Black Holo Foil Gel Mani

Hey Everyone!! Monday has got to be my most disliked day of all time. I dread Mondays. I think it is mainly because I spend most of my weekend at the kennel and haven't had much of a break. Friday I had a migraine but had to go to work anyway. It was quite unpleasant. Saturday I tried to relax so I stayed home all day and laid around then ran a couple of errands when C got home from work. Apparently I need more downtime than that because I am once again exhausted on this fine Monday and I would like nothing more than a nap. We also started Weight Watchers again so I would really like some food in addition to that nap. I didn't play very well and don't have much for an afternoon snack. Is it Tuesday yet?

Today I have a mani experiment to show you. I was hoping I could get nail foils to work with my gel mani. Unfortunately it wasn't a complete success but at least it wasn't a complete fail either. 

I used Fantasy Starry Holo Nail Foils Glitter Transfer Stickers #76 from BornPrettyStore. These sheets of foil was .99 and a great way to give foils a try without committing to ordering too much. I actually used twice as much as I would normally use because I had so many issues working with the gel and I still barely made a dent in the sheet. Design #76 is quite pretty and since the base of the foil is a black or charcoal color I figured I would use a black or dark gel polish. I was hoping a dark base would show off the pretty foil. 

I started with my left hand and used a black polish from Sally Hansen. I had the worst time trying to get the foil to stick to the sticky layer of the mani. I tried as many different tricks and techniques as I could come up with and nothing worked. In the end I had to use a clear polish and let it dry until it was tacky. The foil then stuck to that polish. I was able to do my gel topcoat to seal the foil in.

I didn't think that the foil was showing up as well as I wanted so I attempted a blue base for my right hand. Once again I couldn't get the foil to stick to the gel so I had to use clear polish and then gel topcoat.

I didn't get the effect I wanted but look at how pretty the foil is in the light. This mani actually reminded me of bowling balls for some reason. I really liked the look of the foil but that color spark was not as evident in regular lighting. It took a lot of bright light to really show the colors.

I didn't like the blue base as much but it was still quite cool looking.

I think the indoor shot above shows the look that really reminded me of a bowling ball. I really liked this mani but I did have some issues with it. 

The gel top coat had an issue on a couple of nails where it didn't cover the foil. I didn't notice it at first but then started to see a couple of spots where the nail was dull and I could scratch away at the foil. I was really careful about covering the entire nail with topcoat plus I had used a layer of Structure before the top coat. I am not really sure what happened to cause the issues.

Since I only had issues with a couple of nails I just applied a new layer of top coat on the problem nails and hoped for the best. It seemed to work and keep the foil from trying to escape.

I absolutely love nail foils now. They are fairly easy to use, though not quite as easy when using gel polish. They look really neat and add quite a cool aspect to your mani. I am definitely going to need to purchase more foils in the future.

My goal is to have a mani where the entire nail is covered in foil. I have yet to be able to get that result but I am determined to make it happen. Using a base that works with the color of the foil definitely helps. 

It was harder to tell where the foil didn't quite cover the black nails where as it was quite obvious with the blue base. I might have to look into the foil adhesive too. Using polish works quite well but I would like to see if there is any advantage to the adhesive. I am sure Elmers School Glue would work too.

You can purchase this and many other nail foils at BornPrettyStore. You can use coupon code JLG10 for 10% off. 

That's all for now :)