We bow down to @YaGala’s amazing water marble powers and have literally spent hours watching videos of her dropping polish into cups with Top 40 playing in the background. One thing we’ve learned when trying it ourselves: it’s not as easy as she makes it look.

There are a few tricks to making sure your water marble goes well. Here they are, sprinkled into this step-by-step guide:

1. Use a 200ml disposable paper cup.

2.Put normal water in the cup (22-24 degrees centigrade, too warm or too cold water will dry your nail polish faster and won’t give you time to draw the design).

3. Apply masking tape or scotch tape around the nails; it will prevent you from getting nail polish all over your fingers.

4. Turn off fans, air conditioners, or anything that will dry your nail polish.

5. Have your tools ready and close by. I use a toothpick or a needle to draw the design. I also use napkins to clean my toothpick/needle.

6. Polishes that work for water marbling: Sally Hansen Extreme Wear, OPI, China Glaze, Sinful Colors, Bonita Colors, Dance Legend, Picture Polish, Essie (not all nail polishes work! It depends on formula. Try with creamy polishes. Some nail polishes do not work well with each other. That’s why you have to play around and try different brands) Tip: Do not use old, thick, goopy nail polishes, they won’t work as well.

7.Put nail polishes of your choice drop by drop (overall 12-15 drops for good design) Tip: If the drop sinks to the bottom, that means you are holding the brush too high.

8.To get the polish to spread out take a toothpick and circle in the water outside the design (do it after third or fourth drop) Also if you know your polishes work but they don’t spread, try shaking the cup just a tiny bit to help it spread.

9. Using a toothpick/needle to draw the design. Tip: do not draw the polish from the first two drops you did. They should be dry by the time you’re done with all the colors. Start from third or fourth circle.

10. Clean your drawing tool each time before you draw another line on a napkin.

11. It’s the best to use white polish as a base color. That way your other colors will end up opaque on your nail especially if you use neon or very thin and sheer colors.

12. Dip your finger into the cup and remove excess nail polishes from the water surface using a Q-tip. This is very important! Tip: Depending on your design, you can do one, two, three or four fingers at the same time.

13. Take out your finger(s) and remove the tape.

14. Clean up cuticle area using a flat brush or a Q-tip with nail polish remover or acetone.

15. Decorate your design by adding dots, placing studs or crystals, or applying glitter polish like Fairy Dust by China Glaze.

16. Don’t forget to apply fast drying top coat and that’s it!

17. Enjoy your unique nail design!

Find Galina online:

Instagram: @yagala

Youtube: youtube.com/user/Galifesha

[Courtesy of @yagala]