FOIL TOPCOATS - BEST SO FAR

In the ongoing saga that is my shithole of a house, today my front picture window thought it would be appropriate to start leaking. It did this a few years ago, and if I'm not mistaken, it has something to do with the ice melting on the roof.  Figures it's finally warm out, and I don't even get to be happy about it. I call bullshit.

Whatevs. Not a damn thing I can do about that for now so I'm just going to pretend it ain't happening.

I got some pretty great news today, too. My 14 year old grandson sang a duet at solo and ensemble, and they did great! So great, in fact, that they are moving on to the Wisconsin state solo and ensemble festival. It's pretty unusual for freshmen to accomplish that, and I couldn't be any prouder than I am right now. I have many fond memories of making it to state competition in Michigan for that, so it makes me very happy that he is continuing the family tradition. I hope he cherishes these trips. I also hope he behaves better than I did on those trips. (yikers!!!!!)

After playing around with foils a couple of weeks ago, one of my readers suggested a topcoat by Revolution. Then I wandered around the web to find it, read about it and see what other people say about it. As usual, I got sidetracked by another link. I don't remember where I saw it, but somebody posted about a topcoat on Amazon that supposedly worked for foils. 

I went to the link and decided I would grab it to try. I posted a question about it, and the seller contacted me almost immediately. She told me that it works without ruining her foils and that she would refund my moolah if I didn't like it.

I've played with it over a couple of different foils now, and I have to say, I am impressed. It still isn't perfect, especially over a smooth silver or gold. I have a feeling that I'm just not going to find a perfect topcoat that doesn't affect my foils.  

I am, however, quite pleased with my results.  

 

My method on these were after I applied the foils, I let them dry for a bit and then put the topcoat on. The topcoat stayed a tiny bit tacky for awhile. I did a second coat, and I made sure that I really went a bit past the cuticles and sidewalls of my nails. I wanted that topcoat to get the edges really well. 

Once that second coat dried and I finished cleanup with my tiny brush, I put on two coats of Orly Glosser.  During my wanderings I had also seen somebody say that the Orly worked on foils. It does not.  It did work well as a more normal shiny topcoat on top of the foil topcoat. I think a traditional topcoat as a finisher was the best way to go. 

I am now planning to buy that Revolution topcoat to see if it's any better. The Amazon one is a mini bottle and doesn't come any larger, so I suppose I should also buy another one of those.  After that, I'm done. I think I'll be satisfied enough with what I just did, and it's nice to know I can at least use my more patterned foils if I want to.

I bought all of my foils from Dollar Nail Art. They have a great selection and a great price. A dollar! I bought a bunch over a year ago, and my nail group did a group buy because they do have a $25 minimum order.

I see Amazon has some good deals on foils, and I think I might buy some from there. One thing nice about Dollar Nail Art is you can choose just what you want, but I hate that minimum order nonsense.

When I was digging through my stash of foils, I had to laugh when I saw the little bags of 48 rhinestones I bought for a buck. Little did I know back then that I could buy thousands of them for only a few dollars more. Of course I never thought I would ever want to own thousands of rhinestones.

Little did I know.