PEEL-OFF GLITTER POLISH MANI WITH ELMER'S GLUE (DON'T DO IT)

Ah, nothing like amazing, super sparkly nails. But what a pain in the ass to remove. I tested out Elmer's Glue as a base coat to see if it made removal any easier. Instead of spending forever with remover and cotton balls that end up gunked up in glitter, the glue base coat is supposed to peel right off the nails.

I started by using an empty top coat nail polish bottle and filling it with just Elmer's Glue, no water to dilute it or anything. It's not as thick as I thought when I applied it. For application, I simply used it as I would any base coat but a little thicker. That didn't work out too well because it pooled up on the sides of my nails and I had to go back to take some off. There was also some areas where the glue wouldn't stick at all and I had to go over several times. I waited until it was clear before I used any nail polish, which took a really long time to completely dry.

My glitter nail polish of choice was L.A. Girl Glitter Addict in Inspire, it has multi-sized glitter in a pink-ish, almost rose gold color. I used three coats, which was about 1/3 of the bottle. I forgot how much my nails needed of glitter polish! It dried surprisingly fast and I topped it off with NYC in Grand Central Station, my new favorite quick dry top coat - it's just under two dollars and I can't recommend it enough. The manicure held up well over several days. One of my nails, the shortest one on my right hand, had some peeling but other than that, it wasn't any different than without the glue base coat.

Earlier today, I removed the nail polish by peeling it off and using some remover. It wasn't easy. My right hand has nails with more cracks and breaks since I'm right handed, so I use a little nail glue to keep them together. My left index finger and thumb nails have also been glued back together. I think the Elmer's Glue bonded with it more than the nail so any part with the nail glue had to be crumbled off most of it. I used a wooden cuticle tool and an x-acto knife for the tough spots. Any part of the nail polish that was slightly wrapped around the nail also posed a problem since there wasn't the glue underneath it. I went around with remover on a q-tip before I attempted to peel it.

Once I had a piece to peel off, I went around the perimeter of the nail then worked into the middle so I wouldn't rip my nail off. It was actually easier on my longest nails. You can see they mostly came off in one piece in that last shot. The peels are pretty creepy because they feel almost exactly like my nails, as if I had ripped them off. I had a tiny amount of glue left on my nails, easily removed with water or remover.

That doesn't sound too bad now that I've written it out, but the worst part was how dry it made my nails and stripped off parts during removal. It makes me sad. My natural nails were very smooth and shiny, but now they have this weird texture in areas. Ugh. Just for that, it's really not worth it. I've tried buffing, and will continue to, but it isn't the same. I would much rather spend the time to use remover than to do this again because I know it won't mess up my nails. Sigh.