Natural Turquoise Nails

One of the manicures I've seen done by other bloggers that I have wanted to give a try is a natural marbled stone look. In particular, I wanted to try emulating turquoise. I couldn't decide which shade of the color I wanted to use, so I chose to do an ombre effect. When in doubt, pick all the colors!

Right hand

 

Left hand

To get the black polish to have that lacy look, I did a modified water marbling. On my pinky fingers, the turquoise is so dark it is hard to get a pic to show the black well.
While it may look like it took a long time, once the base color was fully dry, the black marbling was a very quick process. Clean up took a lot longer than the polish application. It took less than 10 minutes to do the marbling.
I really liked the effect, but wanted a little more "oomph" to it. So I decide to add a little bit of gold streaking, since turquoise often has copper streaks in the marbling.
To get streaks that are not predictable, I pulled the cotton off the end of a cotton swab, and left some of the fibers trailing.

And here is the result:

I love the addition of the little bits of gold. It is very subtle, and gives the outcome an overall more natural look. Definitely a fun look.

I think my favorite turned out to be the lightest color on my thumbs. I like the contrast.