Halloween Challenge: Freestyle Mummies (or something like it)

 Hi spooky Monkeys! Today's theme was freestyle so.... I thought to myself: "Monkey, you haven't water marbled in a long time, do it!"
I originally wanted to copy Colette from My Simple Little Pleasures, but let's just face it.. .she's boss, so I tried my best. I used a white base and water marbled with black and gray (Sally Hansen's Black out and Wet Cement). I tried using nude colors like Colette used but I wasn't feeling it and believe it or not, my neutral options are limited. Anyways, I marbled best I could in a horizontal pattern (I also dipped all 4 fingers in at one go cuz I'm lazy like that), then took a black striper to add a rectangle for the eyes and then dotted on eyeballs. Colette uses googly eyes but again, like I said, she's boss. Sorry Monkeys, you get dotted eyes .. :) I thought this was too cute not to post for the freestyle day so, here you go!

Don't forget to check out everyone else!

Water Marble: Vertical Spring Marble

For this mani I used Milani Fuchsia and Yellow Wiz. I wanted to try something different with marbling, I was going for a vertical marble but also dipping all four fingers at the same time... it proved tricky :) While I love the colors of this mani, I'm not crazy about vertical striping but it's not a fail, I just have to get used it because I'm used to the normal pedal designs. If I did it in two different browns, it could look like wood I think. May be I'd try that at some point. Either way, a cheery marble for spring :)

Bootie Babe water marble

I feel like it took almost 6 months to receive these polishes.. oh wait, it did. Bootie Babe Mossy Bossy is a lime green creme with yellow undertones. Lilac Lunatic is a pale lilac with pink undertones. I wasn't really digging each color on its own so I marbled them. As much as the company irritated me by always saying "only another two weeks..." their polishes marble well. Although, I still wouldn't pay for them because the bottle is awkward to hold onto, the wand is small, the handle is pretty non existent.  I have Spoiled My Button Fell Off as a base coat (pale pale pink) which was a good choice. I wish the lilac would have turned out more purple. I'm getting back into the swing of water marbling, so stay tuned for more :-)

My Giveaway!

My Julep NOTD entry- please vote and thank you to all who are voting (you can vote once an hour)

Star Water Marble

It's been a long time since I've marbled. I think I got caught up with swatching all the holiday collections/polishes I received. So this mani is a bit different. I used Spoiled My Button Fell Off which is a super pale pink and was a pain to apply (more on that in another post), Sally Hansen Purple Potion and Gun Metal. I wanted to use my star rhinestones so I did a pattern that all met up in the middle like a flower/reverse star burst. Usually I like my marbles really bright and obvious so I wasn't too impressed because of the Gun Metal being a bit muted, I think a black or white would have been much better... even Celeb City.  Anyways, it's a different pattern of mani so I hope you like it :) 

My Giveaway!!!! and my Julep NOTD entry, go vote for me please if you like it :) 

Purple and Green Marble

I did this marble a while back and have been waiting to show it to you. It was a mani I did for a guest post at Colores de Carol. She's fabulous by the way so you should check her out if you haven't already. She blogs in English and Spanish.  I had intended to show you this mani the same day she posted it but I was in Hawaii and already had my guest posts scheduled here. So... you get it a bit later. I used OPI Mermaid's Tears and China Glaze First Class Ticket. The First Class Ticket has little flecks of blue in it so it contrasts well against the murky muted green.  Marbling with two colors is fun, I like to choose 2 polishes that have different finishes (creme, shimmer, flecks etc). Hope you like this mani, and don't forget to check out Colores de Carol!  

Guest Post: Water Marble from Jen @ Jen's Painted Tips

Jen from Jen's Painted Tips was awesome enough to do a funky Halloween inspired water marble for us. I love these colors Jen! She recently started her blog and is doing great stuff over there, check her out!

Hello all you Manicured Monkey fans!!! I am Jen from Jens Painted Tips It is mostly nail art that I come up with, or borrow looks from others. I am a new blogger, but a long time obsess-or of nail polish. 
When Kristin asked for guest posters, I wanted in on it!!! Since Halloween is coming up, and it is my FAVORITE holiday, I wanted to do something special for my guest post. I present my Halloween water marble!!! I used China Glaze Liquid Leather, and Four Leaf Clover, and OPI Funky Dunkey. I was pleased with how it turned out. I dotted with Color Club You Got Soul-ar.

Thanks Jen!! Don't forget to show her some Monkey love!

My Giveaway is going on... enter to kill some current lemmings! 

Guest Post: Water Mable from Carolina @ColoresdeCarol

I have a great guest blogger for you today, Carolina from ColoresdeCarol.com. She is amazing at nail art and also writes her blog posts in Spanish and English. Check out her talents, Thanks Carolina!!

Hi, gentle readers,

My name is Carolina from Colores de Carol's  Blog and today I feel so honored to show you my work, this is my first time doing a Guest post.

I'm so happy to be here today at Kristin's Amazing Blog, I hope you enjoy my water marble manicure.

I love the color blue on my nails, so I decided to do a water marble with some of my favorites shades of  blues. I started with a base coat and two coats of OPI Alpine Snow.

For the marble effect I used Chine Glaze White Cap and one shade of blue on each finger ended with a coat of Seche Vite.

Thumb: OPI Dating a Royal (Sorry, I just broke that nail)

Index: OPI What's with the Cattitude

Middle: OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui

Ring: OPI No Room for The Blues

Pinky: OPI Road House Blues

Thank you again for  having me here and I hope you enjoy my post.

Hugs, 

Carolina.

My Giveaway and I'll be doing a Hawaiian themed giveaway if I hit 1K followers by the 16th!! 

Purple Water Marble Tutorial

Hi everyone! My cousin finished editing and doing the voice over for the purple water marble you saw a while back. Enjoy the video, I used different pattern technique in this one.



Check out my giveaway of current fun stuff! 

Water Marble: Purple

I have another water marble for you today, and this one is my favorite purple one to date! I used Zoya Neeka (purple creme with gold flecks), OPI Honk if You Love OPI, OPI Planks Alot.
I seriously love the fact that there are two opaque cremes and a gold fleck polish in this marble! They were all wonderful and were easy to control in the water.

Here's a close up for you to see the flecks in Neeka, really beautiful. I'm quite excited that Neeka is able to be marbled with because alot of times, you get shimmers/flecks/glitters that won't spread in the water or end up all over once you marble them and everything is shimmery.



I like the contrasting finishes/formulas in my marbles because I think it adds something more to look at than just a bunch of cremes swirled together. I'm going to try using a pencil instead of a toothpick though because the wobbles between my lines are driving me nuts!

You Tube giveaway ends 9/3
Apothica giveaway ends 9/11

Gold and Red Water Marble

I have another water marble for you today. I used China Glaze Heart of Africa and Midnight Kiss.  Heart of Africa has a super pretty shimmer to it. I'll make sure to swatch it alone so you can love it as much as I do.  Midnight Kiss is a great darker gold shimmer foil and marbled like a champ.



I was practicing designs and was semi successful on this one.  My middle fingers are suppose to be like a ribbon/bow. I was practicing placement when dipping my fingers and am pretty happy with how it came out. On my index and pinky, I wanted stripes to look like the ribbons of the bow hanging down.  My pinky was a total success but my index finger got double dipped at one part so if you look close, you can see it's not right. But if you are not familiar with water marbling, you may not even notice.

Here's a close up of the "bow" I accented the middle with two silver rhinestones

Here's a better shot of my index finger and the mani as a whole.  I like the way it came out and I think if I did this again, I could really get it perfect and be 100% satisfied with it.

Have you guys checked out the You Tube giveaway I'm doing with nail art stuff? I have more videos to post soon as well so comment on YT and tell me what you want to see! :-)

Blue, Silver and Purple Water Marble

Love love love the colors in this water marble! I used OPI Funky Dunky, Go Green and China Glaze Platinum.  I put down a base of Platinum first so that there would be a light background for the Go Green to show through.

I have a You Tube coming out on this soon.. it will show you how to do a new design in the water to get the arches in the polish.  The only thing I wish I did differently was dip my fingers sideways so the arches are going the other way.. in a 90 degree change.


I forgot how much I love Go on Green.  It's also a great layering polish because of the shimmer it has.  It's like a teal blue base but with light turquoise shimmer.  I'll probably do this marble again as a full mani but turn the design sideways.  What do you guys think? Good enough for a You Tube tutorial?

I'm doing a nail art giveaway on YouTube... check it out :)

Water Marble: Blue, Black and White

So blue, black and white are not my favorite colors but it is soccer season so this is why you keep seeing these colors in my water marbles :-) This color combo is by far the most favorite one I've done for soccer thus far.




I used Sally Hansen Pacific Blue, Black out and a Wet N Wild white. My base coat was Sally Hansen Wet Cement (a gray that literally looks like wet cement).

I included the awkward right hand picture for you all to see... I really love the way my thumb and index finger turned out. I dipped 3 (thumb, index, middle) fingers then 2 (ring, little) fingers on my left hand and my right hand I did 2 then 3 (little, ring, middle then index and thumb). I was in a hurry so I did 3 fingers, normally I just do two and come out with better looking designs, but I still like these colors so I think it was a win!

Pink, Black, Silver Water Marble

I finally got back into water marbling and here's one I did for my friend. Black, pink and silver, can't go wrong with these colors!

I used China Glaze Platinum as the base and the silver in marbling, Sally Hansen Black Out and OPI Be a Dahlia Won't You for the pink shimmery fun.

One thing I really love about this marble is the fact that there are 3 finishes in it: creme, shimmer and metallic.  Below is a full 2 hand picture so you can see all the designs. Not sure if I have a favorite finger but the mani in itself was fabulous! Also, check out my Etsy store, I made this mani into a piece that can be a pendant or a ring

Metallic Water Marble

If you follow me on Twitter, (@manicuredmonkey), you  have seen a preview of this mani. I was far over due for a water marble so I picked up OPI Brisbane Bronze, China Glaze Silver Platinum and Sally Hansen Black Out.
I really love the way this mani turned out! I received compliments on it when I went grocery shopping (and that was from an older gentleman!).

My other hand turned out OK but not as clean as my left.  One thing you really have to do is change your water between marbling sessions.  For example, I water marbled my friends nails (her post is coming up, it turned out so cute!!), and I should have changed the water before I started mine, but I didn't.  By the time I got to my second hand, there was alot of drag in the water (when the lines don't come out clean and crisp). It still looked great, but for someone who water marbles, I notice it more.

Anyways, I was really happy with this mani... Brisbane Bronze is such a great color!

my YouTube on how to water marble

Purple Water marble

I'm pretty sure I'm over due for a water marbling post :D I really love this marble, well most fingers, but the colors I do love. I tried dipping two fingers at a time and for the most part it worked but sometimes you get a finger that's totally out of character. I like to call that my "accent finger" ;) see middle finger on top picture LOL.

So I used Wet N Wild's Black Out, Sally Hansen's Wet Cement and a purple which I cannot remember now (so sorry!). It may be OPI's Funky Dunky but I'm not so sure.

The wider designs that are linear look very mod to me but with updated colors. I like it alot! I've been trying to create more patterns and experiment more with marbling, especially now that I can knock out  marbling mani in no time at all. 

I took the pictures outside with mypurple flowers in the back because well, I love my garden :D I think I actually wore this mani for 4 days and never got tired of it. The only reason I took it off was because I needed to swatch more for the blog lol

Which finger is your favorite? I'd have to go with my left hand pinky.

Purple and Black Water Marble

 I picked up a bottle of Sally Hansen's Black Out to water marble with because my Wet N Wild Black Creme wasn't cutting it. I reached for an untried I had, Wet N Wild Bite the Bullet which is a smokey purple creme.



Bite the Bullet would be pretty on it's own but I wanted to water marble with two colors so I grabbed Black Out and went at it.  I've been having problems marbling lately and for some reason, my tap water is better than filtered water.

These two polishes were great to marble with, they spread fast and even and are dark enough to not lose their true color when I dipped my nails into the water.


 Have a look at my right and left hand :D I also broke my left ring finger's nail but I decided to file them all down and just use my regular hand to take pictures because, well, that's real life- nails do break.



I've shown you all some marbles on my friends that have short nails and marbles look really good on short nails if you get the design tight and distinct.  Just because your nails aren't long, doesn't mean you cannot try water marbling, do what you like!
What do you think of water marbling with just two colors? In most cases I think I like it better than with 3 or 4 colors because you can focus more on the design and if the colors merge, there's less additional colors that are made from mixing/overlapping. 

Water Marble on myself!

 So, I'm a HUGE soccer fan.  My husband and I have season seats to the San Jose Earthquakes MLS team.  Their colors are blue, black and white.  They do a nod to teal once in a while.  Anyways, there's a game today and I thought water marbling my nails in the team colors would be awesome.  Well...

I've come to the conclusion I water marble better on others hands lol... I used Sally Hansen The Real Teal and Celeb City, Wet N' Wild Black Creme, and Orly's Gilded Coral as a base coat (a pink creme shimmer, more to come on this later). 


I topped it off with a generous coat of SV so it would dry fast.  Also, you can probably see the glitter shimmer bomb of Celeb City from when I tried to get it off my hands. I need practice with not getting polish all over my fingers :D


So, you guys wanted more water marble.. here it is, the good, the bad the ugly... but ask and you shall receive!

Happy Easter to everyone, don't forget to enter my giveaway!