My nails for a night out, rocking it up and very purple!
In case anyone's interested (i bet they aren't...), a couple of notes?
Using press-ons, the inside surface was roughed up where the sticky pads sit using a nail drill and small abrasive sanding drum (fine grit), the Vixi brand i used are quite thin, so be careful (ruined a couple - luckily they come in bags of 50/size) and the size 0 width is *almost* enough for Engineer's Thumbs.
Roughed up the outside surface with a 100/180 grit nail file to give a keyed surface for the:
Gel base coat (Born Pretty brand, from Amazon), applied and left for about a minute, maybe two, to flow out before putting under an UV lamp for 60 seconds - stayed a tiny bit tacky, essential for...
Tapping on "metallic chrome nail powder", a fiver or 24 little tiny pots on Temu - tapped on with a sponge pad-stick like in eyeshadow packs, not rubbed, so that the flakes in the powder didn't all lay flat, then cured wit another 60 seconds of UV (NOTE: the makers' timings given for UV cures are a bit optimistic, i ALWAYS leave them longer!)
Purple transluent gel colour (Born Pretty again, Amazon), left to self-level and cured for abut 90 seconds, felt *slightly* tacky.
Main parts of flames in orange "UR Sugar" (Amazon) glow in the dark gel with smallest gel brush from kit (URAQT nail art brushes on Amazon), 90s again! then the red touches, 90s
Born Pretty top coat to finish off, left for a minute to level and another 90 seconds.
FInal step with some gels - makeup pad and acetone to remove any stickiness after curing - the Born Pretty topcat didn't *need* this, but many do and a SINGLE QUICK WIPE won't harm cured gels.
Natural nails on fat fingers "keyed" with a buffer and wiped down with acetone (yeah, probably bad for them, but i moisturise when i take them off!) and Sun&Beam adhesive tabs to stickum on.
So tools: Nail stands with magnetic base, nail drill and sanding drum, nail art brushes, UV nail lamp.
Materials: Base and top coat gels, purple transparent gel, chrome powder, UV reactive
glow-in-the-dark gels, Sun&Beam sticky pads (offer a "large size" set, only ones that even mentioned a size - and held up well including diving into pockets and depths of handbag).
Clean up: acetone (gel polish remover) and cotton makeup remover pads for cleaning brush, smudges on fingers, pieces of packing tape for stray metallic powder.
All in (apart from sticking them on), probably about an hour overall, maybe a bit longer, it WAS the first time i got over-ambitious (and if i can do a passable job, anyne can!), unusually for me no injuries nor ruined clothes! One of the nail stand "pawns" did a runner though, will have to tidy the shed again to find it - aaarrrghhhh!
All in all, quite happy with how they turned out, considering first attempt, will attempt to hone my skills...
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My nails for a night out, rocking it up and very purple!
In case anyone's interested (i bet they aren't...), a couple of notes?
Using press-ons, the inside surface was roughed up where the sticky pads sit using a nail drill and small abrasive sanding drum (fine grit), the Vixi brand i used are quite thin, so be careful (ruined a couple - luckily they come in bags of 50/size) and the size 0 width is *almost* enough for Engineer's Thumbs.
Roughed up the outside surface with a 100/180 grit nail file to give a keyed surface for the:
Gel base coat (Born Pretty brand, from Amazon), applied and left for about a minute, maybe two, to flow out before putting under an UV lamp for 60 seconds - stayed a tiny bit tacky, essential for...
Tapping on "metallic chrome nail powder", a fiver or 24 little tiny pots on Temu - tapped on with a sponge pad-stick like in eyeshadow packs, not rubbed, so that the flakes in the powder didn't all lay flat, then cured wit another 60 seconds of UV (NOTE: the makers' timings given for UV cures are a bit optimistic, i ALWAYS leave them longer!)
Purple transluent gel colour (Born Pretty again, Amazon), left to self-level and cured for abut 90 seconds, felt *slightly* tacky.
Main parts of flames in orange "UR Sugar" (Amazon) glow in the dark gel with smallest gel brush from kit (URAQT nail art brushes on Amazon), 90s again! then the red touches, 90s
Born Pretty top coat to finish off, left for a minute to level and another 90 seconds.
FInal step with some gels - makeup pad and acetone to remove any stickiness after curing - the Born Pretty topcat didn't *need* this, but many do and a SINGLE QUICK WIPE won't harm cured gels.
Natural nails on fat fingers "keyed" with a buffer and wiped down with acetone (yeah, probably bad for them, but i moisturise when i take them off!) and Sun&Beam adhesive tabs to stickum on.
So tools: Nail stands with magnetic base, nail drill and sanding drum, nail art brushes, UV nail lamp.
Materials: Base and top coat gels, purple transparent gel, chrome powder, UV reactive
glow-in-the-dark gels, Sun&Beam sticky pads (offer a "large size" set, only ones that even mentioned a size - and held up well including diving into pockets and depths of handbag).
Clean up: acetone (gel polish remover) and cotton makeup remover pads for cleaning brush, smudges on fingers, pieces of packing tape for stray metallic powder.
All in (apart from sticking them on), probably about an hour overall, maybe a bit longer, it WAS the first time i got over-ambitious (and if i can do a passable job, anyne can!), unusually for me no injuries nor ruined clothes! One of the nail stand "pawns" did a runner though, will have to tidy the shed again to find it - aaarrrghhhh!
All in all, quite happy with how they turned out, considering first attempt, will attempt to hone my skills...