All That Glitters is Gold

Recently, I joined a Facebook group called Blogger Bragger and there are weekly nail art challenges that we can participate in.  This week's challenge is glitter.  I don't often use glitter because I find it tedious to apply and remove, however, this week I've used glitter in just about every manicure that I have done.  I could have just used one of my other manicures to fulfil this challenge but I decided to go ahead a try something I haven't done yet.

I intended to run out to the craft store and purchase some loose glitter and try using it.  My life this week has been very strange and no matter how hard I've tried to get to the craft store it just never happened.  While I was thinking over this challenge early today I was reminded of that song from Smash Mouth "All Star".  Specifically the line, "and all that glitters is gold".  I then remembered that I had a jar of loose 24K gold mica powder from a candle project that I had done last year.  I excitedly dug this jar out of my candle making supplies and got to work.  Here is what I did...

Material
Base and top coat
White or off-white polish
Gold polish
Chevron tapes or stripes
Gold studs

After applying my base coat I started with two coats of Color Club's Look, Don't Tusk on all fingers but my ring finger and immediately topped off with Seche Vite to speed up the drying time.  On my ring finger I applied one coat of Zoya's Brooklyn.  If you are going to do this type of application it is wise to use a base polish that is similar or will compliment your mica or glitter.

To apply the mica or loose glitter apply another coat of base color polish.  Then while the polish is still wet dip it or roll it in the mica/glitter.  Use your finger to lightly brush away excess mica/glitter.  Do not apply to much pressure though because you will smudge your polish underneath creating divots or pox marks in your finish.  If you brush away too much mica/glitter, pick some up on the tip of your finger and lightly tap it on to the spots in need of more bling.

Clean the mica from the cuticle area and apply a top coat.

This went smashingly well on my ring finger so I decided to step it up a notch.  Looking for an excuse to use some of my new nail vinyls from www.nailvinyls.com I decided to add some gold mica chevrons.  I applied three small chevron vinyls on my mid and pointer and repeated the steps above.

From this point on the manicure was a fiasco.  This was turning out to be a mani I should have stayed simple with but I wanted too much.  Anyways my left hand finished off nicely, but for reasons unknown to me my right hand was bad.

First off, I had a brainless moment where I stupidly decided to try to blow the excess mica off instead of brushing it off.  Can you guess what happened?  Yup, I ended up with mica powder everywhere including in my eye, all over my face, and in my hair.

Then after that I completely forgot to brush the excess mica of my mid finger so when I applied my top coat my chevrons smeared.

My pointer went so badly that I had to start over and on the second time around I just pretty much gave up.

After giving up on trying to create perfection, I decided to add three different sized gold studs to my thumb and pinky.  I felt they needed something, the white was glaring at me.  The studs I used are Item #12411 from http://www.bornprettystore.com.  Right now they are having a summer sale that ends 8/10 and most of there stuff is discounted, not that their prices are awesome already.  In addition to the great prices and the sale you can also use my discount code: CREATEX31 for 10% off your entire order.

So, at the end of this experiment I have a manicure that I both love and hate, as well as gold mica powder everywhere.  I'm sure I'm going to be hearing about it from my husband for the next few weeks.  Oh, the things that we nail art addicts put ourselves through all for the sake of pretty nails.

I hope you enjoyed this blog post, I'm curious, how many of you out there are crazy enough to try this?  I'd love to see your recreations or if I have been lucky enough to inspire you post your pictures on my Facebook page.  Or post them on Instagram and tag @polish_plebe in the comments.  Be sure to like and follow me while your there.  While your here click the Join this site icon on the top right hand side of the screen to follow me or you can follow through Google+, Bloglovin, and/or Pinterest.  Until next time...

Your Fellow Plebe,