Kissy Lips

This cute design can be found on the QA28 image plate from Born Pretty. It can be found here for $1.99. That's a great deal!

I first painted my nails with China Glaze Dance Baby, then stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Pink.

 I used all 3 full nail images. I put the smallest lips on my pinky. The plate was easy to use and gave me a crisp clean image each time. I'm really excited to figure out an idea to use the mustache images.... A brainstorming session is needed!

If you end up shopping at Born Pretty - here is a coupon code:

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Born Pretty Store Holographic Polish - #3 Pink, #8 Blue, & #11 Purple

Born Pretty Store has recently put up their own line of holographic polish.

#3 can be found here for $5.59. The bad part is that it's only for 6mL of polish.
You can tell my bottle is not as vibrant or hot pink as the site photos. I applied 3 coats. Coverage was easy, no trouble with patchiness or dragging like some holo polishes. Dry time was fast.

It's so mesmerizing. I could stare at my nails in the sun all day.

#8 can be found here for $5.59. 3 easy coats. No trouble at all!

#11 is a dark purple. Found here for $5.59

So do you love them? If you end up buying any, use my coupon code and get 10% off.

More about → Born Pretty Store Holographic Polish - #3 Pink, #8 Blue, & #11 Purple

Born Pretty Embossed Metal Decals

Embossed metal sticker decals from Born Pretty. 

Gold swirls placed on top of Zoya Bevin.

This first set can be found here for $2.98. Option #1.

 It's easy, just peel and stick. Apply topcoat if you choose.

You can tell from this angle I had some lifting on my pinky nail. I thought I had pressed the stickers down firmly enough, but after I applied topcoat, this happened.

Silver snowflakes. Part of a sheet with many other designs including hearts and flowers.

This set can be found here for $2.98. Option #3. 

 These were placed over Kleancolor Cobalt.

Again, I had problems with them lifting. This particular snowflake had been positioned on a fold, and it just popped right back up. For the partial snowflakes, I just cut them with nail clippers and applied with tweezers. You can also see little silver flecks, and that's because the topcoat seemed to drag some of the silver off. :( Overall, it's a unique set of decals, but I wish they stuck down better.

More about → Born Pretty Embossed Metal Decals

Born Pretty Store Stencil

Another attempt at the Born Pretty stencils found here for $3.09. You get 5 different patterns with 11 different sizes per sheet. My first attempt was the skull and crossbones here.

I used China Glaze Electric Beat & Sinful Colors Snow Me White. 

The stencils are easy to use, but provide only the most basic nail art designs. It is also hard to get intricate designs with these. I would think this would work best if you then chose to do some type of additional coloring on top of the white. The only hitch with these it that you really have to allow enough dry time for your bottom polish. Otherwise it'll pull it off.

More about → Born Pretty Store Stencil

Tough Girl

I chose to an edgy look for this one. Combination of pink, a girly bow, and barbed wire.

These rhinestone bows can be found for $2.98 at Born Pretty.

The wheel comes with 12 individual bows. (Mine had a freebie extra black bow that was loose within the bag this wheel was sealed in. Bonus Jonas!)

I used Wet N Wild Pom Pom Kelly layered over a white polish to make it pop. 

Then I stamped black with BM 323.

These bows are quite big. I put it on my middle nail because it was just too overwhelming to the others.

They are completely flat, no curve to them. This makes them hang and catch on every little thing. This can get annoying very quickly.

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Born Pretty - Nail Foils

Born Pretty Store is now carrying some nail art foils! They can be found here for $2.99.

The "how to use" instructions on this page did not work for me. They instruct you to apply several coats of a base polish and when the top layer is mostly dry, to apply the foil and it will stick... This didn't work. No matter how little or long I waited, it either didn't transfer or pulled up chunks of my base polish. I still had some Transfer Foil Adhesive from the website Dollar Nail Art. So I used that.

First up is #22.

Purple to pink to red abstract gradient. Reminiscent of your 1980s Trapper Keeper cover.

 Here I applied it over Color Club Power Play. Once the foil transfer adhesive dried, I just pressed it on and removed it, then pressed it on in a different spot.... repeat all over. Pictures are without topcoat because this adhesive reacts funny to topcoat.

Next up is #25

Yellow to orange to fuchsia gradient.

 Same process as with the other foil. I just dabbed it on over Spoiled Jail Bait until the entire nail is covered.

I applied topcoat for this picture so you can see how it crackles and dulls the foils. It's some kind of strange chemical reaction thing...

I would choose to wear these without topcoat to get the most out of the metallic-ness. This will most likely shorten your wear time though.

*Provided for review*

More about → Born Pretty - Nail Foils

Disappearing Ink Surprise Nail Art

I feel like I've seen this on another blog before, so I'm not claiming this idea is original to myself. The idea of stamping with a UV changing polish over a base polish of similar color.

I used Ruby Wing Crowd Surf over Color Club Power Play, these are exact dupes indoors. 

 Indoors this combination looks like just a simple solid color manicure.

Once outdoors and in the sunlight, the design comes to life! I stamped with a zebra pattern (and first it wasn't opaque enough of a stamp to show on it's own, so I later freehanded over it to "darken" the stripes.) Once the design is stamped or freehanded, make sure you use a topcoat so it smooths the lines nicely.

I think this is a really cool idea for the summer time!

I tried this same concept again with Color Club Get Your Lem-on and Ruby Wing Electric Firefly. I used the skull and crossbones stencil from this set available for $3.89 on Born Pretty.

 

The stencil didn't pull off perfectly cleanly, you can see little flecks of red stuck on my nail. My index nail didn't take the pattern very well at all and it really blobbed up and garbled the design.

I also added a thin freehand line of Electric Firefly for a french tip.

 *The stencil was provided for review by Born Pretty*

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Pink Doodles

I needed a blank slate to try out some new nail art items from Born Pretty. Nail art brushes and a nail art pen. I figured a notepad type doodle would be just right.

 This nail art brush set is found here for $2.57.

 They each had a few random stray hairs, easily solved with scissors. I used the blue paint brush for the blue lines, and the red paint brush for the red lines. I used acrylic paint for the colors. (The base polish is Sally Hansen Insta Dri Whirlwind White)

The nail art pen can be found here for $5.99.  They have 6 available colors: white, gray, hot pink, red, black, & yellow. This was obviously the pink one.

 It's easy to use, just shake it up well, pump the tip against a piece of scrap paper until the color flows. Then it draws pretty easily. Just like a marker. 

I found it was sheer in places, like my pinky in the picture. I just made one pass of my signature. The rest of the doodles were passed over twice.

More about → Pink Doodles