31DC2017 - Geometric with Milv water decals

I tried something new with this mani. I used a water decal from MilvArt and painted it's underside to turn it into a coloured decal.

This water decal design is from the jewellery collection and comprises of metallic gold stripes that form various geometric patterns. Ordinarily you would just apply these decals over a single colour, or a gradient for example, but this time. I soaked the decal off the paper and then painted the underside.

I had a massive learning curve doing this, and am sure I would do a much better job next time. Firstly I learned that you have to use a very light touch with the polishes. If you apply too much polish to the underside of the decal, it simply dissolves.  This means it's best to use well pigmented polishes that are opaque in just one coat.  I used Pretty Serious Type 40 and OPI Big Apple Red.  

All my painting was done with the decal slicked down onto a silicone mat, using the moisture from soaking it off the paper to give it a very smooth finish.  But after I had painted each decal, I peeled it up with tweezers and moved it to dry. This cause the metallic parts to crinkle up a fair bit.  It was only on the last 2-3 decals where I just left them smoothed out on the mat to dry completely before peeling them up that I had a much smoother finish with the gold. My index finger here was one of the more successful in this regard.  

I look forward to trying this again with the Milv decals now I have learned what works.

What I didn't realize until I'm posting here tonight is that I used the exact same two colours in my geometric design last year, except with black instead of gold.