Andrea Stacey, a nail tech at Cassims Hair Design in Hervey Bay, Queensland, Australia, literally followed her dreams. About seven years ago, Stacey dreamt about marbleizing colored acrylic on nails. "When I woke up, it was just so clear," Stacey says. "How I do it today is exactly how I did it in my dream."

She shares her dreamy nail art step-by-steps with NAILS readers. "I love to marble with acrylic as it is surprisingly quick to do, looks amazing, and stays looking perfect until the next fill. Clients love it because you don’t need to charge much extra, and they have a great time choosing different color combinations each visit. I have experimented with different types of acrylic and my personal favorites are EZ Flow and CND, as they don’t set too quickly and blend together beautifully with good definition." She charges $10 to $20 (Australian dollars, which is roughly $8.75 to $17.50 in U.S. currency) extra for the marbleizing, depending on the client’s nail length and if the nail art is being done as a French or over the whole nail.

The below step-by-step suggests doing the application in two sections, but Stacey says if working with a shorter nail, then you can do it in one go. And if it’s longer then you may need to do it in three sections. "The acrylic sets quickly," she says. "The time frame from applying the first ball of color to finish-swirling with a pin is about five seconds."

1. Prep the nail, apply a tip, and apply acrylic primer.

2. Apply between two and six vertical lines of different colored acrylic generously over half the nail. (Three shades of colored acrylic are used in the design shown here.)

3. Use a metal pin or wooden toothpick to swirl the colors from one side of the nail to the other a few times.

4. Use an acrylic brush to push and pat lightly to get the optimum shape on top of the nail and to neaten along the sides of the nail, making sure to not let the acrylic touch the client’s skin.

5. Repeat steps 2, 3, and 4 on the second half of the nail (starting where you left off and going to the free edge).

6. Use the same acrylic colors to touch up as needed around the eponychium. 

7. File the nail to the preferred shape and thickness, using either a hand file or an e-file. (The beauty of this technique is the pattern goes all the way through.)

8. Either apply a gel top coat and cure or buff the nail to a high shine.