I am a strong proponent of minimal effort and maximum effect manicures, so when I saw the Laqa & Co. Cagney Gold Fleck Manicure, I was pretty excited. It’s a duo of nail polish and topcoat with cut-up strips of gold in it.
While I am a big fan of glitter sometimes, it can be a pain to get off, and it doesn’t go with very many outfits. I’ve seen people do metallic fleck manicures in the past, but those often involved cutting up gold leaf paper, and unfortunately, that is just a little more work than I’m willing to put into my nails most days. In just a few easy steps, you can achieve a fancy nail look that is shiny without being over-the-top.
Step 1: Pick contrasting colors if you’re feeling extra fun. I used the aforementioned pink shade by Laqa & Co. as well as Morgan Taylor Professional Nail Lacquer in Varsity Jacket Blues. I figured the cute cotton candy shades would compliment one another.
Apply a coat of each polish in whichever nail layout you prefer. When I do accent nails, I typically do a contrasting shade on either my index and middle fingers or my ring and middle fingers.
Step 2: Apply another coat of each. I prefer to give the flecks a solid foundation color to sit on, though if you prefer a less opaque shade underneath, you can just skip this step.
Step 3: Apply the gold topcoat. You can do this once or more than once depending on how much gold flecks you want, so I did it thrice to show what it looks like depending on how many topcoats you do. Here’s one:
Here is what it looks like with two topcoats:
And here is what three topcoats look like:
Wasn’t that easy? I would also add another topcoat over top to seal the gold down, as it can “perk up” on your nail a bit, and that can get scratchy.
There are plenty of variations you could try, whether it is the organization of the gold flecks (putting them all on of side of each nail or at the tip, for example) or using different colors underneath. I bet it would look stunning with a deep purple under the gold, bringing a subtle glamor to it with a neutral shade underneath. You could even just use a single clear base coat, and the gold flecks on top if you’re feeling simple but sparkly. Definitely give it a whirl if you have a special event, date night, or vacation coming up!
