT, but make sure its more than just "not cold". dont worry it aint like u need a perfect exact temperature, "luke warm" seems to be the general standard, watever that really is. Warm is warm, we aint stupid, 'nuff said.
*(try and use better quality ones, when it comes to nail polish it makes a difference. Sally Hansen, OPI, Orly, Nicole, China Glaze, brands like that for the best effects. dont get me wrong, SOME discount or cheaper polishes are the shit, and work as good or better than some expensive brandname ones, but im talkin in general here. PS- Essie is $8 a bottle and sucks, dont use it for marbling becuz it dont cover too good.)
*the cuticle oil goes on ur cuticles, obviously. before u do the dipping. make SURE u dont let it get on ur actual nails tho, cuz it will resist the nailpolish. But it helps the polish not stick as bad to your cuticles and fingers when you dip them in, cuz trust me it will be kinda messy and if your fingers and cuticles are covered with marbled polish too it will look pretty lame and no one will be noticing your hot-ass manicure theyll just see the messy shit all around ur nails. thats another reason i recommend using the glue on ones becuz even if its a lil sloppy around the edges, u can just file them down or use polish remover to clean the edges before u apply them to ur fingers.
* take a chopstick, and put some tape on the wider end of it, then stick the back of your glue on nail on it. So that it makes a upside down "T" shape like this
| <-- stick
|
|
-- <-- nail, with the side that glues to your finger, face up sticking to the chopstick and the side you want to paint facing down (obviously)
Other info....
Some tips, suggestions, and ideas for pickin your colors....: If you feel like you dont know shit about colors and ones that look good together, or you aint got a single artistic bone in ur body and are just like wtf and dont know where to start or how many to use, or just looking for some interesting ideas for wat direction to go in, this is for u. BTW, these work for using with either marbling technique, not one or the other, in case u aint sure. So anyways heres a couple of my "helpful heloise color tips" lol :D
1 - IMO marbling works best when u limit it to 2,3 or 4 colors at most. 3 is probably ideal in general for most designs, but when u do certain ones, sometimes less is better, sometimes more. 4 might look great for a bold, simple marble pattern that you didnt swirl up too much, keepin the colors seperate and standin out, when 2 might look great in a complex spiraled twisted pattern that got swirled much more. it all depends, and figurin out wat and how you want to do it is wat makes it so fun.
But just remember, this is just my opinion, but unless you doin something like #6, keep it to 4 colors or less. cuz its hard to find 5 colors that all mix with each other without makin some ugly ass puke green or brown colors where they meet up and blend. The colors are always gonna mix a little, but once u add too many in there just aint no way for all of them to be good matches with each other. if you got yellow, blue, orange, green, and pink all swirlin together, theres bound to be some blue and orange mixing into grayish-brown and the pink and green mating into olive-rust orange and shittin it all up.
2 - Try and pick nice bright colors that are different from each other and have high contrast, if you want real noticeable marbling effect that stands out.
3 - Pick colors that match with one of ur favorite outfits that u wear alot, or colors that are in alot of your clothes so if you use a few colors, at least one of them will always match with somethin you wearing.
4 - Using complementary colors looks pretty good when you just want to use two.
5 - Silver and gold can look mad hot when u use one of them with 2 dark colors especially dark red, purple, dark blue, or black. same thing goes for jewel tones (deep red, royal sapphire blue, and violet purple are jewel tones but there are more, all of them look good with silver and gold.)
6 - If you decide to use 4 colors and want to avoid the "too much going on" look that would happen with 4 random-ass colors, try and have 2 of the colors be close to each other (technically called analagous colors, they are neighbors on the color wheel). For example two close ones with two close ones: Blue&Purple with Yellow&Orange, or 2 high contrast ones with two close ones: gold, red, with blue&green.
7 - If you want to really swirl the hell outta the colors and not worry about the colors mixing into ugly shades when you marble them, pick out a couple shades of the same basic color. Try Light icey blue, deep royal blue, bright azure, and turquoise/aqua green. Or red, pink, and magenta. think of a idea like "tropical" or "sunset" or "aquarium" and use colors that express that "theme". U get the idea.
8 - A variation of #7: when you are using similar colors or doing a color theme like blues or browns or neutrals, w/ever, make it stand out more by mixing shimmery/glittery colors with regular opaque, non metallic colors. example - deep warm chocolate brown with metallic copper and shimmery champagne beige.
9 - put a sheer glossy metallic or iridescent shade in with 1 or 2 opaque colors for a subtle shiny twist running thru the pattern. it wont show up as strong as the opaque colors since its partly see-thru but it will add some depth and interest to the design.
10 - Do a French manicure but not by painting the bottom pink/natural and the tip white (boring) or doing the tip marbled and the bottom a solid color(which is wat i did in the pics a few posts up.) Try this instead: Pick 3 or 4 shades of the beige/natural or pink (whichever u prefer for a French) polish that u like. Use 1 or 2 sheer or opaque colors like sheer peach or coral, 1 or 2 shimmer colors, and 1 iridescent, to marble the bottom section. Do the tip a solid shimmer white, and finish with a clear top coat or if you really want to make it interesting, a sheer iridescent glaze. This kind of French would look hot as fuck becuz its such a new creative spin on such a plain , classic look.
On to the other way of marbling the way I did it for the pics I posted of my nails.
WET MARBLING
U need the same supplies as for water marbling, just not the bowl of water, cuticle oil, or wood stick, plus a thin, thin brush. the best kind is the kind that u find in liquid eyeliner. Just wash it off and get all the black eyeliner off, make sure its clean, and then u can use it to do this project.
Doin it like this is definately easier, and u have more control. U can either do it more or less controlled depending on the look u want.
How to do it:
First, take your chop stick or skewer or w/ever and tape it onto the table or w/ever surface you workin on so it dont move around. Then take the nail you are using (if its a artificial one) and stick it onto the chop stick. just take a piece of tape and stick the 2 ends together with the sticky part on the outside, so it makes a piece of double sided tape kinda. then just stick one side onto the chop stick and then press the nail onto it and make sure its secure and not gonna move around when you try and paint it.
Ok , now this is mad easy compared to the water way. There is 2 styles you might want. One is the wavy/zigzag pattern, and the other one is the similar style to the design u would get when u do water marbling, much more random and swirly. Ill tell u how to do both. For the first kind, you just paint vertical lines in different colors, along the nail. I was just doin the tip in my case but obviously if you want to do the whole nail you just gonna paint the stripes along the whole nail. Once you got that done then you take your real thin brush and draw it thru the lines in the direction u want the pattern to go. If your lines are vertical you draw the brush horizontal across them to make the pattern, if your lines are horizontal you make vertical lines across them. I did it to the right then to the left to get the back n forth zig zag kind style marbling, but u can also keep goin in the same direction to get the kinda wavy design.
Mine was like the left but u could also get the pattern on the right by drawing ur lines all in the same direction. it dont matter which side u draw towards, if u want the pattern at the left u alternate every other one, and for the one on the right u just make sure u draw them all towards the same side:
>>>>--or-->>>>
<<<<--or-->>>>
>>>>--or-->>>>
<<<<--or-->>>>
the one on the left would come out like the picture second from ther top of this post, with the pink and purple nails, if u look at the nail second from left its this pattern. the pattern on the right would look more like this one, the way the waves go in that kind of "c" shape that looks like a bunch of c's stacked on top of eachother side by side.
anyways, thats the basic technique but a few suggestions that Im gonna say is this, one is to work fast becuz if u dont the polish will start to dry and it will be harder to marble it when u go to do the part where u pull the brush thru the lines. It will not be as flat becuz if u mess with half dried polish it kinda lumps up . also if its too dry, the colors might not "pull" in a uniform way so u get some of them comin out right and other ones not really follow the pattern.
Two, Make sure u dont use "quick dry" nail polish when u do this! It wont work at all, so dont even try, dont even say oh ill just go faster, cuz it aint gonna work. just make sure u aint using "50 second color" or "dries in seconds" polish or w/ever when u try this out.
three, Make the lines pretty thin. If you do them too thick the pattern aint gonna come out very noticeable and it will look simpler and less complex, less like its marbled and more like you just tried to paint shitty zig zags on your nails.
Four, dont follow a set pattern for each nail with the color orders. like dont do, red gold purple red gold purple on each nail or it will look boring. Just do it random different order from one to the next. also try and make the lines not all the same in size, make some a lil bit thicker than others n so on just make sure they all on the thin side.
and Five, no matter if u work fast and do it all right, sometimes it comes out pretty good but the colors might not have "pulled" perfect. thats when u go in, and fill in the spots that might be too light, or fix little mistakes , watever. you never gonna get it perfect the first time so dont think ur doin it wrong when u got to correct litle shit here and there after u do the marbling. sometimes when i would run the brush thru, most of the polish would make the >> pattern all good but maybe one spot would have not pulled to the side all the way and still be kind of straight line-ish, so i went and fixed it, pulled it into the right shape with a little extra polish, or maybe the brush pushed down too far one time and u could see the white of the nail showing thru becuz the polish didnt go on evenly, so i go and fill it in with the tip of the brush, u know? shit like that. u got to practice and once u got it pretty good and u confident , then start doin your nails, but its always gonna need a little bit of touch up when ur done naturally since its a messy style of nail art to begin with it wont be perfect.
Also, the other way of dry marbling i mentioned before, is that u can just straight up drop blobs of color directly onto the nail and then swirl it around with the lil brush, just like when u do it with the water, but ur doin it on your nail and without the water step. but IMO i think if you want that look, i think it comes out better if you just do water marbling because this way it just dont look as cool. when u want more control , this way is the best, but if u want it to look like REAL marbling and ur goin for the wavy, each nail is different effect, def. try it out using the water technique.
Ima let u kno from the start tho, it takes practice. u gotta mess around with it for a while before u get it to come out good. especially with the water way. the first time i did it with water, i was like "nah ill just trim the excess polish off the edges after i dip it, its too hard to do it while its laying on top of the water", but it will come out shitty if u dont do that. u gotta do the right steps. but ull figure it out as u go along it really aint hard.
After like a hour or so of messin around tryin all the different ways i described here i found the one i liked the best and after a lil more practice with the one i picked to use, i got it right and did all the nails just how i wanted em. u just gotta be patient.
Well thats about it, i think i covered every possible thing u could think of askin, at least i hope so. whoever tries this ish out let me kno how it goes and post some pics if you can i like to see other ppls nail art.
NSFW for PI (only cuz its kind of off topic n i dont wanna clog up the thread with it)
NSFW:
Aight, as promised here is my
NAIL ART MARBLING TUTORIAL!!
For MzThizzle as u requested, and anybody else that wants to kno the secrets of marbled nail art. lol. this is how to do it in my own words from the experience I have playing around with the different techniques. theres a few other tutorials online that u can find on girly girl nail blogs and shit like that, so if mines dont cut it u could always check those out but I wanted to write from my point of view instead of just cut n paste somebody elses, so here u go.
Anyways...the 2 ways i mentioned is this. Ima put a * after certain things all that means is that there is a note or somethin important that goes along with it, but i dont want to make too much extra confusion and parentheses talk in the directions so i explain it at the bottom of the instructions. So when ever u see that lil *, just scroll down to the bottom and read the note that goes with it, (theres a couple of em so i matched em up by color to make it easy), becuz its shit u need to know to do it right and if u wait til the end u might not see it til its too late so check em out as you go along.
Aight here goes.#1: WATER MARBLING
you will need:
2-4 nail polish colors*
artificial glue-on nails (You dont NEED these, but its waaay easier to do marbling on nails that aint attached to your finger. If you want to use ur own nails go ahead but its gonna be much harder for your first time, and also messy as hell.)
small bowl that u dont mind if it gets messed up
nail polish remover
straight pin or needle or something real thin like that like open end of safety pin or wtfever u got, if u use something thicker it wont work
q tips
orange wood stick with pointy or slanted end (cuticle pusher stick)
optional: skewer or chopstickand tape*(if you are using glue on nails)
optional: cuticle oil* (if u are using your own nails)
Wat is it? marbling is when you drop the colors of polish you want in blobs onto the surface of a bowl full of WARM water*. the colors float on the top and make a "skin" of polish. you know those weird "stick on nailpolish" things they got now, that you peel off the paper and press onto your nail and trim around the edges, and it makes it look like a manicure? Well this is kind of like that, but messier and you make the pattern.
How to marble: Ok you take the bowl of warm water, and drop a couple blobs of each color on top of the water in the middle of the bowl in wat ever amounts you want of each. dont worry just do it, there aint no rules to how many drops of each or watever. Just make sure the blobs are touching so you make a solid "island" of color and not just randomly floating around the bowl without touching, and switch up the size a little, some bigger some smaller, so you dont get a controlled, planned steez goin with the marbling, cuz that would be lame.
aight, when when you have the color balance you want you take the tip of the pin or w/ever and stick it into the film of polish ontop of the water, and just kind of swirl the colors around til they are in a swirled marbley type pattern that you like.you can do more or less swirled it just depends how you want it, but dont do it too much or its just gonna end up mixing the colors and looking shitty so dont go overboard with the swirling. you can really have fun with this part. You can just kinda stir it around in a spiral pattern, or make waves or zigzags...you can draw lines across the polish to get the pattern like either one of these, depending which direction u draw the lines in:
)))) <---- ((((
)))) <---- ((((
)))) <---- ))))
)))) <---- ))))
Anyways, back to how to do it. So, You drop the polish onto the water and i aint too sure how it works, but when the drops touch they stick together, and once you done gettin it all mixed and swirled, its all one piece, like a film/skin floating on the water that will cling to the nail the second it touches. so, now time for the kinda hard part.
like i said before ima suggest that u do this, at least the first time , with artificial nails, that way you can marble them before u put them on and its much cleaner. u CAN do this on your natural nails, but the clean up is a bitch and its just harder all around. Up to you. anyways. If you using the artificial nails, theres a shortcut, and cleaner, way to dip the nails.*
OK now you Take the nail and hold it horizontal, parallel to the surface of the water. you dip it face down onto the polish island, placing the nail onto the area of the island with the design that you like best, and the polish will cling to the nail. Now make sure, You want it to be parallell to the surface of the water , not at a angle or up and down, becuz u want it to transfer the right way. lay it on flat and youll get the mirror image, but If you dip it at a angle, or straight down, its gonna just make a bunch of long multi color wavey stripes on your nail and probably still look kind of cool but nothin close to how cool it looks if the marbling is done right. also, make sure u Dont go all the way thru the polish skin and tear the skin by dipping the nail too deep into the water. just lightly dip it onto the polish enough for it to grab on. dont worry, It will just stick right on.
OK, Now probably the hardest step is this. the most important thing , is that while its still dipped in, NOT after you pull it out, you gotta use your cuticle stick and kinda press down as you trace around the edge of the nail, de attaching the rest of the polish film. Because it acts like its all one piece. so lets say you got a big sheet of sticky plastic wrap that youre applying to your nail. you stick it on but then you got to trim the rest of the sheet off once the part that covers your nail is stuck on. thats like how this works since the skin of polish is gonna want to all stick on your nail, the extra that you dont need aint gonna just break away once you lift your nail out. if you dont trim around the edges of the nail and remove the excess polish film thats clingin on, the whole floating puddle is gonna try and stick to the nail and the pattern will get messed up. cuz as you draw it outta the water the polish will keep sticking on and stretch out in sticky-ass strings, and theyll stick to your nail and cover over the nice pattern and just look fucked up and striped and blobby.
it sounds complicated here,but when you try it youll see wat i mean. I did it wrong at first cuz i was like oh ill just clean it up when Im done, its easier. but it fucks up the entire point cuz your pattern gets covered up by the extra if you dont get rid of it when you supposed to. So take it from me that it matters. it aint too hard, just take the stick and lightly press all around the outside of the nail while its still laying in the dip like you are tracing it.
when u see this type of look it was most likely made using the water marbling technique
just ignore the lame tags on the photo, lol "i love you" anyways, U can see from the pics, that depending on how you swirl the polish around, you can get different degrees of "marbleyness" you can have it basically simple, with just a little swirling, or u can really get some crazy psychedelic looking patterns, and u can also see in the second nail from the left there, that they did a back and forth motion like I did on my nails when I used dry marbling. so theres alot of potential to do some sick lookin patterns with this, its just a more messy and time consuming way to use.
notes from the *'s
*why did i stress that fact? cuz If it aint warm, the polish dries faster the colder it is. U will have to use new water each time u dip a nail to keep the temperature right. the water should not be HOT, but make sure its more than just "not cold". dont worry it aint like u need a perfect exact temperature, "luke warm" seems to be the general standard, watever that really is. Warm is warm, we aint stupid, 'nuff said.
*(try and use better quality ones, when it comes to nail polish it makes a difference. Sally Hansen, OPI, Orly, Nicole, China Glaze, brands like that for the best effects. dont get me wrong, SOME discount or cheaper polishes are the shit, and work as good or better than some expensive brandname ones, but im talkin in general here. PS- Essie is $8 a bottle and sucks, dont use it for marbling becuz it dont cover too good.)
*the cuticle oil goes on ur cuticles, obviously. before u do the dipping. make SURE u dont let it get on ur actual nails tho, cuz it will resist the nailpolish. But it helps the polish not stick as bad to your cuticles and fingers when you dip them in, cuz trust me it will be kinda messy and if your fingers and cuticles are covered with marbled polish too it will look pretty lame and no one will be noticing your hot-ass manicure theyll just see the messy shit all around ur nails. thats another reason i recommend using the glue on ones becuz even if its a lil sloppy around the edges, u can just file them down or use polish remover to clean the edges before u apply them to ur fingers.
* take a chopstick, and put some tape on the wider end of it, then stick the back of your glue on nail on it. So that it makes a upside down "T" shape like this
| <-- stick
|
|
-- <-- nail, with the side that glues to your finger, face up sticking to the chopstick and the side you want to paint facing down (obviously)
Other info....
Some tips, suggestions, and ideas for pickin your colors....: If you feel like you dont know shit about colors and ones that look good together, or you aint got a single artistic bone in ur body and are just like wtf and dont know where to start or how many to use, or just looking for some interesting ideas for wat direction to go in, this is for u. BTW, these work for using with either marbling technique, not one or the other, in case u aint sure. So anyways heres a couple of my "helpful heloise color tips" lol :D
1 - IMO marbling works best when u limit it to 2,3 or 4 colors at most. 3 is probably ideal in general for most designs, but when u do certain ones, sometimes less is better, sometimes more. 4 might look great for a bold, simple marble pattern that you didnt swirl up too much, keepin the colors seperate and standin out, when 2 might look great in a complex spiraled twisted pattern that got swirled much more. it all depends, and figurin out wat and how you want to do it is wat makes it so fun.
But just remember, this is just my opinion, but unless you doin something like #6, keep it to 4 colors or less. cuz its hard to find 5 colors that all mix with each other without makin some ugly ass puke green or brown colors where they meet up and blend. The colors are always gonna mix a little, but once u add too many in there just aint no way for all of them to be good matches with each other. if you got yellow, blue, orange, green, and pink all swirlin together, theres bound to be some blue and orange mixing into grayish-brown and the pink and green mating into olive-rust orange and shittin it all up.
2 - Try and pick nice bright colors that are different from each other and have high contrast, if you want real noticeable marbling effect that stands out.
3 - Pick colors that match with one of ur favorite outfits that u wear alot, or colors that are in alot of your clothes so if you use a few colors, at least one of them will always match with somethin you wearing.
4 - Using complementary colors looks pretty good when you just want to use two.
5 - Silver and gold can look mad hot when u use one of them with 2 dark colors especially dark red, purple, dark blue, or black. same thing goes for jewel tones (deep red, royal sapphire blue, and violet purple are jewel tones but there are more, all of them look good with silver and gold.)
6 - If you decide to use 4 colors and want to avoid the "too much going on" look that would happen with 4 random-ass colors, try and have 2 of the colors be close to each other (technically called analagous colors, they are neighbors on the color wheel). For example two close ones with two close ones: Blue&Purple with Yellow&Orange, or 2 high contrast ones with two close ones: gold, red, with blue&green.
7 - If you want to really swirl the hell outta the colors and not worry about the colors mixing into ugly shades when you marble them, pick out a couple shades of the same basic color. Try Light icey blue, deep royal blue, bright azure, and turquoise/aqua green. Or red, pink, and magenta. think of a idea like "tropical" or "sunset" or "aquarium" and use colors that express that "theme". U get the idea.
8 - A variation of #7: when you are using similar colors or doing a color theme like blues or browns or neutrals, w/ever, make it stand out more by mixing shimmery/glittery colors with regular opaque, non metallic colors. example - deep warm chocolate brown with metallic copper and shimmery champagne beige.
9 - put a sheer glossy metallic or iridescent shade in with 1 or 2 opaque colors for a subtle shiny twist running thru the pattern. it wont show up as strong as the opaque colors since its partly see-thru but it will add some depth and interest to the design.
10 - Do a French manicure but not by painting the bottom pink/natural and the tip white (boring) or doing the tip marbled and the bottom a solid color(which is wat i did in the pics a few posts up.) Try this instead: Pick 3 or 4 shades of the beige/natural or pink (whichever u prefer for a French) polish that u like. Use 1 or 2 sheer or opaque colors like sheer peach or coral, 1 or 2 shimmer colors, and 1 iridescent, to marble the bottom section. Do the tip a solid shimmer white, and finish with a clear top coat or if you really want to make it interesting, a sheer iridescent glaze. This kind of French would look hot as fuck becuz its such a new creative spin on such a plain , classic look.
On to the other way of marbling the way I did it for the pics I posted of my nails.
WET MARBLING
U need the same supplies as for water marbling, just not the bowl of water, cuticle oil, or wood stick, plus a thin, thin brush. the best kind is the kind that u find in liquid eyeliner. Just wash it off and get all the black eyeliner off, make sure its clean, and then u can use it to do this project.
Doin it like this is definately easier, and u have more control. U can either do it more or less controlled depending on the look u want.
How to do it:
First, take your chop stick or skewer or w/ever and tape it onto the table or w/ever surface you workin on so it dont move around. Then take the nail you are using (if its a artificial one) and stick it onto the chop stick. just take a piece of tape and stick the 2 ends together with the sticky part on the outside, so it makes a piece of double sided tape kinda. then just stick one side onto the chop stick and then press the nail onto it and make sure its secure and not gonna move around when you try and paint it.
Ok , now this is mad easy compared to the water way. There is 2 styles you might want. One is the wavy/zigzag pattern, and the other one is the similar style to the design u would get when u do water marbling, much more random and swirly. Ill tell u how to do both. For the first kind, you just paint vertical lines in different colors, along the nail. I was just doin the tip in my case but obviously if you want to do the whole nail you just gonna paint the stripes along the whole nail. Once you got that done then you take your real thin brush and draw it thru the lines in the direction u want the pattern to go. If your lines are vertical you draw the brush horizontal across them to make the pattern, if your lines are horizontal you make vertical lines across them. I did it to the right then to the left to get the back n forth zig zag kind style marbling, but u can also keep goin in the same direction to get the kinda wavy design.
Mine was like the left but u could also get the pattern on the right by drawing ur lines all in the same direction. it dont matter which side u draw towards, if u want the pattern at the left u alternate every other one, and for the one on the right u just make sure u draw them all towards the same side:
>>>>--or-->>>>
<<<<--or-->>>>
>>>>--or-->>>>
<<<<--or-->>>>
the one on the left would come out like the picture second from ther top of this post, with the pink and purple nails, if u look at the nail second from left its this pattern. the pattern on the right would look more like this one, the way the waves go in that kind of "c" shape that looks like a bunch of c's stacked on top of eachother side by side.
anyways, thats the basic technique but a few suggestions that Im gonna say is this, one is to work fast becuz if u dont the polish will start to dry and it will be harder to marble it when u go to do the part where u pull the brush thru the lines. It will not be as flat becuz if u mess with half dried polish it kinda lumps up . also if its too dry, the colors might not "pull" in a uniform way so u get some of them comin out right and other ones not really follow the pattern.
Two, Make sure u dont use "quick dry" nail polish when u do this! It wont work at all, so dont even try, dont even say oh ill just go faster, cuz it aint gonna work. just make sure u aint using "50 second color" or "dries in seconds" polish or w/ever when u try this out.
three, Make the lines pretty thin. If you do them too thick the pattern aint gonna come out very noticeable and it will look simpler and less complex, less like its marbled and more like you just tried to paint shitty zig zags on your nails.
Four, dont follow a set pattern for each nail with the color orders. like dont do, red gold purple red gold purple on each nail or it will look boring. Just do it random different order from one to the next. also try and make the lines not all the same in size, make some a lil bit thicker than others n so on just make sure they all on the thin side.
and Five, no matter if u work fast and do it all right, sometimes it comes out pretty good but the colors might not have "pulled" perfect. thats when u go in, and fill in the spots that might be too light, or fix little mistakes , watever. you never gonna get it perfect the first time so dont think ur doin it wrong when u got to correct litle shit here and there after u do the marbling. sometimes when i would run the brush thru, most of the polish would make the >> pattern all good but maybe one spot would have not pulled to the side all the way and still be kind of straight line-ish, so i went and fixed it, pulled it into the right shape with a little extra polish, or maybe the brush pushed down too far one time and u could see the white of the nail showing thru becuz the polish didnt go on evenly, so i go and fill it in with the tip of the brush, u know? shit like that. u got to practice and once u got it pretty good and u confident , then start doin your nails, but its always gonna need a little bit of touch up when ur done naturally since its a messy style of nail art to begin with it wont be perfect.
Also, the other way of dry marbling i mentioned before, is that u can just straight up drop blobs of color directly onto the nail and then swirl it around with the lil brush, just like when u do it with the water, but ur doin it on your nail and without the water step. but IMO i think if you want that look, i think it comes out better if you just do water marbling because this way it just dont look as cool. when u want more control , this way is the best, but if u want it to look like REAL marbling and ur goin for the wavy, each nail is different effect, def. try it out using the water technique.
Ima let u kno from the start tho, it takes practice. u gotta mess around with it for a while before u get it to come out good. especially with the water way. the first time i did it with water, i was like "nah ill just trim the excess polish off the edges after i dip it, its too hard to do it while its laying on top of the water", but it will come out shitty if u dont do that. u gotta do the right steps. but ull figure it out as u go along it really aint hard.
After like a hour or so of messin around tryin all the different ways i described here i found the one i liked the best and after a lil more practice with the one i picked to use, i got it right and did all the nails just how i wanted em. u just gotta be patient.
Well thats about it, i think i covered every possible thing u could think of askin, at least i hope so. whoever tries this ish out let me kno how it goes and post some pics if you can i like to see other ppls nail art.
QuestionEverything
Bluelight Crew
OK, I still have not purchased any OPI
. I will eventually.
I *did* however, laceyk, read through your nail tutorial on marbling. ladies, it's been years since I wore nail polish regularly. I think I mentioned that before. I was, at one time, the queen of nails though and I've been missing that lately. Never have I marbled them though, only solid colors.
Anyway, it's the last 2 weeks of the semester and I'm stressed to the max. I am taking this evening off for my mental health and decided to play and do something for myself (nails
). mind you, this is just my first attempt and I wasn't really concerned with how things looked as much as getting a feel for how I was going to do this and how it all worked.
sooooo, I'm definitely going to go all out and seriously do this to my nails. this was just my play/figure it out session so don't be too judgmental :D. I used a super glittery red that I LOVE along with a very low sheen white (meant for tips). Originally I also used a gunmetal gray along with the red and white, but it was a bit too much for me. you can see the pics below (lacey, you took the time to type all of that out, you deserve pics in response), and although I removed all of it, I'm going to sit down tonight and really do this. I really like the way my pointer and middle fingers came out (these are my own nails - i chopped them all off last week) I found that, for me, applying a base coat and then just a dot or two was much easier (and I liked the look better) than using stripes, but I think i just need more practice with the stripes and tend to like the simpler designs.
the white is a bit weird too. it's not as opaque and much more runny so it kept creeping onto my cuticles. i might need to get a better polish (it's sally hansen).
. I will eventually.I *did* however, laceyk, read through your nail tutorial on marbling. ladies, it's been years since I wore nail polish regularly. I think I mentioned that before. I was, at one time, the queen of nails though and I've been missing that lately. Never have I marbled them though, only solid colors.
Anyway, it's the last 2 weeks of the semester and I'm stressed to the max. I am taking this evening off for my mental health and decided to play and do something for myself (nails
). mind you, this is just my first attempt and I wasn't really concerned with how things looked as much as getting a feel for how I was going to do this and how it all worked. sooooo, I'm definitely going to go all out and seriously do this to my nails. this was just my play/figure it out session so don't be too judgmental :D. I used a super glittery red that I LOVE along with a very low sheen white (meant for tips). Originally I also used a gunmetal gray along with the red and white, but it was a bit too much for me. you can see the pics below (lacey, you took the time to type all of that out, you deserve pics in response), and although I removed all of it, I'm going to sit down tonight and really do this. I really like the way my pointer and middle fingers came out (these are my own nails - i chopped them all off last week
) I found that, for me, applying a base coat and then just a dot or two was much easier (and I liked the look better) than using stripes, but I think i just need more practice with the stripes and tend to like the simpler designs.the white is a bit weird too. it's not as opaque and much more runny so it kept creeping onto my cuticles. i might need to get a better polish (it's sally hansen).
jackie jones
Bluelight Crew
^Very nice.
I have always been a tomboy and want to look more girly with make up and dressing and such and have no clue where to start.
If anyone is interested in helping me discover my girly side, please PM me and we can chat about it all.
I am intterested in started to wear make up and girly clothes and stuff and stop dressing like a tomboy.
any help is much appreciated.
If anyone is interested in helping me discover my girly side, please PM me and we can chat about it all.
I am intterested in started to wear make up and girly clothes and stuff and stop dressing like a tomboy.
any help is much appreciated.
^^ Hey hun, welcome to the thread! Have a read through this thread (and the old one, linked in the first post) for some inspiration. To start dressing more "girly", try to incorporate a skirt in to your wardrobe routine. Instead of wearing loose t-shirts, go for soft-coloured fitted tank tops etc, just for a couple of examples.
Do you wear high-heels at all?
As for make-up, like I said there are some good links within this thread and some great advice/pics about eye make-up application and different colours for different skin complexions.
Oh and if you don't already know what type of skin complexion you have, it might be a good idea (and fun too!) to go to your local department store and see if you can find a make-up stand that will tell you what shades will go best with your skin tone. It's a really good way to feel very girly, getting your make-up done
Do you wear high-heels at all?
As for make-up, like I said there are some good links within this thread and some great advice/pics about eye make-up application and different colours for different skin complexions.
Oh and if you don't already know what type of skin complexion you have, it might be a good idea (and fun too!) to go to your local department store and see if you can find a make-up stand that will tell you what shades will go best with your skin tone. It's a really good way to feel very girly, getting your make-up done
^^ Hey hun, welcome to the thread! Have a read through this thread (and the old one, linked in the first post) for some inspiration. To start dressing more "girly", try to incorporate a skirt in to your wardrobe routine. Instead of wearing loose t-shirts, go for soft-coloured fitted tank tops etc, just for a couple of examples.
Do you wear high-heels at all?
As for make-up, like I said there are some good links within this thread and some great advice/pics about eye make-up application and different colours for different skin complexions.
Oh and if you don't already know what type of skin complexion you have, it might be a good idea (and fun too!) to go to your local department store and see if you can find a make-up stand that will tell you what shades will go best with your skin tone. It's a really good way to feel very girly, getting your make-up done
Thanks, I will, once my drama is over and I have the calmness to persue this stuff.
Thanks a bil 
fizzle
Bluelight Crew
Ooooh I cant wait to try the marbling! I'm going to do it this weekend.
I painted the black first and then alternated the blue and green. The blue and green are a bit sheer and have some sparkle so the result is metallic, multi-dimensional and your eyes wonder if the color is changing in the light.
Let's hope it doesn't chip in a day like most of my polish.
Let's hope it doesn't chip in a day like most of my polish.
Samadhi
Bluelight Crew
Your nails look HOT chrissie! :D
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