Turquoise and Lace: A Water Spotting Manicure

Hello Readers!

What I have for you today is a nail design that uses elements of water marbling, but is quicker and a little easier. For this design you will need a base and top coat, a base color (this was my turquoise) and an accent color for the 'lace' (I used black). You will also need a small cup of water, a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol (you can also use hair spray, body spray, perfume, or spray hand sanitizer), nail polish remover or acetone, and q-tips or a small angled brush for clean up. I used Sinful Colors Basecoat and Quick Dry top coat. My colors were Sinful Colors Rise & Shine (turquoise) and Pure ICE Black Out.

I started by applying my basecoat to protect my natural nails. Then I applied 2 'normal' coats of Rise & Shine. I waited for the polish to dry completely and then used one 1 thin coat of topcoat to protect my nails before moving on. This is how my nails looked before adding the 'lace' effect with the water spraying/spotting technique.

Here is a quick video demonstrating the water spotting technique. I said in the video that I was holding the spray bottle about six inches from the cup of water, but in reality that was more like twelve inches and I noticed I typically hold the bottle 12-18 inches from the water to get the random pattern that I like best. If this is your first time using this technique than it will probably take a few 'practice' times to determine exactly what works for you. I am using a 50/50 mix of rubbing alcohol and regular gel-based hand sanitizer, as recommended by MySimpleLittlePleasures on her YouTube channel. I've heard you can use the other things I mentioned at the beginning of this post, but I found this formula works best for me.

I taped up my nails to make clean-up easier, dropped 2 drips of my black polish on the surface of the water, just as I would have for a water marble and then misted it with my alcohol spray. When I was happy with the random pattern created in the polish, I dipped one finger at a time. As always, I thoroughly cleaned the surface of the water with a q-tip before removing my finger from the water. I lightly tapped the tip of each nail on a paper towel and then removed the tape. Once all my fingers were done and the polish was dry, I applied a generous top coat to seal in my design and add some nice shine. Then I used my angled eyeliner brush dipped in acetone to clean up around my cuticles. Here is my finished nail design. I apologize that the pictures of the left hand did not come out as well, so I included 2 of them. 

As always, thanks for reading. In a day or two, I will be posting a knitting update, so stay tuned for that and don't forget to follow my blog so you can be notified when I update! Feel free to leave comments and if you recreate this design, show them to me on my Facebook page!