31DC2016 - Rainbow - Punched Decals

*Press Sample*

Hi everyone! Today the prompt is Rainbow in the 31 Day Challenge and I've used some amazing water decals in my design. I had the idea a while back to try out a paper punch on some water decals and see how it would work out. Let's take a look at my results!

Rainbow Feathers featuring Born Pretty Store and FingerPaints

*Press Sample*

Hi everyone! Today I have a simple mani for you featuring some pretty Born Pretty Store feather decals that I ordered ages ago. I was fondly remembering a feather mani that I did last summer using some different bright feather decals from Born Pretty Store, so I decided to pull these out to liven up my day. Water decals are my kind of nail art because they are super simple to use and they look like you put a lot of effort into your mani. I keep a stash of them around for when I don't want to stamp, but want to spice up a nice creme mani.

For my mani, I started off with a base of FingerPaints Yellow Out Man (from the new Tie Dye Revolution Collection, which I will be reviewing later this week). I used the Fancy Colorful Feather water decals (item 1739). After my base was fully dry, I arranged the individual decals on my nails. I found that these adhered to the nail well and I didn't have any issues with them being too stiff or folding during application. The one strange thing I encountered was that the tips of the feathers on a few of my nails seemed to have a little bits of pigment or something that sort of disintegrated off onto the nail during application, but it brushed off the nail easily while it was still wet. It didn't affect the way that the decals looked either so it wasn't problematic, just worth mentioning. I really loved how bright and colorful this mani was. I was having a bit of a down week, so these cheered me right up!

 

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. Thanks for looking everyone!

Born Pretty Store Exquisite Water Marble Water Decal

*Purchased by Me*

Hi everyone! I'm working on swatching some things this weekend that I will begin sharing on Monday, but for today's post I'm actually sharing a mani I did a pretty good while ago (back in February, I think?). I had forgotten about it until I ran across these pictures in my pile of unposted mani photos. I only have two photos of this particular mani, but it really doesn't need too many pics to get the idea. ;)

AGES ago, I purchased these Exquisite Water Marble Decals from Born Pretty Store because I just loved the color scheme and I was intrigued by something that would mimic a water marble without all of the work. Since they were so colorful, I decided to use neutral base so they would really pop (I used Zoya Rue here). Now...I thought these ended up looking very cute but as far as them looking like an actual water marble was going on...I don't think they quite met the mark. On these decals one side of the design was flat so it was designed to lay up against the edge of your nail and the other side had the lovely marbled ripples. As you can see, my nails are quite wide so when they were placed against the side of the nail they only reached a little over halfway across my nail leaving a pretty wide expanse of my base color on the other side (thus detracting from the "marbled illusion"). I gave some thought about just centering them on my nails, but the one flat side of the design just hanging out in the open space looked extremely awkward. All of that being said, it still an extremely cute look but I just wanted to point out that I didn't think you were going to fool anyone into thinking you did a real water marble with these.

Aside from the design, I found that the quality of these decals was great and on par with other water decals I've purchased from Born Pretty Store. Since they are on the larger side, you do have to take care not to let them fold in half when you remove them from the paper because they will stick to themselves and you don't want to have to pry them apart with tweezers if you don't have to (though soaking them in water again really helps with this if it occurs. They were plenty long enough for my my nails and would also work for nails a bit longer than mine. The excess at the tips and cuticle melted away easily with my clean-up brush and acetone leaving a clean edge. These were really fun to wear and almost gave me a retro vibe. I think I wore them for a few days actually and had no issues with them lifting or peeling. Just writing this post has made me want to go pull out some water decals to wear from my stash, so you will likely see some more soon! I always love using them because they really jazz up a plain mani and very limited skill is required to use them.

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. 

Thanks for looking everyone! 

Illamasqua Melange and Born Pretty Store Feather Water Decals

*Purchased by Me*

Hi everyone! Today I have a lemming that I was very fortunate to fulfill to show you. Since Illamasqua stopped being stocked in the US, it has become increasingly difficult to get your hands on them, especially their new releases! Illamasqua Melange was released in 2014 and I wanted it from the moment I saw it. There aren't many high-end brands that I will shell out the bucks for anymore, but Illamasqua is one of the rare exceptions because they make extremely beautiful and high quality polishes and I adore their formula. Thanks again to my dear friend who was able to get it to the US for me! <3

For this mani, I started off with a base of Illamasqua Melange and then added some gold foil peacock feather water decals from Born Pretty Store (item C045). I found that these decals were a little bit stiffer than some that I've worked with in the past, but still not problematic, I just smoothed them down to the curve of my nail with my finger really well and they behaved beautifully. I really like having some water decals in my stash that are cute designs in plain colors like gold, silver, black, and white that will look great over a variety of base colors so you can easily jazz up any mani without having to worry about color-matching. I think these would look great over pretty much any base color for a full mani or for an accent.

Let's get a look at Melange on its own. Gah, it's so fabulous! My camera wasn't doing so hot this night at picking up all of the detail in the base, but it has a dusty green base with heavy gold and red shimmer flecks. Formula is a breeze in true Illamasqua style and this is 2 easy coats. So much love for this polish!

As I said, Illamasqua does not have any US-based stockists anymore (and I've heard ordering direct from them is now EXTREMELY expensive), so tracking this one down is not an easy task. If you have the opportunity to get it though...DO IT! 

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. 

Super Girly Mani Featuring Born Pretty Store and Literary Lacquers

*Some items in this post are press samples*

Hi everyone! Gosh, I have been looking through my folders and I have such a back-log of manis that I haven't shown you from the busy holidays! The mani I'm sharing with you today started out simple enough and then went into totaly girly craziness. I picked up a few polishes from Literary Lacquers' 2014 Community Collection when they launched (I'm hoping to have some swatch pics of my picks soon!), and I decided to wear Effie's Trinket one day because I was feeling like PINK in the middle of December. Once I got it on, it was just so girly and fun that I went crazy with the floral embellishment.

After Effie's Trinket dried, I used the floral vines design from Born Pretty Store stamping plate 05 and stamped with Mundo de Unas White. I previously used this plate here for another design, and it has several other cute designs on it that I look forward to using. It was definitely my favorite plate that I got to review because it could be used for so many looks. Once again, the image quality was great and it stamped pretty crisply. Then to take things even further, I decided to add some Born Pretty Store water decals to the design. I placed the cute floral decals (Fresh Orchids Leaves pattern) randomly around on the nail, and I thought they really brought the whole look together. I really enjoyed this mani as a break from all of the December red and green!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. 

So what do you think of my random girly mani? Is it too much going on for you? I was on the fence at first, but I really liked it! Thanks for looking everyone! 

CYNA Fall-ing for Nail Art Challenge: Fall Leaves/Trees featuring Born Pretty Store Water Decals

*Purchased by Me*

Hi everyone! Today starts off another Challenge Your Nail Art challenge and it is all fall-themed. Today's prompt was Fall Leaves or Trees and I took the really simple route and used these super cute leaf decals that I bought from Born Pretty Store. I started off with a base of one of my fall favorites from a few years back, Zoya Yara from the fall 2011 Mirrors Collection. Yara has the perfect olivey green base with gorgeous flecks of gold shimmer. The decals I used from Born Pretty Store are called Special Maple Leaf (item DS-090). Then I applied the decals randomly around the nail. They were super easy to work with and there were a good variety of colors and shapes (and a LOT of decals) so you could definitely do multiple manis with this one set of decals. They were also very opaque, so they worked well over a darker color like Yara. I probably took the easy road for "nail art", but I really loved these!

Rainbow Leopard Mani with Born Pretty Store Water Decals

*Press Sample*

Hi everyone! I recently received these really fun rainbow leopard water decals (item K171) from Born Pretty Store to review. I thought I would use a white base (OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls) so that the colors would really pop. There were hot pink, yellow, and blue decals. I used 2 decals for each nail (you could sort of fit them together like a puzzle on the nail). They were really easy to work with and held up really well. I wore them for 4 days while I was on vacation at the beach and they still looked great when I changed my mani.

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. 

Maybelline Day Glow Teal and Born Pretty Store Feather Decals

*Products purchased by me*

Hi everyone! Today I have a mani to share with you that I absolutely loved! This one features another polish from Maybelline's Bleached Neons Collection as well as some absolutely stunning water decals from Born Pretty Store. 

After my initial discovery of Maybelline's Bleached Neons, I decided to seek out a few more colors from the line. I found a full display at another Rite Aid and was able to buy the gorgeous blue from the collection, Day Glow Teal. This polish, unlike the Lime Accent, had a great formula and covered perfectly in two coats. It is bright, but also a little muted so it definitely isn't an in your face "neon". I'm a sucker for blue cremes, and this one is fantastic!

Next I added these beautiful feather decals (Item 1724) from Born Pretty Store. When you first look at the sheet of decals, the feathers don't exactly look like they all go together, but when you place them over a base, they are just translucent enough that the colors all meld together for a very cohesive look. The decals behaved well and I had no difficulties applying them. I didn't want to take this mani off!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram.  

The Maybelline Bleached Neons collection is limited edition, so be sure to grab them now before they are gone for good wherever Maybelline products are sold in your area (I purchased mine from Rite Aid). 

Maybelline Lime Accent with Born Pretty Store Water Decals

*Water decals were a press sample, polish was purchased by me*

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun and simple summer floral mani to share with you. I've heard lots of buzz about the Maybelline Bleached Neons collection, so when I found a display at my local Rite Aid I had to get a few to see what all the fuss was about. I was looking for a color that would look nice with my floral water decals, and Maybelline Lime Accent looked like it would pair well.

Lime Accent is a gorgeous lime green creme. It's bright while being a bit subdued, so I totally get the whole "bleached neons" concept. I will say that the formula left a little to be desired for me. It was somehow a bit runny while being thick (which makes NO sense, but it's the only way I can think to describe it!). Probably, if I was more careful, I could have gotten away with 3 thin coats, but I ended up doing 4 coats for complete coverage. I would definitely recommend waiting a bit between coats to avoid dragging. The color though...worth a little hassle I think! I think that my other two picks from the Bleached Neons collection (Coral Heat and Pink Punch) have better formulas based on nail wheel swatching, but we shall see soon!

I decided to jazz up this mani with some lovely floral water decals from Born Pretty Store (Item Y077). These are so adorable and honestly look like they could have been hand painted once they get on your nails. I thought the bright colors of the flowers looked great against the lime green base. These water decals were a cinch to use and I had absolutely no issues with them. There were also plenty of decals in the pack to do two full manicures with. Such a quick and easy way to add some art to your nails!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram.  

The Maybelline Bleached Neons collection is limited edition, so be sure to grab them now before they are gone for good wherever Maybelline products are sold in your area (I purchased mine from Rite Aid). 

Cult Nails New Day with Water Decals from Born Pretty Store

Hi everyone! Today I have a fun and simple mani for you using water decals. I started off with a base of Cult Nails New Day, a wonderful buttery yellow that I won from Imperfectly Painted's 4th Blog Birthday Celebration. The color and formula of this yellow are both divine. I found it to be perfectly smooth and opaque at 2 coats (perhaps 3 if you are doing really thin coats or aren't being careful with your application) which is fantastic for a pastel yellow. If you are looking for a fantastic yellow creme, look no further.

I thought this lovely yellow was the perfect base for the colorful Born Pretty Store water decals (item Y108) that I picked up a few months ago. Originally, I thought each of the circles were separate decals, but they are joined in sets of two. This was good because they kept a cool configuration on the nail, but somewhat bad for me because I guess my nails are a little wider than most and the decals, which are made to go against the sides of the nail, wouldn't quite span the width of all of my nails. In real life, this wasn't something that you noticed a lot, so I was still very pleased with the mani. If I was going to do it again, I would cut the clear membrane that joined the circles together on a few of them so I could arrange them against the sides of my nails as they should be.

Cult Nails polishes are available from their website as well as from Llarowe, Beautylish, Harlow & Co., and Nail Polish Canada. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new collections.

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram.  

*Nail polish was won in a giveaway, Water Decals were purchased by me.*

30 Day Challenge, Day 10: Gradient

Hi everyone! Today's prompt for the 30 Day Challenge was Gradient. I saw a gorgeous mani a few days ago that used pink and yellow (it was this tape mani from Enamel Girl) and I just adored how bright and cheerful the color combo was, so I decided to use those colors for my gradient. I started off with a base of China Glaze Lemon Fizz and then sponged a gradient using Lemon Fizz and KBShimmer Life Rose On. I thought the perfect way to accent this mani would be with these gorgeous pink butterfly stickers (Item BLE1390) that were sent to me for review by Born Pretty Store. I was absolutely in love with this mani and didn't want to take it off to do the next prompt! LOL...and now Dani and I have both done a pink and yellow gradient and we didn't even plan it that way!

There were pink and orange butterflies (as well as plain black ones) included in the package. There was a good variety of decals that you could mix and match and use for several manicures. These applied very easily and weren't prone to bend and get stuck together. So pretty for a spring manicure!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. 


KBShimmer polishes are available from their website as well as from Harlow & Co. (Canada). Be sure to follow them on Facebook and Instagram for updates on new collections and to see swatches of all of their polishes.

*Water Decals were sent for my honest review, polishes were purchased by me*


Be sure to check out what the rest of the ladies are doing for the challenge! Thanks for looking everyone!

An InLinkz Link-up

30 Day Challenge, Day 1: Favorite Creme

Hi everyone! I've decided to join my pal from Dani's Manis (@danilouwho on Instagram) in her 30 Day Challenge! If you want to join in, be sure to head over to her blog to check out all of the Inlinkz details for each day or if you want to join on Instagram, use the hashtag #getnailedwithdani.

Day 1 starts out seemingly easy: Wear your favorite creme. NOT EASY! I have too many favorite cremes! I decided to attempt to show you one of my newer favorite cremes that I've never been able to capture accurately. Barry M Greenberry is an almost neon mint green creme. Every picture I have ever taken makes it look light blue. I used a mega filter in the first picture below to try to get close, but it still leans a bit greener than this pic. It's the best I could do (JUST TRUST ME IT IS AWESOME!). It's so bright and perfect. If you love mints, you will love this.

These next two pics are nowhere in the realm of accurate, but I wanted you to be able to see my nifty Born Pretty Store water decals (Item S040). These lacy flower decals added a subtle and elegant look to my simple creme mani. They came in a set with 10 white and 10 black decals, so they would look nice over pretty much any color. Can you guys tell I'm obsessed with water decals? They are so easy!

Barry M is a drugstore brand from the UK and I have pretty much adored every creme that I've tried from them. If you aren't in the UK, they are available from Ninja Polish. I highly recommend giving their cremes a try!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for all of your nail art supply needs (you can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order).  I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram.


*all products in this post were purchased by me*

Thanks for looking everyone, and be sure to check out everyone else taking part in the challenge!

An InLinkz Link-up

OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian Featuring Born Pretty Store Water Decals

Hi everyone! Sorry for not posting much this week but I'm on vacation from work and it was my birthday, so I have been pretty slack about taking pictures unfortunately (even of my birthday mani which I adored, but only got a single iPhone picture of).

What I CAN tell you about this week is that I've grown even deeper in love with OPI's Brazil Collection. I picked up several more for my birthday and I love them all so much. It's so funny how a collection that you had initially written off completely can so quickly become your obsession. Last night, I put on OPI Kiss Me I'm Brazilian, a bright medium pink creme. It has a lovely formula and is unique in my collection (which, as a rule, has mostly dark pink or neon pink cremes). I love that it is bright without being neon and feels so fresh and perfect for warmer weather. I can't wait to do a pedi with it!

I recently received a few water decals from Born Pretty Store for review, and I thought these black decals would look perfect over the bright pink base. I've mentioned this before, but I think water decals are perfect for those of you wanting a completely simple way to add art to your nails. They could not be easier to use. For these, I cut them up into individual pieces and placed them in water for about 15 seconds (after removing their protective film). After that, I easily slid them off of their paper backing with tweezers and placed them on my nails. They are easy to slide around and adjust to just the proper placement on the nail when they are still wet. After you have them where you want them, just use a paper towel to dab and absorb extra water and add topcoat. Instant nail art!

These particular decals (Stylish Butterfly Owl Design K210) come in a sheet with 10 black and 10 white decals of this design (here I've already cut off the top row of black to do my left hand). The white ones are hard to see here because they are against the white paper background, but they are exactly the same as the black. These would be very versatile to use over any color that you like. You can use all 10 of one color in a mani like I did, or you could use them as accents and you could get several manis out of them.

Be sure to check out these and many more water decals and nail art products at Born Pretty Store if you want a quick and easy way to add some nail art to your mani routine. I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping! You can also follow Born Pretty Store on Facebook and Instagram. You can use my coupon code JCX31 for 10% off your order! Thanks for looking everyone!

*Water decals provided for my honest review, OPI products purchased by me*

Valentine's Nails

Hi everyone! I have been a big failure at doing Valentine's manis this year so far besides a few pinks and reds. I decided to go all out with some nail art to (try to) make up for it!

I did some crazy skittles which all started with a base of OPI Sparrow Me the Drama (pink). For the water marbled nails, I used Sinful Colors Wisp (white), OPI Sparrow Me the Drama (pink), OPI Red Hot Ayers Rock (red), and OPI Funky Dunkey (purple). The glitter accents were L.A. Girl Sputtered from the Splatter collection. Finally for the hearts, I used water decals from Born Pretty Store. It was my first experience using water decals, and they are very idiot-proof I think. I used tweezers to place them (the three hearts were one decal) and it was easy to readjust them on the nail if needed. I went back with my dotting tool and added a few dots of the different colors for accents to pull the whole mani together.

I have heard some people haven't seen the L.A. Girl Splatter Collection around at their Rite Aids, but they are available at Cherry Culture for those of you who can't find them.

I'm really pleased with the water decals and I've ordered a few more from Born Pretty Store. I've always had great experiences with ordering from them at very reasonable prices. Also, you can't beat free worldwide shipping!

Thanks for looking everyone and have a Happy Valentine's Day!

*Products purchased by me*