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How to give yourself a holographic foil manicure

Instructions are for solidly foiled nails, but you can use the same technique for foiled designs as well once you've pracitced a bit

You will need:

• Jones' Tones Holofoil (or Jones' Tones regular metallic foil if you want gilded nails instead)
• Jones' Tones Plexi Glue
• A very good Clear Nailpolish topcoat
• Solid Color nailpolish
• A fine-haired flat paintbrush (a reasonably medium quality 1/4" acrylic/oils filbert or a lipbrush that you won't use for anything else will do very nicely)
• A small glass of water (for rinsing your brush)
• A fan or hairdryer

Preparing your nails

1. File your nails to remove any snags.
2. Wash and dry your hands and remove any old nailpolish.
3. Cut a strip of foil about 2x the length of your nails and 4-6" wide.

Foiling your nails

1. Base coat
   1. Apply a base coat and a base solid color polish.
   2. Allow to dry.
   3. Apply a second coat if necessary to smooth the surface of the nail or even out the color.
2. Apply glue
   1. Squeeze about 1/2 tsp Plexi Glue out onto a plate. Add a few drops of water, mix it in with the brush.
   2. Gently brush against the edge of the plate to remove excess glue.
   3. Brush smoothly onto nails, doing one hand at a time.
   4. Let dry. Cover plexi glue with plastic wrap while you are waiting if you are worried about it drying out.
   5. Apply 2 more thin coats of plexi glue to nails, making sure they are smooth.
   6. Let dry until clear, assisting with a hairdryer or fan if necessary.
3. Apply foil
   1. When nails are dry, pick up foil strip in one hand and press, dull side down, onto a nail.
   2. Rub gently with the pad of your finger.
   3. Pull foil off. If there are bare spots, the glue is either too thin in that spot or isn't dry enough.
   4. Foil all nails.
   5. Try re-foiling any bare spots, using leftover foil on strip. If the foil doesn't take, dab a bit more glue on the bare spots, let dry and re-foil.
4. Clear coat
   1. Let nails dry another 10 or so minutes.
   2. Apply 1 or 2 coats of a clear topcoat, letting it dry well between coats.
   3. Dab a bit of clearcoat along the edge of the nail and underneath. This will help protect the aqua/acrylic-based plexi glue from water and surface scrapes.

Removal

This should stay on a couple of days at least, if you avoid doing things like handwashing lots of dishes in hot water. Remove with nail polish remover. It may take 2-3 tries, because of the layered nature of the color. If necessary, soak hands in hot soapy water after removing clear coat to soften and loosen glue.

Resources:

Prices below are from http://www.jonestones.com/ circa 2000

• Foil: Holo or iridescent foil is $4.50/package and regular metallics are $2.50/package. a package has a 12"x20" sheet in it. You can do 2 sets of nails from a strip 1"x8", so that should give you an idea how many sets of nails you can get from a package.
• Glue:1 ounce bottle clear is $2.38, 2 ounce bottle is $3.38, and 4 ounce bottle is $5.40. You shouldn't need more than 2oz/pkg foil to do your nails.