Chrome Gel Nails With Eyeshadow

Because I am now obsessed with doing gel manicures at home, I absolutely wanted to try doing a chrome/shimmer look. The thing is nail powders are so pricey - apparently only because some are called "nail powder"!

As I mentioned in another post, I remembered that I have an old (like 7 or 8 years old) shimmer shadow in a deep copper bronze with a tiny touch of gold. I'm not big on using makeup but I hate to throw out pretty things. Plus, this belonged to my late sister.

This color is so gorgeous, right? 

This is a Sally Hansen brand

I would never be bold enough to wear that color but my sister would. For me, it's a perfect color for chrome nails. And I thought I was such a frugal genius for thinking of this but... the method has been around for a while! See? I'm not the only cheap thrifty gal out here.

Anyway, I learned a couple of things my first time doing this:

1. Apparently, powder shadow is the best. I'm not sure what happens with sticks or creams or other formats. I don't have any of those around to test.
2. Because I don't like the way heavy glitter polish felt on my nails (without adding a heavy top coat), I personally recommend using a shimmer-not-glitter powder. Mine is a very fine shimmer powder, thank goodness.
3. You have to use a base, of course, but you also need to get the powder to stick to your color polish. I did a top coat over the base to apply the eyeshadow and I use a no-wipe top coat so the eyeshadow just slid right off. In the end, I used a color under the powder. Basically, the eyeshadow won't stick to a very slick base. Or at least, it won't hold a lot of the color.
4. The color your choose to use as a base for the eyeshadow makes a big difference in the final chrome color effect. You'll see what I mean in a moment.
5. By the way, thankfully, the shadow did not leach onto the brush or into the bottle when I applied the top coat. I was worried about that. And, yes, you need to...
6. ... finish with a nice top coat. It adds shine, of course, and it seals the eyeshadow from staining things or rubbing off.
7. Do wipe down your cuticles, fingers, and all your hand with some alcohol or oil. The eyeshadow - because it is a shimmer - was all over my fingers when I finished.

Okay. For my experiment, I used a bronze-gold eyeshadow. For a base color, I used a medium burgundy - except for on one finger where I used my jet black color.

with the burgundy base color

I thought I would prefer the black as a base but, nope, the burgundy base was prettier in my opinion. The black base made the shimmer look much more flat bronze with a green tinge that I don't like at all. The burgundy resulted in a copper bronze that is really pretty and just overall more "chrome-like". The thing is, the base color does come through a little. That's why the black base gave such a different result.  (It was hard to get a good photo because I did the black base on my dominant hand. I had to try to get a photo using my left hand and bad lighting!)

black as a base color on the left finger

Learning about the base color effect is a good thing because I do have gel polish in shades that, by themselves are too light - or too pink or orange or whatever - for my skin tone. The shimmer shadow I have will be great with those as a base. 

I hate my hands because they have always looked old but I love, love, love this chrome polish look on my nails. It's said that wearing perfume and pretty underwear just makes a woman feel more beautiful. I will add having a pretty manicure to that list. And heels. Heels always make me feel pretty.

The main thing I will say about doing a chrome manicure with eyeshadow is that it can be messy. I was prepared. I put down a towel and had plenty of wet wipes and alcohol nearby. But the results are prettier than the photos show. It's well worth the initial mess. I will probably never bother to buy a powder specifically for nails (what kind of ripoff marketing is that?) unless it's cheaper than plain old eyeshadow.

On Amazon, I found lots of shimmer shadows (like this this 5-color palette) from Wet 'n Wild for around $3.20 (around $0.60 per color) and there are some $0.99 single shimmer pans from that brand. Since I'm using them on my nails and not anywhere on my face, I wouldn't mind really cheaping out and finding some Dollar Store palettes. So, go wild and chrome up. Maybe one day, I will try using non-shimmer eyeshadow on my nails.

Peace

--Free

** BTW - as old as that eyeshadow is, I was able to track down that it's a Sally Hansen product. There are still some colors on Amazon but I couldn't find this bronze shade. I did find something that looks identical. Knowing my sister, she didn't pay more than 4 or 5 bucks for the one she bought!