Ludurana Water Marble

I was so excited to get my Ludurana Aurora Boreal nail polish! I bought it with the express purpose of trying out this manicure. I love the look of water marbles. If you know how to do them, skip the video. If you're new to water marble, this is a good tutorial:

There are a kabillion tutorials on YouTube. Some of these people are so creative and talented. The designs they're able to make astound me! I was going for an oil-slick look, completely inspired by a picture I saw on Pinterest. Jess, miracle worker that she is, found the source of the photo: Esmaltas Da Kelly. Fair warning, the site is in Portuguese, but the photos are so lovely, I think it's worth a look anyway. There's always Google Translate!

 I began my search for the polish, Ludurana Aurora Boreal, which is from Brazil. I read that it was available at llarowe but it was no longer listed in their inventory. I tried Ninja Polish, where 4 of the 6 colors I wanted were listed, but out of stock. I signed up for a restock notification. Finally, I emailed three different drug store websites in Brazil in the hopes they would be willing to ship to America. Three strikes, I'm out. And I was really sad. I finally found them on eBay, missed out on the auction, but the seller had more she was willing to sell. The same day, I got restock notifications from Ninja Polish. I went with the eBay seller since she had all 6 colors. Three days later, I had my polish, but for various reasons, I wasn't able to do the water marble. UNTIL NOW!

I started with a black base coat:

the black is from a set of Saints NFL colors. No name on the bottle.

and set up my supplies. Water bowl, nail polishes, toothpicks, Vaseline (which I used instead of tape):

You're also going to need Q-tips and remover for cleanup.

I have no pictures of this manicure in progress. I was not about to pick up my phone and take pictures or it would have ended up water marbled, too. No thanks! But...

 

Inside, incandescent light

 

Outside, indirect natural light

 

Outside, full sun

Be sure to click through on the pictures. The colors deserve to be seen! A few things: one, I still have cleanup work to do in those first few photos of the "completed" manicure. Two, yes, I know the skin around my nails is in bad shape. Along with our recent weather change, I painted my shed last week and the house paint tore my hands up. That's also why I have the two shortie nails on my right hand. Three, the thumb nail on the left hand? After the water marble, I top coated using Sally Hansen Insta-Dry (I was in a bit of a hurry, see). Ten minutes later, my dry-to-the-touch-but-completely-not-cured thumb nail polish got shoved half-way down my nail. I was trying to get ready to leave for work, so I smushed it back down like Play-Doh, re-top coated, and went to work. So it's really muddled, but still colorful. And finally, the pinky on my right hand? May have been double dipped, so it's indistinct. The first dip was not very visible so I tried again.

This manicure turned out exactly as I had hoped it would, except for the parts where I goofed it. I couldn't be more thrilled with the Ludurana polishes (they look great with traditional application, as well, with full coverage in two or three coats. It depends on how heavy-handed you are).

If you decide to try a water marble, let me know how it turns out!