There have been two extreme nail trends that I’ve wanted to try, but found them very intimidating: the Flocked Manicure and the Caviar Manicure.
Flocked nails have a crazy monster-fur texture. It’s almost like having turf on your nails. (If you use grass-green flocking powder, you could totally do some really fun golf nail art! The sport is a snooze to me, but I could get down with a nail design.)
And, I’m pretty sure that by now, every nailphile knows about Caviar nails. It consists of tiny little beads that completely cover your nails.
So, since I was a General Tao chicken *bawk bawk bawk*, what did I do? I turned one of my wild stallion male friends into a guinea pig, of course! 😉
You may recognize his thumb. Yup, he’s the same dude who I did freehand sheep nail art on in a previous blog post.
He went from a firm “No!” to an “Okay, but I want you to choose which colours to use!” within literally a minute of my convincing, pleading, and sticking out of my lower lip for maximum pouting power. Haha! (This is the only time I resort to such infantile tactics. It’s probably also the only time that they’d work. Plus my friend doesn’t take himself too seriously. The dude’s cool like that.)
My friend’s bravery encouraged me to try the flocked manicure on myself. When I do, I’ll share swatches of it on here as well as a detailed review plus application tips in a separate post. Expect that soon-ish. (I won’t be sporting a caviar manicure, though.)
Edit: I ended up trying a flocked manicure. Click here to see my blue flocked nails!
Without further ado, let’s let my friend’s nails take to the stage. Spotlight, please! 😉
Caviar Manicure
Some of the beads rolled around, and you can see the nail polish I used as the base.
It was my first time trying out these beads, so, yeah, it looks very messy. (I’m not a nail technician! :D) Haha! I almost felt like his finger was a cupcake, and I was putting on sprinkles. (Or…maybe I was hungry…It’s possible!) 😉
I was lazy this time around because I skipped the base coat. If you read my post on the sheep nail art I did on him last time, you’ll remember how he was fascinated with the base coat. Soooo…when I skipped it this time, he asked, “What about the base coat?!” I fear that he’s now expecting stellar manicures from me all the time. *Starts to have performance anxiety* Hahaha!
The polish I used directly onto his natural nail was Nicole by OPI Spring Break, which is part of the Selena Gomez Collection coming out in January 2013. (That polish was provided by OPI’s PR.) If you want to see swatches and reviews of those polishes, click on the link(s).
I laid the nail polish on thickly to help the ‘caviar’ beads stick better to his nail. It was probably my lack of experience applying them, but just slightly rubbing his nail, some beads fell off. And, of course when he went to try it, all the beads just rolled off…and all over my carpet despite working over a piece of paper! (Looks like I can’t put off vacuuming any longer…)
The caviar beads are by a brand called Sina. The beads were provided by Natali Products, a Canadian beauty and esthetics supply distributor. (They currently don’t have the caviar beads available for sale on their website yet, but when they do, I’ll update this post with a link.)
Flocked Manicure
I thought this was such a fun look, and I couldn’t help but be creepy and ‘pet’ his nail. It was fuzzy and cute! Haha, his thumb is so big, but the flocking made it actually cute!
For sure, I thought the second he washed his hands, it would come off, but we were both impressed that it stayed put. His description was perfect – it’s like a carpet!
You can see that it’s still a little messy. Some of the flocking powder got onto the rest of his hand and made it look like he had tiny white hairs.
I’ll be trying out flocked nails since, out of the two extreme nail-art finishes, this one seems to be the more ‘practical’ one. Keep your eyes peeled like a banana for a review and some swatches of it.
(Again, the flocking powder was provided by Natali Products, and it was by the Sina brand. This powder will be available soon to purchase from them.)
Oh, and no, my friend didn’t keep either look on. It never saw the light of day outside the house. 😛 Immediately after photographing each, the nail art was promptly removed…hehe!
Have you ever tried ‘caviar’ beads or flocking powder? Would you wear them on all your nails or use them mainly as accents?
Edit: Come see the blue flocked nails I ended up wearing!
Wow! Standing ovation to your sweet friend for allowing you to do this to him! 😉 It looks fabulous! I would have to say I’m totally not a fan of texture on my nails so I don’t think could really stand to have either on my hands but it looks amazing!! I have enough problems with glitter texture – haha! I can’t wait to see your flocked nails! Awesome!
Hey Angie!
Hehe, I was surprised that I could even convince him. When he saw me coming with the flocking powder and the beads, he was confused, but then intrigued.
I tried a full flocked manicure, and it was a very interesting experience. I’ll try to blog about it as soon as I can. Already took tons of photos. Now I just have to crop them and organize a post. 🙂
This looks cool even though I don’t think it’s a trend that will last. And it’s definitely nothing I will run crazy to get either. I think that the fur is cool but I would only where it as accent and even then not on the whole nail, maybe like an accent stripe? I wouldn’t see my self buying “caviar” balls, in that sense, the metal balls have been around (as you probably know) for ages, long before example ciaté announced it. I have a lot of them but I use them as accent, placed individually with a dotting tool for accent and not on my whole nail. 😀
Gelic’ nail art recently posted: Pink crackle on bright blue nails
Hey Gelic’ nail art!
Yeah, they may not be a lasting trend, but that never stops me from trying something new. It was a really interesting experience. (I ended up trying a full manicure with the flocking powder. It was like nothing I’ve ever tried before. Will blog about it soon!)
Great idea to use the caviar beads individually. Did you find that they stayed put on your nail for a long time that way since there’s more polish to secure it?
I tried a flocking kit at Sephora a few weeks ago. Everyone wanted to “pet” my nails like you did your friend. I love that look!
Hey Kayla!
Oh, I didn’t even know that Sephora had such a kit. What colour did you try?
It was a fuschia color. Ciate makes it. 🙂
Nice! 🙂
I have honestly never heard of ‘flocking’ before and I absolutely HAVE to try it!! 😀 The caviar I like in theory, but there is no way I could wear all those little balls on even one nail. Too much like frog eggs or something. -_- Awesome friend you have to let you experiment on him. hehehe
Lizzy recently posted: Wet n Wild Minis
Hey Lizzy!
I just tried a full flocking manicure! 🙂 I can’t wait to prepare the post and tell you all about it. It was such an experience – like nothing I’ve tried before!
Haha, and if the caviar beads were red and translucent, they’d look like fish eggs.
I showed your pictures to my hubby and he liked the flocking manicure! I also think that’s the one that I prefer;: maybe one day I will try it!^__^
(I don’t know if my hubby will give me his thumb to do some manicures, sigh!!)
Paola recently posted: ABC Challenge R – China Glaze Riveting
Hey Paola!
Who knows? He might let you adding flocking to his thumb one day! 😉 Maybe ask him to pick the colour so he feels like it really was his choice to do it…haha!
omg the flocking freaks me out! I imagine it feeling awful to wear and coming off fast since I wash my hands about 50 times a day, lol.
I wouldn’t find either of them practical for a full mani but I would do an accent nail with caviar or maybe a fuzzy half moon! 😀
Chicks recently posted: Review and FOTD #4 – Sleek Respect
Hey Chicks!
It was a very different experience. I tried the flocking powder on all my nails, and I’ll blog about it soon. Haha, it’s definitely NOT practical, even if you only wash your hands less than 50 times a day!
Aww…a fuzzy half moon sounds cute!
lol I can’t believe you accomplished this
Frosso recently posted: OPI Stranger Tides vs Essie Da Bush
Hey Frosso!
Hahahaha, me neither! I thought for sure he would run for the hills when he saw me busting out the flocking powder and caviar beads. But when he saw those, he seemed intrigued because it wasn’t just nail polish. (Then again, he’s a professional artist, so I think he put down the ‘gender guard’ and the artist side came out more.) 😉
I really want to try flocked nails, they seem so cool! I think it’s so cool you have a friend who lets you try out all these things on him AND put it on the internet haha. So cool, can’t wait to see the next man-icure. 🙂
Brianna recently posted: NYC New York Color IndividualEyes Custom Compact Review
Hey Brianna!
Yes, he is very brave to not only allow me to experiment on him, but also share it with everyone. He’s cool with it, but the only stipulation is that I don’t mention his name or otherwise identify him. Haha!
I’M DYING AT HIS FLOCKED NAIL, HAHAHAHA!
Hey Kay!
That makes two of us. I kept laughing and petting his nail!
I got the ciate advent calendar from Sephora from my loving hubby so I’ll be trying out the caviar mani soon. But I’m also super skeptical that it will come off really fast. I think I’ll probably do one of the colors and then try the caviar look to spice things up the next day. I think both trends are fun. Isn’t that what nail art should be about anyway?
Hey Jackie!
How thoughtful of your husband to get you that! 😀
Yessss, that’s the spirit! I’m totally in the same furry boat as you. 😉 I firmly believe that nail art should be fun. It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect, but if you had a great time wearing it and creating something different, that’s what makes it a winner and something that you’ll want to do again and again.
I’m a transvestite and have just got myself a set of gel nail stuff. I think there’s some caviar and flocking stuff, so might give it a go. I’ll post my results and you can #SwatchAndLearn lol
Tania Twinkle recently posted: Do Males need nails ?
Hey Tania!
Cool – have fun into your wonderful journey of caviar and flocking manicures! 😀
To each his own, but I thinks it’s safe to say that my caviar is safe from my hubby!
Love caviar manicure! Looks so cute!
this nail polish on men series is so cute!
Craftynail recently posted: Tutorial guest post at luchessa.org
still have to try this on myself lol!
love these!
Hey ISA VAL!
Hehe, I remember having so much fun creating ‘extreme’ nail art on him! 😉
This is cool. Different and I like it. Winning
Hey Robbie!
Glad you like it! Hehe, it was so fun putting this ‘extreme’ nail art onto his nails! 🙂