gold glitter manicure

this manicure was my task for wednesday evening and i have to say, it was more of a challenge than i expected! but i'm pleased with the outcome and my attempts at being creative (and patient) with nail glitter!


the base colour i used was 'dark navy' by e.l.f cosmetics. i'm a big fan of navy nail varnish, particularly because i'm pale and i think in general, black is too harsh for my skin tone. navy is a nice, sleek substitute and goes with pretty much everything!

the real challenge came when i brought out the nail glitter by gosh in gold. i've never tried loose nail glitter before but i was excited to attempt to use it without creating too much mess. 

once my nails were completely dry i used some masking tape strips i made and stuck them onto my nails taking design inspiration from here. i then painted on some clear nail varnish and shook a bit of glitter onto the nail. i carefully spread it around with my finger and tried my best to push it into all the corners! 

this takes patience and by the end of it the table looked like a 6 year old had attacked it on a craft day. however, once i peeled off the masking tape i was pleased with the results! some of the glitter did manage to make its way onto the taped areas but because of the navy and gold combination i have told myself that this looks like stars and was therefore planned ;) i finished with a top coat.

i'm looking forward to trying out some other designs with the glitter but it's definitely for a day when i have plenty of time to experiment! also, on reflection, i may invest in a paintbrush to make it easier to apply the glitter, and remember to put a bit of newspaper down beforehand too.