Stone Marble Nails

For about the past year, everywhere I look, I see stone marble nails!

I've seen this effect done in so many different ways and in any possible color combination.

Done with gel polish, sharpies and rubbing alcohol, acrylic paint, thinned out nail polish, decals (either ready ones or handmade), stamping (the Nailasaurus has a great tutorial for stamped on marble nails), using plastic wrap, topped with some foils for a more luxurious effect..And the list could probably go on and on..

I don't know about you guys, but I am in LOVE with this effect. I've been flirting with the idea of trying these out for such a long time and now that summer is finally here, it only felt right.

I was going for a classic white and greyish marble look, so I started off with a white nail polish as my base. It really helps if you have a reference picture to look at while you are doing this, so this is what I used.

As far as I know, marbles don't have a flat matte color, they always seem to have some shimmery particles. To give it a realistic look and some depth, I used two sheer shimmery polishes and some scrunched up plastic wrap to randomely dab them on my nails and then sealed it with a fast drying topcoat. One polish was almost clear with a yellow/green shimmer and the other one was a sheer grey with a pink/purple shimmer. Unfortunately, the camera couldn't pick up the shimmer and it seems as if I used a sheer light grey polish for the background.

When that was completely dry, I mixed up some white and black acrylic paint to get a nice grey color and thinned it out with water to a very thin consistency. With a thin nail art brush I made some squiggly lines here and there, some a bit darker than the others..And finally topped it with a fast drying topcoat.

Keep in mind that marbles are natural and like anything coming from nature, each piece is unique. So the more random the lines are, the better. And the little imperfections are what sometimes make it perfect!

I'm really loving stone marble nails and I'd like to experiment with more techniques and colors. I can't wait to find out what works best! If you have tried this effect, I'd love to know what's your favorite technique. :)


Polishes used:

Orly Bonder Rubberized Basecoat
Orly - White Tips
Erre Due - 147
Erre Due - 155
Orly Sec 'N Dry Quick-Dry Topcoat