Shabby Chic and Born Pretty Store water decals review

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 Recently I was asked by bornprettystore.com to review some of their products and I'm so happy to present you with the first review today! So if you want to find out about water decals and how to create this shabby chic design, keep on reading!

What I used:
Barry M Lychee
Orly Country Club Khaki
NYC 246 Park Ave
Rimmel Jungle Princess

Nail art water decal sheet

Let me start with my own design. The decals look vintage to me so I wanted to pair it with a shabby distressed wood design. First I painted my nails with Barry M Lychee. It's important to wait until your nails are absolutely dry. Now all you have to do is dab Orly Country Club Khaki, NYC 246 Park Ave and Rimmel Jungle Princess at random with a sponge. To finish it off I made an outline and a line in the middle using NYC 246 Park Ave and a striping brush. That's it, easy peasy! Now onto the water decals.

First let me say that the details on this water decal sheet really are beautiful. It's a rectangular sheet rather than a set of decals that fit your nails. This means that once you cut your decal you need to round the area close to the cuticle to have a nice clean line. Alternatively, you can fix it once you secure it with a top coat but I think it's more time consuming and you're risking pulling at the delicate design. I wanted to show you what the sheet looks like but when it arrived I was so excited I just cut it and applied it straight away! Fear not, here is where you can have a look at it and purchase it should you wish. The one I'm using is BLE2109.Born pretty store also ships for free internationally! What's not to like?!

To apply it, I cut a rectangular from the sheet with the design I liked and made sure it was more or less the width of my nail. I wouldn't cut too much off the end because the decal may shrink a bit and you'll be left with a gap. TAKE THE PROTECTIVE COVER OFF! I, of course, forgot to at first which resulted in a serious losing session. I so envy all the girls who say nail art is relaxing them! How do you do it?! Let me guess, you read the instructions.... Anyway, I then placed the decal in a bowl of water for 10-20 seconds until the paper slid off the design and applied it on my nail. This is where it usually gets tricky for me.

I love stickers and water decals but I always have problems using them. See, my nails are very round and stickers are flat which means I always end up with creases around my nails. However these stickers are different. The creases "dissolve" once you apply a top coat and you're left with a nice smooth nail! You have to be careful though, if you apply too much you may dissolve more than you hoped for! One coat is enough. Also I've noticed it's better to use a very runny top coat. To minimise the creases I held the decal on my ring finger with my thumb (the same hand) and at the same time tried to smooth the edges out with my other hand. I find that it flattens the creases and the decal adheres better to the nail.

I have to say I'm very impressed with the opacity of these stickers. Sometimes you don't realise how see through the design is until you get it out of the water. Of course that's fine, depending on what effect you're going for. This water decal has the exact same colours and opacity before and after you place it into water. I wasn't sure whether to apply a base colour before the decal but I now know there's no need for it. I'm not wearing any in the picture. I think this is great because should you want to apply it on all of your nails you don't need to wait for any colour to dry. You can just crack on with the decals and save yourself loads of time!

Blue Water Decals - BPS Review

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These are water decals from Born Pretty Store . This is a different pattern and it's predominantly blue so I matched it with one of my favorite blue shades, the blurple leaning navy blue OPI Road House Blues.

I had the same problem as last time with these decals, the sheet is too small so there is not enough decals for all the nails. That's a bit sad because the patterns are so nice on these decals. But they are of good quality and I really like the designs. You can check out more water decal patterns here or just search for water decals at BPS because theres a lot of variations of these decals right now. Just remember that you might want two sheets since they are smaller than usual.

Born Pretty Store Snowflake Decorations + Isosceles Triangle Studs Review

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 What better way to start off the year than to be trying some more gorgeous products from Born Pretty Store? I haven’t done any reviews in a few months but I’m happy to be back at it; today I’ll be doing a dual review of some very pretty Gold Snowflakes and Isosceles Triangle Studs which can both be found in the nail art section of BPS’ website!


These snowflakes are supposed to come in 5-piece package but there were 7 in the set I received so thank you for the extra snowflakes BPS!

(Yes, I do realize there are only 6 snowflakes in the above picture; I managed to drop one before taking the pics and couldn’t find it for the life of me. Whoops).
The product description on BPS’ website says the product is supposed to be 3-6mm in size (a range I’m assuming is given to take into account the other patterns available) but I found them to be a little closer to 7mm.

Not that 1mm is a large size difference, but I suppose if you have small nail beds it could have a greater impact.
The studs are supposed to come in a set of 20 (I received 21 - yay for extras!). The product description says the studs are 3mm x 5mm and though I didn’t include a picture I did find these dimensions to be accurate.

For this design I played around with negative space, outlines, glitter and matter top coat before adding on the snowflakes and the triangle studs.

Something that I noticed about these snowflakes both before and after putting them on my nails is that they are extremely delicate. I managed to bend one of the little arms back just by trying to pick one up:

The good thing is that it’s pretty easy to bend it back into the right shape, but it’s not just before application that the product bent. After I had applied the snowflakes, I was trying to fold up a scarf when one of the snowflakes on my nails caught the material and bent up off the nail:

The catching is a problem in itself and it makes me wary of touching any delicate material, but I feel like this could be a problem easily solvable with a topcoat. I chose not to use a topcoat because I wanted the polish to be matte and the snowflake to remain shiny.
Update: I decided to test my theory about the topcoat before posting this review and I found that even with a topcoat the snowflakes still manage to catch in everything. I spent a good amount of time throughout the day just trying to keep the charms flat against my nails.
These are kind of interesting decorations to apply since they’re kind of stiff (being made of alloy), and aren’t sticky (so you can’t just press them on). I waited a day before applying the snowflakes and ended up dabbing some topcoat on the back of the decoration and using my fingers to press it onto the nail - a method that obviously wouldn’t work if your nails were still damp. I assume that the easier way to go about this would be to put the snowflake into still damp topcoat, but I’m not sure if they would mold to the shape of your nail if you applied them this way.

Overall these snowflakes are super pretty but are not super practical. They catch in everything and even a topcoat didn’t help. I wouldn’t really recommend them for long-term use, but if you can deal with the catching then for short-term use they are gorgeous!

If you’d like to try this product for yourself, they sell for C$2.62 (US$2.22) and come in 4 other patterns besides the snowflakes that I’ve reviewed here.

As for the studs, they apply like every other stud (not surprising) and I found them to be small enough that they sat flat on my nails (yay!). I usually use nail glue to apply my studs for durability but this time I decided to apply them with polish. I was pleased to find that even with just polish they’ve so far stayed on my nails for an entire day!

Overall I really like the studs! I’ve been wanting to try them for a long time and I wasn’t disappointed by them at all; they totally lived up to my expectations!

Born Pretty Store Makeup Review - The Perfect Cat's Eye Waterproof Eyeliner

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 Hello!

I was approached a couple of weeks ago by the company Born Pretty Store and asked to write a couple of reviews of their products - I'm always interested in writing blogs such as this not only because I get to try out brands and products that I may not have normally come across, but also because it's a lot of fun! I do just quickly want to mention though, that although I received a few complimentary products in exchange for an honest review, all the thoughts are my own. 

I chose three items from Born Pretty Store to review and this is the first product I can honestly say I've tried and tested, so I'm really excited to share this gorgeous eyeliner with you all! I chose the 'Extremely Thin Eyeliner Pen Black Lasting Waterproof Eyeliner Pen' to put through its paces.

I'm not going to lie, my decision to pick this product was entirely swayed by the pretty pink packaging and I didn't even realise the pen was waterproof until I received it - I'm a sucker for anything in a pink box clearly! I think I've been using the same eyeliner pen from the Collection range in boots for the last 5 years, so I thought I'd throw caution to the wind and try another pen for myself. 

My first impressions were that this pen was super fine and super sleek, I even kept mentioning to my sister how pointed and fine the tip of the nib was! Because it was so fine, it made doing my eyeliner a breeze - I'm personally used to much thicker felt tip style pens and have really struggled in the past to make my lines even on both eyes, so this was a revelation for me. 

I've taken a few selfies below of my favourite cat's eye makeup look I've managed to create using this particular eyeliner - I've kept the images black and white to detract away from the other makeup I'm wearing! 

I have used it every single day for the last week and haven't made any mistakes or had a 'bad makeup day' so I really believe this eyeliner. If you want to try out this eyeliner for yourself or any of the other beauty products from Born Pretty Store's incredible range,

I hope you've enjoyed reading my post and have felt inspired to check out Born Pretty Store for yourself - let me know what you think!

Born Pretty Store Nail Art Striping Tape Review

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Time to tapify your nails!

Striping tapes have always been essential items in my nail art kit. Yes I have kept all my nail art items in a separate drawer and I just love my nail art collection.

Few of the nail art tapes!

I loved these bright tapes!

The Nail Art Striping Tape Set comes in a thin transparent plastic resealed case. Each nail art tape roll comes securely packed in a separate plastic case to ensure that the tape rolls would not stick to each other and create a mess. The set consists of 38 colored rolls of tape. I love the selection of the shades of the tape the brand offers. It comes in Deep green, Red, Golden, Black, Pink, Light Blue, Purple, Neon Pink, Brown, White, Holographic Silver and bright matte colors. 

Each roll of tape is self adhesive and does not tend to stick to itself upon application. It is super easy to use and consumes less time. Apply base color of your choice and let it dry completely. Make sure that the base is completely dry else the tape would ruin everything and makes it look ugly and messy. Pull off a small tape and cut it using a scissor. I keep my tapes in a tape holder to get easy hold of it. Although the tape is very thin, it is really easy to cut and does not tend to adhere to itself. Make sure to cut the tape a little longer. You can apply the tape horizontally, vertically or diagonally using the tweezers. Cut off the excess getting close to the nail edge. It is easy to get hold of the tape using tweezers. You can also pull it off and replace it in case you did a mistake. Press the tape tightly using your finger so that it would stick firmly on your nails. Apply a top coat to make the manicure last long. There are so many creative ways to create a nail art using a striping tape. To achieve this look, you need to cut the tape a little longer so that they can be placed on your cuticle. It will help you to pull off the tape easily. Apply a nail color of your choice over the tapes. Pull off the tapes using tweezers really gently to avoid creating a mess. Make sure that you pull off the striping tape before the nail paint dries to avoid getting ridges. 

The Nail Art Striping tapes feel light and flat on the nails. All the shades are very pretty and stunning and I loved matte shades the most. They make my nails look bright and fresh. The striping tapes last on my nails for a good 2-3 days after that it starts peeling off from the sides of my nails. They can be easily removed using a good nail polish remover.

Overall Thoughts:

I absolutely loved bornpretty Nail Art Striping tapes. They are easy to use and looks stunning on my nails. You can create loads of designs using these tapes. I shall come up with nail arts soon! If you are a nail art lover, I would highly recommend them to you!

Rating: 5/5

Do you love doing nail art with striping tapes?

Born Pretty Store Peel Off Nail Protector Cuticle Tape

The nail art world expands really quickly with several new products, and Born Pretty Store also sells most of them. Today I'm reviewing one of these new products: this is the Peel Off Nail Protector Cuticle Tape (link) in the color red, or #01, which is like your traditional latex-based peel off products but this is not made out of latex (as far as I know) and it is premade, so there's np drying time, etc. And it does not stick together. So it is a good thing to have if you are planning to do some watermarble, stamping or gradient. It's basically adhesive plaster for around your nails. :D

In the set you get 10 pieces of tape, covered with some plastic foil. The removal is easy, but placing them on the cuticles was a bit of a struggle for me. First of all, it's really sticky and if it sticks to the base color nail polish... then it's some work to get off because - just as nail vinyls - it tends to pull off the nail polish. So, be careful. But if you place it on the cuticle successfully, then the process is easy, because it does not stick together like latex-based peel off cuticle products, etc.

For my base I applied an off-white creme color in 2 coats (essence colour & care - 01 take a break), and then I did some gradient stamping with Moyra neon nail polishes (No. 63, 64, 65) and Born Pretty Store BP-L028 stamping plate (read my review here).

  After removing the tape:

(ILNP - My Private Rainbow (X))

I also made a gradient featuring the cuticle tape. The base was white (China Glaze - White on White) and then I did the gradient with a dishwashing sponge and the white and a coral nail polish (China Glaze - White on White & Flormar Beauty Toys - Popsicle).

Lady Queen Shop JQ-L18 stamping plate review

Today's review is about the JQ-L18 stamping plate which I got for testing from Lady Queen. It has 2 sizes of patterns: regular and small images. It does not have a holder or a backing, and the edges are quite sharp so you have to be careful when holding it. The patterns are quite delicate and also on the shallow side so beginners could have some issues when it comes to stamping. I also struggled with it a little bit...

Here I used the Lady Queen double sided stamper (review here) and Mundo Black stamping polish. I had half succes, but I was happy for even this. I was hopeful, despite the fact that the patterns were missing some part... after this I was disappointed to experience that it just did not worked with Mundo and my clear stampers. But then somehow I got it to work properly... miracles happen. :)

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For the first manicure the base was a dry brush manicure, I applied 1 coat of white (Cuccio Verona Lace), then drybrushed over it with some neon colors (Moyra 56, Moyra Coral 214 Reef, Moyra 63, Moyra 64) then applied a scattered holo topcoat. Then I wanted to stamp. Let me tell you, I had minimal success... I didn't think there's a plate that does not work with my Mundo stamping polishes, because they basically work with everything, even the most stubborn plate. I was disappointed, tried several stampers, i did not pick up... then finally I had some sort of success (stamping polish was Mundo - Bones) but even then some parts of the pattern were missing. I gave up on it, thinking, this is an awful plate. At least that day. Because curiosity, I tried again and had a mindblowing experience about what works with plate and what does not. You can read about that below, at my next manicure.

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Omg, I can't believe that it is actually working! Gosh, I was struggling to pick up those images. I got out ALL of my stampers to try out which one (or which ones) does work. The thing is, it works with Moyra stamping polishes (which are more like thick, highly pigmented nail polishes, not like Mundos) and Moyra Metal polishes. And the stamper? A squishy jelly refill stamper head from BPS, which I reviewed a long time ago.  I stamped with 4 patterns to convince myself and you that it is actually working. The base was 2 coats of ILNP Skyscraper.