BPS Review: Bunny Water Decal Skittlette

As I mentioned in my last post, I have an affinity for the water decals from Born Pretty Store.  This is one such set of water decals that were so cute, I just couldn't resist trying!

The mint polish is two coats of Miss Ashleigh A Pastel Experi-Mint, the white is LVX Fantom, and the gold glitter is Orly Halo.  The water decals were awesome to apply, as per usual!  The bow decoration on my thumb is also from Born Pretty Store; you can find them at BPS here, and see my original review here. 

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.   Even though I'm questioning what the bunnies on these decals are actually doing, they're quite cute and I thoroughly enjoyed wearing this mani; I kept it on for three whole days!  What do you think? :)

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion. 

Born Pretty Store Review: 3D Rhinestones

When browsing though nail art supplies on Born Pretty Store I usually gravitate towards the water decals, but I figured I should try something different this time and picked these rhinestone decorations instead.  

I started with two thin coats of LaCC 1997, blocked off the stripes with striping tape, and painted the rest with LaCC 1973.  I added the large rhinestone decorations with a dot of nail glue, and attached the smaller rhinestones with top coat.  The 3D decorations felt decently secure on my thumb nail since it's less curved than my other nails, but the flat back of the decoration on my middle finger nail wasn't quite as secure, as the edges poked out quite a bit.  They managed to last through a couple hours of the evening, until I took them off to shower before bed.  

I must admit that I'm not the biggest fan of these, they looked very cheap and plastic-y compared to other 3D decorations I've tried from BPS, and I was wishing they were just a big more sparkly.  However, the opal colours in the oval one were quite pretty!  

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.  What do you think of this mani?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

Born pretty Store Review: Maru Water Decal Skittle

Today is the first day of my summer program; I'm super excited to see what the next 5 weeks will hold!

I've got this fun skittle mani to show you today which features these water decals from Born Pretty Store.  Take a look!

The polishes I used are LVX Fantom (white), LaCC 1999 (black), and Barry M Greenberry (turquoise).  I started with three thin coats of Fantom on all nails, and then taped off and painted each nail besides my pinky, for which I sponged on a gradient.  Once my bases were all top-coated and dry, I went ahead and applied the water decals.  No troubles here, they were perfectly easy to use!  The water decals are topped with a coat of LaCC 2013 top coat.  

I really love the range and quantity of graphic designs on this water decal sheet, especially the rows of x's and o's, so cute!  I'm really tempted to do an entire mani with just the designs on my middle and pinky fingers...  

Don't forget to use my code PPJ61 to get 10% off your order.  Will you be ordering some of these water decals?  What do you think of this mani?  Let me know in the comments!  :) 

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion. 

LaCC Floral Nail Art & BPS Gold Studs

Good morning!  As I mentioned in Saturday's post, I was super excited to do some nail art with the new LaCC Spring/Summer releases.  This was the first design that I came up with, and I knew it would look awesome accented with these nail art studs from Born Pretty Store.

I started with three thin coats of LaCC 1992, one of my favourite light pink/nude polishes ever!  Next, I freehanded the roses using a few LaCC purples: the new shade 1997 for the main part, 1973 for the darker outlines, and a bit of 1972 for some more dimension.  Once that was dry, I taped over the flowery halves of my nails and painted the other half in the new shade 1969.  I also added some leaves on the flowers in the same green to tie it together.   All nails were topped with two coats of LaCC 2013 top coat. 

I was going to attach the studs with nail glue, but upon grabbing mine I discovered it had glued itself shut... I tried all I could but it wasn't budging, so out of necessity I just attached them with dots of Seche Vite.  They're pretty large so they didn't stay on very long that way, but I'm sure they'd stay on a lot better with nail glue!  

You can buy these gold studs here from Born Pretty Store.  Don't forget to use my coupon code above for 10% off!

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

Born Pretty Store Review: Bow Nail Art Decoration

Good morning!  I've got these super cute bow decorations from Born Pretty Store to show you today.  

I used two coats of Miss Ashleigh My Merlot Made Me Do It (swatch), and stuck on the decorations with some top coat.  I put two coats of Seche Vite on top, but the edges somehow still managed to poke up a bit; nothing too terrible though.  I just think these tiny bows are absolutely adorable!  :)  

You can order them online here, design K90, and don't forget to use the above code for 10% off.  

Disclaimer: The products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

Born Pretty Store Review: Fox 3D Charm

I've got another nail art product to share with you today; it's this super cute fox 3D charm which you can find here, #162.  

I started this mani with three thin coats of piCture pOlish Honey Dew, one of my absolute favourite polishes for spring and summer.  I attached the 3D charm with a dollop of Seche Vite as I was just wearing it for an evening out, however if I was planning on wearing it for longer I would have secured it with a dot of nail glue.  I felt as though my other nails needed a little something more, so I added silver rhinestones from a Sally Hansen I <3 Nail Art kit.  

Unfortunately the charm isn't curved so the edges do stick out quite a bit, but the little fox is just so cute that I'm willing to put up with that!  :P 

You can purchase this charm through Born Pretty Store here.  Use the code PPJ61 to get 10% off your entire order!  Are you as in love with this little fox charm as I am?  :)

Products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinion. 

Born Pretty Store Review: Oil Painting Water Decals

Today I've got a mani to show you, which features some water decals from Born Pretty Store.  These are the oil painting water decals, and they've got some beautiful designs to choose from.  Of course I chose pattern QQ-88, because it's a ballerina! 

Unfortunately I obviously didn't fully look through the description, because I received one big water decal (approximately 4.5x5.5cm) instead of the expected smaller individual-nail decals.  I was also disappointed by the fact that a large corner of the decal was unusable, because the white rectangles with the pattern number on them are actually on the decals themselves.  I was a bit sad that I wouldn't be able to get the whole dancer on my nail, but I plugged away in pencil on the back of the decals where I was going to cut pieces out for each nail.  I lay down two coats of LVX Fantom on all nails, and set to work applying the water decals.

As you can see, I only ended up with two nails actually covered in the decals.  These two were cut out from the edges of the decal, while all of the pieces I had cut out of the dancer in the center refused to stick to my nail.  I soaked them in water to remove from the backing, and the images were still stiff.  No amount of soaking would soften them up, and they wouldn't stick to top coat on my nail, or "shrink" onto my nail when I applied top coat over them, like what usually happens.  After trying again and again (there's only so many pieces you can cut out of the decal) I had to give up getting decals on the rest of my nails.  

I removed the rest of the white bases, and stuck on two coats of OPI Russian Navy, followed by a coat of Essie As Gold as it Gets for some more visual interest.  All nails are topped with a coat of Seche Vite. 

You can use the code PPJ61 for 10% off your entire order!  

You can purchase this product through Born Pretty Store here.  Despite my slight disappointment and frustration with the decals, I still really love how the final slightly-improvised mani came out!  I've had nothing but good experiences when using water decals from Born Pretty Store before, so I'm really not sure what was up with this one.  What do you think of the finished look?

Products in this post were provided for review and my honest opinon.  

Winstonia Store Review: 3D Nail Art Charm #28

Good morning!  Today I've got a nail art product to share which was a first for me: 3D charms!  

For this mani, I used piCture pOlish Peaches n' Cream and Honey Dew as my base colours.  After a coat of Seche Vite, I glued on the rhinestone bow with a dot of nail glue; it was super easy!  

I decided to stamp polka-dots on the rest of my nails, because they look so cute with the bow!  I stamped in Konad white polish with Born Pretty Store plate m79.  Those nails are also topped with a coat of Seche Vite. 

As you can see, the bow is pretty large and sticks off my nail quite a bit.  However, the bottom is curved to allow it to sit on the nail bed more closely.  Once it was glued on, it actually felt quite sturdy and secure; it lasted for the entire afternoon and evening after applying (even through grocery shopping!) until I loosened the glue with acetone and pried it off before showering.  

As long as you're careful with them, these charms are reusable.  Despite being somewhat impractical for everyday wear, I think that this rhinestone bow makes such a cute addition to a mani for a special occasion!   

You can find this 3D nail art charm on the Winstonia Store here; this is design #28.  I have one more 3D nail art charm to show you too, so keep an eye out for that post *probably* tomorrow morning! 

Have you tried 3D charms on your nails before?  Would you?  Thoughts - let me hear them!  :)  

Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent for review and my honest opinion. 

Candy Canes

I'm back after a (long-than-anticipated) Christmas hiatus to show you my Christmas day nail art, and I've included a quick tutorial at the end of the post!  :)

I started with 2 coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and a coat of Seche Vite to speed up the drying.  After taping off stripes, I used Essie Macks for the red and topped the whole look off with two more coats of Seche Vite to smooth out the stripes.  

I say that this was my Christmas day mani, when in reality it only lasted the first part of the day.  Of course, thanks to Christmas and review packages arriving, I now have an obscene amount of untried polishes (and a storage rack!) so I had to paint my nails on Christmas day! 

Here's a quick picture tutorial for this look; it's pretty self-explanatory since I mainly made it to post on Instagram, but if you have any questions just leave a comment! 

My pile of untried and to-review indies has grown to the size of Mount Doom, so I'm planning to do a month of everyday indie polish posts.  I usually post sporadically so posting every day will be a challenge, but I'm really looking forward to it!  I hope you'll follow me along the way!  :) 

Goldeneye Stripe

A quick post today with a mani I did a couple weeks ago using OPI Goldeneye and black striping tape from the Born Pretty Store.

I used 3 coats of Goldeneye, followed by the striping tape and one coat of Seche Vite.  The formula on Goldeneye is pretty easy to apply, but is such a pain to clean up and remove due to the foil finish.  

I really like this polish, the shade of gold is very flattering and I love the foil finish!  

We've seen a few similar polishes in other holiday collections this year; do you have any?  Which one is your favourite?  :)

Silver Stripes

Good morning!  If you read my blog with any sort of regularity, you'll know that I LOVE stripes.  Until now I had always just cut my own strips of tape, which was unpleasantly tedious and time-consuming.  I don't know why it's taken me so long to get some striping tape, but now that I have it I'm never looking back!

I got a 12-pack of striping tape from the Born Pretty Store.  Each roll holds a lot of tape, and even with my affinity for stripes I think it'll be a long time before I run out!  For this manicure I started with two coats of my brand-smackin'-new Butter London Big Smoke. (While I was away my mom got me three Butter Londons, and they are also my first, which makes me a wee bit excited.)  The formula on Big Smoke was absolutely flawless.  I topped that with one coat of Seche Vite before adding the stripes. 

I put on the stripes by cutting pieces of tape that were longer than my nail, placing them on, and then cutting them to length at the edges of my nails using nippers. I topped it with two more coats of Seche Vite and it was still a little bumpy, but nothing that bothered me.

The tape stripes lasted surprisingly well.  After the second full day of wear some of the edges started poking up, but I was able to make it three full days with near-perfect stripes!

You can use my coupon code below at checkout at the Born Pretty Store for 7% off your order.  They have a ton of great nail art supplies for really good prices, and free worldwide shipping! 

I also wanted to let you know that a couple days ago my blog passed 10,000 pageviews, and I have over 2000 followers on Instagram!  Woohoo!  Thank you guys so much for all your support!  :)


Disclaimer: The products in this post were sent to me for review and my honest opinion.