Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones inspired

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I read Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones back in May. She also authored Howl's Moving Castle and a number of other entertaining young adult novels. Every one of her books that I've read is charming and magical. So far, Dogsbody is my favorite.

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.

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

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.

A Few of My Favorite Things Giveaway!

Pin It Apparently my husband thinks I sound like Oprah with this giveaway title . . . I don't remember; is that what she called her giveaways? I am certainly not Oprah, or else I would be giving this to all of my followers. I can only give out two prizes packages this time. Maybe when I win the lotto . . . I probably have to start playing the lotto though. Moving on.

Since I began blogging, I have collected some of my favorite manicure products. I have talked about some of these on here, but I wanted to really share them with you. This is two giveaways in one. Only US residents are eligible for Prize A or US residents could select Prize B, which is opened internationally. You must be a GFC follower of this blog, you must choose a prize and you must provide an email address to be eligible to win.

Entries will be accepted until Monday, July 23.

Prize A:

New bottles (L-R):  Nfu Oh 51, Sonia Kashuk Fairy Princess,  Aili's Violet Dream (a franken by me), China Glaze  Surfin' For Boys, and Sinful Colors Green Ocean

New containers of Badger Cuticle Care and JASON Natural E.F.A. Hand & Body Lotion

Prize B:

A set containing 12 floral water decals, 2 packages of nail stickers (14  stickers in each)

3 new stamping plates

A set containing 16 gold nail foils

a Rafflecopter giveaway

All products are new and were bought by me. The winners will be selected within a week following the end of the giveaway and notified by e-mail. Winners must respond to e-mail within 48 hours or a new winner will be selected.

Good luck!
~Alexis

Floral Water Decals

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Hello again! I have a new favorite to share with you today . . . it seems like I say that a lot, but look at this. If you can apply a temporary tattoo, you can apply water decals to your nails. The water decals I have came in packs of 12, so you can make a big mistake on one or two nails and still be able to do the manicure. I bought these from lightinthebox.com and unfortunately the instructions on the website were wrong. I had to do some experimenting to figure out how to use the water decals.

You need a bowl of lukewarm water. You cut each nail decal out and I found that I could place the second decal in the water as I began applying the decal for the first nail. The decals are on a paper backing and will not come off the backing unless they are really wet. I peeled them off with my fingernails and tweezers. I then lightly dried the decal, centered it on my nail and smoothed it on. Once removed from the paper backing, the decals can handle a little bit of abuse, so if it didn't place perfectly, I could move it around a bit. I use a rubberized basecoat and that helped the decals to adhere to my nails. I cut most of the excess decal from the tip of each fingernail. Right after application, the decals didn't look completely smooth.

After all the decals were in place, I coated each nail with a layer of Gelous and wrapped around the tip, tucking the excess decal under the nail's free edge with the brush (I didn't use my fast drying topcoat for fear that it would bubble the decals like it did the stickers last week). The Gelous topcoat kind of melted the decals a little bit into the nail. This was a good thing. It made the decals look more like they were painted on than stuck on. It smoothed out the decals completely. Since the Gelous painted parts were a bit melty, it made removal of excess decal from the sides near the cuticles a little easier and it just peeled off with gentle scraping of a cuticle stick. After the Gelous had dried for a couple of minutes, I added the fast drying topcoat and there was no bubbling, just pretty flowers. I had to shoo little hoverflies away from my fingers all week because they thought my nails were really covered in flowers . . . silly little bugs.

Look at that! Six days and only tip wear. That never happens for me. I am usually a chippy mess by day six. This made me so happy and this mani was so much fun, that I decided to revitalize it with french tips in Revlon Orchid. It gave me three more days with the manicure. Nine days for a manicure. Not bad. I will definitely be purchasing more of these water decals in the future. If you like these, take a look at my giveaway and perhaps you could win a set of these wonderful water decals.

1. Ladybugs:  Ladybugs are spectacular killers of aphids and they are adorable. My daughter and I have been watching the development of ladybugs on our Japanese meadowood bush over the past couple of weeks. She saw and would talk to the larvae that look very little like lady bugs and I took a picture of one of the larvae that was changing into a ladybug. The other day, during a lunch picnic, a ladybug decided that it just wanted to hang out and take a little rest on my girl's hand. She was thrilled!

2. Finally finishing a project:  I had only the tiniest amount of sewing to do on my dress and I procrastinated, but it is finally finished. I really love it!

3. Sea Monster:  I gave my husband this knitted dice bag as a Father's Day present. He had been asking me to make it for a long time, but I knit it in secret. He loves it and tells me that it fits the perfect amount of dice.

4. Strawberry Shortcake:  I need it just once a year and it is perfection, just that taste of strawberry with lightly sweetened whipped cream on a tender biscuit . . . It is a good think that I really only crave it about once a year or I would not fit out my front door. My daughter insisted that we eat strawberry shortcake while watching Strawberry Shortcake . . . Goofball.

5. Shabby Apple:  I just received the dress I ordered using the gift certificate that I won a few weeks back. It fits me perfectly and looks just wonderful. I love it!