Review: Born Pretty Store Water Decals

*Press sample*

Hey everyone! 

Today I have a long overdue review for you from the vault. I was contacted by Daisy of Born Pretty Store and asked to review some items from their store. One of the items I chose were these Miki Nails Water Decals in A-1-20. 

They looked like regular nail strips in the packaging, and it also said "stickers", so I wasn't sure if they weractually water decals, or just nail stickers. Looked over the instructions...

And they are water decals. You need to soak them before you can apply them. I think I prefer water decals over stickers for things like this because if you mess up putting them on, you can easily just slide them around to get the placement you want. Here's a look at the design I chose.

I did have some trouble choosing the correct sizes for my nails. There are 12 strips in a package. Usually, the size I thought would fit my nail ended up being too small, so my advice would be - look at the size you think it is and then go up one. I had no trouble getting the decals off the paper and onto the nail. I cut out each decal, soaked it for about 30 seconds and then placed it on the nail using nail art tweezers. I moved it around with a wet paper towel to get the placement where I wanted it. Then, I filed around the edges to remove excess, let it dry for a few minutes, and then added topcoat to make it last longer. 

I noticed that even with my nails being this long (this is long for me), there was a ton of excess at the end of the decal, which was nice. These would fit a great variety of nail shapes and sizes.

I do recommend using topcoat - these lasted almost a full work week for me, and I am very hard on my nails at work. However, I did notice that when I applied Seche Vite topcoat, it did pull a bit of the decal off with it right at the tip of the nail on my ring finger, so I would advise if you're going to use topcoat, apply a coat of polish that matches the design under the decals, so bare nail doesn't show through if it drags off some.

Overall, I really loved these decals and I thought they were very easy to use. They had lots of different designs to choose from on the site, and they are very affordable at $1.55! I would definitely use these again, especially now that I know that a base coat of polish will help with the topcoat pulling on the tips. I would recommend these decals to anyone looking for a complicated looking manicure that takes minimal time to complete. These probably took me all of 15 minutes to put on!

Also, if you do decide to purchase these or any other products at Born Pretty Store, be sure to use my 10% off discount code! And even better - shipping at BPS is always free! :)

Thanks for reading!
Kelly

Some of these products were provided to me in exchange for my honest review and opinion. I am not being compensated for this post. Please see my Disclosure Statement for more information.

Digital Nails: Expelliarmus

HI everyone, happy Saturday! I am doing my first ever 5k later this evening and I am SO nervous! I will probably walk most of the time, but it's better than nothing right?!

Today I wanted to share a swatch of a stunning polish - Digital Nails Expelliarmus! I thought this polish was pretty in the bottle, but once I put it on, I was completely blown away - it's beyond gorgeous!

Here is the description from Digital Nails website: 
"Expelliarmus! is a SUPER RICH royal purple jelly with a load of blue violet to magenta color shift microflakies and magenta circle glitter in two sizes, plus HUGE violet and silver holographic circle glitters."
I used three coats for these photos, but Raphaelle says that you can also layer it over a purple base - I haven't tried that yet! I actually think I might want to try it over black next. :)

I really didn't have too much trouble at all with this polish, even with the larger circles, but I did drag them around a bit using the brush to get them where I wanted them. You can kind of see one circle sticking out on the outside edge of my pinky nail, so it's not a completely straight edge, but other than that, this polish was not the troublemaker I expected when I saw ALL those dots swimming around in the bottle! :) It was a great surprise.

Overall, I was so impressed with this polish! I got so many compliments on it. It was so much brighter than I expected and even brighter than the pictures can get across. I definitely recommend this one! Make sure to head over to Digital Nails Etsy shop and check out all the other pretties Raphaelle has created! :)

Thanks for reading!
<3 Kelly

Argyle Nail Art inspired by Nail Polish Wars

Hi everyone! Today I have a nail art look I did a while back. I was looking for inspiration and so I checked out Nail Polish Wars Pinterest Board. I fell in love with her argyle look...

So I had to try it out! I didn't want to completely copy it, so I chose some different colors. :) I used Orly Decades of Dysfunction, Wet n Wild Toxic Apple, Rimmel Mintilicious, and the stitches are Sally Hansen Greige Gardens.

My lines weren't exactly perfect, and you could see the mistakes, so I went over it with my favorite mistake corrector - Fairy Dust! :)

I found that this look was harder than I thought to get crisp lines! I want to try using my nail vinyls from Teis Mom and I think I'll have a lot better success! What do you think of this look!? I'd love to hear below. And be sure to check out Nail Polish Wars if you haven't already. Her swatches and nail art are amazing! :)

<3 Kelly

Jindie Nails: Don't Get it Citrus Twisted

Hi everyone! Quick swatch post from the vault for you tonight. This is from a couple months back when I had my talons. I kinda miss them - I'm thinking of going back!

Anyway, check out Jindie Nails - Don't Get it Citrus Twisted!

This one caught my eye during one of the restocks. I think it's an older shade, not sure how I missed out on it before! It's a gorgeous bright lime green that's perfect for summer. 

Description from the Jindie Nails site: "This is a bright neon green crelly with matte opaque kelly green, pastel yellow and canary yellow dots and extra large hex, neon pink hex and opaque baby pink dots and extra large hex with gorgeous silver shimmer."

I didn't notice any hexes in my bottle, but it could be that I just didn't get any for this mani. I actually liked that I only saw dots, it reminded me of a Twister board! :)

I used three coats here with Seche Vite topcoat and the circles and other glitters were totally flat. 

My camera really doesn't do it justice, it's so much brighter in real life!

I am in love with this polish! It's such an amazing summer shade and I can't wait to wear it to the pool and to the beach! :) What do you think of it? I'd love to hear below! And, be sure to check out Jindie Nails shop for more gorgeous polishes <3

Kelly

Colores de Carol - Cocktail Dress

Hi everyone! Long time no post! I've been very busy with work, but I have tons of polishes to show you guys, so I'm slowly but surely working through the backlog. 

Today, I have a stunning and unique polish from Colores de Carole - Cocktail Dress!

I fell in love with this polish the moment I saw the BOW glitter!! Now I also feel like I need every polish ever made that includes bow glitter. I love bows on jewelry, clothes - why not polish? Plus, there is just something about this fuchsia and white color combo that is so fun and girly! Cocktail Dress has a fairly sheer white base  that can be built up to opacity, but I chose to layer over white here. Two coats of Cocktail Dress followed by HK Girl.

I had no problems whatsoever with application. I did choose to play around with placement of the bows. I just moved them around with the polish brush until they were where I wanted them. All the other glitters - what you see is how they went on.

What do you think of this polish? Do you own any polishes with bow glitters?! If so, point me in their direction! I must own them all!!

And, be sure to check out Colores de Carol's blog  for some amazing nail art/swatches, and her Big Cartel shop to see her gorgeous creations! :)

Thanks for looking!

<3 Kelly