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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A Mermaid’s Treasures…

So here’s the design that I created with the three polishes from my ‘A Mermaid’s Life‘ set, displaying how well they work together. Isn’t it just beautiful! I found them so pretty that they became a serious driving hazard. I used ‘A Mermaid’s Tale’ as the base, then coated them in  ‘A Mermaid’s Tears’, finally painting them with ‘A Mermaid’s Dream’ in an ombre style. The pearls and sea-life studs are from BornPrettyStore.

It’s got such a beautiful depth to it, and is super shiny in reality. I’ve actually been wearing them since Wednesday because I can’t bear to take them off. They are also surprisingly chip free, considering I’ve cleaned out my four guineapigs, water changed my 6 fish tanks and been in the pool teaching.

Below shows my layering of the polishes before the additions. It’s a weird one because in the photos the base (A Mermaid’s Tale) looks a lot more blue than it is, it definitely has green and gold tones.

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?

 

Tip Top Nails Competition – ‘Pond Water’…

So Tip Top Nails are holding an international nail art competition. You have to do a design with an accent nail using only use three polishes, here comes the twist, chosen by a male in your life. How fun! The other few rules are that stamping is discouraged as they want to see skills, and no acrylic paint! Which is awesome as I don’t yet use acrylic paint. One entry per person and it closes on 31st August. Check it out!

I let my boyfriend chose the polishes, these were his choices. I was like ‘Ooohh dear…’ – two are pretty samey, one’s my favourite polish which I use all the time, and the sinful colors green stains!  Eeep!

With me having plenty of time to pick a design for the contest, I thought it would be good fun to do a whole week of designs just using those three colours, then decide which one I’m actually going to submit. As an added extra I’m also letting my boyfriend name the design. I obviously know what I’m going for but it might be quite interesting to see what he sees.  Here’s what he said about this one;

“It looks a bit like planet earth, like looking down from space because the lighter bits look like clouds.”

Therefore, what did he call it? ‘Pond water’…. Which didn’t relate to what he’d just told me, but it was cool because that’s what I saw. I sort of saw this underwater scene with the sponged nails, so added a mermaid-esk accent nail.

Fish Scale…

I really wanted to use my new glitter nail varnish in a non-tacky way, so decided to go for some glittery fish-scales. I used the end of cotton buds to randomly do the imperfect spots, then coated them with the glitter. I quite like it, if I do say so myself!