Born Pretty Store Nail Stickers Review

Press Sample

I enjoy doing nail art, but sometimes I just want something easy and cute that looks good but takes very little effort. A while back I received these cute nail stickers from Born Pretty Store for review and they are the perfect accent to a mani when you don't have time (or energy) for nail art.

All of the stickers are adorable, but I love the diamonds sooo much! I decided to use a couple of  them over ORLY Fight On and Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter. After using a glue basecoat to assist with glitter removal, I did one layer of Pinky Glitter, one layer of Fight On, one layer of Pinky Glitter and one last layer of Fight On and then put two diamond stickers on the accent nail and top coated. The effect is extremely cute!

The stickers are light and thin and quite flexible so they lay very flat on the nail.Some nail stickers can curl up at the edges or feel raised, but these just felt nice and smooth under top coat. They stayed on perfectly the whole time I wore this mani and I will definitely be using the rest of the sheet! They are super, super cute and only 99c for one sheet of stickers.

Are you a nail sticker girl, or do you prefer to do more intricate nail art? I like doing both! :)

Check out some pretty nail art, nail art products and more on Born Pretty and use my coupon code "FBB10" for discounts!

Pink Hearts Valentine's Day Nail Art

I Bought This


I had been struggling to come up with something for my Valentine's nails, but decided to stick with some tried and true themes: pink and hearts! Add a polka dot style pattern and glitter and voilà! Instant Valentine's Day nails.

The polishes I used are OPI Bubble Bath, Sinful Colors Pink Forever, Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter and white acrylic paint for the white accents.

What I did step-by-step:

1. 1 coat of ORLY Bonder base coat
2. 1 coat of OPI Bubble Bath on my index and middle finger and 2 coats of Sinful Colors Pink Forever on the other nails.
3. I used Pink Forever and painted heart shaped tips on my index and middle fingers. Rinse and repeat, this needs 2 coats to be even.
4. I put 1 coat of Sinful Colors Pinky Glitter over Pink Forever to give it some extra sparkle.
5. I then used a toothpick and white acrylic paint to trace around the heart shapes on my index and middle fingers.
6.  I attempted something I've never done before, which is using a toothpick to make little hearts and did a polka dot style on my ring and pinky fingers. You do 2 dots next to each other and then draw them both down in a v and connect them to make a heart. It's quite simple and looks cute!
7. I drew a heart on my thumb with the white acrylic paint.
8. Waited a few minutes to let the acrylic paint dry a little and then applied 1 coat of KB Shimmer Clearly on Top top coat applied generously to avoid smearing the nail art.

I'm really loving this, since it appeals to my love for all things pink and cute. I'm definitely doing the polka dot hearts again, since it's easy (although time consuming!) and acrylic paint just makes it that much easier. Whether this will last until Valentine's Day is another story, but if I get bored, I might just come up with something cuter :p

Show me your Valentine's (or Anti-Valentine's) manis!

OPI Bubble Bath + Gold Shimmer + Glitter Gradient Nails

I Bought This

Just wanted to share my recent mani with you all. I bought OPI Bubble Bath from a girl who was selling a bunch of polish and wanted to try it out, so I put on 2 coats and LOVED the result. The shiny, sheer beautiful nude shade is to die for! But of course I couldn't leave it like that, so I did a coat of Sinful Colors 24 Karat which is a lux gold shimmer, and then applied loose iridescent glitter in a sort of gradient.

I'm so in love with the result and I can definitely see this being a beautiful look for any time of the year. Nude and glitter are so perfect for each other and a combo that I find myself using time and time again.

What's your go to mani that suits all the seasons?

White and Neon Nails with Born Pretty Neon Nail Studs

Press Sample I Bought This

I love the look of neon for Summer. It looks so bright, fresh and fun, perfect for the beach or a Summer pool party! One of my favourite combinations is white and neon nail art, every time I have this colour combo on I can't stop staring at my nails it's THAT gorgeous and eye-catching. I was lucky enough to get to try out these neon nail studs from Born Pretty, so I decided to try them on a white base. The white gives a clean backdrop for the neon to really pop and looks amazing against tanned Summer skin (do you think I said 'Summer' enough yet?).

The nail studs come in 6 different eye-popping colours and 2 shapes, circles and stars. I really love the look of these and will definitely be using them a lot this Summer! They are slightly raised, but sit flat on the nail and are perfectly sealed with one coat of top coat. They stayed put for 5 days until I got twitchy and picked them off =_=;; I have that problem with anything that isn't completely smooth on my nails. One thing I did notice is if I didn't do a thick coat of top coat, the nail stud's color scraped off a little if I knocked it against something. On one of my nails I hadn't done a very thick coat, so it got a little scrape on the stud which showed through silver. The other studs on the rest of my nails were perfectly fine though.

For this manicure I did 3 coats of Sinful Colors Snow Me White on all nails except my ring finger, which had 3 coats of ORLY Mayhem Mentality. I then used Kiss Nail Art Paint Beach Purple to paint the triangle on my ring finger and topped it all off with the Born Pretty studs. I did a thick coat of top coat and was done! This is one of my favourite manis to date, and SO bright that even my dad noticed my nails when we were Skyping. I think I'll be using the white/neon combo a lot throughout Summer and possibly even into Fall if I can get away with it :p

Check out some pretty nail art, nail art products and more on Born Pretty and use my coupon code "FBB10" for discounts!

New Year's Eve nails. Super fierce, glitter gradient.

Blam! I give you, a glitter bomb.

Essie Stroke of Brilliance exploded all over my nails, and I think this look would be killer for NYE.

I actually did this mani a while ago, when I still had my fierce-ass claw-tip stilettos. If I could, I would go back to that nail shape, but claw-tips and new baby don't mix well. For this glitter gradient, I used 2 coats of Sinful Colors Social Ladder as a base and dabbed Stroke of Brilliance onto the tips, waited for it to dry and then worked my way up the nail, dabbing and stroking the glitter into place. I did about 3 coats of glitter, then 2 coats of topcoat to smooth everything out and voilà!

I was actually testing out the Elmer's glue peel off base coat for the first time, so my edges are a little rough. Otherwise  I love love LOVE this mani. Stroke of Brilliance is such a perfect party glitter without being super over the top, like a can of confetti threw up on my nails. You feel me? I may just have to recreate this for my New Year's nails, albeit without the claws.

$OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat: 3 different nail looks.

As you may know, Sephora by OPI ($OPI) jumped on the bandwagon with the whole Real Gold Leaf top coat craze. The difference with this top coat is that the gold leaf pieces are smaller and finer than a lot of the others.

 

I really like the look of this top coat and have worn it over a few different shades to see how I prefer it.  Check out the nail looks I did with the gold leaf top coat below :)

Sinful Colors Social Ladder with 1 coat $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat

Color Zone unnamed blue polish with 1 coat $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat on accent nail

Essie Stylenomics with 2 coats $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat on accent nail

The gold flakes definitely stand out most against the darker polish, but I love the subtle glow it gives the pearly lighter shade and the vibrant look it has against the bright blue. If you prefer a finer look for your gold leaf, this one is definitely the way to go. I think of all the gold leaf top coats I prefer the look of this one and Zoya Gilty, as they aren't as chunky as the others. The $OPI It's Real 18K Gold Top Coat is on sale on the Sephora website for $15 and I've heard some people picked it up at the JC Penny Sephora for only $8!

I think these are gorgeous for the holiday season, but I have a hard time using it, knowing it's actual gold!! I just want to hoard it lol. I'm glad this one came down to $15, because I felt more justified in buying it.

Have you fallen into the Gold Leaf top coat frenzy?

Sinful Colors Cinderella and Fergie by Wet n Wild Flossy Flossy

I am so late in posting this manicure, but better late than never.

Today is World Diabetes Day and there are a few bloggers posting blue manicures to raise awareness!

I decided to use the beautiful Sinful Colors Cinderella with an accent nail topped with Fergie by WnW Flossy Flossy. Both of these polishes are beautiful, but both have application issues :(

Cinderella is a gorgeous sky blue with a pink shimmer running through it. Unfortunately it applies streaky and uneven and usually takes 3-4 coats to get it opaque and even then it looks slightly yellow at the tips because it's sheer. Flossy Flossy is such a pretty glitter, but the glitter is sparse and pools at the tips so you have to place it... and then you have to be really careful placing it because it gets air bubbles if you mess with it too much! Overall, these two polishes are a bit of a PITA to apply, but they look pretty.

Have you tried any of the other Fergie polishes? I like the look of them, but if they all have similar application issues I might have to skip them :(

Polish Days - Geometry themed nail art

Hurrah for my first Tape Mani!!

I've been wanting to try out a tape mani for a while now, so this Polish Days theme of Geometry gave me a perfect excuse :)

Here's a list of the polishes I used:
Essie Van D'Go
Zoya Chloe
Sinful Colors Open Seas
Spoiled by WnW Designated Driver
Kiss Nail Art Paint Gold Glitter

I had a lot of fun doing this mani and learned what NOT to do when using tape...... Mainly, don't assume after 5 minutes that the polish dry enough to put tape on top of.... it's not =_= You might have noticed I changed my nail shape. I'm REALLY loving the 'stiletto' shape right now, it's super fierce! What's your favourite nail shape?

Check out some of the other Polish Days - Polish Geometry posts!

Saran Wrap Nails - Mint & Purple.

Hello, hello.

Meant to post this yesterday, but omfg I needed to catch up on some sleep. Between a long ass day at the OC Fair, super loud meowing cats and kids rolling onto each other's beds and waking each other up at 2am, I have been utterly exhausted the past 3 days. I managed to have a nap yesterday afternoon when I was supposed to be writing this up, thank heavens for Netflix...... distracted the kids so I could doze (in the same room) brokenly though, as they constantly jump on the bed and climb on me lol.

ANYWAY, I saw this tutorial for Saran Wrap nails on Nailed It and just had to try it. I have been wanting to do water marbling for a while now, but I cringe at the thought of clean up afterwards, so I had been avoiding it. This alternative is gorgeous and a lot less messy!

As a base, I used ORLY Bonder, then 2 coats of Wet n Wild French White Creme.

I used one coat of Sinful Colors Open Seas on my index and middle fingers, Confetti Belle of the Ball on my ring and pinky fingers and gave them the Saran Wrap treatment. Topcoat is Kiss Me Nail Mente topcoat.

I really like how it turned out, it reminds me of a watercolour painting :) I might try a pastel over a pastel next time, to enhance that dreamy, impressionist effect. The best part is, it's sooooo easy to do! If you've been feeling a bit daunted about trying water marbling, or toothpick nail art, try this. I guarantee you can't mess it up (ok, please don't hold me to that...). I would recommend doing a thick coat of nail polish and quickly using the saran wrap while it is still quite wet. If you wait too long, the polish gets tacky and doesn't lift away from the base coat very well.

I'm having a lot of fun trying out new nail art and getting lots of inspiration from some very talented nail bloggers!

Have you tried this style before? Does it look like something you think you could attempt?

Yellow and Pink Dotted Gradient Nails.

Good morning :)

One of my favourite nail blogs is Chalkboard Nails. She always posts beautiful nail art and polish swatches and her ideas are super innovative. I got the idea for this dotted gradient mani from a post she did last month called 'Gradient Dot Manicure'. Her original version is absolutely stunning and I can only aspire to acheive that level of perfection ;) Practice makes perfect! I still have a little ways to go.

I wanted to do something fun and bright, playing on the two accent nail trend that's going on at the moment.

Natural indoor light.

2 coats of Spoiled by Wet n Wild Designated Driver on my index and middle fingers, with dots of Sinful Colors Star Fish and Wet n Wild French White Creme. 2 coats of Sinful Colors Star Fish on my ring and pinky fingers, with dots of Spoiled by Wet n Wild Designated Driver and Wet n Wild French White Creme. Top coat is Kiss Me NAIL MENTE Top Coat which is a great quick dry TC that gives the look of gel nails and LASTS. I love this little beauty, will do a proper review on it soon.

Direct sunlight.

Direct sunlight.

Indirect sunlight.

Blurry right hand shot!

Although it isn't quite as clean as Chalkboard Nails' original, I really like the effect and they look fun and colourful. I'll definitely be trying this again, with a bunch of different shades. Next time I might try it on a nude base with some neons!

What do you think of the dotted gradient look? Is it something you might try? I think it's great for nail art beginners like me, as all you need are a couple of different sized dotting tools.