Cracked Oval…

So these ‘shining oval studs‘ have lay unused for a whole year. They were clearly an “Oooo that’s pretty” purchase, which then became part of my hoard and forgotten about.

I paired them up with some Avon Crackle polish, not unused but I suppose a little unloved. I wasn’t wrong with thinking that the studs were pretty, they have an amazing depth to them that isn’t quite conveyed in the photo above. But the close-up below kind of shows the hidden galaxy within.

Without sounding too overly dramatic, I think I almost had an addiction to buying supplies. The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem right?

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Dream-catcher…

So here’s another item bought way back in April ’16, which were some ‘leaf’ metal studs. However I thought they looked way more like feathers than leaves, so I turned this one in to a dream-catcher.

I used the dry brush technique (which I seem to be a little addicted to right now) to smoosh all the colours together and then used a very fine brush to paint the dream-catcher details. It’s a very spring/summer design for this time of year!

Grey Granite Drops…

So this was a pretty simple design, but I thought it looked really pretty! I have a pottery class tomorrow, so here’s hoping the embellishments can stay on.

Ocean Depths…

So even though the whole ‘mermaid’/’seaside’ nail trend is (or was?) very much a thing, I think it has too much of a summer vibe for it to feel right at this time of year. Therefore instead of going all breezy and beachy, I went for moody and mysterious. I couldn’t tell if I’d made it too busy with silver everything on top of silver spray marble, however after wearing it for a few days I actually like how busy yet subtle it is. You don’t immediately notice the shell or the starfish; I like how this imitates the feeling of when you’re looking into an actual rock pool and even though you’re seeing everything, you’re not really noticing anything and it’s only until you start to relax and re-focus that you notice the crab hiding in the corner or the starfish slowly walking across the sand. Anyone else?

The ‘3D Ocean Decorations‘ are from BornPrettyStore , and they are currently (02/12/15) on sale at only $2.76! If you add anything else to your order which happens not to be on sale, you can use my code ‘AZYW10’ to get 10% off all your full priced items. Have you tried the ‘mermaid’ look yet?

 

BPS Nail Mail…

So I usually order something from BornPrettyStore every month after pay day; it’s a bit naughty because no way do I need more supplies but their prices are so amazing and their products are so appealing I just can’t help it (a bit of an addiction maybe?..) It’s usually around 3-4 weeks between ordering and delivery, meaning I have a whole month to experiment with my new items before the next delivery arrives! I’ve never actually shown my ‘nail mail’ before as one post, as I usually just present the items as I use them. However as I have no nail art to present to you today, you’ll just have to look at my purchases instead.

Lets break it all down! (p.s it’s a long one so I’d just scroll down quickly and look at the pictures.)

I was feeling a bit risky, so forked out a whole $0.99 for a ‘Lucky Bag‘ of three nail art items. And I could not be happier with the results! I was honestly expecting all the crap of the day that BPS maybe couldn’t sell and that’s why they were lumped together and sold off cheap however look what I got; Hello Kitty nail stickers, cheeky cherry water decals, and a stamping plate – with my all time favourite mollusk,  A SNAIL! An absolute bargain, and a whole load of fun, I’d highly recommend giving it a go!

As I have accumulated a few stamping plates now, I thought it would be a good idea to purchase a plate holder. The one I purchase holds 24 plates, unfortunately it’s no longer available to purchase but there are plenty of other holders available here. What can I say, it works great. It holds not only my round ones, but also my new octagonal plate.

Staying with the stamping theme I also purchased a large, rectangular ‘Nautical Plate‘. It’s my first one of this size, so I’m quite excited to use it. I presume it’ll perform the same as my others but the images appear larger and clearer so they might stamp better, stay tuned. I’d heard loads of people talking about Konad polishes being great for stamping, and as I find my OPI black comes out a bit wishy washy, I decided to purchase a bottle of ‘Konad Black 11ml‘ as it was on sale. The bottles are super cute, and I can’t wait to see how the polish stamps.

Continuing with the nautical theme, as mermaids and shells are all the rage right now in nail art, I had to buy this wheel of nail decorations. It contains a super cute turtle, shells, mermaids, seahorses and anchors. And the best bit, they’re in gold and silver in one wheel! Meaning no more of “what colour should I get? Hmm, maybe I’ll just have to buy a wheel of each”.

Another item that seems super cool to use right now are nail vinyls. Or maybe it’s just because I’m following nail vinyl people on Instagram… I went for the ‘NK-03’ set due to them having stars. Painting stars free hand is just a no go for me, so it felt like the correct choice. Can’t wait to use these!

Are you still with me? There’s still a few more items to go, so if you’re holding in a pee I’d just go do it now. I wouldn’t want any accidents. As I was creating amazing nail design concepts in my head (most of which don’t turn out anything near amazing), it struck me that I only have ‘clear’ and ‘iridescent’ gems – no coloured ones! Whaaat. This had to be resolved therefore I ordered this very colourful set of ‘Candy Coloured Gems‘. Hopefully my nail art dreams can now come true.

The below object may not look like much, but it’s seriously a life changer. To pick up gems I usually rely on a wet dotting tool or even my finger but honestly how fiddly is that, no longer shall this be the case though! This ‘rhinestone picker gel‘ will change it all – apparently you take a little blob off and stick it on to anything, for example a toothpick and ta-da, an instant gem picker. Sounds fantastic!

Last but not least, a tub of ‘round candy colour glitter‘. Again, I’m actually just following trends because round glitter seems to be another ‘thing’ right now.

That concludes my nail mail delivery, congratulations if you’ve made it to the end! Your prize is nothing I’m afraid, only the satisfaction of knowing you’ve made it. If you now fancy placing an order from BornPrettyStore, remember it’s free delivery and you can use my code ‘AZYW10’ to get 10% off all full priced items.

What have you learned from this post? I’m not sure, maybe that I write way too much uninteresting stuff. What have I learned from this post, that I’m such a trend sheep – I need to start being a trend setter…

ModelsOwn: Daisy…

So after using studs* from BornPrettyStore in the OMD3 Challenge, I thought I’d try and do the same to create daisies inspired by the earrings the model is wearing.

They didn’t turn out quite as pretty, mainly because I forgot the caviar bead ring which helps tidy it up a little, but I suppose I achieved what I was aiming for – a daisy. Seeing as the studs are actually multi-coloured, I had to paint them white which is why they look a little gloopy too. If I had taken more time, it would have looked better – however they are a little impractical to wear and I knew I’d be taking them off immediately

Wonky Zeb…

So now that the OMD3 challenge is over, I’m a bit ‘blank’ – I’m sure I felt the same way last year. After being given prompts and having the pressure (even though it’s all self-pressure) of doing a design a day, it’s almost as if I need to rest my brain for a bit. Unfortunately this means no new nail art, so I’ve had to have a rummage in the ‘Nail Fail’ folder.

Nail Fail, why? I don’t like how quint the stamping is on my middle finger, it doesn’t line up with the center of my nail or the studs, and this bugs me to no end. Urgh. Other than that I actually quite like the thing.

The Studs and Stamping Plate are both from BornPrettyStore, I use both of these items a lot so I would recommend getting some yourself. You’ll get 10% off items that are full priced with the code ‘AZYW10’.

OMD3 – Day 10 Floral…

So I was inspired by a design I saw on the instagram account of Ruru_Taiwan. I thought their flowers were the cutest thing and I’ve never seen anything like it before so I wanted to recreate it.

I’m really happy with how they turned out as it was slow, delicate work. I used my tub of multi-coloured mixed studs* from BornPrettyStore, and picked out all the pink and orange ‘rhombuses’ I could find as I really had no idea how many it would take! I applied my pearl center, then the caviar beads, then the first layer of studs. After they were dry and definitely stuck, I applied the second layer of studs and then majorly top coated the whole lot – like dripped it on basically!

If you’d like to try out this design for yourself, you can pick up all the supplies you’ll need at BornPrettyStore. If you enter the code ‘AZYW10’ at checkout, you’ll receive a 10% discount off all full priced items!

BornPrettyStore: Multicoloured Mixed Studs…

So next up for review are these mixed, multicoulour studs. Yeah I know, I previously said that studs were quite a boring thing to review but when I saw the amazing colours I knew immediately I wanted to sprinkle them all over my nails!

The little tub is fantastic – it contains 3 shapes and 11 colours which you just can’t get in a regular nail wheel. Yes you have to fish for them but I found tipping some out made the process of picking them up so much easier.

In the tub you get;
Circles – dark blue, light blue, light purple and dark purple.
Squares – dark pink, light pink, green, yellow/green.
Rounded rhombus – peach, orange, light green, yellow.

The backs are slightly concave, and they’re small enough to sit flat on even my most curved nails. With a top coat added they don’t stick out or catch on anything, thank goodness!

I think they’re going to be really useful for bright summer designs, and they even pop on just plain black. The one tub gives such a fantastic range of studs for such great value that I’d recommend them to anyone who has the patience to do the fishing out.

If you fancy trying them out, remember to use my code ‘AZYW10’ which will get you 10% off any full priced items at the BornPrettyStore checkout!