Gradient and water marbling with Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Key Lime, Greenberry and Lychee

Barry M Gelly Nail Paints in Greenberry, Key Lime and Lychee

The inspiration for this mani is straight from Sarah (Samarium's Swatches) fabulous guest post at Kelliegonzo yesterday. Water marbling is something I usually shy away from, I've not had much success in the past, it takes ages and can be messy.......... but's Sarah's mani was so awesome I just had to give it a go! 

I simplified Sarah's mani down quite a bit - I just used two colours for my background gradient, mostly so I wouldn't get carried away with the gradient and use it as an excuse to duck out of doing the water marbling! I used Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Greenberry and Key Lime for my base - I applied one coat of Greenberry then sponged on a gradient of both colours using a damp make-up sponge. The Barry M Gelly colours are fab for nail art - the texture and pigmentation are great to work with. I've had great success with Lychee for giant dots and these two colours blended together wonderfully easily for this gradient!

Then I used a single colour along with a clear polish carrier (basecoat actually, as I don't have any clear polish) for my water marble. I wanted to create an overall pastel effect, so I chose Barry M Gelly Nail Paint in Lychee for this. I didn't bother with the holo topcoat Sarah used in her design, as I didn't think it would show up with all these light colours.

I like the end result; it reminds me of the zebra print stamping plates I like so much BUT each nail is different and kind of random, which I like better than the symmetry of stamping plates. The colour and shape of the Lychee strands reminds me of when I was a kid and I used to stretch chewing gum out and wrap it around things, lol!

The mani was fun to do if a bit messy! I did spill the bowl of water all over myself on the first nail and I didn't really master the technique of getting rid of the surplus polish-transfer thingy into the water before I took my nails out - so I ended up with a lot of polish all over my fingers and clean up was quite an undertaking. I'd definitely do water marbling again though - next time I might try a multi-coloured marbling over a white nail.......... I like Sarah's suggestion of practising water-marbling every week! Maybe Wednesday Water Marbles.

I think this was my favourite nail!

Barry M Gelly Nail Paints in Greenberry, Key Lime and Lychee

I puchased my Barry M Gelly Nail Paints from Boots.

And since this is a UK brand................

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