This is my first successful water marble. That is to say I’d tried it once before but didn’t follow the instructions and ended up only doing one nail (badly). So learn from my fail and follow instructions, such as those of the Queen of water marbling: Colette. I ended up with a bit of the white base coat showing through by my cuticles, but overall I was happy with it. I used Orly White Out for the base, and marbled with China Glaze For Audrey (‘Tiffany blue’) and Foie Gras, and NYX Girls Girly. Followed by a top coat of Poshe.

Some tips: make sure your water really is room temperature (or body temperature, which seems to work better when it’s humid). Water comes out of our tap very cold; my fail was because I used it straight from the tap. I now microwave it for around 10 seconds. I’ve heard of people from countries where the water is cloudy with sediment having more luck with filtered water. And tape the hell out of your fingers. Wrap tape right up past the second knuckle! You’ll be happy you did when it comes time to clean up, and you can always snip the tape off with nail scissors. Snipping also avoids messing up your nails by picking at the tape edges. And practice, basically. Work out what you like. Some people want a very symmetrical look, some people like a random marble effect. I’m going to try to do this at least every couple of weeks so I get better at it.