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!

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

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!

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

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! =)

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! =)

Born Pretty Store Flower Water Decal Review and a Gradient!

Hey guys! Today I have some flower-covered gradient nails to share! I will also be reviewing the floral water decals seen here from Born Pretty Store!

Sorry about posting these late guys, I was crashing while editing the pictures so I decided to write it up this morning instead. I try really hard to post every three days but sometimes life (for me, school) gets in the way! I've been exhausted for the last week or so and I'm so glad today's the last day of school! Anything exciting happening in your guys' lives? Let me know!

A bunch of people from Will Paint Nails For Food's Beginner Blogger's Bootcamp Group Critique commented on my last post saying that my fingers were blurry and that it was a bit distracting, and I had seriously never noticed! When I saw my pictures after that, I realized I looked like some weird alien without any lines or wrinkles on my fingers haha! I increased the depth of field before taking these pictures and I think you can see some detail on my fingers now, what do you guys think? :)

For these nails I started with one coat of Essie Mesmerize, painted on NYX Girls Inkheart and Revlon Espresso, and then patted on mixtures of the two colours where they met! I think the gradient looks better and smoother in person, so I'm excited to improve on my gradient skills so they look good in pictures too! Lindsay from Wondrously Polished always does literally perfect gradients (they look like the ones you can make in a photo editing program) and often puts nail art on top, so these nails were definitely inspired by her! I really think it's an amazing and beautiful idea to use a gradient as a background for nail art rather than a plain creme!

As for the decals (link here, they're the BLE422 ones), I was completely silly at first and applied one like a tattoo, and of course the design was upside down and all black and white (see my left hand's thumbnail). I asked my boyfriend if he thought it'd be possible to slide them off and on to the nail so the designs would show, and he ended up trying it for me and it worked! I just wetted a reasonably soft brush (my cleanup brush), let the decal soak in water for 15-20 seconds and slid it off of the paper carefully and onto my nail! You can move them around once they're on your nail for a period of time (especially if you wet your nail first) so you certainly don't have to get the perfect placement right away! I decided to place two decals on top of each other on some nails and I think they look really nice layered! I accidentally crumpled and folded one up, and I was still able to flatten it back out and put it on my nail which really impressed me! The only negative thing I have to say about these is still totally avoidable; top coat can smudge the decals a bit but as long as you apply it carefully (as you would on top of nail art) they won't smudge! I was being very careless when applying my topcoat because I didn't think they would smudge, and they still hardly did! :)

Off-topic, but do you guys think I should spread my text out between the pictures so it's not a huge block of text and then a huge block of pictures? I think I'll start doing that so let me know if you'd prefer I didn't!

Onto the nails!

Here's the gradient I started with as a base!

My right hand!

If you're looking for any other nail art stuff Born Pretty Store is a good place to check! Here's my coupon for 10% off!

Thanks so much for reading everyone! Have any plans for the weekend? I'll be studying for the three back-to-back finals I have coming up and finishing a biochemistry assignment! :)