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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New 31 day challenge day 7 - skittles

Morning!

Another not so successful mani today. The challenge was to create skittles, and I went for a neon and nude. I've done Neon and Nude in a few guises before, and my on original neon and nude tips post I had a request for a skittle version. Ok, it was nearly a year ago, but I'm happy to oblige! However, it was fated to be a fail from the start as my favourite nude polish had locked itself shut and Mr NN had to take the pliers to it to get it open. Then the formula had gone a bit lumpy and streaky. And then as you can see the chevron tips I tried were less that neat. AND then the topcoat streaked...oh well, we live and learn!

The nude is Nails Inc Basil Street, and the neons are from the Color Club Poptastic collection with the exception of the yellow which is Orly Glowstick.

Tomorrow's post is duochrome, and I didn't fail! Yay!

Hx

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New 31 day challenge, day 6 - Favourite Colour Family

Hello!

Today's theme for the 31 day challenge I took part in in January was to create a mani using your favourite colour family. You have no idea how hard it was to pick a colour family. My favourite colour is purple, but is it my favourite colour family? Since favourite colour came up later in the challenge I decided to go for something different, and picked turquoisy-greeny-bluey for my favourite colour family, and came up with a braid mani using Models Own Jade Stone (pinkie), Accessorize Mermaid (index) and Accessorize Superstar (thumb).

I'm still not sold on these braid manis, they look ok, but they can be a bit of a pain...what do you think?

Hx

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New 31 day challenge day 5 - purple

Hello again!

Second post of the day and I'm caught up with posting for the new 31 day challenge! Getting back into the blogging swing of things ;) And this was a mani I was really pleased with. I don't think I did too bad for my first time trying glitter placement (even if it did take 45 minutes to do both hands...) I didn't use loose glitter/glequins for this, but instead used Color Club It's a Hit, which has large lilac hexes in a clear base. I blobbed a bit out onto some plastic and used an orange stick to pick out individual ones and place them on my nail. Because they were in a clear polish I didn't need to stick them into topcoat, but just topcoated over them afterwards. Easy framed mani, even if it was a bit time consuming...

I really loved wearing this - so simple yet eye catching. I'm going to try painting frames at the weekend...I'm sure it wont be as successful!

Hx

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New 31 day challenge, day 4 - pink

Morning,

Catching up with my challenge posts - day 4's was pink, and another skittle. This one didn't come out as I imagined it in my head - but do they ever?! I used OPI Steady as she Rose as the base, and Models Own Pink Fizz with striping tape and stamping. A cute idea for Valentines day maybe?

Excuse the glitter herpes! Coming up later is day 5s purple nails, a mani I was proud of for once!

Hx

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New 31 day challenge, day 3 - gold

Hi everyone!

I mist have been a good girl last year, because I was lucky enough to get OPI The Man With the Golden Gun 18k gold topcoat from Father Christmas (well, ok, Mr NN, but he is rather rotund...), so of course when the challenge called for gold, I had to use it. I used China Glaze Aquadelic as the base, with 2 coats of TMWTGG, and stamped a cutesy bow on the accent nail. I loved this mani and couldn't stop looking at it!

I think this is one of my favourite combinations ever. Love!

You might have noticed I've added a cheeky little Born Pretty Store discount code in the right hand sidebar! I'm working on a review post with more details, so look out for that soon ;)

Hx

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New 31 Day Challenge day 2 - Silver

For day 2's Silver theme, I did some more skittles, with stamping, glitter, crackle and a wee gradient ;)

Too much flash...

I'm late posting this one so day 3 will be up later!

Check out all the other day 2s :)

Hx

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