I tore up 4 sheets of gold leaf and then realized I'd have one heck of a time trying to get them into the bottle, so I scrunched them up into little wads of gold leaf (not my brightest idea by the way)...
Here are the wads of gold leaf after I dropped them into the clear polish (yes, that is four sheets worth of gold leaf). They instantly started releasing bubbles, which was kind of strange, but I let is slide. I shook the heck out of this mixture to break apart the wads of gold leaf. Twenty minutes later it still wasn't good enough to be used, so I gave up and set it aside for another day, thinking I would worry about it later. Really, those little wads were not the brightest idea...
The next day I was ready to revisit the top coat only to find this green mess...
It has actually gotten even darker since I took this photo. The green is quite beautiful, but not really what I was going for. I thought it was fascinating and maybe you'll agree. I've heard of people being successful in making a gold leaf top coat so I'm not sure what went wrong here. Is it something in the polish? Would a different base have been better? Maybe something is wrong with this gold leaf? Maybe all of the above? So many questions! I can't decide if I should keep experimenting or just buy one before I end up spending more money experimenting that it would cost to get the real thing...
Have any of you tried this before and gotten it to work without turning green? Or has this happened to you also?
UPDATE: By popular request, check out the swatches of this franken here...
Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)
This is awesome! haha I mean not the fact that you couldn't get it right but the fact that even after failing you got yourself an awesome color!
ReplyDeleteI've never tried making gold leaf myself but I do regret paying $20 for mine...
Maybe the gold wasn't real gold? That might explain why it turned green combined with the chemicals of the nail polish. It does still look kind of nice, though.
ReplyDeleteThough it isn't gold, this is still really cool :D
ReplyDeleteI wanted to try it as well, but up to now I've been too lazy to buy the stuff - Now I know why ^^
the "fail polish" looks so cool! you have to show us how it looks as a top coat for sure!
ReplyDeletelol, i know it's not what you wanted but that green looks awesome, i would love to see it on your nails :D
ReplyDeleteThe green frankenstein polish looks stunning and amazing - though i'm not sure i'd dare use it on my nails...but if it were a polish available for purchase, i'd buy 4 bottles hehe seriously it looks like a stunner!
ReplyDeleteI did this with that same gold leaf and got the same green gel gunk the next day!! I think it's because the gold leaf from the craft store isn't pure enough gold, probably more copper, so it oxidizes in base.
ReplyDeleteCopper turns green when it oxidized, I wonder if it was a gold/copper alloy? Maybe a percentage of gold needs to be higher? Maybe gold leaf isn't real gold? Anyways... it still looks frickin awesome!! :D
ReplyDeleteYou can find REAL 24K gold leaf on ebay for a pretty good price. I'm pretty sure that's what the problem was.
ReplyDeleteWell, you were intending to use it for St Pat's, and you made an awesome green polish! LOL Sorry it failed though, but it came out cool.
ReplyDeleteThat definitely wasn't real gold! With the price of gold the way it is, I don't know if you'd find anything suitable in most craft stores unless it explicitly stated the gold carat content (24 for pure gold, most alloys being around half that). I'm afraid to trust anything "gold" unless it tells me what carat.
ReplyDeleteI wonder, with all the...stuff... that went on in that bottle of polish, is it still useable? Does it still dry and last ok?
I don't know, but that's a brilliant shade of green and I'd love to see you try it out on your nails anyway!
ReplyDeleteDid your jaw drop as much as mine did? I might have had a few choice words I wouldn't want my kids to hear if I woke up to this. Looks awesome though! Can we see this on your nails, or nail wheel, or something? It really looks interesting! By the way, Ninja Polish has a gold (and silver) flake top coat that is very decently priced.
ReplyDeleteI like it :D remind me of the color of the year EMERALD! by Pantone :D
ReplyDeleteI did the same think with some 'gold' leaf from Born Pretty, and it turned green. The gold leaf eventually disintegrated completely.
ReplyDeleteThank you for all the tips and advice ladies! I'm sure it really isn't real "gold", but somehow that didn't cross my mind before I used it. It was a fun experiment anyhow and I'm so glad that you like the color...
ReplyDeleteI will update you on any color changes as it is still changing. As Nidia above said, it will probably disintegrate completely soon... so sad...
Well, several other people have already mentioned what I think the problem was - that it was copper, not gold. But also like everybody else, I'd LOVE to see what it looks like used! Even if you do it on a swatching stick! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you! By popular demand, I did swatch this franken :)
ReplyDeleteTake a look at the swatches here :D