Friday, September 7, 2012

Glue Base Coats for Glitter Manicures: How Effective Is It?

     Today's post is my attempt at using Elmer's School Glue as a base for glitter polishes.  If you are thinking, what the hell is this lady talking about, I really think you HAVE to read LabMuffin's blog post.  Did you read it?  Don't lie.  Just do it.  It is fast and easy and you will thank me.
     Ok, now that you have read Lab Muffin's blog post, I feel it is of dire importance that you also check out this blog post from Pretty Purple Polish, where she showed me that I really needed to try this.  She did a 5 day wear test of not only the glue as a peel of base, but also included different base coats and orders of application to show which way worked the best for her.  Now, you may be wondering why, with this wealth of knowledge, I feel the need to share my experience with you.  Let me tell you my story.
     I wash my hands a lot.  And when I say a lot, I mean probablly somewhere close to 100 times a day.  No, I am not a germaphobe, but I work in food service.  My hands are constantly in and out, in and out, in and out of water.  My hands crack, bleed, chap, and hurt.  But at least you know I won't make you sick!  (It takes a lot for me to have my hands picture ready for you guys).  I knew that I would be a perfect test subject for this new phenomenon.  I honestly didn't think that it would work.  I wish that I could tell you guys that it was great and that I will be doing this all the time, but I can not say that.  :-(  With in four hours my polish was gone from three fingers.  Before my shift was over, it was completely gone.  I am so sad that I can't use this method because it really does just peel right off.  I was uber, uber careful like Lab Muffin said to be.  I made sure there was no glue what so ever touching my skin, but it still didn't help.
     I will however say that I may have gotten a little carried away with the amount of glitter and top coats that I used, which could of had a harsher effect on the outcome of my testing.  I may have to try this again with only one or two layers of glitter and a top coat.  I do, however, plan on using this method when I do swatches.  It will be fantastic to remove the polish within a minute rather than 15.

Base coat: Elmer's School Glue
Base color: Black Cream from Wet N Wild - 1 coat
Glitter- in order of application: Green Ocean from Sinful Colors - 1 coat
Shine of the Times from Essie - 1 coat
Party of Five Glitters from Wet N' Wild - 1 coat 
Top coat: Essence Nail Art Special Effect! Topper - 2 coats

As you can read, a lot of layers.

At least I got a beautiful mani out of this experiment.


All of these were taken inside with out the flash.

















And here is my nails on my lunch break. :-(  I didn't want to show my thumb but whated you guys to see how it peeled off.  Side note, my cuticles used to all look like my thumb!  I can't believe how much blogging has made me change my terrible cuticle habbits!



So, have you tried using a glue as your base coat?  What about the glittler removal method?  Do you scrub, scrub, scrub it off, or have you just sworn off glitter all together?  I hope you like this post and feel free to comment, comment, comment.  :-)


8 comments:

  1. I AM a germophobe and my hands get washed a lot, so I have been wondering about this, also I use nail envy every time I do my nails so where in the sandwich would it go? Last night I tried nail envy, glue, then the black knight topped with tart with a heart. All that glitter never set so I peeled it off and used a little remover and was good to go again, this time without the glue. I'll try it again but make sure there'sless layers of glitter, but no doubt will be like you mid morning.

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    1. Hi Emma. Pretty Purple Polish used Nail Tek 2 first in her manicure on her thumb nail, where as the rest of her nails she just used the glue. It came off in one piece but she did have to use a little polish remove afterwards to remove the Nail Tek. You should try to use your Nail Envy first and then the glue. If your hands get wet a lot it is hard to keep polish on with out this peel off base, as I'm sure you know. Byte it doesn't hurt to try, right?! :-)

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    2. hi, i have been using the glue method since i first heard about it. i use a lot of hand sanitizer (and I mean a lot) and have found the glue method is fine with that. here's what I do.

      1. glue layer
      2. base color coat 1 or 2 coats
      3. glitter layer - 1 coat
      4. Gelous (green cap) - 1 or 2 coats - Gelous is GREAT for glitters. Gelous makes your glitter smooth as glass.
      5. Seche Vite or ANY fast dry top coat. You must use seche vite while gelous is wet.. or else it will pop off. Only be careful with SV, use thin coat or bubbles appear.

      I also have used a treatment coat under the glue, with no problems getting polish off too. I LOVE the glue method. It also helps with ridges. If i were you, I guess I would not use as many glitter coats with this glue method. Also, have you considered latex gloves? I feel so sorry for your hands with so much washing, but thank you for washing anyway.. LOL

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    3. I do wear latex gloves but we are required to wash our hands prior to putting them on. :-) I still think I will try this with less layers, like I mentioned I had a lot of glitter on there. Thank you for your tips. I really appreciate it.

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  2. I tried the glue method and find that if it does stay on for more than a few hours it gets really hard to get off, it's like scraping it off (but maybe that's the dry heat down here? I used a pretty thick coat... which gave my nails that natural curve which was awesome lol). So, I think for photo ops I'll still use it but for all day wear, I'll stick with the soaked cotton ball wrapped in foil method to get the glitter off. I can never swear off glitter, it's too pretty LOL

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  3. Really.............!!!!!!!!!!!! its damn good. I really appreciate it.........

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    1. I can't even get regular polish to stay on for 24 hours :-) I wanted it to work for me so bad!

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