Christmas 2010 Marble

Happy New Year lovelies! A tad late I know but I have been pretty tied up the last couple of weeks as I just joined a new company and currently getting used to the environment and the job role. I meant to post this earlier but never got around to it.

For this post I'll try to catch up on my Dec 2010 Xmas & New Yea'rs manis and hauls so I don't swarm you with too much pictures.

I still had a voucher for a foot spa so I decided to drop in my local manicurist (yes, sometimes I like to be pampered as opposed to doing the pampering) to use it before the expiry date. My feet is literally beyond repair after a month of me walking around Singapore (when I was sent there for work by my previous employer) which resulted in super dry feet so it needed some TLC which I'm too lazy to do on my own.

I wanted to try one of the OPI colour she had but I forgot what was the collection/colour name (guess it didn't make that much of an impression on me) as my pedi colour. Since Christmas was around the corner, I told her to add some snowflakes nailart (which in the end I realised if I used my Fauxnad stamper would've looked much better). She also added a Christmas tree sticker but unfortunately that came off before I could take a picture.

My Pedicure for Christmas 2010. I know, the fauxnad stamps would've looked so much more classier but oh well...

My own manicurist is a gem. She'd always refuse to do any nailart for me as she knows I can do it myself so she always tells me not to waste money... =.=

For my mani I decided on a basic manicure with OPI's Alpine Snow as the colour. I was using this as a base for my water marble later. I know you're probably wondering why did I have to do a basic mani if I was going to marble over it later anyway right? Thing is, my own bottle of Alpine Snow is stuck. I can't open it. My gem of a manicurist told me a trick to get it open.

So yeah, for a few days I was walking around with this (when it comes to my own nails, I'm a procastinator).

After a few days of having it look like this, I really had to start my marbling as white usually don't wear well and you can see some chips (picture was taken after that few days also). I wanted to do a Christmas marble with the colours red, white and green. For the white, I decided to use my OPI's Alpine Snow (which I finally go opened with the tips from my manicurist minus pulling a muscle), red was OPI's Thanks So Muchness from their Alice in Wonderland collection and the green I opted for China Glaze's Emerald Sparkle from their Holiday Glitz collection.

Unfortunately, the red refused to cooperate with the white or the white refused to cooperate with the red (I have no idea which one came first) and I was unable to get a decent design. After numerous attempts and repainting the white (thank goodness I had a similar colour), I decided to just get a different white/red as in I went out to get a new polish.

Now it is extremely hard to find a polish brand that marbles in Malaysia. I decided to play safe and not scrimp when it came to prices since I was adamant to use the three colours instead of changing it. Ran to The Curve to look for them nail kiosk that sells those Korean nail polish but they were out. Watson's didn't carry Sally Hansen. Went to 1 Utama to look for my red in Guardian. Managed to find this.

Inside I was praying so hard that this would work. Next I ran over to SaSa to get a white in case my Alpine Snow also refused to cooperate with this Sally Hansen. They didn't have any Jordana nail polish so I opted for this.

I had absolutely no clue if this polish will marble in water at point of purchase.

I had to get a new top coat as my OPI Top Coat has a tendency to streak, a no-no when it comes to marbling. My Seche Vite was running out and the consistency at that level made it a nightmare to work with. The only other brand I know that boast not streaking was Konad, so I had to go grab one (since Seche is not readily available and my spree hasn't arrived).

Whilst getting the Konad topcoat, the kiasu in me had to come up with another back up plan in the event the nail polish I just bought failed to marble as well. So I decided to pick up a Christmas-y nail plate since I was going to get the topcoat anyway.

I ended up walking away with not one but two nail plates... =.=

I wasn't able to find the actual Christmas nail plate (forgot what plate number it was) but I did manage to find the M56 I was looking for the last time which were out of stock so I decided I'd better grab it quick.

At the same time, I also grab this...

...because it had snowflake images (although I already have a Bundle Monster fauxnad with a snowflake image as well but I did say I was kiasi...)

After all the drama just to marble in Christmas colours, I'm happy to report that Christmas marbling 2010 nail manicure was finally a success.

 

This design is supposed to mimic the poinsettia which is widely used during the Christmas season. The thing with water marbling is, you never get the same design twice so if you are the type that needs all ten nails to be exactly the same then steer clear of water marbling.

Else, it'll be a really fun experience because the design you get is the one you chose to dunk your fingers into so it's really up to you.

P.S. It was the Thanks So Muchness that refused to cooperate with the other two. When I used Sally Hansen's Hot Red it was a dream to marble with... so the culprit was the red. The white I bought from SaSa could marble but won't really build so I stuck with my Alpine Snow in the end to do the marbling. That's the other thing about marbling, not all polishes are willing to work together so it's a lot of trial and error to see which polish marbles well.

I'll be posting my New Year's marble soon so stay tuned.