Black and white and bling: Born Pretty Store Black and White Rhinestone review

Hi!

Today I have for you some simple blinged up monochrome nails thanks to Born Pretty Store! I chose these black and white pearlescent rhinestones from their huge range because they looked just a bit different to the other studs and gems I have in my nail art stash. They come in a wheel with circle, heart and elliptic shapes of each colour and there are 200 in total. As with most rhinestones they're easy to apply - I simply used an old eyeliner pencil to pick them up and popped them into my topcoat. I didn't use topcoat over them, as I find this alters the shape a little, but they lasted a day without accident! You could go very simple or very extravagant with these, they're a really versatile nail art gem!

These are just $2.80 with free shipping worldwide, but I warn you if you go to the Born Pretty website be prepared to lose a couple of hours as it's a veritable Aladdin's cave of nail and beauty goodies. They ship from China, but these came within about 10 days and were well packaged. You can also get a further 10% off your order by using my code NBL91.

I have a few more things to share with you over the next few days too :)

Hx

The item featured was provided to me for free in exchange for a review. My opinions are 100% my own and always honest.

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Deja vu...but not in blue

Hi!

I loved my blinged up turquoise nails for last week's GOT polish challenge so much that when it came to chosing my nails for a night out last weekend I decided to recreate them - in a neon hue! The stamping-glitter-stud combo is cure to become a favourite this summer I think! This time I used Models Own beach bag from their polish for tans collection and while I love the colour the formula left a bit to be desired. This is three coats, which I don't mind in itself, but it was so thick I had to add thinner halfway through the second. I must admit I did my toes with it too, but I wouldn't expect a polish to go as gloopy as it did after only two uses, especially as I expect people buy these as their "summer" manicure colour (that is afterall what they're marketed as, no?) I often find this with Models Own, their colours totally knock my socks off, but the formula sometimes doesn't live up to that. I'll move on...! I used Models Own Bora Bora as the accent nail, and added studs from Born Pretty Store and stamping from the Pueen Buffet set with Barry M Gold Foil. Teamed with an LBD and my dancing shoes, and I was in cheesy disco heaven!

My camera freaked out a little bit at the colour, it really is that bright! I absolutely love it, no doubt about that, I just wish the formula was better. Have you picked up any MO polish for tans? I do think it's made my pasty sausage fingers look a bit more tanned!

Hx

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33 Day Challenge day 23 - Geometric!

Hi!

I'll admit right off the cuff that I was stumped with this challenge. The last time I did a challenge that involved geometric nails, they turned out so good I didn't think I could top it. And I was right. In the end I went with some simple stamping, albeit in holo (is that the nail-bloggers version of technicolour?) so I hope you'll forgive me! I had intended to make a decal of the image, and infill some of the negative spaces, but I ran out of time for that too. Still, it's pretty! I used Born Pretty's orange holo (it's not named, but is number 5 if you're interested) and stamped with Color Club Revvvolution and Pueen 36. And of course it was the dreariest day evah so pictures are taken under my bright kitchen halogens and with flash. Can you say sausage fingers?

Sorry that was a bit of a lame effort! I promise to try harder, Scouts honour!

Hx

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20% off at Born Pretty Store!

Happy 3rd Birthday to Born Pretty Store!

To celebrate they are offering 20% off EVERYTHING today and tomorrow! And as always delivery is free worldwide!

Hx

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Gone to the dogs...

Evening!

No Sunday Stamping mani for me this week - the theme was french tips which I think would look ridiculous on my shorties, so I skipped it! Instead I have a mani to show you which I matched to a sparkly top for a night out. I do like being a bit matchy matchy for special occasions, and I will normally try to match my outfit with my make-up and nails if I can. It was a friends birthday, and we celebrated by going greyhound racing, getting drunk and then dancing the night away at a cheesy disco, perfect! The top I was wearing was navy blue with green sequins on the top half and matte black sequins on the bottom, so I painted my nails with two coats of Pretty & Polished Black Swan and added some green Born Pretty glequins to the ring finger.

I think it matched pretty well! Now, as for the night out it was brill, really needed. I had a few bets on the doggies, and think I more or less broke even. I also think I broke my toe! Ooops! Although I did manage to carry on dancing, in 3 inch heels! That'll be the vodka...

Do you ever match your nails to your outfit? Or even your outfit to your nails? I'd love to see!

Hx

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Purr-fect claws...

Morning!

My little darlings were up bright and early this morning, so I thought I'd squeeze in a blog post! This manicure was requested by one of my lovely followers Wendy from Wendy's Delights when I swatched the Born Pretty QA40 plate, so always happy to oblige I gave it a go! I used a textured polish, Nails Inc Old Compton Street Leather Effect as my base, and stamped with Konad Special Black polish from QA40 and CH2 for the animal print. Looking back, I think had I double stamped with silver before the black under the stripes it would have looked awesome!

I've amassed quite a few textured polishes it seems, and was wondering if a comparison post would be of interest? Comparing the different brands and their texture level perhaps? Maybe I'll get around to it!

The kitty stamping plate is avaiable from Born Pretty Store, and remember to use my discount code NBL91 for 10% off your whole order :)

Have a purr-fect weekend!

Hx

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Born Pretty QA40 Stamping Plate Review

Hi!

I'm back with another review of something from Born Pretty Store, this time a stamping plate. They have a large range of stamping plates, starting at just 99 cents! I've got quite a few stamping plates from Born Pretty and I'm always pleased with them - this one was no exception. I chose QA40 purely for the feathers. I adore feathers (especially peacock ones) and anything feathery attracts me like a magpie to a ruby, so I had to have it! The cats are cute too, and I love the butterfly mask, so all in all a fab plate.

I chose to use it over Emily de Molly Black Forest, which is such a stunning polish and I feel like I didn't do it justice. I will have to swatch it again to show it to you properly because it really deserves a post of its own. I used Barry M Silver foil to stamp lots of feathery goodness!

I had no trouble at all with any of the feathers, and I simply love the whimsy of it; feathers just floating through the air!

I swatched the rest of the images onto paper using Konad Special polish black pearl. As you can see, they all stamped perfectly, with the exception of the aristocat which has really thin lines. But, I always have trouble with Konad's black pearl and when I swatched it using regular black I got a better result.

Over all, I couldn't be happier with this plate. The feathers are perfect and the cats are super cute. I love the detail on the whiskers on the cat face, so I think I might have to use that one next!

QA40 is available from Born Pretty Store for just $2.99, along with a huge range of other nail art goodies. Don't forget discount code NBL91 for 10% off, and delivery is free worldwide!

Hx

Product provided for review consideration. Opinions, as always, are 100% my own.

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Studded Skittlette - Born Pretty Store Review

Hi!

It's been a while, again! We all know technology hates me, and my camera decided it wasn't going to transfer the pics I'd lovingly taken with it onto my computer. But I threatened it with a sledgehammer bought a new USB cable and it seems to be working again...

So, I'm back with a rather kick-ass mani, even if I do say so myself! The lovely Daisy from Born Pretty Store sent me an awesome nail art wheel full of studs to play with, so play I did! The wheel contains 12 little compartments, each containing a handful of studs of various shapes, sizes and colours. The lid turns so you can take out one group of studs at a time, which is useful if you're clumsy like me because if you dropped it you'd only be chasing around one compartments worth of tiny studs!

I like the variety I got in my wheel. There are: 3 different square studs (silver, gold, and a slightly smaller bronze colour), 4 different round studs (tiny gold one, medium black ones and larger ones in silver and gold),  rings in silver and gold, large silver stars, gold hearts and gold petal shapes. I think the stars might be a little big for my nails, but you can use these to decorate practically anything, not just nails.

I decided to create a skittle mani using some of the gold square studs and neutral colours. For this manicure the polishes I used were Color Club Nomadic In Nude, Seventeen Rock Hard Nail Effects Grey (textured polish), Beauty UK Slate Grey and a black striper. I used topcoat to attach the studs, although you could also use nail glue (I can never manage to not stick my fingers together though...)

As you can see, I can fit 4 of these studs down the length of my middle nail, which I was pleased with. I loved the finished look and got lots of compliments :) Look out for these in lots of future looks because I loved it and they were so easy to work with! They're a bit heavier than glequins or normal rhinestones, so I did have to be a bit more cautious when placing them, but so worth it. And as I was able to remove them carefully with an orange stick, I'll be able to use them again!

The studs are available from Born Pretty Store here for just $4.89, and they have a huge range of other studs and nail art goodies too. And of course you can use my discount code NBL91 for a further 10% off - and delivery is free to! Huzzah!

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Valentines Glequins - Born Pretty Store Review

Hi loves!

It's come to that time of year where all the shops turn pink and are filled with tacky heart shaped nick nacks, chocolate genitals, novelty underwear and pink champagne. Cynical, moi? But whether you like it or not it makes for cute nail art! 

I was contacted by Born Pretty Store, and offered the chance to review one of their products and I jumped at the chance to try these loose glitter hexes/glequins, and create some valentines-themed manicures with them. I've used glitter placement techniques before, but never with loose glitter, so here is what I came up with!

Firstly, I tried a glequin gradient with three different colour glequins. I painted all my nails with China Glaze Surreal appeal, except for the middle nail , on which I created a gradient using Surreal Appeal, Nails Inc Elizabeth Street and China Glaze Igniting Love. Then I got my glequin on! I used a light pink, medium pink and red glequin, starting with red at the tip, placing them with an orange stick into wet topcoat. On top of the gradient in the middle I created a wee heart. All together now: aw!

Although the glequins are easy to use, covering a full nail like this can be time consuming, so for my next design I went for something simpler, but I think sexier ;) This time I used the glequins only on accent nails, making a heart shaped french tip in black and outlining with red. The rest of the nails are just plain glossy black, and the whole look is elegant with just a bit of sparkle.

The glequins I used can be bought online from Born Pretty here for just $6.45 for 12 little pots, or individual colours for $1.99 here. Remember to use my discount code NBL91 for 10% off! Shipping is free worldwide, I ordered on the 12th of January and they arrived on the 4th of Feb, which considering they came from China isn't bad at all. They have such an Aladdin's cave of goodies from stamping to rhinestones, and I can honestly say I've never been disappointed with anything I've ordered from them before.

Have you ever tried glequins? I'm totally in love with them, so I've a feeling you'll be seeing them quite a lot!

Hx

Product provided for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

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NOTD - Magnetic lurve

*LeGasp* a NOTD that's not part of a challenge! I have quite a few magnetic polishes now, but they all have the same wavy magnet. So I was placing a Born Pretty order and slipped a pink magnetic polish into my order. It came with a little magnet on a stick, with diagonal lines across it, which I was worried about using since I'm used to having the little "lip" to rest on my finger, but actually it was fine. And the magnet is strong! I find with my other magnets you have to hold it there a long time or the pattern kind of "slips" back into the polish, but with this the pattern jumped onto the nail immediately and stayed there. Fab. You can order Born Pretty magnetics here - don't be put off by the crackle pattern on the lid! I thought they'd sent me the wrong thing at first! I also got this Claires magnetic polish from my birthday club friend Alyssa B and decided to do an accent nail with it. It's really shimmery, almost glittery and I love it! It has a diagonal pattern magnet on the lid too, but spaced further apart than the BP one, so I used the BP magnet.

I LOVE these polishes! How shimmery is the silver! If all the Claires magnetics are like this I want MOAR! And how pretty is the BP one? So elegant. And it's called Blushingham Palace - how cute! I didn't wear top coat because it was a quickie mani, but I really didn't need it. Both polishes faired well and lasted a day of intensive laundry folding, dish washing and sock pairing - which usually kills polish within seconds - with just a little tipwear. Can't say fairer than that.

Hx

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Under the Sea!

Morning!

This week's Adventures in Stamping challenge was to create an Under the Sea themed mani. I don't have any stamping plates with fish on them (apart from the weird little dead fish on one of the BM plates) so I was at a loss at what to do. I do have a couple of sea-weedy stamps, but that would have meant free handing some fish or something, and I knew that wouldn't turn out well! On Friday I did another nautical themed-manicure using a stripy stamp and some stars anchors and a ships wheel, but thought that was cheating a little. So Sunday night (last minute, moi?) I settled on this. I used Wet n Wild Teal of Fortune as the base, sponged a white creme mixed with a little Collection 2000 Sparkle Top Coat for the waves on the tips and then stamped the dolphins from my Born Pretty Hello Kitty (M71) plate with Wet n Wild Black Creme. Dolphins playing in the surf!

This was the nautical mani I'd come up with before - Wet n Wild French White base, striped stamped with 2ture Colour Quick Fast Dry Shade 10 and anchors/wheel/stars stamped with Barry M Gold Foil.

I'm sorry all my photos are absolutely awful at the moment, they make me cringe. I don't know what I'm doing wrong...

Anyway, next week's AiS challenge is either Stars, Zebras on Acid or Butterflies. Looking forward to it already :)

Hx

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NOTD - Miss Sporty Pop Fiction

Hullo! My wish came true (for once) and we have some sunshine, which makes my dodgy photos slightly less less poo. Today I have to show you, at the request of Minty from Haute Laquer (check out her awesomesauce) another Miss Sporty polish. Most of the Miss Sporty's I've picked up are thick and highly pigmented, so they're good for stamping (although unfortunately the silver wasn't, but it's still pretty). I bought this one a while ago and it's been on my toes but not my fingers so I decided it's time had come! And then because I seem to be all about the accent fingers at the moment I used an un-named Image polish I got from Wilkinson over the ring fingers and thumb, then went back to the Miss Sporty (which is named on the website but not the bottle...) and stamped a little dolphin design from my Born Pretty Hello Kitty (I'm a poet and I didn't know it) plate. Here's how it came out.

First two in sunshine

 And two in shade to see the stamping a bit better.

Both polishes applied well, the Miss Sporty brush is great, flat and rounded and perfect for clumsy buggers like me. 2 thin coats, although 1 thick would be ok too. The Image polish I expected to sheer as tan tights so I layered it over 1 coat of the MS, but it actually wasn't too bad therefore I reckon 2 coats of that on it's own would be fine. Topped with Seche because I wanted it to dry quick and I can't find my NYC quick dry topper...

You may have noticed I'm trying a squarer shape on my nails (apart from my index which cracked vertically one day last week hence it looks like I was drunk when I filed it) and I really like it. I was wondering however, is this shape harder to maintain and more prone to breakage?

I was also wondering if you would be interested in seeing my etchings make-up collection? I'm about to re-organise it, hopefully sometime this week and although it's very modest compared to some I love seeing what other people own and would like to share mine too :)

Of course, tomorrow is Wednesday so this mani will be changed to something pink this evening I think. Maybe I'll just go for something plain for a while, as I have two important meetings over the next few days. But then again, I may not...

Hx

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Almost too gay to function...

Happy Pink Wednesday!

I recently got some nail art stickers free from Born Pretty Store and as soon as they arrived I knew they'd be perfect for a pink Wednesday :) If you haven't tried Born Pretty yet, well, why not? They have great products at great prices, often have competitions and give-aways, and FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING! I got my fauxnads from there, on sale for $1.55 each - that's about a pound in British money. They're about $3 now, but still pocket money prices, and you can get as much or as little as you like because there's FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING.

With this particular giveaway you could chose between Hello Kitty nail stickers or Chanel-looking ones. I'm not one for emblazoning a brand name all over my person, so I went for the cute kitty ones.

So, for this mani I used two coats of Barry M Strawberry Icecream as the base because I thought that would be the closest match I had to the colour of the stickers. It is a pretty good match, although I think the colour on the nail is a little cooler. But meh, I'm not fussy. Then to try to match the shimmery glitter on the sticker I added a coat of George at Asda Pink Glitz, a really pretty sheer shimmer, the particles in it almost look like teeny tiny flakies. In hindsight, I have another glitter topcoat closer to the glitter on the sticker, but I really like this George one and I hadn't used it, so now it can be moved from the untried box. Once that was dry (with the help of stinky Seche Vite) I used tip guides to add black french tips, then the stickers and another coat of Seche to seal it all.

Forewarning: In these pictures my cuticles are disgraceful, my skin is horrendous, I didn't clean up properly and because the baby isn't sleeping well (2am is not playtime) and had to be settled while it was drying there is fluff in there too. Also, I didn't realise until this morning but the seche dragged the tip colour a teeny bit so there are streaks. In other words, if you're of a sensitive nature and have just eaten lunch, don't look.

Index finger cropped out of shot because I broke it and it's wonky...

How super-awkward is it to take photos with your non-dominant hand?

Can just about see the wonky index. Grrr.

Products used L-R Sally Hansen miracle Growth, Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream, George Pink Glitz, Wet n Wild Shine Black Creme, Seche Vite.

So, that's my pink Wednesday for another week :) The wedding I'm going away to is on Saturday and I probably wont get time to change my nails until Friday night now, unless this mani gets completely disgusting then I'll do something simple tomorrow night. I'll schedule a post for Saturday, but wont be back until Monday! See you soon x

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