Floral deer decals…

So I wanted something on my nails but couldn’t be bothered to paint any nail art, so I grabbed some water decals. This one is from a big sheet of animal decals from BornPrettyStore which I’ve previously reviewed here. It’s a pretty handy set as it includes 120 ‘nails’ and includes several kinds of animals in all different colours so there’s something for every occasion.

Anyway, I went with an accent nail and tried colour match it’s base as best as I could, then added some dried flowers for a little extra.

Advertisement

French (bulldog) manicure..

So with the weather being amazing lately I felt like I wanted something bright and fun to adorn my nails. I delved in to my nail art supplies and came out with gemstones, glitter and some adorable French Bulldog water decals. Perfect! I then resorted to picking two of my favourite Barry M polishes so favoured that the names have worn off…

So which do you prefer? Pink or green?

Born Pretty Store: Chameleon Gel…

So I have a UV lamp but haven’t used many UV Gel products so I was interested to try out the ‘Chameleon Sequins Gel BP-08‘ that BornPrettyStore sent to me to review. There’s only 3g of gel in the little tub which doesn’t look much at first but actually there’s plenty.

I started off with a black base then applied two coats of the gel, curing in between. For application I used a small flat brush as I felt it would pick up the Chameleon sequins better than a pointed brush. Even though it’s described as ‘sequins’, I’d probably call it a chameleon flakie.

Those colours though, right?!
❤

It really is beautiful and it was worth doing two coats of gel as I think it helps add a bit of depth. I sealed in all in with a no wipe UV gel top coat.

As pretty as it is alone, I thought it made a fitting base for some basic galaxy decoration. What do yous think?

If you would like to order this Gel or anything else from BornPrettyStore feel free to use my code AZYW10 at the check out to receive 10% off all your full priced items.

BornPrettyStore: Fish BP-151

So I’ve not written a review in ages! Today I’m showing you a fish themed stamping plate from BornPrettyStore. Have a little look at the following pictures and let’s play ‘One of these things is not like the others’.

Did you get it right? Why on earth has a unicorn been included, bizarre. There is actually a fish called a Unicorn Tang but it certainly doesn’t look like that. (I suppose you could argue that jellyfish aren’t fish but at least it’s related in the name and live in the sea.)

Anyway, the fish images are pretty usable and picked up crisply. They lend themselves well to reverse stamping if that’s your bag but if it’s not don’t worry as they can also be used just as effectively for as stamp-and-go images.

However, if you have quite long nails I think you’d struggle to cover them with just one image. I think you’d have to pick up the image twice and try to do some sort of over-lap. I have naturally long nails without have long growth (if that makes sense) and the images were close to being too small to cover mine. Also, as beautiful as the central goldfish is I didn’t have much practical use for it as it’s massive!

Enough nit-picking, who’s ready for some nail art example;

So which was your favourite? If you fancy trying out some fish-related designs the plate is currently on sale for only $1.59 and free shipping! Should you happen to add anything else to your basket, use my code AZYW10 at the checkout to receive 10% off all your full priced items.

Smile, it’s almost Halloween…

So these smiling skulls definitely resemble a certain skellington to me? Also with the colour combo I’ve chosen it seems to have turned out more Chirstmas than nightmare. Oh well!

This image is yet again from BornPrettyStore plate BP-L057 (reviewed here)

Reverse stamped spookies…

So I just cannot pose with my left hand, how embarrassing! I was only able to achieve any sort of design on it due to using reverse stamping meaning my right hand only had to perform basic tasks. Even then it still managed to smudge the spookies upon top-coating. I think I’ll just stick to painting my right hand from now on…

BornPrettyStore: Halloween Stamping Plate BP-L057

So just in time for Halloween this rectangle stamping plate has lots of spooky (and not so spooky) images to use. It was sent to me by BornPrettyStore and even though you wouldn’t receive it in time for Halloween this year it is half price at the moment.

Fortunately it isn’t a one trick pony, it’s not all witches and pumpkins. I feel it has a nice balance of themed vs normal images. The obvious example of ‘usable’ images would be the skulls as they’re not soley related to Halloween. (I also include the spider webs, cats and bats within this category.)

Skulls were the first image I chose to stamp. I used my BornPrettyStore stamping polish and clear mallow stamping head and as you can see they came out pretty crisp! The plate didn’t need much prepping, I think this was actually only the second or third scrape before it picked up this strongly. Not bad huh?

I also used a second skull image to demonstrate that it’s easy enough to isolate a single element and use that. This one is a little patchy but that could be due to a few reasons; not enough polish, not prepped enough, clumsy scraping. To be honest though I think it kind of adds to the whole effect! (I love the fact he’s already missing a few teeth.)

And ta-da, the design as a whole! Not so Halloweeny right?

So now let’s actually get on to what the plate was designed for – Halloween! I chose another ‘stamp and go’ image, this time some skeleton cats. Some of them picked up better than others, again maybe the plate needed more prepping or I needed to use more polish.

I thought it was quite a playful image (I can’t have anything too spooky on my nails as I work with children) so felt that a neon ombre would be a twist on tradition too. What do you think?

Over the next week I’ll be using this plate again to bring you some more Halloween nails! If you order anything from BornPrettyStore, use my code ‘AZYW10’ at the checkout to save yourself 10% off all full priced items and remember free shipping. This plate is already half price, so go for it!

BornPrettyStore: Peacock Powder…

So today I’m going to show you some ‘Peacock Holo Powder‘ in option LG-04 (sent to me by BornPrettyStore). But if you follow me on Instagram this’ll be no surprise as you’ve already had a sneak peak at it!

The powder comes in a screw-cap tub within a little bag, and at first I was shocked by how little there was – I genuinely thought it hadn’t been filled properly. But! Upon looking again at the description it does state 0.2g so actually that’s about right.

You will need a no-wipe gel top coat to be able to use this powder as it won’t ‘stick’ to normal polish. I gave mine top coat 25 seconds curing time leaving it just very slightly tacky but safe enough to touch without leaving marks. It is also suggested that the powder be applied on top of black polish so that’s what I did.

It’s beautifully smooth and a little goes a long way, I can see why 0.2g is a perfectly acceptable amount now. I can also understand why it’s full description is ‘Peacock Holographic Chameleon Mirror Chrome Powder‘, what a mouthful right BUT LOOK AT THOSE COLOURS! It displays all of those qualities;

I decided to test it on a lighter colour and it still works perfectly well! It gives it a slightly different under tone. (To reiterate just make sure you’re applying the powder to a no-wipe gel polish or regular polish that’s been gel top coated.) Unlike other chrome powders I’ve tried, this one is very easy to control. It’s not as messy in it’s application meaning it doesn’t end up sticking to your skin or cuticles – no clean up, no latex barrier bonus!

I chose to top coat the powder with my usual, Seche Vite, which has a terrible habit of melting metalics, foils and chromes but it did an amazing job at staying strong. If anything top coating the powder made it sparkle and holo even more, you can’t deny that that shine ^ is awesome.

For one last test I chose to use a blue base. I think you could have a lot of fun trailing this powder on loads of different colours, and I don’t think any of them would come out dissapointing. Has anyone else used this powder, what were your results?

I really could have sat and looked at my nails all day. The ‘Peacock Powder‘ is amazing and it looks exactly as it’s described. At first the 0.2g may seem disappointing but a little goes a long way, it applies well and it’s at a very reasonable price.

LOOK AT THOSE COLOURS! (But ignore the fluff, whoops…)

If you’d like to try this product or anything else from BornPrettyStore, use my code AZYW10 to receive 10% off any full priced items in your order.

Folded Fox…

So I thought this mani turned out super cute, but unfortunately it got chipped after only like 2.5 seconds of arriving in to work. Why do the pretty manis never survive yet ugly ones seem indestructible – it’s not fair!

The fox is from an amazing BornPrettyStore plate. Why is it amazing? Because it has so many usable images and I’ve previously reviewed it here, it’s definitely worth purchasing.

BornPrettyStore: Cute Animal Plate…

So I’ve not written a review in a long long time, apologies! Genuinely, does everyone still find my reviews interesting or at least inspirational?

I received this ‘Cute Animal stamping plate‘ from BornPrettyStore and there are some seriously cute patterns to use. A lot of them are ‘stamp and go’ meaning there’s no need to faff about with reverse stamping and the likes so it’s perfect for pros and beginners alike.

Being a bit of a dinosaur fan, it was an easy call as to which image I was going to use first. I created a very simple background, using scrunched up tinfoil to dab polish on to the green base and started to stamp with the dinosaur image. It only took two practice pick-ups for the plate to warm-up (it’s kind of like breaking in new shoes), meaning what you see below is the third: how crisp is that!

Granted, I was using Konad stamping polish meaning it’s highly pigmented but still pretty impressive especially the dinos tails, spikes and horns.

The next image I chose to use on the plate was one that I could use create a stamping decal with. The rabbits seemed pretty fun, and I like the addition of the broccoli and carrots – cute! Some of the finer lines on the rabbits faces were a little trickier to pick up but nothing too noticeable once it’s on the nail.

Pretty cute huh? This is another example of a BornPrettyStore plate that’s suitable for a variety of themes/holidays. For example rabbits for easter, penguins for winter, hedgehogs for autumn and bats for Halloween.

The last design I created was again a quick stamp and go one, featuring some giraffes. Now on the plate the giraffes are actually part of a pattern, but I chose to discard the surplus animals leaving one on the stamping head at a time. Just because an image is etched in a certain way doesn’t mean you need to use it as such!

If you feel like trying this plate out for yourself, remember to use my code ‘AZYW10’ to receive 10% off any full priced items in your order. The plate is currently (31/7) half price and BornPrettyStore does free shipping so why not go for it!