This was my very first time trying to use nail foils. I'd had this dream manicure idea that involved a realistic marble texture that I wasn't confident I could achieve with stamps, so when I saw this go on sale, I had to jump on it. It took two attempts to get the result shown in the attached pictures, partially due to unclear instructions on the package and in the online product description... but I will rant about that later because I know that a more widely helpful review will focus on the quality of the product itself first.
After watching the two videos that ACTUALLY showed how to apply nail foils, I was pretty pleased with the coverage I was able to get from the nail foils. I layered two jelly lacquers (Ghost Jelly from Starrily and Aqua Jelly from Cirque Colors) to get a base color that I thought looked similar to the nail foil. I'm sure the matching base color works well for the solid color nail foils, and even here it definitely achieved the goal of hiding any foil coverage imperfections, but it also ended up almost completely hiding the design I had been so excited about. When my husband later saw that I'd done my nails, he even asked me why I went for such a "simple" design when I usually get a lot more playful with my manicures—until he brought my hand right up to his face, he thought I had just painted my nails a solid blue color. I *think* that this nail foil might work better with an off-white or even light beige base color. I think the fact that this design is attempting to emulate natural rock will make any base coat that remains uncovered seem like a feature rather than a bug, but I honestly don't know when I will get around to trying that strategy because I'm honestly kind of burnt out after just these first two attempts!
For my first attempt, I tried following the instructions as given both on the back of the packaging and in the online product description. The first instruction was to "prep nail foil sheet by cutting nail-sized strips." This ambiguity made me think I was supposed to somehow cut outlines of each nail. I painstakingly traced each fingernail to create a paper template to cut the nail foil strips sized to my nail in every direction. Following steps 2–3, I used my typical stain-preventing base coat, then applied the nail foil glue and let it dry until clear and tacky. I followed step 4 as it was written verbatim, putting my cut strips (shiny side up) on top of the glue, and then firmly rubbing the design into the nails. Step 5 was to apply the smudge-free top coat, so that's what I did. The result was not great. The shine on the foil made my nails look like I was wearing stickers from one of my son's coloring books, and the raised edges (since the strip of foil sheet was just laying on top of the nail) just really spotlit every imperfection from cutting the strip in step 1. I removed everything and figured I would just see if any of my friends wanted the unused foil sheets, but not understanding why *anyone* would want what then seemed to be stickers that required extra assembly.
Then I stumbled upon the two Maniology YouTube videos that *show* how to use nail foils, and my mind was blown. You needed to use a base coat *and* a coat of nail color that matched the color of the nail foil? The strips DIDN'T need to be nail-sized?? They were actually supposed to be LONGER than the nails??? Each strip was supposed to be cut into a sort of FRINGE so that the design would follow the curve of the nail???? And the kicker for me—the design was supposed to be left behind after the foil was REMOVED?????
Y'all. I get that comprehensive instructions might have been difficult to fit on the packaging, but these instructions are the opposite of helpful. And I don't know why the instructions in the product description are a word-for-word copy of the instructions on the packaging—the website is not hindered by the same size constraints. I'm not even really sure who these incomplete instructions (they are literally missing extremely important steps like "remove the foil"!!!) are meant to help. For someone who is already familiar with how to use nail foils, these instructions are unnecessary. For a complete beginner to nail foils, like I am, a QR code (on the packaging) and replacing the "how to stamp" featured video with a "how to foil" video, or even with one of the less polished but incredibly helpful existing YouTube videos about how to use nail foils, would have made trying these for the first time go much more smoothly—heck, even NO instructions would have been better because at least then I would have found those videos in a Google search right from the get-go. I don't think the set of holographic nail foils I also got on sale came with any instructions.
I have always appreciated Maniology's enthusiasm for teaching customers how to use their products. My experience with this one made me appreciate even more that they do videos and livestreams showing how to use these products.
