Monday Blues: Glass Nails

Hello my lovelies! Another week has passed and I haven't managed to post anything since the last Monday Blues. I had lots of work to do and then decided to relax during the weekend. But today I'm returning with a very trendy manicure. I finally got myself some fancy foil and was able to jump on the glass nails trend. The experience was pretty controversial for me and I'm gonna tell you all about it in this post. I try to be honest on my blog, so I can't stand painting a pretty picture when the truth isn't exactly that. Anyway, this nail art foil was kindly sent to me by LadyQueen. Here's my result!

The glass foil that I used to create this is thin, transparent and iridescent. I know you can buy this at certain craft stores in some countries but I haven't seen it here. It comes in a sheet that is claimed to be 5x50 cm on the website, but what I received was only 5x20 cm in size. That is enough for quite a few manicures, but it's still too little considering that this foil is dirt cheap. From the pictures on the website I chose the one that looked blue (#5). I'm not sure if they sent the right one but to me it only looks green/orange. Maybe if I would put it over a white base it would look blue. Anyway, the foil looks like this and you can find it here.

As a base color I used my favorite polish of all time, China Glaze First Mate. I used a peel off base coat underneath because I was worried it would take a lot of work to take the foil pieces off. I waited for the polish to dry because I didn't want the foil pieces to mess with it and get stained. In the meantime I took some tiny scissors and began cutting the foil in triangles of different shapes and sizes. Make sure you do this over a sheet of paper so you can clearly see the pieces and don't risk making a mess on your desk. I tried to cut mine as small as possible but it still wasn't small enough in the end because I didn't have enough pieces to fill in the tiny spaces at the edges of my nails.

After I finished cutting, I used a clear polish to stick the pieces on. Of course you have to work on each nail individually because the top coat dries up quite fast. I used my wax pen to pick up the pieces but you can also use a toothpick if you don't own such a gadget. Basically all you need is patience to match up the pieces and find the right ones to fit in each gap. It's like a puzzle. After I finished this process I went on to cover everything with Seche Vite. I used two coats to level it out as much as possible but there was still a bit of texture around the foil pieces.

Direct light

The real issues with this manicure began after I finished it. I don't recommend having even the smallest corner of foil sticking out of your top coat at the cuticle because it will lift up and become an obnoxious thing that gets caught on everything after the top coat is fully dry. It's better to not cover the edges of the nail completely with foil than risking that. Since I used multiple coats of top coat combined with the foil, the whole manicure became a thick and compact layer that popped off easily from the nail because I used a peel off base coat. As a result of all this, I lost the polish from two of my nails on the morning after I did them while I was washing dishes and another one the next night while cooking. I wouldn't recommend using a peel off base coat because of that. If you plan on trying this out you can used code ANCS15 to get 15% off your order.

Thank you for reading my ramblings. Maybe you will learn from my experience if you plan on doing these and not make the same mistakes as I did. Don't forget that you can check out the rest of the Monday Blues of today by clicking the links below! 

An InLinkz Link-up

Have a great week!