BornPrettyStore: Spring Butterflies…

So I couldn’t resist returning to the butterfly water decals* from Born Pretty Store. I felt the first time I used them I just didn’t do them justice, my back ground was wrong and they just didn’t pop! I went for a more colourful sponged background where I just mooshed some colours together, it turned out well. I can’t get over how pretty the actual butterflies are though! The small green and blue ones are definitely my favourite. I then applied a light glitter top coat because it just looked as if it needed to sparkle. I certainly prefer this version.

Born Pretty Store Blue Wing Butterfly Water Decals
Born Pretty Store Blue Wing Butterfly Water Decals
Pre-Glitter top coat.
Pre-Glitter top coat.

*supplied by born pretty store free of charge for review

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Flower Outlines…

So this design uses one of my new Models Own polishes I bought while on holiday. It’s an amazing chunky glitter mix consisting of silver, gold and pink glitters/flakes, called ‘Hot Stuff’. I loved it as a base so much (three coats over no base colour) that I decided I didn’t want to hide it under very much. I painted some flower outlines as they seemed to suit the girly and fresh feel of the polish – that sounds way too arty farty sorry. Being honest, my mum didn’t believe I had actually painted the flowers myself, which is a fantastic compliment but sometimes people look at you as if you’re a lair. Anyone else have issues with people not believing your nails are your own work?

Flower Outlines

BornPrettyStore: Butterfly Water Decals…

So I was interested in trying out these water decals from Born Pretty Store just because they were so dang cheap! When I had a look at the decals* in the packet, I was at first a little worried about how they would look on my nails as they appeared to have a very noticeable ‘outline’ (you can sort of see it where my flash has reflected off of them). I worried in case it was going to make them look really stuck on, and possibly even curl with a top coat. However, they applied like a dream – no visible outline nor top-coat curling! Hooray!

As for the application – they are free of mess and so easy to apply! All you need are the decals, a tub of warmish water, tweezers, scissors and a tissue.
-You cut round the desired butterfly and peel off the transparent protective layer.
– Dunk the butterfly right under the water, and let it drown there.
– I waited around 15 seconds, using my tweezers to pick it back out of the water, and checked if the decal could be slid off the backing paper. (If not put it back in)
– I then placed the decal onto my nails, you can move them around a bit before they ‘set’ due to a little bit of water still being on them.
– Then once in the desired position, with the tissue I lightly pressed down the decal and dabbed up the excess water therefore ‘sticking’ the decal to my nail.
– Topcoat!

The instructions on the back of the packet talk about ‘blow drying’ and actually feature an illustration of someone holding a hairdryer to their nails, my nails never went anywhere near one and they still turned out great so….
The decals themselves are also a really nice size, I managed to get two onto my smallest nails and they do come in several sizes which is even better! And there’s still plenty left for another design.

Remember to use the code ‘AZYW10’ for 10% off your Born Pretty Store order.


*The decals were provided to me free of charge in return for a review on my blog.

St. Patrick’s Day…

This year, it’s going to be pretty quiet. For the last 4 years, I celebrated it at uni which meant literally a whole days drinking. Now I’m out in the ‘real world’ I actually have work today…
I wanted to keep the design pretty general I didn’t want to be too paddy’s day specific, so tried to keep it quite springish looking too. 

St. Patricks Day

Spring Clouds…

We’ve had some snow recently, everything felt really fresh and sunny afterwards – even though there was a bitter wind. The straggling clouds inspired me to do this design, and I added some birds so as not to be too boring.

Clouds and Birds
Before the birds, still quite a cute simple design. Fresh enough for spring, if it ever gets here…

Cloud Nail Art

Spring Flowers!…

I started painting these like 15mins before Shameless was about to start, so everything was painted on top of everything else whilst still wet and rushed. I managed to finish in time to catch the start! (At the expense of my mum having wonky flowers but hey ho).

I’d like to say spring has sprung, but it was foggy as anything this morning with a hard frost. My daffodils haven’t even bloomed yet….

(And yes, I’m still using my phone as a camera)
Spring Flowers