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!

Wet n Wild Mega Rocks Rising Star

I Bought This

As I was perusing the aisles of Walgreens, looking for the ever elusive Sinful Shine Prosecco nail polish (if you haven't heard of it, it's a limited edition greige beauty with a gorgeous golden shimmer), I happened across this stunning limited edition Wet n Wild Mega Rocks polish: Rising Star. It was in a special section with other limited edition Wet n Wild Fall polishes and makeup. I can honestly say I own nothing like it, so I picked it up and took it home to put on right away.

Can I just stop a minute to gush about how much I LOVE this beauty??

This polish is supposedly a dupe for Maybelline Gilded Rose and although I don't own Gilded Rose, from online swatches I think they are very close. Rising Star may be a little less yellow gold and more of a silvery pink rose gold, but otherwise I believe they are almost identical.

I am so in love with this polish, I used it twice in a row which is almost unheard of for me. AND I even put it on my toes and gave my BOFA a mani with it. It went on beautifully in 2 careful coats. I say careful because if you drag the brush too much, you might end up picking up some of the glitter underneath and leaving bald spots. Using a light hand on the brush, I got perfect coverage quite easily. The wear was pretty good, I wore it for 4 days with no chipping, but just be careful not to do super thick coats.

If pretty rose gold glitter is your thing, then RUN don't walk to your nearest Walgreens and pick up this beauty before she's gone.

Peacock Nail Art for Short Nails

You know that urge you get to start off fresh with something, like getting a super short haircut? Well I get that feeling with my nails ALL the time and I'll go through stages of having long nails for a while and then just decide to chop them all down to nubs one day. I got this urge yesterday and as a result, my nails are the shortest they've been for a long time.

Thanks to Leticia, I've been inspired to do nail art on my little nubs, and I wanted to use this beautiful shade from Gap called Peacock Blue. So what else than Peacock nails!

I started off with two coats of GAP Peacock Blue and two coats of OPI Funky Dunkey on my ring finger and thumb. Then I sponged on Color Club Port-Folio over all nails but my accent nails, to give them the iridescent look of peacock feathers. On my accent nails I freehand drew a peacock feather-like design using Sinful Colors Open Seas, Wet n Wild The Gold & the Beautiful, GAP Peacock Blue, Essie Good as Gold and Revlon Royal.

I really like this look, but next time I think I might make the lines for the feather a bit darker, there seems to be too much contrast between the light strokes and the darker 'eye' of the feather. I am LOVING these shades together, they have a luxe feel that's perfect for the holiday season.

Now I need to wait for my nails to get a bit longer so I can get them back to an oval shape!!

My Easter Nails: Sweet Purple Candy

I Bought This

Easter is just days away! I don't celebrate Easter religiously, but I like to celebrate holidays with my family and good friends. It's another excuse to get together, spend quality time and eat good food. In the past few (4) years basically since I moved to the states there have been numerous dramas surrounding the holidays, due to an inability to see eye to eye with certain people. I'm determined to pass this Easter peacefully.... This means I need pretty things to look at. That always keeps me calm.

Soooo I pulled out this gorgeous purple combo to put on my nails, Revlon Girly & Zoya Marley.

I did one coat of Marley and two thin coats of Revlon Girly. Girly is opaque on it's own, but it tends to have a LOT of glitter and I wanted the glitter to be a little more sparse. The result was this purple candy confection:

My camera freaked out a little on the purple and wanted to show it as more pink than it is. I tried to colour correct a bit, but it is slightly more purple toned than it looks. It's pretty true to what it looks like in the bottle in the top picture. I love both of these polishes so much! Marley is slightly streaky and can be a bit thick, but I think a drop or two of nail polish thinner might fix that. Girly tends to get a bit muddy looking if it's applied too thickly, that's why I prefer to layer it :)

Ok, so now I'm set! Now I can stare at my pretty nails all day and not worry about anything else. Easter is for chocolate!

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 :(

Winmax Nail Brights Polish No. 4 and No. 7 from Daiso Japan

Today I have two more of the Winmax Nail Brights polishes from Daiso Japan. These are No. 4 and No. 7.

No. 4 is a light, creamy beige shimmer polish with small opalescent glitter. It is pretty sheer and needed 4 coats, even so I can still see some VNL. Might be good for layering, we shall see. Pooled at the tips a bit also.

No. 7 is a light, silvery gold glitter polish. This is 4 coats and it covered nice and evenly. It sort of reminds me of China Glaze I'm Not Lion. Super in love with it!

I think these are pretty good polishes for the price you pay ($1.50). Certainly better than some of the cheapo polishes I've bought from drugstores. You can check out my other Daiso nail polish posts here.

Tomorrow I'll be posting a review and video on Daiso cosmetics, so be sure to check it out!

Winmax Nail Brights Polish in No. 2

Another Winmax Nail Brights nail polish from Daiso!

This one is simply called No. 2 and is a jelly pink with silvery holographic shimmer. I layered two coats of No. 2 over 2 coats of an unnamed baby pink Color Club polish. On it's own, the polish is quite sheer and can be built up, but after 4 coats I still saw faint visible nail line.

Natural light

 Artificial light

Artificial light

You can see the holo shimmer in the last photo.

The formula is a bit thick and gloopy, you definitely need to wait for it to dry in between coats or you will get drag and end up with uneven coats. I was impatient, so it's not as level as I would have liked.

Because of the jelly look, I think this polish would be great for layering. I am going to try a glitter sandwich with it!

Overall, for $1.50 I think these polishes are well worth it. I am definitely going to be picking a few more up in different colours.

Half moon mani with Winmax Nail Brights Polish No. 10 from Daiso

Hellooo!

This week I'll be posting products from the Japanese ¥100 ($1.50 here) store, Daiso.

Kicking off Daiso week is this black glitter polish by Winmax in their Nail Brights range, simply called No. 10.

Natural light

Natural light

Sunlight

With flash

This shade is a semi-jellyish black base, with reddish brown shimmer and silver holographic glitter. The glitter isn't super holo, but it looks nice in the sun. I like this shade a lot, it's subtle, but pretty. This is two coats, with two coats of top coat. The formula was easy to work with and the brush is similar to Essie's. Not bad for $1.50 polish! There was no strong smell either, which is a relief. Some of the cheaper polishes tend to stink like paint thinner or something ghastly like that.

This is my first attempt at a half moon mani, I think it turned out nicely even though it's a bit plain. I need to get some nail studs or crystals or something to jazz up my nail art! Time for a Born Pretty order I think, I have my eye on some striping tape as well.

Hope you all had a great weekend! Look out for more Daiso posts this week :)

Essie Van D'Go w Zoya Chloe

Essie Van D'Go is a beautiful peach shade that I haven't worn enough. I may just be clinging stubbornly onto Summer with this shade, but it's definitely hot enough around here to warrant it! It's a perfect warm peach that suits my skintone, leaning more on the yellow side of peach than pink. I topped 2 coats of Van D'Go with one coat of Zoya Chloe, to give it a shimmery glow.

Essie is a great brand that I don't have enough of. I only own a few shades, but I absolutely love the ones I have. This is a really pretty combo, I love Zoya Chloe over almost everything! I am digging my new nail shape too :D

Hope you all had an awesome weekend!

Polish Days: Polish Olympics! What the Olympics mean to me.

Honestly, I'm not the most sports crazy person. Usually I couldn't give a darn about sport and really, at the moment I still don't. But there's something about the Olympics that stirs something in even the most lackadaisical and at the very least I like to check on the Australian medal tally and watch some of the swimming events.

So when I heard the next Polish Days theme was Olympics, I had to pay homage to the only things I really care about in the Games. The Aussies and the swimming! Check it out:

Too many polishes to list, but I do remember using Wet n Wild French White Creme, Spoiled by WnW Designated Driver, China Glaze Fairy Dust, Nubar 2010, Zoya Jules, OPI Simply Smashing and some Color Club polishes among others. 

Index finger is a gradient which represents water/swimming, my favourite event! The swimming events are always huge in Australia, probably since we usually do pretty well. The middle finger is my take on the Olympic rings, the ring finger is a gold medal and the pinky is the flame from the Olympic torch. The thumb is my homage to Australia, a gradient of our green and gold sports colours and my attempt at a Southern Cross. See below for a close up!

Side view of the mani, check out the lovely glitter on my water gradient, and the flakies on my pinky flame!

A close up of the pinky. The flakies in Nubar 2010 really give it more of a flaming look.

I hope you enjoyed my take on the Polish Olympics! Thanks to Hannah from Polly Polish for organizing Polish Days.

Check out my previous Polish Days post here: A Delectable Jelly Sandwich!

And check out the other bloggers' posts on the Polish Olymics theme :) (List will be updated with more links and thumbnails shortly).

A Lacquered Affair Alexis – Glitter Tips Chiro – Nail of this Week Cuti-CLUE-les Hannah – Polly Polish Heidi: Pretty Painted Nails Inky – Inky Polisholicious Ishah – Ishah X Beauty Jen:The Nail Polish Project Jenny – Beauty by Jenny Jessica:Sparkles&Shine JoannaTheTreasureChest Kat – Hooked on Polish Kate – Polish CART Keisha:Refined &Polished Maria – So Marvellous Melissa:The Crimson Petal Mihaela – Lacquer Buzz Nail Tart Nicole – Nearly Nailed Pris – Pris Nails Sabine – My Polish Stash Samantha – Polished Art Sammy – The Nailasaurus Sophia – Unhas a Trois Sincerely Stephanie Wendy’s Delights