I finally got to try my hand at some water spotted nails, and boy am I happy with how they turned out! This is a technique I’ve been wanting to try for ages now but I never seemed to have the time or the right materials to sit down and figure out how it worked. I was worried it was going to be a pain for me in the same way that water marbling is – something everyone else seems to find so simple but that fights me every step of the way. I was really happy to find out that wasn’t the case. In fact, I’d say water spotting is one of the easiest techniques I’ve ever tried! Woohoo!
Check under the cut for a run-down of the technique that worked for me, and a bunch more pics. 🙂
The basic idea with water spotting is that you spread a few drops of polish on the surface of the water (similar to a water marble but only with one colour at a time) and then you spray it with an alcohol-based product to get the polish to pull apart, and then dip your nail in (again just like a water marble). Repeat as many times and with as many colours as you like! To spray the surface I mixed rubbing alcohol with a bit of water in a spray bottle I got from the dollar store (you can also use hair spray but I didn’t have any that were non-aerosol).
For this look I used a base of Essie Blanc and then did layers of China Glaze Electric Beat, China Glaze Don’t Honk Your Thorn and Julep Michelle. I sealed it all with two coats of Seche Vite just to make sure it was smooth.
What I really like about this technique is how unique and organic (is that a weird way to describe nail art?) each layer ends up being… You can’t really control how your spritz will impact the polish so you just have to trust it to work out.
I am amazingly happy with how these turned out. They were originally intended to be the base of my Thyroid Disease Awareness mani but when they were done I decided adding butterflies in any shape would just be too busy, so I slapped some gold studs on instead and called it a day. 🙂
This is definitely a technique I’m going to be doing more of in the future. It was so simple and it looks AWESOME in the end. I’m already picturing how great it would look with neons and black for a bold summer look. Hmm!
Let me know what you think! Have you ever tried water spotted nails before? What did you think of the technique?
Thanks for visiting!
