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.

Pin It

Lacey nudes...

...and if that title doesn't attract the spam bots I don't know what will. Anyway...

Hi!

I've decided a good way to embrace my nubs is to get out all of the stamping plates that I might have dismissed lately because the images were too small, or not suited to an almond shape, and make use of them! While I could make the images from the Pueen Love Elements set fit, I think this design (from Pueen 29) used in this way is more suited to a square shape. I only used half of the image, and placed it down the side of my nail, accenting with some rhinestones (which I couldn't have applied any wonkier if I tried). The base is Nails Inc Sao paulo Streets, which was a freebie from the month's InStyle mag and a lovely cool toned nude.

Did you pick up any of the InStyle freebies this time around? This is the only one which called to me and it is nice and the formula was good too.

Hx

Pin It

GOT polish? Hot pink!

Hi!

Today's Golden Oldie Thursday is feeling hot hot hot! Actually, we have had some sunshine lately, so hot pink was appropriate. After bashing the Revlon polish I used for last week's golden oldie, I actually reached for Revlon again, this time it was a shimmery fuchsia by the name of Strawberry Electric. The last time I blogged about this polish in the good old days of a pink Wednesday I might have mentioned once or twice how much the name annoyed me. Strawberry Electric? It should be Electric Strawberry surely...? Anyway, name aside this polish was actually much better than last week's coral. I used two coats and then stamped with Pueen 68 and konad black. My stamping isn't the best, so I added some black rhinestones as a distraction. Shiny...

Hot hot hot indeed! Not my favourite polish, but a great golden oldie :)

Hx

An InLinkz Link-up

Pin It

Adventures in Stamping - Happy New Year!

Hi!

This week's AiS theme had to be New Year nails really, didn't it! I decided to go against the firework/party inspired nails since I will be doing neither, and instead went for a special polish, something sparkly and a bit of bling! My special polish is Butter London Fiddlesticks, the only Butter London in my fast approaching 900 polish stash, and it's a pretty sparkly deep pink. I accented it with Barry M Black Multi Glitter and stamped with Pueen 29 in Konad Black Pearl and Barry M Silver Foil. The stamping itself brought with it a new challenge - stamping linear patterns on long nails is something I'll need to practice! And I even had to double stamp a couple of nails (can you tell which ones?) The rhinestone bows were popped into the topcoat and secured with another dab of topcoat either side. I say secured, but I've already had to rescue one from my hair and stick it back on... I don't think these are actually going to last me until New Years!

I've had a little blogging break for a few days, and it's been nice but I'll be back in force soon with a couple of new challenges!

Hx

Pin It

Skittle me blue...

Hi!

I was in the mood for blue and chevrons the other day, so blue and chevrons is what I had! My base was China Glaze First Mate, and the glitter on my ring finger was Glistening Snow. I used a plate from the newest Bundle Monster set for the chevrons with Barry M Silver Foil and freehanded the stripey liney things on my middle finger with Barry M Silver Nail Art Pen, which matched perfectly. A couple of rhinestones and done.

Glistening Snow was so sparkly, I just couldn't quite capture it. I was happy with how this turned out, I don't think it was anything special but it was well executed for once! I've seen people struggle with the stamp I used so I was pleased I got it even and had no real gaps in the image. It's the little things that make me happy.

Hx

Pin It

33 Day Challenge Day 11 - 3D

Morning

Firstly, I just have to say a few things have happened over the last week or so that are making it difficult for me in general at the moment. So please excuse me if I miss a few days or end up posting late for a while. I'm going to desperately try not to drop out of the challenge completely but I can't promise that either :(

Anyway, onto today's challenge which was to create a 3D manicure. It's well documented that I love a nautical mani, and I've never customised a set of false tips before so I combined the two and came up with this. I used a set of Elegant Touch Polished UV Gel Nails, which I blogged about here in Polished Red as the base, and customised them with caviar beads, rhinestones and a striper to create these simple 3D talons! Top tip - use a waxy eyeliner pencil to pick up your caviar beads - so much easier than messing around with tweezers or a toothpick dipped in topcoat!

Hx

The product featured was a PR sample provided to me for free for review consideration. All opinions expressed are my own and 100% honest. Please see my disclaimer in the tab above for further details.

Pin It

33 Day Challenge day 5 - Mexican

Morning!

Please excuse me if I ramble a bit today, I'm delirious with flu and trying to organise a 6 year old's birthday. Don't you just love it when they change their minds? Anyway, onto the nails and today's theme is Mexican. Well, to me that either means fajitas or sugar skulls, so I went for the latter. I created my cute little sugar skull  accent with some fimo flowers and a bow, an upside-down heart rhinestone for the nose and used a dotting tool and striper for the mouth. I stamped some flowers on my index finger and used Darling Diva Polish Sugar Rush over black on the rest. Here's how it came out.

Not sure how I feel about these. Cute? Childish? Silly? I'm glad I only did a sugar skull accent!

If I survive the birthday tomorrow, I'll be back on Friday with some texture!

Hx

Pin It

Summer lovin'

Hi all :)

With the weather being kind(ish) to us here in the UK at the moment (it's hotter than the devils greenhouse and I love it!), I'm finding myself reaching for bright polishes that I love instead of going for the ginormouse box of untrieds sitting on my kitchen table like I should be. But I love this polish so much that I just don't care! China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy is such a classic, any neon lover should own it. Seriously. The formula is great, it's eye-searingly bright and is a great pedi colour too. Go forth and purchase... I teamed it with accent nails of white with black heart stamping from Pueen 43 and tied the whole thing together with some small black rhinestones. Please ignore the topcoat smears and bubbles - that's what you get for doing your nails under a fan...

Summer lovin', happened so fast... What's your favourite summer shade?

Hx

Pin It

A little of what you fancy does you good...

Well would you look at that, 2 posts in two days you lucky sods!

Seriously, I seem to have misplaced my blogging mojo a tad. I just don't feel like my nails, designs or pictures are good enough to post. So when I manage to get a mani exactly how I want it, I post that shizzle straight away!

I felt like using mint and lilac for a bit of a skittle, although I've been trying to plough through my untrieds, I indulged myself came up with this. Essie Mojito Madness and Bikini So Teeny, Hare Polish Bisbee on the ring finger, a splash of gold stamping and I chucked some teardrop rhinestones on there for good measure. I love the depth of the Hare, seriously gorgeous. I'll definitely use the Essies again soon too, although it does seem a shame when I have so many untrieds and I've already worn these at least twice...maybe I need to buy more mints and lilacs...

Have you ever lost your mojo? How did you get it back?

Hx

Pin It

Lychee and Lace

Hi! What a good blogger I've been this week! Makes a change...

Anyway, good ole Barry M has been a busy bee bringing us lots of lovely goodies for summer, and along with the nail art pens the other day I also picked up one of the new gelly shades, Lychee. It's a lovely, creamy nude that's perfect for my skintone - I sometimes find nudes make me look either dead or lobster but this is just warm enough without bringing out the red in my skin. Two coats of creamy perfection. But of course I couldn't leave it plain and added some simple lace using the nail art pen, and black rhinestones. Simples.

I'm off for a bath after a hard days shopping, and then I'm going to work on tomorrow's adventures in stamping mani, so see you then!

Hx

Pin It

New 31 day challenge day 19 - my favourite polish

Hello!

Now, this polish speaks for itself really, and I've worn it before. Beautiful, beautiful OPI DS Original. It's my favourite for two reasons - obviously because it's a beauty, and secondly because it was another surprise gift from my birthday club ladies. I wore it simply for day 19 of the challenge, just adding a little rhinestone to each nail.

Hx

Pin It