Ciate Very Colourfoil Manicure: Kaleidoscope Klash Nail Art (First Attempt!)

Well this might be the fastest I've posted something after purchasing, haha! I was just so excited when I found these Ciate nail art sets at freaking WINNERS! I NEEEEEEEVER see this kind of stuff at Winners! Anyway, not like it's Cheap Polish Tuesday and it's supposed to be Shitty Nail Art Monday but aw heck, I'll talk about the prices anyway - I found these sets for $10 at Winners, which is priced at $19 USD on Sephora, but I am willing to bet they're about $21-24 here in Canada but that's just how it goes. So I was pretty excited to find this set. I picked up two. This one is "Kaleidoscope Klash" and it includes: Ciate Pepperminty Paint Pot, Foil Fix Glue, Ciate branded nail swatch wheel, and a matching 'Pepperminty' envelope containing the following foils: Blase (red), Babe (hot pink), Bounce (gold), Beaut (cobalt blue), Bloom (rose tinted silver holo) and Brill (patterned holo silver). Here's le box:









Here's a swatch of Ciate Pepperminty, which is, again, my krptonite colour... A Tiifany blue-esque mint. Formula and application were flawless. Fairly milky and thick creme but workable in its own way. Also I have to add that I think it's hilarious that Ciate calls their nail polish "paint pots". It just sounds weird. Way to beat around the bush, guys. Anyway here's two coats with no top coat:











So here's where the fun begins. So once the base colour is dry, you're ready to FOIL ALL THE THINGS! The instructions say to paint the "Foil Fix" explicitly only where you want the foil to be. Once the fix turns clear (as it applies white), you're ready to press the foil sheet on, and lift up.

Well. In the ideal world. My application was far more sloppy due to my lack of patience.

So firstly, the "Foil Fix" just looks like your regular old PVC glue but I can't confirm what it really is. It says that it takes a minute to dry which is probably the case but I probably waited close to 30 seconds. Then I pressed a foil sheet on and lifted. It looks fairly cool. I wanted to see if there was any way to keep dabbing, and so I did. Some came off, but it smudged the foil patterns. I am actually not too attached to them - I was moreorless just interested in how it looked close to spatter nail art. Overall, I really dug the effect. I decided to keep things simple with two foils - here's Ciate Babe and Beaut foils over top of Ciate Pepperminty with a coat of Seche Vite:













I might have tried to let Rainbow Honey photobomb those shots back there... *cough* it may be a sneak peak of something I'll share at the end of the week. (Spoiler alert: It's something I'll be sharing at the end of the week.)

Anyway, even though I didn't follow the directions explicitly, I still really like the look! I know you're supposed to preserve the patterns, so I think I'll try that for next time. I am going to be trying this again before I head out of town so I'll share the results then!

Have you tried Ciate Colourfoil Manicure or any of their other DIY nail art kits? What's your favourite discount store?

Ciate Rainbow Caviar Set Swatch and Review

It was my birthday this weekend and pondered the question every lacquerista ponders during their birthday, "so, uh, birthday nails?"... Then I gazed at my massive pile of untried polishes and sets and the choice was clear: Ciate's Rainbow Caviar. It's PERFECT! One of my best friends picked this up for me for Christmas and I was THRILLED! They look like cupcakes and it makes sense!

So, here we go. (Also, it's the first time I've tried using a black background and I think I like it! Hope you do too.)



Here's the packaging it came in and it's so gorgeous. The photo is awesome! It's a little silly because the beads are definitely not supposed to be used on the face whatsoever but it's such an awesome photo and definitely close to some of the candy ideas I've had floating in my mind for photoshoots.

The set comes with: 1 bottle of rainbow "caviar" micro beads, 1 bottle of "Strawberry Milkshake" paint pot nail lacquer, 1 funnel, instructions, and the plastic casing the bottles are stored in can be used as a bead catching tray.

The formula on Ciate Strawberry Milkshake is very smooth and dries fast. I don't think I've worked with a formula quite like this. It's very milky! You get a very good foundation with 1 coat, but I used 2 for full coverage.

As for the caviar part, it is suggested to work with one nail at a time. Paint one coat, let dry, and on the second coat, while it's still wet, sprinkle the caviar microbeads with the tray underneath to catch the excess. This part was surprisingly very fun. You're then instructed to "Press gently to secure the beads" and this part for me was kind of tedious. Maybe my fingers get sweaty or something when I am painting my nails, but when I pressed down (even gently), I would pick some of the beads up. It wasn't too bad though, I didn't get many bald spots on my caviar highlight nail.



I used Seche Vite top coat on the Strawberry Milkshake nails but left the caviar highlight nail without top coat. It is recommend that if top coat is a must, to only use it on the tips. Just as an experiment, I used top coat afterwards and it looked awful. The colours were lost and the nail felt weighted. Definitely do not use top coat.

It says the manicure lasts for 48 hours but I personally could not handle having it on for more than a day. It was really pretty and fun to look at but I just kept picking at it! I think the Ciate caviar sets are great for perhaps an all-day party. I am sure that it's quite possible to get 48 hours and maybe for some, even more but I would rather not have the little beads lost, especially if you have pets or kids around the house.

Anyway, I had quite the birthday find! I FINALLY found the liquid sand polishes from OPI's Mariah Carey collection! I already swatched them but I've got more to post from the pipe this week so perhaps I'll post em next week.