NOTD: Holographic Gold Foil + Tutorial

This was my Christmas Day manicure ... what better time for a super-bling mani?  Even one that wouldn't last that long.  I applied these holographic gold foils, "Vibrant Yellow," & I was prepared to be very careful with my hands for the day: 

 

Unfortunately, the wear was even worse than I expected ... if you know about foils, you probably know that top coat will make it wrinkle/crackle & the design just doesn't look as cool after that.  And so this time I thought I would skip the topcoat to keep as much of the holo bling as possible.  And by the time I got to my grandparent's house, they had already degenerated to this:

 

 

Now mind, the only thing I did was to put on my gloves & drive over.  They continued to scratch at the very slightest contact, and I eventually scraped the whole thing off, leaving behind the base color of Milani 3D.  If I ever put myself through this again, I guess I'll go with topcoat, even if it does crinkle.

 

(The first time I wore foils, I did a topcoat comparison, and you can check it out HERE if you're interested)

 

I did shoot a quick tutorial on the foil application - my sloppiest one ever I think LOL, but you get the drift:

 

 

Have you ever tried foils?  Any magical secrets to share for better wear and/or better application? 

 

Thanks for reading =)

 

~Colette

I Am ... Such a Spazz

LMAO, so I had it in my head that my blogiversary was on January 19th ... in other words, TODAY, and I planned a cool mani & got all set to post, and just thought "Hmmm, maybe I'll double-check the date" so that I'm not early ... nope, not early, LATE.  By like almost a week LOL.  My 1-year blogiversary was in fact on the 14th.  At least I did post that day, the matte-ified flower marble, but I think that this is proof that I am, in fact, a total spazz.

So, here we have my belated blogiversary mani =)  Something never before seen on MSLP!  Glimpsed only when I hauled them in the first place:  nail foils!  I've heard so much good & bad about these, and I can say I had a little bit of both worlds applying them, but overall I'm impressed & I'd do it again & think my results will improve when my technique is not so amateur. 

The main complaint around the blogs seemed to be that the "special" foil sealer that comes with the nail foils causes crinkling/wrinkling/cloudy/anti-bling crappiness.  The 2 tips to combat that downfall were to let the glue set fully after applying the foil, and to use a regular-to-slow drying top coat.  I did a test on a nail wheel of 6 different top coats I was able to find in my stash:

Left to  right:  Nubar Diamant, Sally Hanson Salon Clear'd For Takeoff, ProStrong Instant Thickening Top Coat, Cina Top Coat, Seche Vite, Foil Sealer

Here are the results with red foil, in the same order.  Some of the cracks are due to my application, not the topcoat, but you can see there's a wide range of wrinkling & clouding:

I chose #3, the ProStrong topcoat.  My biggest challenge was getting the foil onto my nail without any creases.  Creases = spots the foil doesn't stick & you either get a bare patch or have to go back & re-foil which sounds easy but I was impatient & some of my patches turned out better than others.  I used China Glaze Devotion as a base color so the bare spots weren't  glaringly obvious, but I didn't clean up at all so excuse the mess:

Here's the actual roll, and a comparison on my thumb where I thought maybe I could get away with Seche over the ProStrong (not so much):

Not my finest mani, but good enough for a day. Final verdict - still pretty damn bling, even with the issues I had. Unfortunately it didn't wear for crap & here we are after a day at work:

You can see totally half of the foil on my index finger is gone.  Maybe I should have done 2 coats of topcoat?  The nails that fared the best seem to be the ones that went on smoothest, so maybe if I improved my technique the wear would improve?  We'll see ... I've got a lot more of this stuff to use LOL.

Thanks for reading.

~Colette

More Hauls

I know, I bad - I'm very, very bad. But I promise I'll be good ... after this month. New Year's resolution. I'm still thinking I want to pick up a couple from the China Glaze Wizard of Ooh Ahz colors, and maybe a couple from the Finger Paints holiday collection.

First haul I have to let you know, I didn't buy myself! My hair stylist - who's name is James but who everyone calls Squeeky - saw these colors in an Avon catalogue & thought of me & bought them as a gift!


The lipstick is called 24k Gold, and the polishes left to right are Nude Gold, Golden Twilight & Golden Rose. I was so touched he thought of me, and happy to add to my collection of course, since I don't have very many Avon polishes.

Then of course there was Zoya's Black Friday Green Friday code. And while Zoya stated on their blog that there was such a response that some colors are now on back order, I got all the ones that I ordered in one of two packages I came home to on Friday:


The first color, upper right, I really had no choice about buying - it's named Colette! The rest of the colors, starting top & left to right are: Yasmeen, Isla, Tangy, Midori, Irene, Envy, Suvi, & Veruschka. These are my first Zoyas, I'm looking forward to trying them out!

The second box I came home to on Friday was my Transdesign order:


My first nail foils! & DS polishes =) The OPIs are Signature, Diamond & Original. The 2 foils next to them are Vibrant Yellow & Mystic Haze. The rest is Foil Kit #1 that TransD sells.

Finally, I stopped at Sallys for some staples & to use the 20% off coupon I got in the mail, and ran into the Orly Metal Chic collection:


Solid Gold, Glam Rock & Iron Butterfly. I saw swatches over at All Lacquered Up, and I feel like Sallys is kind of ahead of the game for once since she said official release date wasn't until February.

So yeah - for sure (almost) time to go on a no-buy LOL. Thanks for reading.

~Colette