Swatch 'n' Learn! Ciaté — Very Colourfoil Manicure™

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colorfoil_example Back in January, I stumbled upon the Ciaté "Very Colourfoil Manicure™" kit on Sephora.com. And I was fascinated.  At the time, nobody had swatched them, so I was left to my own musings. Until now.

What can I say... I splurged! May I present the photo evidence of my first foray into foil manicures. Allison, this one's for you!

Very ColorFoil_Box

Very ColorFoil_Unpacked

I still have no idea why this was included, lol

A new full-size Ciaté is always welcome!

This is a little bottle of "Foil Fix." It reminded me a lot of watered-down Elmer's Glue.

The instructions were a little intimidating, but the process was actually very simple. You paint the Foil Fix where you want the foil to stick; the entire nail, just a section, just a dot, etc. Let the Foil Fix dry for 60 seconds or so... Press the foil down on the nail, shiny side up... Rip off and VOILA.

Speaking of foil... look at these awesome colors! The sheets of foil were incredibly thin. Even thinner than a Listerine Strip. (Anyone remember those??)

The foils came in this cute little envelope. It comes in handy because you'll find you have a ton of foil left! I only used one sheet of each color for my look. I could do at least 6-7 more foil manicures with the materials included in the kit.

Since there was no legitimate reason to only use the color of polish that came with the kit, I decided to add two colors to the mix; OPI "The IT Color" and Essie "Pretty Edgy."

Very ColorFoil_Foil

I had a lot of fun looking at this mani. I did mine a little crazy, but you could do a much more subtle look, limiting yourself to a base color and then using just one or two colors of foil for a simpler look.

A few days later, my foils really started to fade.

If you compare this photo to earlier shots, you can really see the disappearing foil.

Although the kit was an indulgence at $19, I've decided it's actually a great deal. You get a full bottle of Ciaté "Paint Pots" polish, which retails for $15. You get the bottle of Foil Fix. And then you get tons of foils. Again, I have to stress how generous this kit is with the foil.

Overall, I loved the Ciaté Very Colourfoil Manicure™ Kit, but I'll admit it's a bit of a mixed bag. The DIY feel of the kit was awesome — doing my nails totally felt like an art project! I really enjoyed getting a feel for working with the foil. It's an imperfect exercise, so there's that element of the unexpected when you rip the foil off. You hope for the best and just try again if you didn't get what you wanted the first time.

The downside is that the foil doesn't last very long. You can count on this looking for for about 2 days, and after that the foil just begins to wear away. Another issue I encountered was an area of Foil Fix that never had foil properly adhere to it. The nature of Foil Fix is that a top coat won't really stick to it. Meaning, if you've got a patch of Foil Fix on your nail that doesn't get covered with foil, it will stay gummy. Gross.

Any questions on the Very Colourfoil™ Mani? Hit me up in the comments! And if you've liked what you've seen, then may I suggest you act soon? I've only seen the kit at Sephora and the website days it's limited edition!

foiledagain, Francesca