Blue Foils & Broken Nail

When I ordered from Adell at Nail Art Delights last spring, she was generous to include a free roll of nail foil, and a bottle of adhesive. I've been meaning to try them all summer, and last week, when my index fingernail broke off below the tip of my finger (meaning I had to cut all my nails way short to match), it seemed like the perfect time. If you haven't tried foils before, they're super-fun and easy...but I'm hoping those of you who have tried them can help me - see the end of the post.

First, photos of my poor broken index nail. For some reason, my nails always seem to break off *below* the tip of my finger, so I can't actually do much about the cut until the nail grows out. Here's the difference in length after I cut my index nail down:

*sigh* And here are my poor nails after being hacked off. I've always been very sensitive about my fingernail length for some reason. When I was in elementary school and was made to cut them super-short for piano lessons, I cried. Seriously.

You can see the break there. Painful stuff. Don't mind the roughed up surfaces there - I'd just filed and buffed the tops to prep for polish.

So I started with 2 coats of China Glaze "Blue Island Iced Tea" - one of my favorite sparkly blues.

Pretty, yes? After the polish is dry, it's time to apply the adhesive. It only takes a thin coat, and you have to let it dry until it's just tacky on the nail (I lost my instructions, so if this is wrong, someone correct me, please). You can do designs, or stripes, or whatever - the foil will only stick to the adhesive. When it's tacky but dry-ish, it's time to foil. As you can see, the foil has two sides - the side you can see the design on, and a brown side:

The brown side goes on your nail. You can cut it, but I'm too lazy - I just start at the end, and press a section to the prepared nail. You can use a cotton ball, I just used an orange stick to smooth the foil over the nail surface, and make sure it makes good contact with the adhesive.

Then you just pull the leftover clear plastic off, and voila! Pretty foil on your nail.

Here's what four looked like, and to the left you can see the used foil paper. If you miss a spot, dab a little adhesive on and let it dry, then just use one of the smaller unused bits still on the backing. Super-easy.

So here's my problem. When I tried to put China Glaze top coat over it, the foil smeared. Zoya worked slightly better, but still tore the foil. Any foil mavens out there? What do you use to seal your foil designs?

I ended up having to redo these the next day - foil has no staying power without some sort of protection. I have *plenty* left though, and will be ordering more, so stay tuned for more of this technique later.

Next week - glittery gold and rhinestones. Until then, Happy Polishing!