Tuesday, April 29, 2014

Product Review: Rose Water Decals

Hey guys! I’m doing my first review for Born Pretty Store today and I’m excited to share it with you! If you haven’t looked around Born Pretty before, they have a great selection of tools and decorations in their Nail Art section.
Today I’m reviewing these Floral Water Decals! I haven’t used water decals in a while, but these ones sparked my interest. I chose sheet #G105 for the oval frames (which probably seems a little odd considering how pretty the roses are) because they immediately gave me an idea for a cameo design.

image

The decals come in a one-sheet package and this particular sheet has 20 individual decals on it.

image

image

For three of the nails I started off with a base coat and 2 coats of Essie’s Master Plan and then used Essie’s Mink Muffs and Chelsea Queen’s tutorial to create a wood texture. For the other two nails, I used 3 coats of Essie’s Waltz.



When my nails were completely dry, I cut out the decals I wanted to use. The decals are well spaced-out on the sheet so you don’t have to worry about accidentally cutting into another decal.
With that being said, I did make some modifications to some of the decals. I used only the bottom part of the “I love travel” decals and cut around “Paris” on one of the rose decals; if the words don’t suit your needs it is possible to use only parts of individual decals.

Applying the decals was very simple. Once I was ready to put a decal on, I submerged it in a small container of room-temperature water for 20 seconds. When you remove the decal from the water, the design easily separates from the back and then you can apply it to the nail. While still wet, the decals don’t immediately adhere to your nail which is wonderful because it gives you a little bit of time to move the decal around and make sure it’s placed right where you want it.

Once you have the decal in place, just take a dry paper towel and dab the nail to sop up any excess water.

image

Once I had finished with the decals, I painted in the silhouettes of the cameos, sealed in the designs with a top coat, and added some gold 2mm square studs to finish the design.

image

I really liked the decals and love how they look with the design. Like other water decals, you don’t have to worry about this type of sticker peeling off at the edges because they’re so thin and seem to blend right in to the polish. This set of decals sells for US$2.86 per sheet and comes in two other floral designs.
You can get 10% off at Born Pretty Store using the coupon code FHX31 and there’s free worldwide shipping on all products.



I hope you guys all enjoyed my first review!

xo
Becca.


** These products were provided for review. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced by anyone. **

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Pastel Pop-Art Peeps




Interesting story behind these (kind of, not really).
I had no idea what I wanted to do in terms of Easter nails (I always seem to run out of inspiration when it comes to holidays or big events...)  and spent a good amount of time browsing Google images for inspiration. I was close to doing traditional Lithuanian/Polish Easter eggs, but I also kind of wanted to do Peeps. My roommate and I finally decided that I should do Peeps and as I continued to browse Google, I came across the following image:


I joked that I should do Pop Art Peeps after my last Pop Art design and it ended up being decided that I would indeed be painting Pop Art Peeps on my nails.

I hope everyone had as interesting an Easter as I did!
Products Used:
Borghese - B476 Incantato Purple
China Glaze - 654 Designer Satin
Ciaté - 074 BIg Yellow Taxi
Coco & Lulu - 432 Macron
Essie - 624 Mink Muffs
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Revlon - 280 Orbit
Sally Hansen - 130 Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 360 Barracuda
Sally Hansen - 370 Black Out
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.


Friday, April 25, 2014

Pre-Exam Manicures!

Before exams started, my friends and I decided to relax a little bit and I ended up giving both of them manicures!




Both of them were pretty happy and almost got through exams with their manicures intact! 

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Maybelline - 390 Audacious Asphalt
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 370 Black Out
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.

Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Rough Around the Edges





I decided to try out two things I've been meaning to try for a while now: Ikat and OPI's Push and Shove.

I've been thinking about doing an ikat manicure for a while and the opportunity finally arose when I needed something to pair with Push and Shove. I love how bright it is and how forgiving it can be.

As for Push and Shove, I've been wanting to try it for a while and was glad to get the opportunity to do so. It's a great polish, one of the best chrome polishes I've tried. I was going to leave the index and pinky fingers with only Push and Shove but broke down and added Essie's Belugaria for a ruffian look. I think they're great paired together!

Products Used:
Coco & Lulu - 992 Riviera
Essie - 964 Belugaria
OPI - Push and Shove
OPI - Lay Down That Base
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 370 Black Out
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Criss Cross Applesauce





For some reason I had the insane idea that this would be a super quick and simple manicure.
I was so wrong.
While there isn't anything really complicated about this design it can get really tedious drawing that many lines. It's also time consuming making sure they're spaced correctly and are thin enough.
In the end though, I'm pretty happy with the design. If you want to try it yourself though, I would recommend leaving yourself a good chunk of time to do so.

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Essie - 016 Waltz
Sally Hansen - 360 Diamonds and Rubies
Sally Hansen - 370 Blackout
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.

Lip Block

Hey guys! Sorry I've been slacking on updating again, I've been really busy.
I'm a little behind, but here's the Pop Art manicure I did a little while ago!





I really love this manicure, the lips were really fun to paint! I especially love the lips on the thumb, I think they look pretty cool.
My inspiration for this was basically my roommate telling me I should do lips again because we both really loved the lipstick stain I did for Valentines day.

These are the pictures I used for reference:



Hope you like these as much as I do!

Products Used:
Borghese - B476 Incantato Purple
China Glaze - 654 Designer Silk
Ciaté - 074 Big Yellow Taxi
Essie - 784 Aruba Blue
Essie - 1027 The More the Merrier
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Revlon - 471 Fashionista
Sally Hansen - 130 Blue Me Away!
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 360 Diamonds and Rubies
Sally Hansen - 370 Black Out
Seche Vite - Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.


Friday, April 04, 2014

Sephora




This is something I've been meaning to do for a while but kept putting off for some reason.
I have a Sephora makeup set that looks like the Sephora bag so I've literally had this design staring me in the face for months.

I think it's a cute design though, it looks really classy and sleek when you have it on, (is that my black-and-white bias showing again? whoops). I may have to do more stripes in the future.

Products Used:
Essie - Grow Stronger Base Coat
Sally Hansen - 300 White On
Sally Hansen - 370 Black Out
Seche Vite -Quick Dry Top Coat

- Becca.

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Catallena

Orange Caramel is back with their new single Catallena and I am back with a manicure based on the mv.