Body marbling is a painting process similar to paper marbling, in which paint is floated on water and transferred to a person’s skin. It was created by the body painting company Black Light Visuals and has become popular as a festival beauty trend.
It involves filling tubs with water and skin-safe acrylic paint, which is then transferred to the person’s skin. The technique uses hydrodynamics to create psychedelic patterns on the body.
There are numerous amazing nail art ideas, but there is just something about water-marbling manicures that mesmerizes us. It has to do with the way all of the different colors swirl around. It is almost like it hypnotizes you in the best possible way. Marbling is effective on our tiny nails, so some clever people have expanded the concept further with body marbling. Surprise, surprise, the resulting look is hypnotic.
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We’ve seen a lot of interesting looks for the festival season, including rainbow freckles and glitter roots, but the body-marbling trend just might be the most whimsical. The geniuses behind the idea are Black Light Visuals. And no, they do not use nail polish on your body. They’ve been marbling away at festivals this year using a combination of salt water and acrylic paint.
Black Light Visuals creates the body marbling look in the same way that you would create a water marbling mani. You dipped your limb of choice into a big bucket of salt water and swirled paint. (That salt apparently helps the paint stick to your skin.) You do a second dip to help the product adhere and to avoid making a big mess on your clothes. Once it dries, you’re left with a kaleidoscope of colors on your body.
The summer festival season may be pretty much over, but something tells us that body marbling won’t be going away anytime soon. There is a greater chance that people are going to be raiding their old art supplies bins in search of pretty paints to DIY the look at home. It might be a bit more work to set up, but at least you don’t have to worry about getting a crisp edge like you do with your water-marbling manicure.
Iskra Banović is our seasoned Editor-in-Chief at BlueFashion. She has been steering the website’s content and editorial direction since 2013. With a rich background in fashion design, Iskra’s expertise spans across fashion, interior design, beauty, lifestyle, travel, and culture.
