Hello Everyone!! So I posted a sneak peek of this on my Instagram and uploaded to Twitter & Facebook too! I want to be honest with you guys, so I'm going to talk about the positive and negative about my mixing of the Cult Nails Gold Flakes and Wicked Fast top coat.
I purchased these items from Cult Nails website. You can find the Gold Flakes for $5 and Wicked Fast top coat for $8. I also added 2 stainless steel balls for mixing. That is all you need! You might even be able to get away without the balls, but I do like them. Below you can see how the flakes settle in the Wicked Fast. Wicked Fast is not a suspension base, but luckily a quick mix floats the pieces through the top coat.
Also, you can see a bit of a tinge in the top coat color. This isn't noticeable on the nail, so I'm not too worried. The gold still looks great and it has been mixed for about 5 weeks now (I just procrastinated on swatched due to being so behind on my untrieds!! lol). I will continue to monitor it and update if it becomes un-usable. I remember seeing a post by Maria, the owner, that this is real gold, so I am not too worried about it.
A quick mix was done and you can see how the flakes are now floating in the picture below. They will sink again, but you should have enough time to paint them on. If you have trouble getting the pieces out, you can close the bottle to rest it upside down so the flakes gather at the top of the bottle. They will settle and grabbing them should be easier. I also have considered removing some of the top coat to help condense the ratio of polish to flakes. I've also thought about adding another container of gold flakes (which I have), but I might keep that container for applying the flakes by hand. Either way, this isn't a perfect gold leaf top coat, but I still love it :-)
Here the flakes are drifting back down. I did have a bit of trouble getting the flakes to grab to the brush, so I did a bit of fishing to grab them and place them on the nail. These flakes are much bigger than the Sephora brand I reviewed yesterday (link at the bottom of this post), but I think they are both beautiful.
I used 1 coat of ManGlaze Matte is Murder with 1 "coat" of applying the flakes. I added Seche Vite to smooth it out. Not all pieces want to lay flat, so you may have to smooth them out a little with the brush. I really love that huge piece on my pinky. I think it's pretty unique!
In comparing this to the other brands, I love that this is different. I also appreciate the cost compared to the other brands. I honestly believe you could get away just buying the $5 Gold Flakes to apply to the nails wet, as Maria, the owner of Cult Nails, has done. It looks fantastic! This is partly why I'm keeping the second container dry.
Since I am by no means an Indie polish maker (as you can tell from my learning experience of this), I'm sure there are ways to do this better. However, I am ok with how this turned out and will continue to experiment with it to see if I can improve it to be more user friendly. And please don't get me wrong, I don't mind the extra work, because lets be honest, it's gold and it's gorgeous! I hope this has been informative for you! I just think $30-40 would be a lot to spend on another brand's version of gold leaf top coat! This has a few minor things to work around, but you still achieve a gorgeous gold leaf mani. Also, if you are looking for lots of gold leaf, you could wait for this to dry and then apply more.
I absolutely love Cult Nails, so if you do consider ordering, make sure you check out their awesome polishes as well! I have reviewed a lot of them, and you can check out my Cult Nails tag! And Wicked Fast top coat is by far my favorite top coat by the way ;-) Even if you don't combine the flakes, I highly recommend their top coat to use! It dries fast and doesn't give me tip wear like Seche Vite does!
I hope you enjoyed today's post, as I've noticed a lot of hype over the gold leaf top coats!!
If you missed yesterday's post, I showed Sephora's version along with a giveaway! Be sure to check it out HERE!!
I hope you have a great day!!
Much Love,
Crystal
Crystal
