Black and Red Gothic Nails with Cross & Gelaze Liquid Leather Swatch

I picked up these cross studs from the Born Pretty Store and I’ve been trying to decide what to do with them. I was inspired by Candy Coated Talons to use red foils over black polish to create a gothic look. I started with three coats of Gelaze Liquid Leather. Normally I would stick the foils into the tacky layer of the color polish, but this time I actually top coated so that I could swatch the color (pics below). After taking my swatch pics I applied a thin layer of Gelish foundation gel over top and stuck the foils into the tacky layer, and then finished off with a layer of TIO.

I also used my Gelish foundation as the “glue” for the cross. I applied it under and all around the edges of the cross and cured it, and then applied a layer of TIO around and over the entire cross.  I created a video to show you my techniques for using transfer foils and applying large studs, which you can watch at the bottom of this post.

Here are pictures of Gelaze Liquid Leather by itself. I had a little trouble with application of this color. There was some shrink-back at the tips requiring flash curing and I also found out the hard way that it needs to be applied in thin coats or you’ll get wrinkling. It took 3 coats to get decent coverage. I don’t think this will be my go-to black. Couture Little Black Dress has the best coverage of all the blacks that I’ve tried.

Just a quick reminder that Sally’s has a BOGO sale going on for the entire month of March on the new Gelaze line of gel polishes.

And here is the video that I created to show you the techniques that I used in this mani.  The products used in this video are:  Gelaze Liquid Leather, Gelish Foundation Gel, Gelish Top It Off, Nail Art Transfer Foils, and a Cross Stud.