I bought a standard bottle of non-toxic, water-based PVA glue from Sainsbury's. This one is for crafting and card making, and cost £1.99 for this large bottle. I then decanted some into an empty Nail Envy bottle (the tiny spout was really handy for this!) until the Nail Envy was about half full. I then topped up with water to thin the mixture a bit, as it was very thick. As PVA is water based, you can easily thin it with more water if necessary. Half and half gave me a consistency very like nail varnish, so I thought that would do.
I painted my nails with a thin coat - it applied just like nail varnish, if very slightly gloopier. At first it's white and opaque, but as it dries, it becomes clear. It takes longer to dry than nail polish, but not hugely so.
I then painted on lots of glitter! This is Barry M Superdrug Limited Edition (thumb), China Glaze I Herd That (index and ring, one with topcoat and one without), Nails Inc Jubilee (middle) and China Glaze Marry a Millionaire (little finger.) These are all glitters which I had trouble removing when I wore them previously. As you can see with the Barry M on my thumb, the pva basecoat is now clear, so if you did want to have some natural nail showing, that wouldn't be a problem.
I left these on for a good few hours, to check that the basecoat didn't make the polishes accidentally peel off. It didn't! These wore just as well as they usually would - I did some cooking, some washing up, some typing, and everything stayed put. Then after a while, I decided to try removal. I used tweezers to push the edge of each nail, and the pva came off in one stretchy, squidgy coat! It was like magic!
There was a tiny bit of residue left on my nails, but this wiped off really easily with nail varnish remover. This was a million times easier than usual glitter removal, and I will definitely be using this again!
If you haven't tried PVA glue yet as a basecoat, I wholeheartedly recommend it!
Genius. I'm doing this!
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