Tutorial: Caviar manicure

Yay! My very first tutorial! :)

Apparatus:

- base coat

- nail polish for attaching micro beads

- micro beads

- folded paper underneath to catch all the sprinkled micro beads

- if you want, nail polish corrector for tidying nail polish but it's not absolutely necessary since the beads won't line up all straight anyways. Unless you're OK with putting them in a neat line one by one...

Procedure:

Here's a quick explanation, below detailed instructions and problems with pics!

1. Prep nail.

2. Base coat.

3. Nail polish.

4. Beads, and you're ready to go!

*************************************************************

1. I always prep my nails by cutting them and filing into shape. Then I wipe them with nail polish remover and wash them with soap since my nail polish remover leaves an oily residue. It is of utmost importance to get them as clean, dry and oil-free as possible. This makes the nail polish stick onto them better.

2. For base coat I used Orly Nail Armor since it "thickens" your nail, smoothes the surface and makes my manicures last 7 days. 

3. For the nail polish I chose Nfu Oh Opal Series since it's quite thick and dries slowly. This way, you can press the beads deeper into the nail polish which makes them stay better in place. Or you can choose a nail polish with thinner texture but paint it on twice before putting on any beads. It is best to choose a nail polish close to the color of your beads since it will camouflage bald, beadless spots on your nail. NEVER use fast dry nail polish for attaching beads nor fast dry topcoat finishing this manicure!!!

For the picture below I wanted to try how fast dry topcoat works for this manicure. As you can see, there are bald spots on my little and ring fingers. For the middle finger I put on as thick a coat as possible, attached beads superfast, thus it looks better than the two other fingers. 

4. I liked to dip my finger into the beads instead of sprinkling them over my nail. Dipping made the beads attach better. Sprinkling gave me bald spots since my nails are quite C-curved, thus the beads tended to roll off instead of sticking onto the nail polish. Besides, with dipping there's not much to clean so there's a smaller chance of ruining your manicure! WIN-WIN situation really. :D

With dipping you also got overlapping beads but it was really easy to lightly push or tap them back into the bead container. 

NEVER USE TOPCOAT!!! 

It will "melt" out the colors on your beads which leaves you with reddish-silverish-black caviar manicure. Shown on the left side of the picture.

Have fun caviaring! ;D
And how well did it last?