Best Techniques to Smooth and Remove Glitter *Updated July 12, 2023*
Noodles manicures are always all about shine. We all love glitter, but removing it can be a pain. Oh, and I’ve also been known to eat top coats that leave texture on my nails after drying. If you’re particularly sensitive to the feel of your polish, try applying a thicker top coat or a second coat of thinner top coat.
Instead of applying two thick top coats, several indie brands are launching products that you can use after your last polish coat and before your top coat. These are generally thicker and will “fill in” the gaps left by the glitter. Here are some products I use and recommend (in no particular order).
6. Smooth and Shine Duo by Esmaltes da Kelly (available in Polish pickup some months)
To use these glitter-grabbing top coats, it’s best to let the polish dry for a few minutes before applying. If you apply the Glitter Grabber too quickly, your nail polish will eat up the Glitter Grabber a little bit, and even after you add a quick-drying top coat, it can still have a bit of nail polish texture. Using it this way requires a little more patience, but it’s worth it.
Noodle Nail Polish Better Not to Pout (1 coat) Gridlock Lacquer 2 coats Resting Grinch Face
What do you think about this base color from Better Not Pout? I was going to go with a more traditional color, but I took the plunge at the last minute. If you’re interested in a polish with an authentic Christmas vibe, this is a must-have on everything. all. Better Not Pout is a clear-based glitter topper with hexagonal and circular silver/red/green metallic glitter, pink matte glitter in various shades, and a scattered holo finish. Since this is all glitter, the texture is drying, so be sure to top it with a top coat to smooth out the glitter.
Next, we have another top pick from the collection. It’s packed with glitter. Gingerbread Latte has a soft medium brown crelly base with varying sizes of hexagonal metallic green/red/caramel/copper glitter and white matte glitter. I think it has more sparkle (in a good way) than the base! I’m not sure if it looks best on my light yellowish skin, but I don’t care, I love it anyway. This is a pain to remove unless you use a peel-off base, but it’s worth it. And yes, feel free to fill in all the nooks and crannies yourself with a glitter smoothing top coat.
Why are my top three picks also the first three polishes I’m featuring (based on alphabetical order)? Miss Christmas is the best-selling holiday polish of last year, Miss Mistletoe (which I also loved) )’s sister polish. Miss Christmas has a bright bubblegum pink crelly base with white matte glitter and red/green metallic glitter. It’s classy. It’s a holiday. wonderful. This was two coats and applied perfectly.
This collection includes two different glitter toppers. Sleigh Ride has one of my favorite glitter shapes of his, the snowflake. Give me all the snowflakes and starlight. Sleigh Ride is a clear-based glitter topper with white matte hexagon and snowflake glitter and copper/garnet/raspberry metallic glitter in various sizes. I always hold polishes with larger glitters upside down for at least 20 minutes to make sure all the glitter floats to the top and I’ve never had a problem catching the glitter. Glitter Smoothing Top Coat helps smooth out the area around the snowflakes so they’re less noticeable.
Next up is something gorgeous called Snow Lit Midnights. This is a denim crelly (leaning a bit on the jelly side) with hexagonal white matte, silver metallic, and iridescent glitter in various sizes. It’s always hard to really capture the iridescent glow, but in this photo it really stands out in person. I love this shade of blue for winter. Since it has a jelly-like finish, the white glitter stands out even more. Again, I used two thick coats to get it completely opaque and it applied perfectly. Oh, and my nails didn’t get dirty either. I used the new Zoya in deep blue a few weeks ago and my nails are still stained even after using the base coat twice. Wow!
Yay, the white glitter crelly is ready! The Nutcracker’s Son (such a funny name!) has a white crelly base with soft green glitter, green/gold metallic and holo glitter, and yellow matte glitter. I hope my photos convey the colors correctly. Since this is gold, I think the base looks a little ivory. I really like the combination of green and gold. I found this to apply a little thinner than other white glitter crellys I’ve used. There were never any problems. That’s what I noticed when I applied it. Even though I removed more polish from the brush to avoid flooding my cuticles, it still only took two coats.
*These polishes were provided by our company or our public relations staff. All reviews are based solely on my opinion. For more information, please see my full disclosure at the bottom of the site*
