Nails on a budget: Man with the Golden Gun DIY & OPI black spotted DIY tutorials

Hi everyone,

First off, apologies if these have already been posted but I didn't have the time to look

Neither of these videos are my own, however I have used both of them as tutorials and can tell you they are both brilliant!

Firstly, the DIY OPI Gold Flake polish (TMWTGG)
Now I actually own TMWTGG due to getting it at a great price on eBay - £10.45 new and sealed in the box - so I can't stress how close this is to the real thing!

The video: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] (side note... I don't know quite why but I find her voice so relaxing!)

One thing to mention with this video - the lady here uses tools to break up the gold, which seems to take ages. I found that scrunching it up into a ball, placing it into a reasonably deep, clean pot and then using nail scissors to cut it up worked really well and took around 5-10 minutes to do all 5 sheets of gold. I wasn't careful about this, and this didn't matter. Another tip - don't cut them all up at once if you want different sized flakes. When you're half done cutting one sheet up, add another - this means that some flakes will be smaller than others and gives a nice effect, which I personally think looks better.

You can get gold leaf on eBay here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
However, as this is gold leaf on base, if you were to put it into a bottle of top coat, it would turn green. This gold leaf does work perfectly with the method shown in the video (using a fan brush to apply the gold onto tacky polish).

The solution to this is to buy edible gold leaf, which will not turn green in a bottle of top coat. Of course this is bit pricier, but you can buy it here [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]
It is recommended you should use one sheet of gold leaf to every 1.5ml of polish to get decent coverage if you're planning on mixing up a bottle. However, if you want a denser look then you will need a higher ratio of gold to polish. I used 5 sheets for my 8ml bottle of top coat and this worked well. The seller in the previous link also sells 24K edible silver leaf if that interests you.

Onto the DIY OPI Black Spotted polish
Not much to say on this one - I think it looks great and is a fantastic solution for those who don't want to pay extortionate prices to get it from France. It is easier to use vaseline around the nail instead of taping it, but that comes down to preference.

Here's the vid: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]


As you may be able to tell, I am a tad addicted to nail polish and I love saving my money where I can. Let me know if you want any more tips and tricks!

Thanks,
Ellie (happy to admit I'm obsessed)