Glitter Placement with ArtsyFartsy Crafts Diamonds

Hello Loves.  I've wanted to do a glitter placement manicure for a while now and finally found the time to give it a try.  Whew!  I think I'll leave these to the pros like Laura at Polish All The Nails.  (Seriously, Laura has amazing glitter placement skills.  If you aren't familiar with her nail art, go check it out!)  This type of manicure takes some serious patience!  Here's mine.

For this mani, I started with a base of Couture Little Black Dress.  You know, my go-to black.  I then added a thin layer of top coat but did not cure it.  This layer of top coat is used to lock the glitter in place later.  The glitters I used are ArtsyFartsy Crafts 2x4mm Blue Holographic Diamonds and ArtsyFartsy Craffts 2x4mm Fuchsia Holographic Diamonds.  After placing the glitters in the uncured layer of top coat, I cured to lock them in place.  I then added a few more layers of top coat to seal the glitter to the nail.

I adore these holographic diamond glitters.  They really shift as the light catches them and create a very fun effect.  Excuse the bubbles in the top coat.  I didn't notice them until it was too late to fix it.

I absolutely adore the final result, but this is not exactly what I had planned.  I set out to do a full manicure with full coverage glitter like the pinkie nail.  However, when I added the gel top coat, I found that it really didn't want to stick to the slick surface of the glitter.  I ended up with pits in the top coat from where it pulled away in some areas.  After two more layers of top coat, I finally got good enough coverage, but there were still a few gaps around the cuticle line.  At this point, I decided to switch up the design and skip the full coverage glitter on the other nails.  These worked much better and I achieved full coverage of the glitter with two layers of top coat.

What do you think?  Would you rock this mani?  It was super fun in full sunlight.  I tried to take a short video, but every time I stepped outside with my camera, the sun ducked behind a cloud.  Isn't that how it usually goes?  ;)

If these diamond glitters interest you, check out the selection on ArtsyFartsy Crafts.  Sandy has a wide variety of glitter shapes and her prices are great!  I especially love that she offers small quantities that are more than I'll ever need for nail art.  Oh, and her ultrafine holo glitters, glitter mixes and glow glitters are fabulous too.  I swatched and reviewed a few of those in this post.

~Michelle