Hi everyone! In my last post I mentioned my newest nail polish project, adding glass cabochons to the top of my nail polish bottles. This is super easy, but I wanted to show you in pictures what to expect if you want to take this project on for yourself.
The reason I love this idea so much is when you open your drawer that holds your polish bottles, you can see at a glance which polish you are looking for. If you’re like me, you currently have to pick up multiple bottles looking for the one you want to use. This project will alleviate most of that searching.
As far as supplies go, you just need some glass cabochons, either some glue or glue dots and a paper towel or rag. You may also want to use some silly putty or play doh to hold the cabochon while you paint it, but I just hold it in my fingers (hence the need for a rag).
I bought my glass cabochons from Aliexpress (I am not affiliated). This is the exact item I bought HERE. I got the 14mm size. Shipping was really quick! From the date I ordered until receiving the package was just 17 days (not business days) from China…
You can see they are flat on one side and domed on the other. I paint the flat side…
I chose to use glue dots to attach the cabochons to the lids. When I was first hearing about people doing this project, they were suggesting glue like E6000. I’m glad I didn’t jump right in and waited a little while to research so I could learn about using these glue dots instead. I think the dots are very easy, neat and clean to use. Knowing me I would have made a big mess with regular glue. I bought my glue dots from Amazon but they can also be found on Ebay and in many other stores.
The glue dots packaging says they are temporary, but they seem pretty stable and secure on the polish lids. But if you want to remove them in the future, it will not be difficult to remove like regular glue would have been. This is what they look like…
There are 12 dots on a page and they are perforated for ease of use…
And I use my well worn, trusty polish rag to wipe my fingers since I hold the cabochons while painting…
So here is everything laid out and ready to start…
I start by painting one coat of each color on the flat side of the cabochon…
After painting the first coat I leave them to fully dry…
Once the first coat is fully dry, I paint a second coat on each cabochon…
I wait until after painting that second coat to attach the glue dot to the lid of the bottle. If you do it before you’re finished painting, the plastic backing will make it difficult to open the polish bottle. The glue dots have a paper backing which I fully remove, then center the dot on the lid and press down…
I leave the plastic backing in place to keep dirt and dust off the glue dot until the second coat fully dries (and it makes centering it on the polish bottle much easier!). Sometimes I get sidetracked and may not come back to attach the cabochon so leaving the plastic on keeps it from drying out and keeps it clean…
This is what it looks like while I wait for the second coat(s) to fully dry…
Once the second coat of polish is fully dry on the cabochon, I remove the plastic backing from the glue dot. This backing peels off very easily. If it looks like it wants to lift the glue dot with it, just press down again and maybe rotate the lid to start removal from a different spot..
Then I carefully try to center the cabochon on the polish lid and press down…
This is what the finished product will look like…
You can see the domed cabochons do stick up a little bit off the bottle. I’m afraid that tall bottles (like Bee’s Knee’s bottles) will not fit in my Helmer drawers with a cabochon on top…
Here is the final outcome. It’s easy to see what color the polish is just from glancing at the top…
Another bonus is if your polish bottle has a black lid and you are painting a multi chrome polish, you don’t need to add a coat of black to the cabochon, the lid helps show off all that multi chrome shift…
I have almost all my Tonic’s done now. Here’s what it looks like with flash…
Well, what do you think? Is this a project you’d like to try? Let me know in the comments!
The three Tonics in this tutorial are: Deep Sea-crets, I Pink You Blue Me Off and The Places You’ll Go.
If you are wondering what polish I have on in these photos, it’s still Tonic Polish Flawless. You can see the post on that one HERE.
Well, there we have it!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
The polish in this post is from my own collection and was purchased by me.
©2018 RealPolishFanatic / All Rights Reserved
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About Me & My Blog
My blog is a beauty based blog, specifically about Nail Polish: Nail Polish swatches, Nail Polish comparisons, Nail Polish collections, my Manicure of the Day. All content and photos are my own property and cannot be used without my express written consent.
My name is Paula and I live in California right now with my hubby of many years and Chico my “baby”. You will see him featured periodically at the end of a post (the dog, not the hubby).🙂
I would love to hear from you!
Happy polishing!!
♥Paula
RealPolishFanatic 
This is a genius idea!! x
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It’s so easy and I really love the way it looks too!!
Thanks for checking out my blog!
♥Paula
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My bees fit with 12mm cabs, and e6000 glue. I wonder if it’s the difference between the cabs or the glue that allow them to fit in the helmer?!
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Hi Jade! I haven’t actually tried one on a Bees Knees bottle yet, but “testing” it (without actually attaching it) didn’t seem like it would work. It’s good to know that yours fit! I’ll have to check one out for real and update my post if my assumption was wrong! 🙂
Thanks for checking it out!
♥paula
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So I just tried putting a cabochon on a tall Bee’s Knees bottle. My Helmer drawers may be warped (they’ve been through a few moves and are packed really full!) but it will fit in the center of the drawer, but not along the outside perimeter of the drawer. lol!
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I follow the same steps, except I add a coat of clear gel topcoat to the cab before attaching it to the botttles. That way, if you need to move the cab, the polish doesn’t peel off as easily.
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Hi Vicki! That’s a great idea! I never thought about that! Thanks for posting!!
♥paula
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Cool! I’m excited to try this!
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Hi Giana!
It’s fun and so easy!! I love the way the drawer looks now when I open it!
Thanks for checking out my post!!
♥paula
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