Make Nails Look Like Holograms with the Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure Set
If, like me, you love the idea of nail art but can’t quite seem to get your inner Crafty Cathy to come out and play, then you’ll likely become as vocal a fan as I am of Ciaté‘s manicure sets, which allow you to create inventive nail looks with interesting textures and embellishments by providing all the necessary materials and easy-to-follow instructions that make for a goof-proof experience. On the heels of Ciaté’s best-selling Caviar Manicure Set and Sequined Manicure Kit comes the new Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure Set ($19 at Sephora stores and Sephora.com), a boxed kit that enables you to give nails a shiny foil finish.
Now, you’ve likely seen a gazillion takes on the metallic manicure — from silver and gold lacquers with a mirror-like sheen to top coats with real gold flakes, Minx manicures that make nails appear as if they were dipped in gold, and matte metallic lacquers that emphasize a gravel-y texture — but Ciaté is taking the look to unprecedented heights. With this kit, you can make nails look like shiny bits of Christmas morning, coating them with a finish reminiscent of the sparkle metallic foil wrapping paper we’ve all used to adorn our Yuletide presents. The best part: since different foil colors are included in the kit, you can make the look deliberately chaotic by adding splashes of clashing hues, making nails look like an abstract Jackson Pollock painting but with a futuristic edge thanks to their shiny and holographic finish.
The Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure Kit is available in three color options: Carnival, Kaleidoscopic Klash, and Wonderland. I tried the Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure Kit in Kaleidoscopic Klash and loved not only the final result but also the application process since it made me feel like a kid in the middle of an intense finger-painting session. The Kaleidoscopic Klash kit includes a Paint Pot in Pepperminty, a creamy aqua-meets-mint shade; a small bottle of Foil Fix Glue; and 30 Colourfoil Sheets. Each Colourfoil Sheet measures approximately two square inches and features one ultra-shiny holographic side and a duller, non-shiny silver side. This particular kit includes sheets in the following shades: Blaze, a holographic metallic ruby red; Babe, a holographic fuchsia pink; Beaut, a holographic sapphire blue; Bounce, a holographic yellow gold; Bloom, a holographic silver with a patten incorporating overlapping dots; and Brill, a holographic silver that incorporates smaller triangular, spherical, and angular shades.
To create the look, the first step is to apply two coats of the Pepperminty nail lacquer shade. Once the polish is completely dry, you then want to start the foil application process. The Foil Fix Glue comes in a tiny bottle with a wide brush that allows you to sweep it right atop nails so that you can brush the glue onto the entire nail or choose only a part of the nail (be it the tip, the lower half of the nail, one vertical half, or anything else). Once you sweep the glue onto the area of the nail on which you want to adhere the foil, you should wait about 45-60 seconds and then reach for the sheet of foil in the desired color, placing the non-shiny side atop the nail so that the shinier hue is facing up. You’ll then want to press the sheet firmly onto the nail, smoothing it and pressing. Then, in one single sweep, you’ll want to rip the sheet off the nail. The motion should be similar to what you’d do when removing a wax strip — quick and decisive. When you look at your nail, you’ll notice a splash of the raw metallic foil shade atop it. You can then repeat the process for each nail.
Of course, the more foil shades you use, the more striking and runway-worthy the final look will be. Once you’ve applied one foil shade, you can again brush some glue onto that nail and apply a different foil sheet in a contrasting shade, layering a different splash of color for a more abstract and painterly feel.
In my case, I started by applying the Beaut foil finish, a holographic sapphire blue, and then applied the silver Bloom foil, finishing up with the Babe foil. Once I was satisfied with the look created, I finished with a clear top coat that would seal and preserve the manicure.
Because you don’t need to have a steady pulse or be particularly crafty to pull off this foil manicure, it makes the application process all the more fun — after all, the desired outcome is chaotic, with blotchy bits of holographic foil creating a futuristic, Tron-worthy splatter effect.
Check out photos of the mani below:
