Nail Art Style

Happy Hump Day! 

Today I have my last Born Pretty review (at least for a little while) 

I am reviewing these 3mm Black Square Nail Studs

One of the first reviews I ever did for Born Pretty was on gold studs so it's kind of cool to do a similar review again.

The studs might not look like much, but there's actually 150 pieces in the bag. (that's a lot of manicures!)

Here's what I did with them:

I wasn't really sure where exactly I was going with this manicure but I actually really love it. I love how the black studs look on the grey polish.

If you've never used studs before, they're super simple to use. Personally, I just place them with tweezers onto wet polish. Then I just cover with topcoat to ensure that they stay. Usually they stay pretty well too, so no worries there! 

One more picture because I really like this picture for some reason. 

Overall I loved these studs! You can't go wrong with something so simple but so classy. Not to mention how easy they are to use. 

A+ in my book. 

Right now these studs are $5.84 

You can order them here if you'd like, or check out their full selection of studs here!

Be sure to use my coupon code XKL91 for 10% off!

Happy Monday everyone! (It's a happy day because we have school off today!)

Today I also have another Born Pretty review.

This time I am reviewing this set of water decals. Now myself, I am not much of a sticker or nail decal fan. That said, however, I absolutely loved these. They're one of the coolest things I've tried from Born Pretty.

Here's what you get -

So it's all one sheet but I cut it down to make it easier to take pictures of.

If you're not familiar with water transfer decals they work similar to temporary tattoos. The instructions say to paint a base color (which I did), then place a cut out piece in water. The transfer and the back will separate after 15ish seconds and you just place it on. Simple as that!

They look super awesome. I would suggest cutting a piece as close to the size of your nail as possible. I filed the ends off and used a brush dipped in acetone to clean up the extra around my cuticles. 

The instructions also say to use a hair dryer to set the pattern but I don't know if this is necessary. I did that but I think you could do without it. I used Seche Vite over the design.

My favorite is my thumb. So pretty!

Oh, I especially like these decals because they go a long way. I did my whole hand and used a little more than 1/2 of one decal. Not to mention they're only $1.99!

Overall, I LOVED these (in case you couldn't tell) I had absolutely no issues with them. If you're not such a Paris fan, they have a whole selection of other water decals here. 

If you'd like to order these decals, however, you can do so here (pattern 2)

Feel free to use my coupon code: XKL91 

for 10% off!

Hey everyone! Apologies that it's been a few days since I've posted, I've been revising constantly, and yesterday (Friday) I passed my driving test (yay!) so I went out for a meal in the evening to celebrate and never got around to posting. I probably wouldn't have actually managed to get this up today if it hadn't been for my boyfriend, who very kindly edited all these pictures for me because I didn't have time. He's been offering to edit for a while now and I've struggled to let go of the reigns, but he didn't an awesome job so I think he's going to find himself bombarded with pictures now!

Exams aren't very far away now, so only one week and 2 days and my schedule should return to usual. I'm really sorry it's not been great for the past few weeks but hopefully you understand. I have a couple of posts in the 'vault' so to speak and I'll have a guest post from the lovely Amelia this week for you too which will be great I'm sure!

So today's post is a bit of a mix and match review with a few polishes from Nails inc. They're all from a variety of collections, but they work surprisingly well together. I love Nails inc. polishes and I'm really glad I got these to review because they're all amazing quality as usual, as you will see below! Full review will be after the jump

Chiswick Park* is a lovely purple shade created for QVC for their 20th anniversary. It's part of a duo with Kensington Caviar Topcoat*, shown below. As you can see it dries with an almost matte texture, which (unsurprisingly considering my matte obsession) I love. This was 2 coats without topcoat, although I feel perhaps 3 might have been better to equal it out

This is Chiswick Park* with 1 coat of Kensington Caviar topcoat*. It dried relatively fast and is really shiny, quite a good topcoat in comparison to a lot on the market but I'm slightly off put by the orange colour of the topcoat. Something about coloured topcoats really dishearten me for some reason! 

Next is St. James* which is from the Gel Effect collection. This polish is amazing, this was just one coat without topcoat, and it's completely opaque, super shiny and dried really fast. I don't have a bad word to say about this polish. 

And last but certainly not least is Buckingham Court* from the Galaxy collection, this polish is so cool. It definitely reminds me of a galaxy, and it looks great. This was 1 coat over St. James*, but I needed a slight amount of placement, and no topcoat.

Hi everyone! Wow have I been on a roll with these reviews lately. 

It's about to get even crazier because this is the first of three this week. Phew!

Today I have another Born Pretty review.

This time I am reviewing these 3D Crystal nail pieces (they're kind of difficult to explain so just look!)

The set comes with 2 pieces. These are meant to be accent nails. They have over 20 designs so this is just one of them. 

Here's what they look like on my nails!

To keep these on my nails I used nail glue. They stayed on very well. You could probably just place on wet polish/topcoat but I'm not 100% on that. They'll definitely stay better with nail glue. 

Here's just to show how far they stick off the nail. I'd definitely say that this design sticks up kind of far so if you're worried about that they have plenty of other ones that are flatter. (BTW this is design #20)

Overall I really liked these. Right now they're $1.99 which is a great deal. They're perfect for formal occasions too, I know I get questions asking what kind of nails for prom/formal/wedding and these are great. 

If you'd like to order, you can do so here. 

Don't forget that you can use my coupon code 

XKL91 for 10% off!

until next time,

xoxo

Hello! Today's post is a little different because I have a review of nail brushes from Winstonia! 

If you're not completely familiar with Winstonia, they sell a lot of Nail Art supplies, as well as jewelry and makeup. 

Super awesome right? 

One of the most frequent questions I receive is "Where can I buy nail brushes?" 

Today I will show you! 

That's right today's review is on an 8 piece set of nail brushes found here.

As you can see, those are the brushes above. The first thing I have to say is that there's a good mix of brushes in this set. This is a perfect set for beginners because it includes every type of brush you might need. Not to mention a dotting tool too!

Another question I get is "How do you clean up around your cuticles?" The two white brushes (fourth and sixth from left) are perfect for this. I will definitely be using at least one of these for clean up. 

I was also very impressed because it can be difficult to find brushes that are this thin. In most cases I end up cutting my brushes down but I might actually keep these the size they are.

Here's a picture next to a dime so you can see the size of them.

These brushes are perfect for details as well as lining. 

Well, let's see how these brushes did with painting!

Ahh. I might be tooting my own horn but I'm in love with this design. I feel like I've seen something similar on another artist (although I cannot remember who) but this was actually inspired by a vase I have in my room (seen below)

I've been drawing a lot of inspiration from things in my room lately...

So anyway, back to the brushes!

For this design I used the middle length brush (refer to dime picture) and I had absolutely no issues with it. It painted very smoothly.

Hello, as always.

Today I have another review.

This time I am reviewing this set of 12 jars of glitter from Born Pretty Store.

Ah look at all those colors. So gorgeous! To be honest, this was pretty much my first experience with glitter placement, mostly because before this, I only owned one jar of very tiny glitter. That said, this glitter is larger and much easier to work with. 

My first design was done using the teal glitter (first in bottom row)

Gahhh. So pretty. Reminds me of mermaids. 

This glitter was super easy to pick up and place. I used two coats of top coat just in case though. And they stayed pretty well. 

The second manicure I did features the gold glitter. (last in top row)

Now this glitter wasn't as nice as the teal. A lot of the pieces were stuck together and it was difficult to work with. Fortunately, this was the only jar with this problem. 

Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite products I've received from Born Pretty. Can't go wrong with glitter right?

Lastly I made this quick video to show the glitter in action

Right now the glitter is $6.45 which I think to be a great price. 

The glitter doesn't look like much in the jars but trust me it's a lot.

oh yeah here's the link to it again.

 Plus you can use my coupon code XKL91 for 10% off! 

Hey everyone! Today I'm back for the second part of my China Glaze Happy Holiglaze review, if you missed the first part you can see it here. I'm sorry it's been almost a week since I posted the first part of this review, but hopefully you've been enjoying all the christmassy nail art I've been posting this week! In this part of my review I'm going to be showing you the glitters from the collection, of which there are 3 fine glitter polishes and 3 glitter toppers. As most of us associate glitter and christmas this is definitely a very christmassy collection! Full review will be after the jump