BornPrettyStore: Fish Scale Stencils…

So Born Pretty Store sent me some ‘Fish Scale Stencils‘* to review this week. There are 9 stencils in a packet which is a little strange if you intend to use one for each finger though, presuming you have 10 nails to paint of course.

They come on a clear backing which you need to peel them off of and sort of as one sheet. I’d advise being careful when trying to detach them from each other as the stencil vinyl is pretty thin and feels a little delicate. As you can see I managed to tear off the corner, so maybe cutting them would have been better.

The first thing to do is to apply a base colour, I chose a metallic silver, and it’s important you let this dry completely. If you were to place the stencil on any sooner you run the risk of peeling the polish off with it.

Make sure your stencil is fully stuck down on your nail, any gaps will result in the polish leaking underneath it creating an uneven pattern. There are many ways to apply the polish on to the stencil but I chose to sponge it on. By doing it this way I find that it minimizes the amount of leaks, compared to painting it on which can flood the stencil more easily. The length of the stencil is very generous meaning there shouldn’t be an issue if you have longer nails than me. (Let’s face it, that’s not hard.)

After sponging/painting on your top polish, carefully peel off the stencil and hopefully you’ll like what you see! The stencils weren’t as durable as others that I’ve reviewed from BPS, however I still got two nails done from one which isn’t bad going. I didn’t want to push it any further as they were starting to feel too flimsy.

I finished the look off with a top coat and added some typically related decorations – pearls, micro-beads and a shell. (Yawn.) But doesn’t it look pretty!

I know this might seem strange, but the actual stencil part was looking really beautiful after being sponged with my top colour so I trimmed it to fit my nail and stuck it down. I had to apply two coats of seche vite to get it thick enough to achieve a smooth looking finish. Doesn’t it look cool?

The next polish I tried the stencils with was a thermal one – because they’re just so much fun. It’s a lot easier to see the pattern definition with this colour combination too. As you can see there was very little leakage, nothing major enough that it couldn’t be corrected, meaning the stencils did their job – well done stencils!

Below are some Coldfish Scales. Bahahaha goldfish, coldfish? Because the thermal polish is cold. So funny!

The image below quite interesting as a comparison guide. (This is the thermal polish hot by the way.) Can you tell which two nails I did with a fresh stencil? Yup the index and ring. The edges of the fish scales that were done with a used stencil are slightly fuzzier looking, nothing too noticeable and people aren’t usually looking that closely at your nails. (Right?…)

If you would like to try out these Fish Scale Stencils, they are available from BornPrettyStore and are currently (19/10) selling for $1.39 – pretty cheap huh! Don’t be concerned that it’s in dollars, paypal converts your total for you in to your preferred currency, or be worried about the potential cost of shipping – it’s free! If you use my code ‘AZYW10’ you will also get 10% off all full priced items.

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Multi-Foil Leopard…

So this looks waaay better in reality. The camera just did not pick up how shiny and cool this turned out. It was one of those dangerous designs, serving as a distraction at work and whilst driving. I used 4 different colours of metallic nail foils and then used leopard print nail vinyls from BPS.

BornPrettyStore: Flower Nail Vinyl…

So for today’s design I used some ‘Flower Nail Vinyls‘ sent to me from BornPrettyStore. The products description states that they can be used as stickers and vinyls, and I can see why as they’re so pretty!

I decided to test them firstly as vinyls, so I used my tweezers to carefully peel one off the backing paper. The stencil is made from quite a strong vinyl material, but not overly thick, and has quite a sticky glue.

I felt it would be dangerously sticky to use as a vinyl (perfect for sticker use though) as I had visions of my base peeling off too… So I stuck it to my hand first and then removed it again, meaning that it was now safely sticky. I applied it to my nail and found that the vinyl bumped up a bit – this was due to the design being a circle and my nails being very curved too. If left like this it would result in the polish leaking underneath but fortunately the issue was easily resolved. All I had to do was to snip it twice at the sides, which you can see in the photo, and that let the vinyl sit flat. Now I was ready to polish! I started off by painting the little holes first, then painting from top to bottom as normal, I did this to ensure the polish was definitely going to fill everywhere I wanted it to. Next came the exciting bit – the peel! I was actually rather nervous, I felt like I was watching a fledgling bird taking off for it’s first flight, the more I peeled the more nervous I got expecting to see some horrific leakage, or the bird falling out the nest, but any leakage was very minimal – bird had successful take off, vinyl had successful peel off. Phew!

It soon occurred to me that I would probably only need to use the one vinyl. I used it again, on my pinky nail, at the same spot to test if it would still work correctly – what do you think of the results?

I thought it worked just as well the second time as the first. For my other two nails I turned the vinyl round and used the ‘clean’ side, in slightly different positions. I was very happy with how they turned out; the lines are pretty sharp, there’s no serious leakage and they’re amazing value as I only used 1 stencil for the four nails!

The next test was the sticker test – I used the tiny bits that were left over and they turned out to be just as cool! I previously said, the material isn’t too thick and they’re pretty sticky so it’s a win win for sticker usage. I had not a hope using my fingers for these bits as they’re teeny tiny so I used my tweezers to place them. I then top coated them with SecheVite to make sure they wouldn’t go anywhere and ta-da. I love the colour spectrum they display at different angles, they’re like jewels!

As beautiful as just the vinyl design is, I thought I’d spruce it up a little with the addition of some rhinestones. I think the colour combo makes it look quite regal, what colour combination would you have picked?

If you don’t own a set, but would like to try them you can use my code ‘AZYW10’ to receive 10% off all full priced items in your order from BornPrettyStore. Hope you enjoyed the review!

Speckled Leopard…

So I’ve not been well for the last week, and I’m still not well actually, therefore I’ve not been posting. However it’s getting a little ridiculous that I still don’t feel better so I’ve had to pull out a design from the archives. By archives I mean designs that I’ve maybe classed as ‘fails’. You may think there’s nothing really wrong with this one, but I’ve actually used these same colours in the same combo before, and that is what bugged me.

For this design I used some BornPrettyStore Vinyls for this design and I only needed to use one stencil for all my nails – how good is that!

I never really include a photo like this, but thought it would be interesting to include this time round. Avon Ridge Filler is my go to base coat, and Seche Vite is my go to top coat. Anyone else use this combo?

You’re a star!

So after seeing the unfortunate ‘nail fail’ (she said this herself, just in case you think I’m throwing some shade) that Flight of Whimsy had with her nail vinyls from BornPrettyStore, I was seriously worried. Eva experienced seepage and disintegration, and as I’ve never used nail vinyls before, if they didn’t work for me how would I have known if it was my fault or theirs!

However, I think mines worked quite well? I mean my index finger was a flop, but that was down to me choosing the wrong glitter to start with duuhh…

The pack includes two designs (my choice was stars and leopard prints), but only 5 vinyls each. I thought this was a bit strange as the majority of us all have 10 fingers, but after sizing them up it became apparent I could half them. I understand that some people might have massive nails, in which case you’d maybe have to recycle or buy two packets? If you have smaller nails, I would wonder how much star pattern you could really fit on there as it’s kinda large, it’s maybe not the pattern for you unfortunately.

They applied well but I always make sure with anything sticky to actually un-sticky it a bit to prevent it from pulling up my base coat – I do this by applying it to somewhere on my skin first. I chose to use a sponge to apply my polishes, firstly gold and then a glitter, instead of an all over paint as sponging is less likely to result in seepage. The one issue I did have was the the vinyl wouldn’t sit flat, I have very curved nails, so I had to snip them a little bit which did end up distorting some of the star shapes.

I think over-all my adventure in to nail vinyl usage was a success. Maybe I had more luck because my pattern wasn’t as intricate as a checkerboard and therefore peeling it off my nail was less of a hassle. I think next time I’m going to try out the leopard print, and I’ll hopefully chose a better colour combination. If you’d like to try them out for yourself, remember to use my code ‘AZYW10’ to get 10% off all full priced items in your order.