Christmas Manicure

Water marble before scrubbing clean up

I really went all out this year on my manicure.  Looking back, I think I needed to stick with one product line of colors - not sure... it was crazy fun to create but also super time consuming.


I started out with a base coat of Seche Natural.  Next I added one coat of China Glaze Cheers To You.  I did several test runs of what base color would look best and the silver in Cheers To You seemed to really make the colors pop.  Next I did a water marble of Zoya Edyta and Zoya Kym.  I did 3 drops of Edyta and 2 drops of Kym for each nail.  Because both are glitter nail polishes, you have to be careful with the way that the polish disperses in the water.  I did not actually swirl the polish because it kept falling apart when I did that, so I just went straight down with my nails in the best possible spot.  To keep my hands (semi) clean, I used petroleum jelly all over my nails down the joint but even then you can see I needed some clean up.  I finally ended with a topping of ManGlaze Matte-Astrophe Clear Matte Top Coat to give it a nice satin look.  Only problem with the matte was that it chipped a tiny bit in some places.


I did have issues with both my pinkies.  On my left hand, I just let it be, but on my right hand, I cheated and just laid down a base coat of Kym and added some swipes of Edyta.


Here's my left hand in the sun and then the shade.  The sun made the matte top coat look non-existent, but it was there.  I did the manicure on Thursday morning and just took all these pictures on Christmas Day, so it lasted a good while.

Next is my right hand, sun and then shade.  You can see how I cheated on the pinkie. 

Yay!  Water marbling checked marked off my list!

China Glaze Water Marbling

I've seen this several times in blogs but never in person, and while I have tried it once before, it was with miserable results.  I still have a lot to learn, but I did my best, and I'm happy enough with it.


I used petroleum jelly to coat my fingers, Zoya Remove+ to clean my nails, and then I forgot the base coat (oops) but I used China Glaze Emotion and China Glaze Cherish both from the Romantique Collection, and a top coat of Seche Vite.  I think my thumb turned out the best but while I was cleaning it up, I scratched the polish on my nail.  Go figure.


I still have to do my right hand, and then wash my hands well to get all the PJ off, but here you go!

China Glaze [official website] can be found online through several etailers, including my favorite Head2Toe Beauty [official website] or Sally's Beauty Supply [official website].