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.**

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.

Zoya Remove+ vs. Julep Remover vs. Homemade moisturizing remover

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Hi everyone! Before I take you to this  post, I just want to say, this is my 100th post!! I can't believe it. Thank you  to everyone who takes the time to read this little blog. Thank you to any of you who share your thoughts, comments and suggestions with me and thank you to all of you for inspiring me! OK, on with the post.

I have always been intrigued by Zoya Remove+, and finally got some a couple of months ago. What you see above are the results of one swipe of each polish remover on index, middle, and ring fingers.

Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner from Birchbox

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Hello ladies! I mentioned earlier that my friend gifted me a couple of months of luxury from Birchbox as a birthday present. Today, I want to share with you my favorite product from my first box.

I received a full sized Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in my Birchbox and it is fantastic! It is applied with a felt marker type tip and applies so precisely. But, the most amazing thing about this eyeliner is how well it stays in place. I always forget that I have eye makeup on and rub my eyes. This eyeliner stays in place. In fact, when I wash my face in the evening, the eyeliner still looks fresh. To further illustrate this point, take a look at these two pictures. In the first picture, I applied the eyeliner three times, smudged the line on the far right immediately after application, the line in the middle 10 seconds after application, and did not smudge the line on the left. Even 10 seconds after application, this eyeliner is pretty set and within a minute, it is not going anywhere until you force it to leave your face with makeup remover (or what I use, a little bit of coconut oil). This is Eyeko Skinny Liquid Eyeliner in navy.

In this second picture, I had further abused the eyeliner marks, this time rubbing vigorously with wet fingers.

I love the eyeliner, but navy is not my usual color. Fortunately, the eyeliner is available in six shades! I will definitely purchase it in purple. So, that means this heavenly eyeliner is available in olive, turquoise, black, brown, purple, and navy. It seems like there is is a color for anyone. This eyeliner can be be purchased from Birchbox for $15. 

Do you have an opinion of Eyeko eyeliner? What is your favorite cosmetic product?

Have a great day!

~Alexis

im-PRESS Press On Manicure

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I received a complimentary package of the im-PRESS Press-On Manicure (www.impressmanicure.com) as part of my Mom Vox Box from Influenster for review. I tried these press on nails myself and was impressed (no pun intended . . .  really) by a couple of things. First of all, the packaging is absolutely adorable and comes with 24 nail tips! But more importantly, these nails stuck on my nails super hard. I wore the nails for five days and 9 out of 10 of them could have lasted longer than five days. I went swimming for over three hours in a chlorinated pool while wearing these nails too! Once you find the right size, application of all 10 nails takes less than five minutes. The color I used, "Glisten Up" was a pretty raspberry color, but I was also able to paint over the im-PRESS Press-On nails quite easily for a different look.

If I had shorter nails, these would have looked very natural on my hands, but as it was, I had to file my natural nails down quite a bit to get them to work and place them a little further from my cuticles than they should have been applied. That said, I don't think that I am the target buyer for the im-PRESS Press-On Manicure. I think that they are geared more towards a woman who has much shorter nails or had a drastic nail break and wants to keep a nice looking manicure until her nails grow back out.

I will say that I wished that the nails were a bit longer. I have rather long nail beds and sometimes a nail would fit me in width, but be too short to completely cover my nail bed, so I had to use a slightly wider, longer nail. I discovered that I could trim and file down the edges of nails like that to make them fit better, but that negated a lot of the convenience of the im-PRESS Manicure. I also have four nails that needed the exact same sized im-PRESS Press-On nail, but the package comes with only two of each size.

I did find the nails a little difficult to remove, but I haven't used other press-on nails, so I can't tell you if they were more difficult than other brands.

All in all, I think these are a good product for a lady in a rush who wants a pretty manicure but doesn't have time to paint her nails or who has uneven nail lengths. I have two recommendations for use:  Each nail tip is labelled underneath from 0 to 11 to indicate their size, two of each. When fitting for the perfect size, I think it would be easier to lay out each nail in numerical order and try them like that instead of just grabbing willy-nilly from the package. My other recommendation is to squeeze the nails before applying them so that they curve quite tightly to the nail and stick with a more natural shape.

The im-PRESS Press-On Manicure retails for between $5.99 and 7.99. Does the im-PRESS Press-On Manicure seem like something you would like to try? Or if you have tried it, what did you think?

Thanks for reading.
~Alexis

Julep Glycolic Hand Scrub

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I joined the Julep Maven program earlier this month. In the American Beauty welcome box, there were two pretty, pastel nail polishes and the Julep Facial For Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub. I thought that the hand scrub would be an acceptable exfolliant, but it is wonderful. During the first week after receiving the hand scrub, I used it every day. I have since begun using it only once a week on manicure day so that the scrub will last longer.

When you use a small amount in your hand, the little exfoliating pieces are not so plentiful that they would rough up the skin too much. The exfoliant pieces are also a bit smoother than other exfoliating scrubs I tried. I gently rub my moist hands together for about half a minute and then rinse. It is amazing how soft my hands feel after using this scrub and I've even noticed that they feel smoother than usual for two to three days after use.

My one little gripe about the product is that it has a tendency to get a little watery. I have to shake the tube before opening it or else several drops of liquid leak out and get all over my counter.

As if the smooth results weren't reason enough to love the hand scrub, it is also free of parabens, sulfates, and phthalates. When I was pregnant, I tried to cut those items out of my life as often as possible and have been much more aware of their presence in cosmetics since then.

If you are interested in becoming a Julep Maven, get the info right here and take the quiz to determine your Julep style. Use the code SHAREONMARCH to get your welcome box (most of which contains the Facial For Hands Glycolic Hand Scrub) for a penny. You can cancel your Maven membership without obligation or penalty. In the interest of full disclosure, if you use that link to become a Julep Maven, I get a credit that can result in my receiving free Maven boxes.

Have you used the Julep Glycolic Hand Scrub? Did you like it?

~Alexis