My 9 year old daughter is very artsy and she’s always drawing or cake decorating, or looking for something else artistic to do. She saw a great video on Always Ice-Cream that she wanted to try. It showed how to make swirly, marbled patterns on your nails. It can be fun to do non-traditional art activities in our homeschool, so we watched it together, got out what we needed, and gave it a try.
Materials:
Toothpicks
Cotton swabs
Nail polish remover
Small bowl with warm water
Scotch tape
Dark nail polish (black was recommended, we used dark purple)
Light nail polish (white was recommended, we used bright pink)
1) Use the scotch tape to cover the skin around your nails. You will not be able to cover it all, so don’t worry about it. And make sure you leave an overlap or tab so that you can easily pull off the tape afterward – make sure it isn’t so tight that you will end up smearing your nail polish while removing it. (After we did this, I read that petroleum jelly all around your nails works even better).
2) Take your dark nail polish and let a drop drip into the bowl of warm water.
3) Let the dark nail polish spread a bit (jiggle the bowl a bit if you need to), and then drip some light coloured nail polish on top of the dark.
4) Let each layer spread a bit, and then add more dark, then more light. Layer the nail polish quickly, so you don’t end up with a solid mess. Then swirl into a design you like with a toothpick.
5) Lower your nail into the nail polish, nail down, and leave it there for 5 seconds. While your finger is still in the bowl, take a cotton swab and swirl all the excess nail polish around it onto the swab.
6) Remove your finger from the bowl and gently peel off the scotch tape.
7) Dip a cotton swab in the nail polish remover and swab around your finger nail to get rid of excess polish.
8) Repeat until all your nails are done!
Just a note, that this can get very messy, so it’s great to have Mom’s help. Excess nail polish does come off eventually 🙂
If you like, once you’re done, explore the science of why the nail polish is suspended in the water (density, just like oil and water), and maybe even experiment with making your own nail polish colours.
Love, Luck &
Laughter,
Kimberly
