Tuesday 29 July 2014

Born Pretty Store Cats, Ducks and More Decal Review!

Hello everyone!! Today I have a review of some cat nail decals (link here) from Born Pretty Store to share!

I did these nails ages ago and I'm only now posting them, oops! Like I said, my trip was so dang busy! I've spent yesterday and today catching up on about 5 weeks of blog posts from everyone I follow because I fell behind in that too! I'm getting close to being caught up and once this is posted I'll be pretty well caught up on blogging myself! I'll have a whole lot of time to blog again like before my trip, so I'll keep the nail art and swatches coming!

Born Pretty Store Cats, Ducks and More Decal Review

Onto the nails! I started off with two easy coats of China Glaze Secret Peri-wink-le and let that dry. I then applied the water decals in basically the same way I always do (explained here) but again, I slid the decals off the paper and into the water before picking them up with my cleanup brush! After applying the decals on the hand you see here, I did notice some small black dot decals floating around in my bowl of water. They ended up on my non-photographed hand and I wasn't able to get them off, so be careful of that when applying these! I then applied a coat of top coat (Essie Good to Go) and I was good to go! See what I did there? :P

Born Pretty Store Cats, Ducks and More Decal Review

Unlike with some decals, these decals didn't smudge when I added top coat which was awesome! I would really recommend this set of decals if only because they're so unique, so it's really cool that they're so easy to apply and don't smudge too!

Born Pretty Store Cats, Ducks and More Decal Review

What do you guys think of these cute little decals? Let me know in the comments!

Born Pretty Store Cats, Ducks and More Decal Review

I'd really recommend checking out Born Pretty Store for any of your nail art needs, everything is very affordable and it only takes a few weeks to arrive! If you do, be sure to use my coupon code SKBQ10 for 10% off your order!


Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll be back with some simple green nail art in a few days! Happy Tuesday! =)

Sunday 27 July 2014

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag Review & Swatches!

Hello my lovely readers! Today I have a review of the Rainbow Honey Mini July Mystery Bag (link here) to share!

I am officially back from Switzerland! I'm very happy to be back to my light box and sister's nice camera so I can get back to blogging! The trip was really amazing and it was so great to hang out with our friend Anna for a month. Surprisingly, I only picked up two polishes while I was away (both by the brand Kiko) which I'll be blogging about soon!

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

The night we got back I was super excited to learn that I'd come home to a package from Rainbow Honey! In addition to the mystery bag I got three new polishes to review, so keep an eye out for another Rainbow Honey post very soon! Above you can see the adorable packaging their mystery bags come in!

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

Everything came packaged very well so there's no need to worry about of ending up with broken bottles or product explosions.

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

As you can see, everything is also packaged close together so there's no way for any products to bang into each other with any considerable force!

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

Did I mention you get a whole lot of stuff for a small amount of money? These mini mystery bags retail for just 10 American dollars plus shipping! Shipping is free if you spend 50 dollars or more for America and 75 dollars or more for Canada, and you better believe I made sure to spend at least 75 dollars last time I ordered haha! Also, if you spend 65 dollars or more you can get this mini mystery bag as a free gift which is awesome!

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

This month's mystery bag came with three mini (5mL) polishes, a 4mL eau de parfum rollerball, a 29mL cooling gel and a 4.25g scented cuticle balm. All three body products are in the scent midori; a fresh melon scent! 

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

The rollerball perfume goes on easily and dries quickly for a nice light summery scent! The cooling gel is very effective, if you don't fully rub it in it stays wet and continues to cool you off for quite a while! It has some really pretty and subtle blurple and green shimmer flakies that makes it extra summery, as well as the same delicious scent as the perfume!

Rainbow Honey Cuticle Balm

Finally, the cuticle balm is thinner than most, (which I absolutely love!) non-greasy, and fast absorbing! It does that thing where most of if sinks in but you're left with a layer of protection from moisture-loss which I really love! You can see above and below how nails and cuticles freshly swiped with pure acetone look with (thumb, middle finger and pinkie) and without (index and ring finger) the cuticle balm on top!

Rainbow Honey Cuticle Balm

This cuticle balm adds hardly any shine to pictures even when it's freshly applied so I think it's going to be my new go to cuticle product before I take pictures! I also really love the formula so I'll probably by using it all the time!

Rainbow Honey July Mystery Bag

Now, onto the polishes! Each mini Rainbow Honey polish comes in a tall skinny bottle with a long and skinny brush that picks up globs of polish full of glitter really well!

Rainbow Honey Viridis

First up we have Viridis, a clear-based glitter topper stuffed with shimmer, microglitter and full-on glitter in various shapes, finishes, colours and sizes! Some of the glitters are partially transparent so this beauty will look different over different base colours! Here I've layered one coat of Viridis over two coats of Revlon Espresso, no top coat.

Rainbow Honey Viridis

Like I said, what you see here is only one coat of this polish because the glitter is so densely-packed! This is also the result of hardly any dabbing, mostly just applying the glitter topper as if it was a normal polish!

Rainbow Honey Viridis

The dry time seemed really awesome and the glitters were so smooth and flat that I didn't even see a need to use top coat for these swatches!

Rainbow Honey Viridis

Rainbow Honey Chemical Plant

Next up we have Chemical Plant, a very densely-packed clear-based shimmer polish. Despite the clear base I was able to reach opacity in just two easy coats! The shimmer in this baby consists of rose gold/copper coloured flakies, much smaller pink shimmer and even a small amount of blurple shimmer! When the light hits this polish its shimmer mix gives it a duochromey look which is pretty freaking cool!

Rainbow Honey Chemical Plant

What you see here is two easy coats and a coat of top coat!

Rainbow Honey Chemical Plant

Again, dry time was good and application was awesome!

Rainbow Honey Chemical Plant

Rainbow Honey Deep Heart Sea

Finally we have Deep Heart Sea, a slightly green-tinted medium blue jelly with intense pink to blue multichrome shimmer and a whole bunch of matte and pearl finish glitters! The base is a little more green and a little more dark in the bottle than in these pictures, mostly because with all of the glitters you don't need the base to be opaque for the whole polish to be opaque... know what I mean? There are even some white heart glitters thrown in as you can see on my pinky nail, so cute!

Rainbow Honey Deep Heart Sea

The formula on this one was a little thicker than the other two but still entirely manageable! The added thickness gave me more control and it didn't dry so fast that trying to cover your whole nail turned the polish into a gloopy mess. Basically it was a really good consistency for something so packed with glitter!

Rainbow Honey Deep Heart Sea

What you see here is two coats and a coat of top coat!

Rainbow Honey Deep Heart Sea

Whew! You've made it to the end of this massive photo-heavy post! Rainbow Honey included a 20% off coupon code for me to share with you guys to use on your next order! Enter MIXTAPE20 at the checkout before August 31st to get 20% off your order!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! What do you think of these polishes or products or Rainbow Honey stuff in general? I love it all and I really think they make polishes unique to other indie brands! I'll be back with one more Born Pretty Store review and one more Rainbow Honey review soon so stay tuned! Happy Sunday! =)

Monday 7 July 2014

Red Gradient Topped with Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat and Gold Studs & Mini Trip Update!

Hello my lovely readers, long time no talk! Today I have an elegant red gradient look topped with a gold leaf top coat and gold studs to share!

I know I said I wouldn't take a month-long hiatus while on this trip but I have taken a bit of one none the less! We have been out for most of the day just about every day since we got here, so we've been quite busy! I had gotten very used to doing hardly anything most days back at home, so it has taken me some time to adjust and get back into blogging.

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

My sister and I came over here with about ten pounds of room to spare between the two of us and we've (read: I've) bought a decent amount of clothes already :P. The good news is, we can leave things like pads, acetone and shampoo with the friend we're staying with to free up some weight in our luggage. The other good news is that I'm very happy with what I've already bought and I've decided on just getting a few more things and I've been sticking with it! I'll also be getting presents for people and picking up some Swiss chocolate (obviously!) so hopefully we won't have to bring another suitcase home!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Before we get onto the nails I thought I'd insert a picture of Anna (the friend we're staying with) and I, hopefully you guys can get an idea of how beautiful Switzerland is from the background! This post is turning into a trip update as well as a nail art post haha, maybe I'll add that to the title! I'm the shorter one on the left in case you didn't know!


Anyways, for this look I started off with one easy coat of a red jelly-leaning crelly polish, OPI Red Hot Rio. For being a jelly/crelly this polish was inexplicably opaque. It didn't quite reach opacity in one coat, but that was good enough for me because I knew I was going to sponge some Deborah Lippmann Jessa on the tips!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

After that had dried a little I applied/dabbed on one thickish coat of Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat. There are not many flakes per clear base in this polish but I actually like the subtle sprinkling one coat gives!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Lastly, I applied some gold round studs that I got off of eBay or Amazon a while ago followed by a coat of top coat!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

I felt very classy and fancy wearing these nails which isn't exactly my style so they were fun to wear!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

What do you guys think about these nails or how gorgeous Switzerland is? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Red Gradient Nail Art featuring Jessica 18K Gold Leaf Top Coat

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I have one more Born Pretty Store review post to get up so keep an eye out for that! Happy Monday! =)