I’m back, tentatively dipping my toe back into blogging.  I’ve had a rough time over the last 18 months, so even doing my nails has been a struggle.  There is a new Cirque Colors group on Facebook, where last week an inspiration photo of turquoise waves crashing on a pink beach was posted, so I gave it a go.

I didn’t have all Cirque polishes to make it work, so I used a mixture to match the colours suggested with the photo.

Left hand fingers curled gently into palm, on a black background. Nails with a pale pink gradient and a turquoise waves design at the tips.

Polishes and tools

Jessica Rejuvenation
Orly Bonder
Cirque Carpe Diem, Fast Fashion and Lady Liberty
Nails Inc Tilson Gardens
Chanel Nouvelle Vague
Seche Vite
Cosmetic sponge
Rainbow Connection clean up brush

Pink beach

I started with one cost of Tilson Gardens after my base was down.  It’s quite a cool, pale pink, and I think with a matte top coat it would be very mannequin nails on me.  After that I jumped into the gradient for the beach.  I used a wide stripe of Tilson Gardens and a narrower one of Fast Fashion. The bottom half of the sponge was Carpe Diem.

A macro photo of right ring finger, with a black background. The tip of the nail has a sea design using turquoise and white nail polish to imitate waves on a beach.

A close up of my work, showing the different colours of turquoise and white making the waves.

I used the white under where the sea was going so that I didn’t mix the pink and turquoise – that wouldn’t be a good look! Next, I roughly painted Lady Liberty across the tips of my nails, varying the shape of the turquoise. I kept it mostly on the free edge though.

Next, I wiped nearly all the Nouvelle Vague off the brush and dabbed it across the join between the darker turquoise and the white.  In a few places i dabbed a little further down as well.  It was all quite random honestly!

Right hand fingers curled gently into palm, on a black background. Nails with a pale pink gradient and a turquoise waves design at the tips.

Turquoise waves

Water spotting is great – much less stressful than water marbling.  I’d thinned out my admittedly rather old bottle of Carpe Diem when I started.  White polishes always seem the worst for thickening up.  I did manage (just about) to get it to dropping consistency, but to be honest thinner would be better.

I used a small spray filled with surgical spirit (rubbing alcohol) to break up the drop of polish spread on the surface of the water. One or two spritzes is plenty.  I put my nail in the cup, and then brought it to the surface under the bit of polish I wanted on the tip. In some cases it was about halfway up, so it was right onto the darker pink polish.

Left hand fingers pointing up on a black background. Nails with a pale pink gradient and a turquoise waves design at the tips.

Clean up and top coat and done!  Please have a look at my other beach nails if you get the chance – it’s a design I really enjoy. See you next time 😊

Beach Watermarble Nail Art macro

Beach Watermarble Nail Art

Glitter beach nail art