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Experiments with Gold Leaf Nails

I've made it something of a habit to collect anything I could plausibly stick on my nails lately.  I have dried flowers, pots of glitter, beads and more all sitting in a plastic bin.  Something that's been a bit of a mental block for me though is a little pot of gold leaf.  It is clearly interesting but I just wasn't sure what to do with it and there is a surprising dearth of tutorials online.  So, for the sake of science, I decided to do an experiment.

I wasn't sure of the coverage I was going to be able to get with the leaf so, starting with my thumb, I added the normal base coat and a coat of Revlon Gold Coin.  I then cut out a square of leaf and laid it on top of the wet polish.  Surprisingly, the leaf stuck well.  Trying to position it left small tears so once I'd smoothed the sheet over my nail gently using a rubber orange stick, I added a tiny amount of Seche Vite over the area and applied a patch.  As the foil is so thin, this actually worked in covering up the tear.  I then repeated this process over all my nails.  I added another layer for a smoother finish once I was done, with another coat of SV to just smooth everything over.  I used small pointed scissors to clean up around my cuticles, using the edge to score and remove the leaf without tearing it.







The Verdict:  This looks so cool once done although I'd have liked the surface to be a lot smoother than it was.  This isn't a very practical mani as even with plently of top coat it's still very fragile.  I think I'll try this one again but with two coats of base coat/ridge filler for the smoothest possible surface.  Gold nails though!
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  1. The Polished MommyMarch 7, 2012 at 11:31 AM

    I just did a mani and used red variegated gold leaf as an accent nail. One thing I learned, apply BC let dry till its tacky then apply leaf and use a fluffy eyeshadow brush to smooth then TC. Sadly the leaf seems to have disappeared after a few days even though the TC is still there, weird? I have to get some gold because I'm dying to do one like yours!

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