DIY Malachite Manicure

You guys have probably noticed my obsession with malachite by now, and it isn't over yet! I was trying to think of a way to create malachite print nails and remembered the ever messy water marbling technique. I decided to try it out in tones of green to see if it created a malachite look and it totally does! For those of you not familiar with water marbling nails, it is one of the messier nail art techniques but the results are so stunning that it is totally worth it! The basic principal for water marbling anything (nails, fabric, paper) is the same, pigments are suspended on water and then swirled around to create the design, which is then transferred onto the nail/paper whatever your marbling by dipping it into the water.

Disclaimer: Sorry my cuticles are a wreck! I just bought a new cuticle cream to rectify the situation!

Supplies needed include:

- A small bowl of a non porous material like glass (might get stained by nail polish a bit otherwise)
- Various shades of green nail polish, I used:
            -Song of Summer, Sinful Colors
            -Posh, Revlon
            -Calypso, Sinful Colors
            -Black Creme, Wet n' Wild
- Toothpicks
- Water
- Scotch tape
- Nail Polish remover
- Q-tips

To begin with, paint your nails a medium solid green, I think Revlon's Posh is a good malachite color. Paint two coats and let dry completely.

To create a marbled design on the surface of the water, drop drips of nail polish from the end of the brush onto the surface. Place each drop inside the last one as they spread out over the surface of the water. You have to work quickly or the polish will dry on the surface before you get a chance to do anything.

To create the marbled design, swirl the layers of color with a toothpick until you like the pattern.







I find it best to wrap some scotch tape around my nail to save a bit of clean up time. I have also heard of people putting Vaseline on just the skin of their fingers.

Gently lay your nail onto the pattern and into the water. At this point there will be a lot of extra marbling polish on the surface and its best to twirl around a toothpick to pick up this excess while your nail is still submerged to prevent ruining the design when you lift your nail from the water.

When you do life your nail it should now have a pretty marbled design transferd onto the top! And also lots of excess mess :P

After I removed the tape, a bit less mess.

Clean off the extra polish from your skin. Then repeat this whole process for each nail, I can occasionally do two nails with one marbling session but this is a tricky technique over all. It is certainly more time consuming than your average manicure but the results are pretty awesome!

I hope you guys enjoyed this little tutorial! I have some new nail art tools coming in the mail soon, so there will be more nail art fun in the near future!