I was pretty pleased with how my marbled cards turned out, but it wasn't until I had cleaned up all the supplies that I had the idea to try on some 3D objects.
I got everything back out and sacraficed a few white vases (bought on Target clearance last fall) to the cause. Figuring, per usual, that the very worst that would happen is it wouldn't work.
But hooray! It worked.
I used the same exact technique to swirl the nail polish and then I just rolled the vase on the surface of the water (remember to wear gloves!). The paint swirls came right up and adhered to the sides. Afterwards, I lightly patted on the vase in the places where the nail polish was a tiny bit clumpy. I found that if I got polish in a place I didn't want it or it smudged, I was able to remove it with a bit of nail polish remover and a cotton ball.
This method, because of the rolling, took a bit more effort, but the results were so fun. I found a bunch of small white bowls at Goodwill and marbled them (see totally addicting).
Since I used nail polish for the paint, I wouldn't use these for food, but they're perfect "catch-all" dishes for jewelry, keys and washi tape.
The trick with this project, is to be flexible. It's hard to make this look exactly like how you hope and so you have to just enjoy whatever you get. But practice makes better and the results are surprisingly cool.