Showing posts with label bornprettystore. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bornprettystore. Show all posts

Sunday, February 23, 2014

BornPrettyStore Water Decals review

Pin It Hi everyone. I sit here in the middle of endless winter, although the last couple of days have been rainy and windy instead or frigid winds and snow, so maybe there is hope for beautiful days to come. I did take the opportunity to wear manicures with a touch of spring.

I receive some water decals from bornprettystore a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to try them all out so that I could share my thoughts with you all at once. Today I will tell you about Sweet Night View Oil Painting Stamped Pattern Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker, the Cute Pussy Black And White Stripes Pattern Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker, and the Vintage Simple Arabesque Pattern Nail Art Water Decals Transfers Sticker.




2 coats Cult Nails Grunge, Sinful Colors Pistache, Wet n Wild Glamorous, and Sweet Night View Oil Painting
First, let me tell you about using the Sweet Night View Oil Painting Water decals. I was the most excited about trying out these water decals. I found it easiest to hold my finger over the image and eyeball the size I needed to cut from the sheet. Once cut, I trimmed it to better fit my finger nail (slightly smaller than the nail, then soaked it for about 30 seconds in cool water. The decal was very forgiving to being moved around for perfect positioning. The only issue that I had with application is that I could only put one stroke of topcoat onto the nail before the colors would begin to blur. I found it easiest to use a rather thick coat of topcoat and gently coax it around the nail in just three strokes. Removal was just as simple as taking off a cream nail polish. Despite the need for a delicate touch with the topcoat, I would recommend these water decals. They are so pretty. I am wearing QQ-15.



Next up, I wore the Cute Pussy Black and White Stripes water decals with my Valentine's Day manicure.  I love the variety on this sheet of decals. Those black cats are so sleek and will be a great addition to future manicures. I had a really hard time choosing between the thicker stripes I actually wore and the thin zig zags right next to them on this sheet too. I love the addition of silver to these decals.




Wet n Wild Tickled Pink, Sinful Colors Folly, a-england Lancelot, and Cute Pussy Black and White Stripes
So on to the actual manicure, first of all, I want to thank Jen at The Nail Polish Project for inspiring this manicure. I've wanted to do a manicure similar to her skittles manicure for such a long time and this was such a fun manicure to wear! The stripes on my pinky are from the water decal sheet. They applied even more easily than the oil painting decals. I did have one minor issue, where a corner of one of the strips folded under a little bit, but I think that was user error. A light hand was needed with the topcoat on this too. Removal of these decals was a little bit more difficult due to the metallic stripes, but not as difficult as glitter removal. I think if you like accent nails, these decals would be a good choice.


Finally, I wore the Vintage Simple Arabesque water decals. I love little curly q's and these decals are such a shiny silver that they really pop. I wanted  very specific curlies from the middle of the sheet, so I had to be very careful while cutting the designs off the paper not to damage the rest of the images. It takes some caution, but it is possible to cut out small pieces without damaging the rest.



4 coats Cult Nails Charming, INM Northern Lights, and Vintage Simple Arabesque
I wanted a simple manicure to really highlight these decals. Because the decals are so shiny, they appear to be hovering above the nail. They do not smear at all with the addition of topcoat. I am still wearing this manicure, but I suspect that removal will be similar to the black and white stripes decals, a little difficult due to the metallic design, but worth it in my opinion.

All of the water decals removed from their paper backing after no more than a one minute soak in tap water. As long as the decals were kept wet, they all could be easily re-positioned until they were perfectly placed on the nail.

Sweet Night View Oil Painting Water decals are available for $1.99 for one image, but I would recommend getting a full sheet (11 different images) for $6.98 or even better, the two different sheets (22 different images) for $8.98.

Cute Pussy Black and White Stripes water decals Vintage Simple Arabesque water decals can each be purchased $4.99.


What do you think of these water decals? What kind of manicures would they inspire you to try?


I hope this review helps you find some great new water decals to make your manicures more exciting!
Take care.
~Alexis
**Products provided for honest review. Please be advised that I am not affiliated with bornprettystore.com nor was I paid to provide these reviews.**

Thursday, December 26, 2013

Born Pretty Store nail stickers and water decals

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So, the holiday season completely ran away on me. I only had the opportunity to wear three holiday nail designs and had trouble finding Christmasy inspiration for my nails. In come the 14 piece Luminous Glow in Dark Nail Art Stickers Delicate Christmas Ornaments Snowflakes Pattern from bornprettystore to the rescue! The nail stickers are adorable, with leaping reindeer and the sleigh loaded up with gifts is precious.

Thursday, October 24, 2013

Facilier inspired Disney manicure

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Let's face it, Doctor Facilier does not have many redeeming qualities, however he does wear a fabulous purple outfit in Disney's The Frog Princess. The different shades of purple, the top hat with the prominent purple feather, and his perfectly maintained moustache make his combo wonderful. However Doctor Facilier is only on the hunt for power. He wants to rule New Orleans and look fabulous doing it. Unlike Demona or Malificent, Facilier does not have any defensible reason for his evil doings

Sunday, September 8, 2013

31 Day Challenge: Metallic

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Happy Sunday all! Today I show you another transformed mani.  

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Models Own Indian Ocean with Water Decals

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It has been a very long time. I am sorry and can make no guarantees that I will begin posting more regularly. Too busy to do a lot of the things I love in life. I have had these pictures hanging out for quite some time, so here is a quick description.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Cult Nails Fetish with FNUG Psychedelic

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Happy start of the weekend! Here I am again, showing you a very late manicure. I wore this about 3 weeks ago or more. It seemed very different from my usual manicures, but I really enjoyed it anyway.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Love Manicure with Cult Nails Enigmatic

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Good evening. Today I share with you a lovely polish that I couldn't resist from Cult Nails. This is Cult Nails Enigmatic. I love it!

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Polish Days: Back to Nature

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It seems like January Polish Days just happened. The month just flew by! It is now February's Polish Day and here is my nature inspired manicure.

Friday, February 1, 2013

1 Year Blogiversary Giveaway

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Hello, wonderful readers. Thank you for allowing this website to be more than a private diary. Thank you for taking the time to read my ramblings several times a week. Mangling my Manicure turns 1 year in a short while and I wanted to celebrate with a little giveaway.



Friday, December 7, 2012

Silver, Gold, and Precious Memories to Trim the Tree

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Happy Friday! What I have here is my last manicure for Nail Polish Canada's challenges. This is my entry for "Trim the Tree Nails" (be sure to check out the other manicures and vote for your favorite! If my mani is your fave, thanks and vote for "Other" and specify "Mangling my Manicure." My site was supposed to be added to the pulldown menu, but I think that it got lost in the shuffle). Here is my inspiration from my very own Christmas tree.
I LOVE my Christmas ornaments. My parents gave my sisters and I a new ornament every year, culminating with a tree topper for the Christmas of my senior year in high school. The wooden bell was a souvenir that my parents brought home from a trip to Israel. I have started the same tradition with my own daughter. The crystal Winnie the Pooh hanging a snowflake was her very first Christmas ornament and the penguin ringing a bell was from her second Christmas. Every year, we pull out each of our ornament boxes, and she looks at the ornaments in her collection while I look at those in my box and remember all the Christmases I have spent with those I love. I am so excited for her to be able to do the same thing when she is an adult (but I don't want to rush to those wonderful days in her future).

Thursday, May 24, 2012

A Wine-Tasting Fairy Princess

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Hello. I hope that you all are doing well today. I have lots of pictures for you today. I was wearing this really fun manicure for a really fun wine-tasting bachelorette party. I love the little grapes on the shimmery background of Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess. Fairy Princess was a very thick and hard to apply. I actually got frustrated and added three drops of nail polish thinner to the bottle and that fixed the application problems completely, but you can see my middle finger in the picture above is not as smooth as I would have liked. The middle finger was painted before thinning the polish and the ring finger was painted after thinning the polish. I added a coat of Melissa to my ring fingers which just gave a bit of a frosty, shimmery green finish to those nails.

I stamped all nails with bornprettystore plate m71, a floral pattern in Revlon Minted and stamped over that with the grape pattern from bornprettystore plate M71 using Revlon ColorStay Amethyst and Sally Hansen Emerald City. I have been very pleased with the performance of ColorStay polishes for stamping lately.


With my nails ready to face a day full of wineries, I hit the road with a bunch of my favorite girls. I loved the view from this winery, the grape vines and then the lake in the background. It was an absolutely beautiful day in every way!
Noble Winery, Westfield, NY
I removed the polish after five days of wearing it, one day after the wine tour. You can see that there is one big chip on the middle finger and some chipping on my index finger, but the manicure quickly deteriorated after taking this picture. I spent the day at the beach, finding sea glass in the sand with my daughter.
Day 5

Sunset at Lake Erie
I am wearing a very traditional, pretty manicure right now, Julep Kelly. It is pretty beat, so I'll post about it in a day or two.

Join the Nail Files link-up and check out what's going on other fingers.
The Nail Files

What do you think of coordinating your manicure with a special event or holiday? If you've done it, what was the event and what did your manicure look like?

~Alexis

Friday, May 18, 2012

Green Ombre Gradient Manicure

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Hello there. I put a lot of effort into this manicure. I used the tutorial  for gradient nails from The Nailasaurus and transitioned between Revlon Bare Bones to China Glaze Fast Track, Julep Sofia, Sinful Colors Irish Green, Sonia Kachuk Fairy Princess, and concluded with Sally Hansen Emerald City from index finger to pinky. I then stamped Emerald City over all the nails and dotted them with Bare Bones and Emerald City. The manicure was my entry in Midnight Manicures Green nail art for Lyme Disease Awareness and Mental Health month contest. You can see all the entries on the Midnight Manicures facebook page. There is one nail art manicure that I think is fabulous and I really want to try out something similar. See which ones you like the best.

The next time that I try out that gradient, I'll use polishes that differ in color a bit more for a more pronounced effect.



By the second to last day wearing this manicure, I wanted something a little different, so I added a coat of Matte about You. I think it looked pretty matte. I find that my sponged manicures tend to hold up pretty well and this one was no exception. There was a little bit of tip wear and chipping at the edges of index and middle fingers after five days. My favorite nail color was the Irish green with Fairy Princess sponged over the top of the polish. Someday I'll do a full manicure with that combination.

I liked my middle fingers a lot too, just because I think it is so cool that Julep Sofia glows in the dark.


The Nail Files
Check out the Nail File:  Week 20. Look at great nail polish finds, fun manicures, and join the link-up yourself if you have some eye candy to share!

Next week, is a Fairy Princess manicure. I can't wait to show it to you all! Have any of you tried out the gradient tutorial from The Nailasaurus? I'm also curious, how long does it usually take you to do your manicure?

Take Care.
~Alexis

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Stamped art on Nfu Oh 61 and Julep Renee

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Hello again. Here is another mangled manicure. I was truly smitten with this manicure. I think that Julep Renee is a perfect spring polish. The formula was a little thicker than most, but still super smooth and creamy. I stamped over Renee with Revlon ColorStay Amethyst using bornprettystore's m69. I had some trouble getting the image to pick up and apply completely, but I was pleased with how the two purples complimented one another. The purples brought me right into the springtime mood. I don't have a holographic polish basecoat, so I used essie matte about you as the basecoat. I topped the tip of the nail with Nfu Oh 61. The application was a little streaky and difficult, but I think that it's just a matter of practice to determine how much polish you need on the brush to get even coverage. I then stamped over the join of the purple and holographic polish with bornprettystore's M19.

Here is where I made my mistake. I will not use a topcoat over holographic nail polish again. The manicure looked nice, but would have looked worlds better with the full holographic effect of the polish. As I mentioned in a post earlier this week, topcoat eliminated the purple flash from the holographic polish.

This was definitely a short-lived manicure. After only 4 days, I experienced some significant chipping. I tried to touch up the tips, but the polish just wanted to keep chipping. Normally, when a polish chips so quickly, I don't wear it again except as accents, but Nfu Oh 61 is so spectacular that I will accept it as a one to three day manicure and just enjoy staring at its flashiness for those few days.

What polishes or colors bring your mind to spring? Any favorite holographic polishes?

The Nail Files

Head over and take a look at some of the beautiful manicures at the nail files-week 16.

I'll be sharing my TARDIS Galaxy nails next week. I am in Doctor Who withdrawal right now, so I decided to soothe my longing with some nail varnish therapy. Happy polishing.

~Alexis