Since Ciaté released their innovative caviar manicure sets at the beginning of last year, I've heard quite a lot about these curiously beady creations. To be honest, I was never that taken with the trend. I thought it would be a bit tedious to do and I wasn't sure if I liked the effect; think hundreds and thousands clinging to your nails - was that a good look?
Despite this, when I opened up the birthday presents which my lovely housemates had spoilt me with, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the 'Nail Rock Nail Caviar Manicure' was one of them. I was suddenly very excited to try out the craze which I'd seen and heard so much about; the set they'd chosen (bright green nail varnish, with green and purple beads) was right up my street and there was definitely something strangely alluring about the tiny little beads.
Instead of doing all of my nails, I decided to use the 'caviar' on my ring fingers to create an accent nail. I figured having them all done would probably make doing all the usual things a little more tricky and the effect would be a bit much. It was so easy to do; I gave all the nails two coats of the nail varnish so it was opaque, then straight after I'd done the second coat for my ring fingers I put that finger into the pot of beads. They immediately all stick to the wet nail varnish and you press them on to ensure that they stick and the surface is covered.
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I was really pleased with how they turned out and it was fun having nails a little different to the usual 'one colour'. One thing that was disappointing, however, was that the desired look only really lasted for about a day. By that time so many of the beads had fallen off, leaving a trail of them wherever I went (just call me Gretel), and it was looking pretty shabby. Although it was nice while it lasted, I'd say the caviar manicure is definitely something to do for a special occasion or a one off because the longevity is poor. I did try putting a clear top coat over them to make them stay for longer but a word of advice: don't. The varnish ended up stripping and smudging the colours off of the beads although the nail I tried it on definitely lasted a lot longer so...every cloud?! If only there was a way of doing it without spoiling the colours... hmm.
I've seen that Ciaté are doing a version with glitter/sequins instead which look really cool, although at £14 a pop it seems a bit steep for something that I think would be relatively easy to recreate for yourself. Perhaps I'll give that a go..!
What do you think of the caviar manicure? Have you ever tried it?
Chem x
