Happy Easter - Easter Egg Nail Art

Happy Easter Everyone.  The Easter Bunny visited our house last night and I'm afraid to say that both my kids ate chocolate before breakfast!

For today, I'm sporting these rather hideous looking Easter egg foil nails.  I figured it didn't matter too much how messy and uneven they are, because foil covered eggs are always messy and crinkled.

I created these nails by first painting my nails black, and the accent finger white.  I then applied nail foil glue in various zigzag patterns and stuck down different coloured foils.  On the accent finger I put a layer of a Spectraflair topcoat and then an Easter water decal from an old holiday set I have.

These pictures are taken in the shade, because it was so hard to get a decent photo of this in the sun, due to all the reflections off the foil.  And they really do look much better in real life.  Stupid macro shots showing ginormous nails!

Here is one in the sun.  I have to say, may nails really do look like Easter eggs.

Up close photos of this mani really are hideous and messy, but you realize that no one actually sees your nails like that in real life.  It looks more like this...(taken during an egg hunt in the backyard)

See how much better it looks from a distance!

And here is a close up of that Easter water decal.  WTF is that bunny on?  Red eyes and yellow teeth!!  No more Easter Eggs for you bunny!

I hope you all have a happy and safe Easter.

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Stamping with foil: Zip me up

So last week I seen a post from Mrsrexy at Canadian Nail Fanatic her post blew my mind! She was stamping with foils so I ran to my nail art drawer got everything I needed and got on it. I started with Sinful Colors Savage which is a pretty green matte color.

2 coats of Sinful Colors Savage

I then decided to use my new Bundle Monster image plates and a gold holo foil. Stamping with foils is pretty simple the first thing you need to do is cut out some pieces of foils, Stamp the image you want on your nails and quickly place the foil on the stamp and rub it in. Easy right? My manicure came out ok but I wish I would have used a gold polish to stamp with instead of white you'll see why.

Here's what I used:

Sinful colors Savege

Konad White

Konad stamp and a scraper

Gold holo foil

BM 202

Orly Glosser (non fast dry top coat)

I should have stamped with a gold polish because in some part the foil didn't transfer so I had some white showing. Has anyone one tried doing this before?

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Ist full foil nail mani

Ive had foils for some months now but everytime I tried to do a full mani it never looked good. I tried many times and finally last week that I got a better foil glue I am actually semi proud of my attempt enough to show pictures of it. I applied a thin layer of The Best Glue Ever on my nails let it dry and used a holographic star foil. It came out a little sloppy and of course the top coat messed it up a little too but its still ok. I love the blingyness of it.

Have you tried foils? Any tips on how to apply them better? What top coat do you use over your foils?

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Foil crackle look

A while back I got a bunch of foils and I play with them here and there but I was never able to get the foil to completely transfer on to the nail were it looked good. I kinda gave up until I saw a post and video tutorial by the master of nail art Robin Moses if you don't know about her you need to go to her blog and YouTube channel now! She sometimes uses foils in her design and has testing many different glues and finally found a good foil glue. When I seen that I immediately started searching for The best glue ever (that's actually the name of it lol) I unfortunately didn't find it and I had to order it on overstock.com but it was ok because they have free shipping.

I finally got my bottle today and I wanted to try doing a design Robin did on her blog that didn't seem too difficult its a crackle polish technique which is basically using different color foils to look like crackle polish over a black polish.

For my version of design I used Wet N Wild black, Multi colored foil, China Glaze fairy dust, neon yellow and orange paint. I love this design it is now my favorite mani!

Have you ladies tried foils before? If so what kind of glue do you use?

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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.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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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?

More about → Holy holo foils Batman