Thursday 15 August 2013

Nail Foils and Top Coats - an Experiment

I have a huge collection of nail foils that I bought from Dollar Nail Art, most of which I haven't even got around to using yet as I still need to find a compatible top coat that doesn't ruin the effect. It's a bummer actually, I have so many foils because I figured if I was going to be paying high shipping fees from the states, I may as well wait until I can make a bulk order and get the most out of my shipping fee, so I ordered all kinds of stuff and got a nice big box full of goodies in the post, the large majority of which look crap when I use them because of the damn top coat.

Recently however, I have made a few polish purchases including some new top coats to try, so I thought I would try them out with my nail foils and see what happens. So first I applied a hand of nail foils in this stunning holographic gold.


This is not my best application of foils ever, it takes some serious skill and practice to get them perfect, and as I haven't bothered to wear them for a while because of the top coat issues my skill is a bit lacking at the moment and I could do with using them more often and brushing up on my technique. Normally I would be unhapppy to leave them in this condition and I would remove it and do it all over again, but for the sake of an experiment they were fine as is.

Anyways, there are four different top coats I applied in the following order:

Index Finger: Duri Rejuvacote
Middle Finger: Loreal Jet Set
Ring Finger: Revlon Quick Dry
Little Finger: Sally Hansen Nail Shine Miracle

and here are the results!


As you can see the results are not great. The top coats ruin the holographic coloured effects almost destroying them completely, and they ruin the smooth metallic finish with what appear as a million tiny bubbles all over the surface, but there was one clear winner and that was the pinky! 

The little finger had Sally Hansen Nail Shine Miracle, which didn't cover the surface of the nail in bubbles and left the holo colours intact. Do you know what the most annoying thing is? The Sally Hansen is not even a recent purchase, I have had it for ages and never knew that it was good to use with foils, how have I not tried it before already!!! GAH! The worst part is I have other top coats to use, I always have a selection, and my Sally Hansen bottle which I paid almost $15 for and wasn't even that impressed by as a top coat over polish is now almost finished, all this time I should have been saving it to use only with foils, and now I gotta go out and spend another $15 dollars for a bottle!!!! Again, GAH! I'm such an idiot! I wouldn't have bothered to buy this top coat again, I have other prefered top coats at a much lesser price, and now I gotta fork out for it again anyway as it's the only one I know of that seems to work OK with foils, I should have figured this out forever ago!

So let this be a lesson to you ladies, or rather two lessons: 1: Sally Hansen Nail Shine Miracle works well with foils, 2: When you get a new top coat test it over EVERYTHING so you don't go wasting it on one thing when you should be saving it for another!!!

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

10 comments:

  1. Hah what are the odds of that happening?! I'm kind of surprised that the SH came out to be the best. I've had pretty hit or miss luck with their top coats so far. Thanks for sharing your finds :)

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  2. Picture Polish Revolution is apparently brilliant as a top coat over foils.

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    1. That's fine if you live in Australia but I can't find it here in Oregon. I did find from the piCture pOlish website for $10, but it was another $20 to ship it!! Yikes! If anyone knows of a piCture pOlish re-seller in the States, let me know.

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  3. hi there, I too.. have a large collection of foils. ha ha. here is the perfect solution which you may already be aware of. after you put the foil on , wait a smidge and then put another thin coat of the foil adhesive over the top. let that dry for 10 minutes or so and then I found the best top coat that does the least amount of damage is the seche vite uv gel top coat. you do not need to cure this under a light at all. it dries just fine without. nails look perfect. then I add another thin coat the next day and I get quite a bit of wear time out of them. the trick is the thin coat of adhesive over the top of foils before adding the top coat. good luck !

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  4. hi there. the trick is applying a thin coat of the foil adhesive on top of foil before adding a top coat. best top coat I've tried for this is the seche vite uv gel top coat. which does not need to cured under uv. dries just as fast without.let the glue dry ten minutes or so before doing top coat. good luck. the next day I add another top coat and get quite a bit of wear time out of them.

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  5. I get my Nail Foil Top Coat at Amazon called "Nail Foil Transfer Top Coat and Sealant" here: http://www.amazon.com/Nail-Foil-Transfer-Coat-Sealant/dp/B00E6ZA94W

    It's only $1.99, It works really well and keeps my foils looking great! I can even top it with my Sally Hanson No Chip Acrylic Polish and it lasts as long as normal acrylic polish.

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  6. I tried it but no luck. Back to the drawing board for me. Nice post tho...

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  7. i find my nail foil topcoat (and foil adhesive) here: http://www.amazon.com/shops/A2F73J0TGLYCGM

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  8. i find my nail foil topcoat (and foil adhesive) here: http://www.amazon.com/shops/A2F73J0TGLYCGM

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