St Patrick's day green foils

If ever there is a day where you can go crazy with green polish, it is today.  I actually don't have many green polishes, and the ones that I do have aren't that pretty (think Ulta 3 Frog Prince and Jelly).  So instead I decided to apply some green foils.  I can't imagine I would ever wear this colour foil normally, except maybe at Christmas.

I'm totally loving foils. I'm getting heaps better at applying them now and have found a good top coat that doesn't wrinkle up the foil too much.  Even still, they don't last much longer than a day or so.  But that is fine with me cause I've been changing my polish everyday anyway.

Happy St Patrick's day everyone.

Peachy foils

I reckon I could signal an aeroplane from a deserted island with the sun reflecting off these nails.  How cool do they look!!

Clearly these are some foils. A pinky peach colour, applied over two coats of Ulta3 Romance.  The lines on the nails form naturally because of the type of foil and how it curves around the nail.  I have really curvy nails, so if you nails are flatter, then you wouldn't see as many lines.

Here are the same foils in the shade.

This is the foil that I used.  In the shade you can see that it is a peach coloured holographic metallic.

The foil and my thumb nail in the sun.

This was just awesome, but... I thought I would test out comments that you MUST apply a top coat otherwise these just disappear.  Its true.  You MUST apply a top coat.  I can't stress that enough.  I didn't cause I loved the absolute holoness of the finish, and within three hours this was nothing more that a few metallic flakes on my nails.  Of course you will have to experiment with top coats to find one that wont wrinkle and take the holo finish away. 

So far I have tested Ulta3 top coats and Seche Vite and neither of those work well with foils.  Australis Top and Base coat worked ok. 

Blue metallic foil

I can't believe that it's almost the end of June and I have only posted once this month.  It's just not good enough is it.

I have heaps of colours and polishes swatched, so I think I might do a few posts that are light on with text and just pictures, which is what we are all really here for anyway, the pictures, not to listen to me babble on.

This here was another foil creation.  This was a very shiney metallic blue foil, which when applied to the nail gets this incredible stipe across it as it follows the curve of the nail.

Here is a close up.

I really love foils, and have to say that application does get better with practice.

Till next time.

Gold foil - part fail

First up - Sheri,  are you out there?  You won second prize in my giveaway and you haven't contacted me.  You also didn't leave an email address.  I'll wait one more day then redraw!!

I did another set of foils the other day.  I was sooo happy with my initial application, they looked awesome.  Thanks for the tips readers after my last attempt!!  This time, I used my hair dryer to ensure the glue was totally dry before applying the foils.  This worked perfectly and the foils transferred and lifted off with pretty much zero gaps.  Cool.

But then I did the top coat.  I knew not to use a quick dry top, so I put my seche vite away and grabbed another one.  As I applied it I could see it changing the foil immediately.  I did four fingers on my left hand with this top coat, and then stopped.  All the holo effect was disappearing!  I changed top coats for the left thumb and the whole right hand and it made a very clear difference.

Here is the right hand.  This shows a good smooth finish and you can see some of the holo effect.

Here is the right hand on another angle, see the nice smooth holo finish.

And here is my FAIL left hand.  See how the gold foil lost all its holo effect.

And another.  Although the nail had a high sheen from the top coat, the foil actually looked matte.

So I learnt my lesson about which top coat to use. 

I think it's just trial and error to find a brand that works well for you.

Holy holo foils Batman

This here is my first ever attempt at doing foils.  It almost classes as a fail, as it was really bodgy job. Let me explain.

First I put on one coat of Ulta3 Snazzle.  This gave me a shiny base on which to put my foil, and if I had gaps in the foil, hopefully they wouldn't be too noticeable.

I cut up all my little foil pieces and then applied some glue to each finger on the left hand.  I let it dry and then applied to foils, starting with the pinky.  I pretty much managed to everything that I read online that you should try to avoid.  Eg

• don't touch the glue on the nail (I bumped mine umpteen times),
• let it totally dry before applying foil (I'm not that patient),
• don't apply glue too thick (I read this one after doing my nails, wondering what I did wrong, I thought the more glue the better and in some cases it just stayed wet.)
• peel the foil backing off the nail quickly (I read this after the fact too, I peeled mine soooo slowly)

In the end I had a lot of gaps showing my polish beneath.  BUT the effect was still good. 

Super super shiny and metallic, with awesome holo madness.

I tilted my nails here to show the holo pattern of the foil.  I think this pattern was very forgiving too, it hid a lot of the flaws in my application.

I also read online not to apply a quick dry top coat, as it crinkles up the foil.  I listened to this and applied a generic brand top coat I had.  I let that dry for about 10 mins and then put on Seche Vite.  I saw a little crinkling at first, but it relaxed out as it dried.

I bought a sample pack of 25 foil designs, so I will see if my application gets any better with practice.

Has anyone else tried foils? Got any more tips for me to get better adhesion?