Silver Leaf, Kawako: Revamped

After swatching Rainbow Honey's 'Kawako' from the Yokai Collection (reviewed here), I remembered that I had some silver leaf in my stash of goodies just waiting to be used and I thought it would perfectly compliment the silver flecks in 'Kawako'.  Here's how it turned out:

Full sunlight

Indoors lighting

Gold leaf top coats are undoubtedly popular at the moment, and as much as I want OPI's 'The Man With The Golden Gun' I just can't bring myself to fork out the money for it (it's retailing in Australia for AUD$40). This is a much less expensive way of joining in on the 'leaf' trend. Better yet, if you don't wear much gold like me you can use silver instead.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with what gold (or silver) leaf looks like, it's a super, super thin sheet of foil that WILL float away if you have a fan on (bad news for those of us in the southern hemisphere right now). I got mine from Meliney for AUD$2.50, or alternatively I have seen some on ebay (search 'gold leaf' or 'silver leaf'). Since it comes in a sheet, I used a couple of toothpicks to shred the sheet into smaller pieces and then applied it on top of my wet top coat before applying a second coat over the top to secure it. Despite the textured appearance, it lies completely flat on the nail. I think this would be a great look in Christmas colours, and I might even give it another go closer to then (as much as I hate repeating designs).

So what do you think? Have you/will you be forking out the cash for a gold leaf top coat? Or do you think this is a decent alternative?