Shellac Water Marble: Bacon Nails

Bacon Water Marbled Shellac Manicure.

This was extremely simple!  I find that using a combination of Shellac/Gelish and normal polish is much easier to water marble than using normal polish alone.  This is because the cleanup process is so much faster.  Apply and cure the gel top coat prior to removing the excess water marbled polish from your fingers -- then you can wipe your entire hand (nails and all) with nail polish remover and only the portions which are covered with gel top coat will remain.

I used 2 coats of Shellac in cocoa, then water marbled using white and red China Glaze polish (the bottles were so old and worn that I could not read the precise names of the colors).  The last step, as mentioned above, was to apply Shellac Top Coat and then wipe the excess from the fingers with nail polish remover.

Shellac Water Marble

Shellac Cocoa with water marble accent nail.

The trick to water marbling with gel nail polish is not to use it for the actual marbling!

For this manicure, I painted 2 coats of CND Shellac Cocoa over all nails, then wiped with acetone. After that I used regular nail polish for the marbling (ChloesNails.blogspot.com has a great photo tutorial on the water marbling process).  Dried the nail polish in the UV lamp for about 6 minutes -- this will probably vary depending on the polish used. After the nail polish dried, painted 2 coats of CND Shellac Top Coat over the regular polish.

Water Marbled Nail.

Since I have never had any luck water marbling with CND Shellac or Harmony Gelish gel nail polishes, this seems to be a great alternative.  Having Shellac color underneath the regular polish and Shellac Top Coat on top -- this manicure will wear just like any other gel nail manicure.

Dotted accents on nails are in Harmony Gelish Sleek White and Sweet Chocolate.