Friday, March 21, 2014

Leopard Nail Art with Foils!

Good morning, readers! How about some fun nail art before the weekend? After seeing Lucy's Stash Distressed Gold Nail Foil Tutorial earlier this week, I was inspired to grab some nail foils of my own and try some nail art with them! I hadn't really been interested in foils to be used for a full nail, so using them in nail art seemed right up my alley!

Here is how I did it:
  • I started with three coats of OPI Rumple's Wiggin' and let dry completely.
  • Then, I opened up my nail foil kit (I found it at Sally Beauty) and put a blob of foil glue on my placemat. I then used a small dotting tool to make some leopard print "C" shapes and small dots.
  • Once the glue dried to clear and was tacky, I took a piece of blue foil and dabbed it all over the nails until the glue parts were covered with blue. 
  • I decided to use a second color for the inside of the leopard spots. So I used the same dotting tool and a new blob of nail foil glue and added dots in the center of the "C" blue shapes. 
  • Once that glue was dry, I used a piece of purple nail foil and dabbed it on the nails until the glue was completely covered in purple.


I'd heard that regular top coat will wrinkle the foil and was too nervous to mess this up so I grabbed my Sally Hansen InstaGel top coat that came with the Gel Nail Strips I reviewed. I did one gentle coat and cured each nail under the LED light that came in the set. I was really happy to see that it didn't ruin the foil! Unfortunately, the top coat failed and couldn't stay adhered to the regular polish underneath. After doing some dishes a few hours later, I had many wrinkled and worn off tips and even chips of just the top coat layer coming off. Anyone know of a better solution for top coating foils?!


I loved these so much while I wore them and wish they had lasted longer. The foil was SO crazy looking against the pale creme base and my photos don't do them justice. 

Thanks so much for reading!

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13 comments:

  1. I've found a gel base coat adheres better than gel topcoat when there's regular polish underneath (so, polish->foils->gel base->gel topcoat). However, I've also had gel come off when it's applied over striping tape, so it may not have been the polish itself, but the foil.

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  2. Gorgeous! I really like the way you used foils for the mani.

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  3. I've tried foil a couple times and it looks beautiful until I put on a top coat and then it looks like crap. No wrinkles, but the tc fades the effect of the foil. I've tried probably 4or 5 different tc's and none work. I don't use gels.

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  4. I've tried foil a couple times and it looks beautiful until I put on a top coat and then it looks like crap. No wrinkles, but the tc fades the effect of the foil. I've tried probably 4or 5 different tc's and none work. I don't use gels.

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  5. What a cool idea! I still haven't tried foils yet, so I don't have any good solutions to the top coat dilemma.

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  6. Wow - I love the colors at work here! What a neat idea!

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  7. This is a gorgeous mani! I love the look of the foils.

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  8. I love this!

    I have never gotten foils to completely not crinkle, but what I use is a slow-drying clear polish--quick dry ones totally ruin it, but slower ones are usually okay. The foil will always react at first, but will "lay back down" if the topcoat is not set yet and it can still move back to its original position. I like Mayas Smoothing Coat for Glitters. I use a medium coat of that, wait at least 15 minutes (longer is better) and then add a fast-dry coat over that for shine and such. Doesn't totally eliminate the problem but reduces it significantly. They also make water-based topcoats for this, but I have never seen one and don't know much about them. You could do some searching online.

    Good luck :D

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  10. "Tweets h2o nail color" from Wal-mart works great over foils! I never found just a plain clear, but they have a couple of really sheer ones that are perfect! I put one coat of the Tweets, let that dry, then top it with Sech or HK...no crinkles

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