Mermaid Scale Nail Art - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Hi everyone! This is my last post for the products I was recently sent from Born Pretty Store. Today's post is all about some mermaid/fish scale, I won't call them vinyls exactly, more like stickers/stencils I think. So let's get started! 

I tried out these nail stickers which essentially are the same as all the nail vinyls and stencils that are really popular in the nail art world, so they work the same way. I completely forgot to take progress shots throughout this mani so apologies for that but I'll explain how I used them anyway!

I started with a base colour and applied a quick drying top coat over it so I could use the stencils sooner than if I didn't apply one. As they were stuck down on a plastic sheeting and were quite thin and sticky I was really worried that once I pulled the stencil off my nail, it'd pull all the polish up with it. Thankfully it didn't, but I still stuck the sticker flat on my hand to remove some of the stickiness before applying it to my nail. I think it helped a little bit.

Once the sticker was applied I then sponged on the four polishes I'd chosen to use which were: Berry Blue, Corsican Rose, Violet Rumble all by Ulta3, and Darling, You Are Fabulous! By Maybelline, which was the gold polish. I'm not a huge gold polish fan because I don't think it suits me, but this one is growing on me a bit!

Once I had done two quick coats of the sponged polish, I then carefully peeled the sticker off and up until this point I'd had huge doubts as to whether it'd work that well. But it turned out amazingly and I love it. Made me wish I'd done all the nails instead of just an accent. 

I know that the photo below is super blurry, but since I'd forgotten to take progress shots I wanted to showcase the stencils themselves and didn't realise how blurry this photo was until after I'd removed the design, so oops! But look how gorgeous the stickers are! I love just looking at them.

I enjoy how they turned out because I've wanted to try this kind of design for a while but can't justify spending so much on other brands of nail vinyls because shipping isn't cheap to Australia from indie brands, so I'm glad I found these!

There are just one design of the many stencils/vinyls that Born Pretty Store has on offer and they're incredibly affordable if you wish to give them a go to see what all the fuss about these kind of stencils are! And don't forget you can use my code MEPUK31 for 10% off at checkout!

Thanks for reading.

Teardrop Rhinestones - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Today I have a review of some rhinestones I received from Born Pretty Store. In this post I'm focusing on only one of the rhinestones as that's all I used for this design, but I'll still be reviewing the whole wheel.

As you can see above, this rhinestone wheel has two of each design and they range from bows, to teardrops, to stars, to flowers and the standard square and circle studs. They also have a slight holo, shimmery look them which I really liked. You get 200 pieces for $2.25AUD. 

For today's design, I sponged on a few different colours, then dropped some black polish into a small cup of water and sprayed it with a hand sanitizer to spread the polish and create a water spotted design (I think that's what it's called). I did this design with the intention to use only the teardrop rhinestones, because I thought the design and the rhinestone would go really well together. 

I think the design really worked out well and the rhinestones were so easy to pick up with a dotting tool and a tiny bit of clear polish on both the dotting tool and where I placed the rhinestone on the nail. They did slide around a bit, but once the polish underneath was dry they stayed put and didn't budge till I wanted to remove them. And if you're very frugal, they can be used again if you take care when removing them from the nail. I didn't top coat after placing them so I don't know if they change or dull down with a top coat.

This is absolutely one of my favourite designs of the year so far, it looked so pretty and delicate in real life and the colours were more vibrant. I'd never done a design like this before and was happy with how it turned out. I think the rhinestones added that finishing touch to them because it definitely looked a bit dull without them!

Don't forget you can use my code MEPUK31 for 10% off the Born Pretty Store website if you'd like!

Thanks for reading.

- Melissa.

Colour Changing Nail Polish - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Nail polish that changes colour has been around for quite a while, but I only recently used it after being sent this polish in 103 from Born Pretty Store. I was skeptical, but also excited to try it out and see how well it actually worked.

This is what the polish looked like once it had dried and I'd top-coated it. It did however, as you can see in the photo below of the bottle, go on my nails purple and then dry to a light blue with a purple tinge at the free edge. This is because it turns blue when warm and purple when cold. So you can tell my nails/fingers were warm when I applied it.

Firstly, here are some photos of my nails after they were dipped in hot water, this shade of blue is actually one of my favourites, so I was happy my colour choice.

And secondly, these are my nails are dipping them in cold water. It's a really nice shade of purple, kind of like a dark lilac I guess.

And here is my attempt at half and half, but I didn't do it very evenly, still a cool effect though!

This polish is pretty cool and definitely exceeded my expectations. I had a lot of fun showing everyone how it worked and just staring at my nails every time I washed my face or hands or had a shower. It was a good week when I was wearing this polish! The novelty does wear off after a while, but I'd love to get another colour and see the change!

Here's a video I posted to my Facebook page of Punch Nails.

Posted by Punch Nails on Saturday, January 16, 2016

Don't forget I have a 10% off code: MEPUK31 for the Born Pretty Store website!

Thanks for reading.

- Melissa.

Strawberry Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

New year, new products to review! Born Pretty Store kindly sent me these cute strawberry decals recently and I've been wearing them on my nails for a good week now. I've posted a bunch of times about water decals and as always, these were simple to use and easy to apply. The only time I struggled a bit was with the very small strawberry in the middle of my index finger because it was quite tiny and hard to grip properly with the tweezers, but as you can see I got there in the end.

I had no real plan when applying these, I just wanted to use all the different sizes and styles of decals that were on the sheet. I will admit I don't love the strip of strawberries that the decal offers that are on my middle finger. Maybe I could have utilised them differently or applied them on the length of my nail instead of the width but I just don't love that nail. The heart one of my ring finger is pretty cute though and so are the little bunches on my other nails. 

Overall I don't love these decals as much as I've loved some previous ones. Looking at the link above where you can purchase them from, I wish I had chosen the sheet with all different kinds of fruits on them. I think that would've been a lot more fun and something I would probably use beyond this review as well. Might have to purchase those ones!

Ultimately, just like other water decals, they're easy to use if you want simple nail art that people will still comment on and even question if you did them yourself. And you can definitely mix it up and wear them with other colours or patterns or just as an accent. The heart would be pretty cute with a Valentine's Day design actually!

Don't forget I have a code MEPUK31 if you want 10% off at checkout on the Born Pretty Store website!

- Melissa.

Floral Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Today's review is on these gorgeous water decals from Born Pretty Store! The pack come with two different designs, so you've got a bit of choice on which decals you might want to wear or incorporate into your nail art! 

I chose to use to purple geometric looking decals but only apply them to two nails as I wanted them to be a feature and not the whole design. But I also didn't want the other two nails to overtake the decals so I chose to pair them with Ulta3's Losta Fun which I think matched them quite well!

I used a white base under the decals as the non-coloured parts were clear and I wanted them to stand out on my nail. They were slightly difficult to apply though and it took me three tries to get a decal on my ring finger because it kept folding in on itself or not sitting straight on the nail and just all around wasn't working. I had no problem with the middle finger though! That one went on easily and it's my favourite design of the whole thing.

I really do love these decals, I wore them for about a week with only slight tip wear which is normal, and they were easy to remove with polish remover just like normal nail polish! As with the previous decals I posted about, they can be cut to the size of your nail or you can easily clean up the excess around the cuticles with some acetone.

Don't forget you can use my 10% discount code: MEPUK31 at checkout!

Thanks for reading.

- Melissa.

Colourful Square Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

I'm back with another review of some water decals from Born Pretty Store! These decals caught my eye straight away because they were so colourful and geometric and I loved how they looked in the pictures. I was also curious to see how they transferred onto the nails because you had to cut them to fit instead of them being nail shaped already.

Turns out it wasn't that difficult! I cut the decal into rectangles that were about the width of my nail, I didn't worry about the length too much because I knew I'd just acetone to clean up the extra bits. But if you have short nails and want to get the most use out of decals like this then I would recommend cutting them to the length of your nail as well. You won't waste a lot that way.

It was really easy to clean up the excess decal around the cuticles and tip of the nail because the decals are thin. However I wish I had used a white base underneath because the colours weren't as solid or vibrant as they were on the paper backing.

I also had a few issues with lumps under the decals, I wasn't sure whether it was water or air or just the way I put them on but they didn't flatten out. I also wasn't too keen on some of the colour combination but that's mostly because I don't like the colours red or brown and they're the biggest squares on some of the decals.

So overall these aren't my favourite patterned decals but I do like that I could cut them how I wanted to, which made it easier to apply them and easier to shape them and clean up.

Don't forget you can use the code MEPUK31 for 10% off at checkout on their website!

- Melissa.

Palm Tree Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

The people at Born Pretty Store were kind enough to send me some of their nail art products to review, so first up are these summery water decals which I thought were really cute and easy to incorporate into nail art!

I chose the black decals because I already had a mani in mind when picking them. I've seen this design done by so many people that I always wanted to try it out but knew I'd never be able to hand paint the palm trees so when I saw these decals, I knew I had to get them.

To create my sunset base I used three polishes on a sponge to create a nice gradient. They were: Fierce N Tangy by Maybelline Color Show, In My Back Pocket by OPI, and OPI On Collins Ave by OPI. I then used those three colours on a small fan brush to blend the gradient together even more and to further even it out once I'd done that I used some acetone on the fan brush and lightly swept it across the nail to make it smooth and very blended. It turned out really well and I was very happy with it!

These were the set of decals I got, and as you can see there's a wide variety of designs to choose from but I went with the simple palm trees by themselves and the palm trees with the sun and grass. As usual, water decals are so simple to use as all you need to do is cut out the image you want, remove the plastic protector, dip the cut out in some water for 10-15 seconds and then gently remove the decal from the backing (if damp enough it'll simply slide off). Once that's done you can then carefully apply them to your nail using tweezers, flatten down, let it dry and then top coat it to protect it and help it last longer!

I added black polish to the middle and ring fingernails to help make it look like one picture as only the trees were the decal, whereas the index and pinky ones were all part of the decal and didn't need anything added to them.

I love how these turned out and I'm happy to have finally been able to do this design after loving all the ones I've seen over the years. It's one of my best gradients too.

Make sure you check out all the nail art products on the website and don't forget that I have a 10% off discount code to use when you buy anything from Born Pretty Store, the code is: MEPUK31.

Enjoy!

- Melissa.

Iridescent Glitter Gradient - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Tonight I have another review of glitter from Born Pretty Store, this time it's some irregular shaped, shiny and iridescent glitter that I fell in love with when I first saw it on the website. There were so many colours to choose from that I wish I'd been able to get all the colours mixed together in one little pot but because that couldn't happen, I picked number ten, a light blue glitter that also reflects green and dark blue in certain lighting.

Look at how awesome those colours are!!

I had to take these photos outside because my lighting inside just didn't do the colours justice, they'd turned out bleak and dark but outside they were so bright and shiny and all different colours that I knew I couldn't use the photos I took in my lightbox. So I'm very happy I noticed how nice they looked outside!

I had a bit of a problem with applying them and keeping them stuck to the nail because they are a bigger shaped glitter, so that was annoying but applying a thick enough top coat sort of helped with that. However, I did find myself picking at the glitter absentmindedly because they were poking up and sticking out from the nail.

All in all, I love the colours and the way the glitter looks against the black base but they weren't massively practical for me to wear on my nails for more than a day because I did pick at them. 

Don't forget to use the code MEPUK31 for a 10% discount when you shop for anything on the Born Pretty Store website!

- Melissa.

Metal Pattern Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Hi everyone! I have another review of a Born Pretty Store product. This time round it's full sized water decals in a metal type design. I chose these because I wanted to try out a full nail decal and water decals are the easiest to use and reshape to a nail, I also thought the pattern wasn't something I'd normally go for so I went out of my comfort zone a bit with this choice.

For $2.49AUD you get one sheet of fourteen decals with seven different sizes, but even if those sizes aren't right for your nails you can easily use remover or acetone once they've been applied, to shape them to your nail size because they're thin and have no sticker or foil backing.

These decals are pretty cool and with a top coat they last as long as you want them to pretty much. You've just got to be a little careful when applying them and smoothing out the bumps because they can easily tear when they're still a little damp and stuck down. My favourite pattern is definitely the silver one, I'd wear that one again for sure.

Definitely will consider purchasing some of the other patterns that these come in and if you do too then don't forget to use my 10% off discount code MEPUK31 at the checkout!

- Melissa.

Glitter Placement Nail Art - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

I absolutely looove glitter placement nail art so when I saw this glitter I knew it'd be perfect to finally do my own glitter placement. This inspiration came from polishallthenails on Instagram, ever since I started following her a while ago all I've wanted to do is try it out for myself. It's not as perfect because I honestly didn't have the will and strength to place them all evenly but it's still an awesome effort and I love how they look!

As you can see the hexagon glitter came in three colours, blue, pink and gold and there's a lot of it for only $2.45AUD so this stuff will last me forever! What a great bargain.

The macro shot above shows how sloppy I was with my placement but it also shows how cool it all looks. I love how it looks in real life and how shiny and bright it is!

These glitter pots are definitely worth it if you want to try out glitter placement yourself or if you just generally want some glitter for whatever reason. I'm seriously considering purchasing some of the other colours and seeing what other shaped glitters they have on their website. Don't forget to use the code MEPUK31 for 10% off at checkout!

- Melissa.

Nail Art Pen - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

I'm back with another review! Born Pretty Store were kind enough to send me more products to have a play around with so I'll be posting a few more reviews in the coming weeks. Today is all about their nail art pens. I opted for the black pen because I tend to use a lot of black lines and shapes in my designs so I thought I'd see how it compared to a general striping brush.

The tip of the pen looks quite big but it can actually produce quite thin lines if you're steady and use a light hand (both of which I did not do very well). But nonetheless it produced a very pigmented colour and was so easy to use, literally just like using a texta and that's what I love about it; it's so simple to use. 

The base colours are both from Sally Hansen: Kelp Yourself and Water Orchid.

It's very important to allow your base colour to dry completely, I got a little bit eager and should have waited an extra ten minutes so a few times as I drew on my nails I could feel the polish was close to dragging, it didn't luckily but I think waiting at least half an hour is important, or use a quick drying top coat and then wait about twenty minutes.

I absolutely love this nail art pen and it's such a good tool for beginners who aren't comfortable with a striping brush yet. I honestly don't know how I've gone so long without one and I'm excited to buy the other colours!

Don't forget to use the code MEPUK31 on the Born Pretty Store website if you want 10% off your purchase!

Floral Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Today I have my final review of the products I was sent by Born Pretty Store. This time it's these lovely floral french mani water decals which cost $2.63AUD for 1 sheet of 14 decals. I got a bit excited to test these out so I completely forgot to take photos of the process but if you check out this post I tell you there how to apply water decals.

I was going to use a base colour but couldn't find one that worked well with it so I went with the traditional natural base. The decals were easy to apply and even though they were a bit too long for my nails they were very easy to shorten, all I did to achieve that was while the decal was still wet I bent the excess over the free edge of my nail to let it dry and once dried, I used acetone on a small brush to dissolve the excess and smooth the edge out. And because they're so thin you can easily reshape them on your actual nails too.

Once dry all you need to do is top coat your nails and they'll last for several days. They're easy to remove as well, all you do is remove them as you would normal nail polish!

I love how these look and I think I want more french mani decals because they're gorgeous and so easy to use. I'm not even a big floral person but I absolutely love the design on these! These are definitely my favourite of the four nail art products I received.

If you want some nails that stand out but don't want to put a lot of effort into them then definitely get these, so quick, easy and very pretty.

Don't forget if you do purchase anything to use the code MEPUK31 for 10% off the Born Pretty Store website.

Thanks for reading!

- Melissa.

Rose Nail Studs - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Hi everyone! Today I have my third review of nail art products from Born Pretty Store. I chose some of these cute 3D roses in the colour lilac as I don't normally use nail art studs but I wanted to try something different and I loved the look of these so let's get into it!

These studs are $3.95AUD for 5 pieces and there's a range of colours to choose from. They're quite small when in the packet but once they're on the nail they seem a bit large. This however could just be because I have quite small nail widths so any studs look big on my nails (which is why I don't use them often). And they're very 3D, as in they're high when on the nail and stick up quite a lot. Because of that I think it would get in the way if you wanted to wear them for a while, but for decorative purposes or a special event they'd be perfect!

I thought I would do something simple to match the delicate look of the rose studs and I think the dots fit perfectly to keep the mani looking pretty!

All in all I quite like these studs, they're completely different to what I'd normally use and that's what makes them interesting. They don't budge when they're on the nail but they're also easy to pull off and can definitely be re-used if you want to keep them. They do stick out a bit so you'll have to be careful when wearing them so they don't get caught or ripped off. For $3.95 though it's a good deal because of the fact that you can reuse them multiple times without them getting ruined.

Don't forget to use the code MEPUK31 for 10% of the website. 

Thanks for reading!

- Melissa.

Starry Sky Nail Stickers - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

As I mentioned previously, I have another Born Pretty Store nail art product to review! This time around it's these nail art stickers which are based on Vincent Van Gogh's The Starry Night painting. In this sticker pack you get two rows of seven different sized stickers for $3.88AUD. The stickers themselves are quite long so if you've got small nails like I do right now you'll have to gently file or cut them down to the length of your nail. The annoying thing about that though is that sometimes you miss out on the best part of the sticker.

The above picture is what I mean by filing down the extra bit. It was such a long sticker and to achieve the perfect length I gently filed the sticker against the free edge of my nail being extra careful to not actually take any length off my own nails. It comes away so quickly and easily that it's easy to not get your own nail.

As you can see in the photos, the details of the stickers were really hard to capture because of how shiny they are. On my index and middle fingernails I placed the top of the sticker at my free edge and trimmed the bottom of the sticker so that I was getting the details from the top of it and not just more dark blue patterns like the other two nails. This proved to be a difficult process though as I couldn't trim it exactly to my nail shape so I had to use acetone to get that perfect curved shape near my cuticles. And as you can see, the silver went everywhere. It was so hard to clean up and I wish I hadn't tried it and just stuck to filing at the free edge. 

The durability of the stickers wasn't the best and by time I had finished my other fingers the first one I had done on my pinky had begun to peel off even though I had top coated it. So they didn't last very long but they did look lovely, much better than in pictures. You could see all the detailing of them, it's just that when it came time to photograph them the sparkliness of it all got in the way and my camera did not like it at all.

I would love to try out more nail stickers from the website though because before nail art that's what I would use a lot of and I loved them, so they're definitely an easy way to get great nails with little effort! 

Don't forget that you can use the code below to get 10% off when you buy anything from their website, maybe try out some of their nail art products or check out the wide range of other products they have! 

Thanks for reading!

- Melissa.

Bra Water Decals - Born Pretty Store Review

*This product was sent to me for review, all opinions are my own

Recently, Born Pretty Store sent me a few items to review for them. This is the first of four reviews coming up in the next week or two, so keep an eye out!

These bra water decals are really cute and quite quirky actually! I haven't come across any nail art products like these ones before so I thought they would be fun to try out. Water decals may seem daunting to apply, but it's pretty simple as long as you're careful and don't rush the applying process, plus there's instructions on the back that are so easy to follow you can't really go wrong.

As you can see in the above pictures the process is simple, you choose which decal you want, cut it out, peel off the front plastic protector, dip the the decal in water for 10-15 seconds and gently lift the decal off the backing. I like to lift the decal with my nail (as the picture shows), then grab it with some tweezers and apply it where you want it on the nail. Make sure to dab the nail and decal with some tissue or paper towel to dry off the excess water and to make sure the decal doesn't slip around. Then it's just a coat of your fave top coat and you're done! You've got some cute nail art and it didn't require too much effort.

Seriously, how cute are all the little designs! Especially the thumb one, which I love because it's a lingerie set. There's so many to choose from and to mix and match with that whatever decals you choose from this set, your nails will be adorable and a lot of fun.

The base is Ulta3's Sour Grapes which is quickly becoming my favourite purple.

Don't forget to check out all of Born Pretty Store's nail art products and use the code below if you want to purchase anything. They also offer free shipping which is always a good thing! Shipping usually takes a few weeks to Australia, I believe my products arrived in about three weeks, which is really quite good because I've found with some eBay sellers products take at least five weeks to arrive. So all in all, I really do love this website and their products, I've ordered from them a few times in the past and have never had a problem with them, so I definitely recommend them and encourage you all to check them out!

- Melissa.