I recently saw an advertisement in one of my nail magazines for Mia Secret Chrome Mirror Nail Liquid and it peaked my curiosity. I’ve seen several images of metallic chrome looking nails on Pinterest and other places over the years and tried to find something other than the chrome press-on nails, wraps or foils that would do the trick. I’ve personally never been able to achieve a perfect foil nail (maybe that’s something I need to practice more).
I purchased the Chrome Mirror set on Amazon which comes with the chrome liquid and a UV base/top gel. The directions say to prep your nails as you would for a regular gel polish manicure by buffing, cleansing and applying a primer if desired. Then you apply the base/top coat, cure it and wipe off the tacky layer. This step is critical because the chrome liquid won’t appear shiny if you apply it onto the tacky layer (I tried it). Then you apply the Chrome Mirror liquid and let it air dry before applying the UV base/top coat again, curing and cleansing.
The chrome liquid is a very thin metallic liquid, it’s not a nail polish and won’t cure in a lamp, but you do apply it like a nail polish. I applied three coats of the chrome liquid and it very quickly dried to a shiny metallic finish right before my eyes. Note that it will show every flaw in your UV gel base, so the base layer needs to be meticulously applied. Because the chrome liquid is very thin it pools into the cuticles really easily if you have too much on the brush or touch your skin during application. This frustrated me at first, but then I realized that I could apply it as messily as I wanted because the excess will wipe right off when the UV top coat is cleansed.
I got really excited when I was applying this liquid because the chrome effect looked really awesome. However, I noticed that the top coat dramatically reduces the effect and makes it look like a dull metal instead of shiny chrome. Boo! The photo below shows the difference. I took this photo before doing any clean-up.
I tried leaving my nails without a top coat. The Amazon listing says that the chrome effect will only last up to 2 hours without the UV top coat… and yep, the stuff comes right off. If you get your nails wet or touch anything they get messed up. I ended up with chrome all over my face and some seriously messed up looking nails! To my dismay, I re-applied and top coated them all. The result was still pretty, but just not what I was after.
I wondered if a different top coat would work better. I tested the chrome liquid with every brand of gel base & top coat that I own as well as RNP. RNP was a total failure. As far as gel bases go, it does work best with the one that comes in the kit. For gel top coats, it didn’t matter… they all dulled the effect the same. I did find that using Gelish Structure Gel over the chrome liquid didn’t dull it as much and the results looked better, but the Structure Gel stayed a bit tacky after cleansing.
Unfortunately no matter what top coat I used, the wear was exactly the same… HORRIBLE! Within hours every nail was chipping or peeling, even with a gel top coat. I was very careful to cap the tips also. The chrome liquid simply isn’t able to adhere to the shiny base layer and ends up peeling off. This picture was taken less than 12 hours after application.
My recommendation regarding this product is… don’t waste your money! Unless of course you want beautifully shiny chrome nails for just a few minutes.
If anyone else has tried this product and found a winning combination to make it last, please let us all know in the comments. :) Also, if you know of a different product that provides a shiny chrome effect, I’d love to hear about it!