Born Pretty Store Pastel Stud Review & Mr. Candiipants Nail Art!

Hey everybody! Today I have a recreation of some of Mr. Candiipants' nail art and a Born Pretty Store review to share!

I've been picking up some last minute travel things and I'm getting ridiculously excited for my trip! I'm really curious to see how my nail pictures will be without a light box... guess I'll just use natural light! I've decided to bring the camera I always use for my pictures so the quality should be the same! Anyways, onto the nails! :)

To start I applied two coats of Essie Find Me An Oasis (very pale blue) to most of my nails and two coats of Maybelline Ultra Violet (purple) to the rest. Both had really nice formulas and I was very pleasantly surprised that Find Me An Oasis was a non-streaky two-coater!

I then went in with NOPI Strike a Pose (coral that always looks red next to other colours) and OPI My Vampire Is Buff (off-white nude) on all of my nails in different shapes! I then added a mint green colour to the purple nails using American Apparel Office! The only time I used a thin brush on these nails was for the nude stripes on the blue nails, though I really should have for the random shapes on the purple nails to get good sharp corners. Lastly, I applied some purple pastel studs from Born Pretty Store (link here) with a little blob of top coat on the nail and a dotting tool dipped in top coat. I'm happy to report that the colour on the studs didn't bleed whatsoever! The entire colour is removed by non-acetone remover though, so if you keep your studs like me, you'll end up with silver studs!

After giving my nails some time to dry I gave them each a spray of hairspray for a couple seconds and let that dry. Then I applied my favourite top coat (Essie Good To Go) and I was done! I always do this hairspray step now because I discovered how much harder it is for you to smudge your design with your top coat this way! Also, here is a link to Mr. Candiipants' tutorial for this super cute design!

What do you guys think of this nail art or these studs? I'd love to know in the comments!

Be sure to check out Born Pretty Store for any of your nail art needs, they have a really massive selection! And be sure to use my coupon code for 10% off, SKBQ10!

Thanks so much for taking a look everyone! I'll be back soon with a subtle red gradient and gold leaf top coat look that I'm very obsessed with and wearing right now! Happy Sunday! =)

Born Pretty Store Patterned Metallic Stud Review!

Hey everyone! Today I have a fun stud nail art look and review to share!

I'm getting really excited about my trip to Switzerland, so much so that I'm even looking forward to the long trip there! :O It's just my little sister and I going and travelling without our parents is a first for us! It's all very exciting but I'll quit yammering on and get to the nails!

For these nails I started off with three easy coats of Black Sheep Lacquer Smells Like Teen Spirit. To apply the studs, I applied the third coat of polish and then stuck the studs in the wet polish before moving on to the next nail. The smaller studs are from a random shop on Amazon or eBay, and the larger studs with the striped holographic pattern are from Born Pretty Store (link here, item number 2)!

All of the polish and studs were very easy to work with in this mani! Some of the Born Pretty Store studs we're stuck to other ones in pairs, but since they're not super small they were easy to pull apart. It also comes with plenty (100 pieces) so you wouldn't need to pry two apart until you've used them many times and were starting to run out! One other thing I noticed is that removing the studs with acetone-free remover still took off their holographic stripe design. I thought that was actually pretty cool because now I have some plain silver circle studs in my collection!

The Black Sheep Lacquer polish I used here is a thermal and I've done a review post on it before showing it's transitions (link here). It was so much fun wearing this mani (I wore it for 5 or 6 days crazily enough) because sometimes my nails were a pale jade green like in these pictures, and sometimes they were a much darker teal colour when I was cold!

If you guys decide to pick these studs or any of their other nail art stuff up, be sure to use my coupon code, SKBQ10!

Thanks so much for having a look everyone! Let me know what you think of these nails or these studs in the comments! Happy Friday! =)

Art Deco/Abstract Basketball Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have some art deco/abstract basketball nail art to share!

I've been gone for so long! I think I finally took the break I needed and now I can be motivated enough to post more often. I'm aiming for every two days because I have tons of time to paint my nails! Also, my giveaway ended and I've chosen a winner, congratulations Lindsay! She has already replied to my email so I won't be picking a new winner.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
I think it would be super fun to do some little giveaways like this every once and a while, what do you guys think? Anyways, onto the nails!

This mani is my last go at art deco nail art for the September/October issue of Nail It magazine! It has been so fun working off of the prompts and I can't wait until the next prompts are announced! 

I started off with two coats of OPI Toucan Do It If You Try, then I went in with a small paint brush and Revlon Rich Raspberry for the lines! 

Toucan Do It If You Try had a similar formula to another polish I picked up from this collection, I Just Can't Cope-acabana. They both seemed pretty opaque at one coat and seemed like they'd be two coaters, but after the second (thicker) coat there were still some bald spots. I also seem to find small black specks in some light OPI cremes, like in this polish, and it ended up on my right hand's thumb.

Does anyone else go over their nail art twice for the lines to be more opaque? I do it a lot because I feel like it has to be opaque for some reason! I guess I wouldn't really recommend Rich Raspberry for nail art because I had to go over everything again and it still wasn't totally opaque. It has a crelly/jelly formula but it is opaque in two coats on its own, so I'll probably stick to using it as a base for nail art.

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I got my blog mojo back and I'm so happy about it! Stay tuned for a lot more fun posts very soon! Happy Sunday! =)

Born Pretty Store Flower Water Decal Review

Hello everyone! Today I have a review of some Born Pretty Store water decals to share (link here, item G006)!

This will be a bit of a brief post because I want to spend more time figuring out my lighting today. I thought it was easier to white balance using a white background but it isn't at all! I look back to my Sally Hansen Brisk Blue and heart nail art post (link here) and think up until then my lighting and white balance was so nice for a while! Why did I decide to change it haha? I am using three lamps instead of one now which makes focusing and getting clear photos a lot easier, but I hope I can get back to pictures with good lighting with this set up! So I'll probably be going back to a black background for a while, sorry for all the changes and craziness! Anyways, onto the nails!

For these nails I started with two coats of OPI I Just Can't Cope-acabana and a coat of top coat. I then cut out, soaked in water and applied each decal and added a coat of top coat before moving to the next nail. These were super easy to use like the other decals I received from Born Pretty Store a while ago (link to the post here)! There was no issue with smudging the decals with top coat and they had really clear images and details as you can see!

To apply them I did basically the same thing I described in the other decal post I linked above, except I actually slid the decal off of the paper and into the water. That way I could pick up the decal with my clean up brush and have a little more control when placing it (not that you need to because you can move it around as long as there's still some water on your nail).

Overall I think these are really cute and easy to use and I love that there are big designs included! They really set these decals apart from most floral nail stickers or decals in my opinion!

See how crisp and detailed these are? So pretty!

What do you guys think of these decals or this mani in general? I'd love to know in the comments!

If you guys go looking for nail art stuff on their site be sure to use my coupon code SKBQ10 for 10% off! I'm really tempted to pick up their package of circle and square pastel studs (link here for the curious)!

Thank you so much for taking a look everyone! I'll have some star nail art on here to share with you guys soon so keep a look out! I'm still not sure what I'm going to do but wish me luck! Happy Wednesday everyone! =)

Sally Hansen Brisk Blue & Heart Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a cute heart nail art look to share!

I feel pretty bleh about these pictures except for the last one and lately I've really been thinking about changing up my poses/background/pictures in some way. I love the more artsy pictures like the bloggers Pshiiit, BeautyGeeks and Nail Escapades use! Maybe I could do some of those in addition to the ones or most of the ones I use. I've already made a few blog changes lately including my font, commenting system and a slight change to my blog title, and now I'm really wanting to make some more changes!

I'd love to know what you guys think of the changes along the way! I'm going to try out some new poses, backgrounds, lighting, etc. today so maybe I'll be back to you guys with a post asking which poses you prefer (again :P, link to the first time I did this here if you're curious). I know I haven't tagged all of my posts featuring indie brands with the tag "indie polish" and that's been bugging me for a while so that's another change I'd like to make! I also want to make sure I have the tags "review" and "swatch" on all the applicable posts because I'm not sure that I do. Anyways, onto the nails!

For this look I started with one easy coat of Sally Hansen Brisk Blue and a coat of top coat. I would definitely recommend not going in and trying to fix a spot you missed if you've allowed it any time to dry already. I made that mistake and let me tell you, they don't call it Insta-Dri for nothing! Things got real bumpy and even after two coats of top coat it still looked odd. But not to fear! If you just wait a minute or two more you can do an easy second coat instead to get the spot you missed.

I also want to note that I got a tiny bit of staining from this polish. I only used a thin coat of base coat and after hitting my nails with remover twice it was gone, so it was really nothing major! Doing two coats of base coat would definitely eliminate any possibility of staining though! Also, it did seem to stain my fingers that were holding the cotton pad while removing them, but that staining was gone before I remembered I should try and wash it off!

Next, I went in twice with OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls so the hearts could reach full opacity. I just realized I never took a picture of my other hand, but I put the hearts on my index and pinkie finger because I've been loving doing those kind of reverse accent nails lately! That's another change I'd like to make; always including pictures of my right hand in each post!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'd love to know what you think of the changes I've made and the ones I've been thinking of making in the comments! I'd also love to know what you think of these nails! Hopefully I'll have some more interesting pictures and poses for you in my next post! Happy Monday! =)

Pastel Water Marble & Textured Nail Art!

Hey everyone! Today I have a fun little water marble and textured polish combo to share!

I was sitting around watching a marathon of the Naked Gun movies with my boyfriend this morning, and it made for a really good day! I love Leslie Nielsen and outrageously silly movies! I have to watch them with my sister and dad because I know they'll love them too :D. I've also been checking out a ton of swatches of neon collections and summer collections and I'm itching to pick up some new bright polishes (though I should really stop buying polish)! Anyway, onto the nails!

For these nails I started with a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls and OPI Solitaire on the water marble and textured nails, respectively. Both were perfect in two coats, in fact, Solitaire was pretty darn opaque at one coat! It was also very fast drying and it has a perfect formula!

For the water marble I used four lovely China Glaze polishes; For Audrey (turquoise), Secret Peri-Wink-Le (purple that spread out and appeared blue), Dance Baby (pink) and V (orange). I found that they all worked really well together, or maybe China Glaze polishes in general work really well for water marbling!

I followed a lovely tutorial by PackAPunchPolish on Youtube (link here) for the water marble! I also included a sped up video of me doing this whole mani at the end of this post for funzies!

Here is my right hand! I kind of think this one turned out better but I wish the little dots of polish in the middle weren't there. I think they were from not cleaning the dotting tool before dipping it in the middle, so if you guys try this out you can learn from my mistakes!

What do you guys think of this mani? I'd love to hear in the comments!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'll try and post more frequently, I've been keeping busy despite being out of school and it seems I've been keeping too busy to post every two days! I'll have a cute nail art look with an awesome Sally Hansen blue up soon! Happy Thursday! =)

Born Pretty Store Charm & B Squared Lacquer Purple Unicorns Review!

Hey everyone! Today I have a quick review of B Squared Lacquer Purple Unicorns and a review of a butterfly charm (link here, number 781) from Born Pretty Store to share!

I've decided to take a OPI Nail Envy break and not paint my nails for a week (or as long as I can handle)! Not to fear though, I am behind enough in posting that I have about a week's worth of posts to get up! I picked up the Nail Envy for sensitive and peeling nails today because my nails have been peeling on the sides (like hang nails) on the ends and on the nail plate due to wearing glitter polishes. I do use the foil method to remove glitters but they still get all peely and damaged :(. Like, who ever heard of peels in the middle of your nails? Ugh, my nails are so sad right now, they're even a little stained by this Sally Hansen blue that I'll be posting about soon.

Despite all of that I really want to be painting my nails! I've been super inspired by this salon's Instagram page called spica_nail (here is the link). You guys should seriously check them out! I've liked all of their pictures they've posted in the last few years because they're seriously all perfect. :D Anyways, onto the nails!

To start, I applied three easy coats of B Squared Lacquer Purple Unicorns, a gorgeous purple polish with a subtle but almost linear holographic effect and green-blue flakies. This means this polish is beautiful and interesting in any lighting! The formula was lovely just like the other polish from B Squared Lacquer I recently tried (All Aboard, link here)! As per usual, I finished it off with a coat of the top coat I still always use, Essie Good to Go!

Now onto the charm! The package actually comes with two charms so you can put one on each hand. I think these charms are super cute and I love that they come in mint! They also stay looking brand new as long as you clean them off and remove them using non-acetone remover (like with any charms)!

I wasn't really sure how I'd top coat these charms if I were to wear them. I think I'd just have to top coat around them because as you can see from the picture below, they are quite tall and stick up quite a bit! That is my only complaint about these charms; I don't know how practical they are to wear and I don't know that they'd stay on that well just because they're so big.

I think they'd be super fun to use while swatching for a little extra interest! What do you guys think of these charms and/or this polish? I'd love to know!

Again, if you guys decide to pick up any nail art stuff off of their site feel free to use my coupon code; SKBQ10!

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I'll try to start posting more regularly! Happy Monday! =)

Born Pretty Store Brush Set Review!

Hey everyone! Today I have a review of a set of Born Pretty Store brushes (link to the set here) to share!

I've started filming myself when I do my nails and I've been thinking of making tutorials or something! Let me know if that would be something you'd like to see :). For the manis I've recorded myself doing, I think I'll just add the video to the post about them so you guys can see how I did them/how I paint my nails! I'm quite behind in posting so that may be in a while :P. Anyways, onto the nails!

This is the base I decided on for this mani because it has been calling my name ever since I bought it! This is two coats of Nicole by OPI All Kendall-ed Up plus a coat of top coat!

I decided to not use any other brushes for this mani, so for clean up I used the smallest brush in this set instead of my normal clean up brush! It works super well for a clean up brush!

Please excuse the bumps on my nails, I've since buffed them! They just get so darn peel-y and bumpy from removing glitter polishes, even when I use the foil method!

Here are the three brushes that came in the set! The metal part and brush part detached from the wooden part on one of them, but I just applied a little top coat to the wooden part and shoved it back together. It has been perfect ever since!

These brushes are a lot bigger and have a lot more bristles than I typically work with when I do nail art, but you can still totally use them to make awesome designs! I did cut off most of the bristles of one of them after doing this design and I'll probably do the same to the others, just because I like thinner brushes better!

Here is the design I decided on! I used the longest brush for the stripes and the medium-sized brush for the grey blob shape!

All of the polishes I used for this design (except the pink of course) are by Revlon. The grey is Timeless, the yellow is Lemon Meringue and the turquoise-y colour is Mint Gelato! Despite the yellow and turquoise being a bit sheer they worked really well for nail art! They are also both scented and smell like their names which I love!

After doing this design, I used the smallest brush to clean up again!

What do you guys think of this nail art and these brushes? I'd love to know in the comments!

If you guys decide to pick up any nail art stuff off of their site feel free to use my coupon code; SKBQ10!

Thanks so much for reading guys, I hope you're having a lovely day! I'll have two more Born Pretty Store reviews up soon! Happy Wednesday! =)