Nail Art: A Pluto Perspective

All the excitement about Pluto recently inspired me to try something space-related on my nails. Galaxy designs are fun and I've done a couple of them, but I wanted to do something new this time. After some brainstorming (and perusing lots of NASA's new high-res pictures of Pluto), I decided: what about trying to recreate the surface of a planet on my nails?

ILNP Holo Water Marble

My small collection of ILNP holo polishes is truly precious to me. They were my first introduction to holos, and it's still a joy to use them whenever I pull one out. I was feeling particularly holo-riffic on a recent sunny afternoon, so I decided to go FULL HOLO MANIA and spend a couple of hours creating an all-ILNP-holo water marble that would really sparkle in all that sun. (Have I said "holo" in this paragraph enough yet?)

Picture Polish Valentine Water Marble

Now that I've discovered liquid latex as a liquid tape option for messy manicures, I'm much more willing to play with nail art techniques that tend to be cleanup-instensive. That's how this Valentinesy water marble was born!

 

Silky Red Water Marble

I'm still here! Life got a little crazy on me and I fell super behind on my blogging, but I'm hoping that things are getting back to normal now. I've have time to do a few manicures, however, so let's get right to the good stuff, shall we?

One nail art technique that's always eluded me is water marbling. I tried it a few times several months ago with disastrous results, so I gave up on trying for a long time and resigned myself to longingly watching Instagram tutorials and feeling sad about my lack of skills.

I was feeling especially patient and ambitious recently, however, so I decided to give it one more shot—and I actually did it! For the most part! It's far from perfect, but I feel like I can call this my first-ever successful water marble.

Purple Turquoise Stone Nails

I've always been really intimidated by water marbling. I tried it once—sort of—several months ago, but it didn't go well at all and I've generally tried to avoid thinking too much about the technique since then. Because, honestly: a big mess AND nails that look crappy at the end? No thanks!

However, when I saw (and absolutely fell in love with) these turquoise stone nails by Lacquerstyle recently and discovered they were done with a simpler version of water marbling, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and brave using water in a manicure once again.