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.

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NCLA Nail Wraps - Jazzi

These were provided for review by Nail Polish Canada. They offer a wide variety of NCLA wraps among other things.

This design is called "Jazzi"

They can be found for $16 here at Nail Polish Canada.

  Nail wraps have the benefit of offering a very detailed design, without it taking up a lot of time. I wouldn't know where to start trying to recreate this design freehand.

 

The design on these fades from orange-yellow-pink-purple-blue. My nails are not as long as the decals, so I just alternated with each nail and turned the decal 180 degrees in order to show all the colors. It's very beautiful! It reminds me of sunsets on the beach.

  There are 2 sheets of 22 nail wraps of varying sizes. These wraps do not remove with acetone. They have to be peeled off. No claims are made about long wear time. I did find these wraps to be very thin and manageable. They lie down flatly without many wrinkles, which is appreciated.

*These were provided for review*

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NCLA Nail Wraps - The Ray and the Ro

These were provided for review by Nail Polish Canada. They offer a wide variety of NCLA wraps among other things.

This design is called "The Ray and the Ro"

They can be found for $16 here at Nail Polish Canada.

This design is so fun. Nail wraps have the benefit of offering a very detailed design, without it taking up a lot of time. This particular design could technically be recreated by freehand, or a variety of nail art stamping techniques, but I can't begin to fathom how many hours that might take.

 There are 2 sheets of 22 nail wraps of varying sizes. So 44 individual wraps for $16, I think that's a reasonable price. The sizes offered cover a wide range, but my thumb nails are particularly large, so you can see that there is a significant gap at my cuticle. That's the best I could do though, because that was the largest wrap in the set.

These wraps do not remove with acetone. They have to be peeled off. No claims are made about long wear time. I did find these wraps to be very thin and manageable. They lie down flatly without many wrinkles, which is appreciated.

*These were provided for review*

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University Nail Pax - Mississippi State

My first set of University Nail Pax can be found here.
These nail wraps can be found here for $12.00
Here I tried out the second set they sent me to review. I had a similar experience. Application is easy and fairly straightforward. I had some wrinkling along the free edge because my nails curve down a bit.

 My biggest peeve is that the image isn't entirely clear. The largest image is pixelated on the wrap.

It looks only slightly  better at a distance, but we all know us nail addicts live with our nails under a microscope! 

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Floral Water Decals

This design ended up reminding me of old china patterns like my grandmother had. I just painted my nails with Lime Crime Milky Ways and applied the water decals to cover my entire nail. The decals are from Viva La Nails, I got them about 2 years ago when I first got into nail art. They are no longer available but there are many similar designs available, here. The decals are just 2 or 3 flowers per cluster, so I just placed 2 different decals per nail to get full coverage. That's also why they're kind of chopped up in places.

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University Nail Pax - University of Alabama at Birmingham

These products were provided by PAX Designs for review.

They can be purchased here for $12.00

I think that's a good price because there are 32 individual nail wraps in the kit. Compared to Incoco nail wraps that are $8-$10 for only 16 wraps. (Also note that Incoco wraps are made from actual nail polish, these nail wraps are made from some kind of foil/vinyl. They peel off rather than remove with acetone.)

I really like their packaging and design. It really hints at "collegiate" Lol.

Directions on how to apply are under the top lid. One sheet of 16 is under the exposed window along with a coarse emery board. A second sheet of 16 is behind the instructions.

This particular pattern is the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

 The design limits you to having a single logo on your thumb and the rest covered with a pattern of smaller logos. The sizing is a little strange. Left to right, 1 pinky size then the next 5 are all virtually the exact same size, then a small thumb, and a gigantic size that would even be too big for my big toe.

A closeup of my thumb. The image is pixelated and not a really clear print.

The other nails...  Mostly applied pretty easily. They do allow for a slight stretch when you put them on and that helps. I had a few spots that puckered and didn't lie flat.

I had trouble with my middle nail and didn't get it close enough to my cuticle.

Other than some sizing issues, I think these are a great idea for any die hard sports fans that want nail art but don't have the time or freehand skills to create it with polish.

I'll have another design from them up soon.

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Blue Floral Water Decals

I finally used the other half of this set of water decals from Viva La Nails. I've had them since April 2011..... So check out the other half here and laugh at how my pictures have improved.

I used them over Zoya Kristen for a light vintage blue overall look.

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Sally Hansen - Checker Out

I believe these were from the Salon Effects spring collection. It's the full nail decals. I got them at Rite Aid on clearance for $1.99. :)



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Good Morning Glory

Sally Hansen Salon Effects strips. I scored these on clearance at Walmart for something like only $2-$3. That's the only time I'm willing to buy these strips. I think they last the best out of all that I've tried, but I would rather spend $8 on a bottle of polish that will last me 100 manicures.... Rather than spend it on a one time use product.

These were fun to wear. They are white with a purple toile (?) print with flowers.

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Jamberry Nail Shields Product Review

The lovely respresentatives of Jamberry Nails contacted me about reviewing their product. I have to mention that it was such a pleasant exchange of information! Their product is made in the US and they only have US reps, so that means they spoke/wrote proper English that didn't require decifering. (Unlike some other nail art companies that are based out of other countries that send broken English e-mails that just confuse me...)

What is their product?

It is a vinyl-based film covering that is both heat and pressure activated. They are NOT stickers or decals. Nor are they made of nail polish like the Sally Hansen Salon Effects Strips. They have so many different designs to choose from on their website! Many patterns would be easy enough to recreate by using Konad stamps, but others are much more intricate.

I picked out the Blue Damask pattern.

They come as a sheet of 18 individual strips. The range of sizes available really impressed me! I have large nail beds and often times have trouble finding the right sizes. This was great! The left side is large enough for your big toe! Down to the far right is for a narrow pinky nail, or perhaps a little toenail. :) Each strip was long enough for me to get 2 uses out of it if I cut it in half lengthwise.

How do you apply them?

1. Use acetone to remove any oils from your nails, lightly buff them if they are really slick...
2. Once you select what size will fit you best (I found it easiest to cut the strips in half while still applied to the backing sheet), peel it off of the backing with tweezers. This is important because you don't want the oils on your fingers to have contact with the adhesive. (It won't stick to your nail as well.)
3. Once you are holding just the strip with tweezers, hold it under the warm heat of a blow dryer for 15-20 seconds. The heat activates the adhesive and you can see it start to look more "wet" and the strip almost starts to curl as it gets more flexible.
4. Then you align it to the cuticle and smooth it onto your nail bed.
5. Once you get to the free edge, just cut away the excess and lightly file in a downwards motion to match the edge of your nail.
6. Then press the strip down firmly all over, to ensure good contact.
7. You can hold your nail under the blow dryer for a few more seconds to heat it again, and apply more pressure.

Here is a link to their YouTube instructional video if my directions were confusing.

I didn't have much trouble with these at all! They were pretty easy to apply. The only complication I had was some wrinkles along the free edge. I couldn't get the sticker to lie flat where my nail started to curve downwards.

 But that's it! They are dry immediately and you don't have to wait for fear of them messing up. You do not apply a topcoat because they are already shiny.

18 nail shields is more than enough for one manicure! In fact, I applied these as an entire manicure and an entire pedicure..... and I ended up with 7 whole strips left! For short toenails I was able to get 3-4 uses out of each strip. Because of this I feel like the price ($15 per pack) is very reasonable.

How long do they last?

They are said to last up to 2 weeks like other similar products boast. My nails only lasted until the next night before I got bored and started to pick them off from where they wrinkled. I mentioned that I also put them on my toes and they are still there! I applied them on 2/12 and it's now 2/18 as I type this and they still look good as new! I don't have any lifting or tipwear on my toes. I will update this post on the day I end up taking them off to let you know.

Are they difficult to remove?

Not at all! You just find a loose corner and peel it off. It comes off easily and in one whole sheet. It doesn't chip or tear. It also doesn't leave any residue on the nail bed. There is no adhesive left behind, and it does not appear to damage the nail bed. You can hold your nails under the blow dryer again to loosen them if needed.

My end opinion? I think they're pretty cool. For this type of product that boasts a long wear time, this is the only one other than Sally Hansen Salon Effects that I've found to live up to the claim. (But again, they are made differently. One is nail polish, one is vinyl.) So go check out the many designs on their website and buy some to try out yourself. :) They have a special offer of buy 3 get 1 free. You can get yours HERE and at checkout make sure to choose Leslie under "party." ;)

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