DIY Gold Leaf Manicure Tutorial

24 CARAT

We’ve all seen those top coat nail polishes that contains gold leaf and how gorgeous do they look. But the price is out of my range and I can’t imagine spending that much on a nail polish. So here is a tutorial of a doing your own gold leaf manicure without the high price tag in two different styles.

Tools needed:
Toothpicks
Small jar
Gold leaf sheets (eBay)
Fan brush or fluffy brush
Nail polish and topcoat
Nail file (not pictured)

1. With your gold leaf sheet, transfer it over to the small jar and use the toothpicks to tear it up into fine pieces, fine enough for it to be placed onto your nails. You don’t want the tears to be accurate or precise, natural is the way to go.

2. Paint your nails one at a time. PAINT ONE NAIL THEN MOVE ONTO STEP 3. I had learnt it the hard way. I had left the accent nail out to demonstrate another gold leaf technique.

3. When the nail is nearly dried, dip the brush into the jar to collect some gold pieces and press it onto the nail. Keep dipping and adding more gold pieces onto the nail until you’re happy with it. Use your finger to press it fully down so any folds etc are flattened down.

4. Then add a top coat to seal. Repeat 2, 3 and 4 on the rest of nails.

5. On your accent nail, paint it with the top coat.

6. Add the gold leaf straight away and press it down fully on the nail. Press it down onto all areas of the nail. You need to make sure all of the nail is covered. If a part isn’t sticking down, add a bit of top coat on the nail then press the sheet down.

7. Wait for around 5 minutes so it fully dried. (I kind of got carried away with this so I don’t have the photo of removing the excess but this photo shows how I have done it, along with the explanation). With the toothpick, gently add pressure to the edge of the nail, adding a bit more pressure on the tip until you can see the sheet splitting. Keep doing this along the two sides and on the cuticles. You can gently rip the excess off leaving a bit of excess on the top of the nail. For the top of the nail, fold the sheet down and press it against the edge so you get a nice fold and dent. Use a nail file to file it off.

8. Top coat seal and you are done!

Sorry for step 7 being explained unwell. This is day 2 of me wearing this manicure and the gold leaf on top of the colour is surviving well. It hasn’t budged. The full gold leaf nail is doing a lot better than I had expected. A little bit on the cuticle edge as been removed but not very noticeable. Another top coat would do!