Review | Born Pretty Store Nail Transfers

Born Pretty Store have once again come to the rescue with their nail transfers. I had broken a few nails some weeks ago so I couldn't do proper nail art product reviews but now they are back, all the same length!

So, back to the review. Born Pretty Store had sent me some nail transfers from their extensive range to try out and I chose the black and white dots I am wearing here and some Audrey Hepburn ones which I haven't worn yet.

These transfers are very to use, even for beginners. Just remove the protective film, plunge into some water, remove the backing and carefully apply over your nails avoiding air bubbles. Here is the manicure I wore for 5 days straight:

These nail transfers only cost $1.64 for the dotted ones and $2.40 for the Audrey Hepburn ones. Remember to put in my code EBABK31 at checkout for 10% off your order!

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Review | Born Pretty Store Chameleon Glitter

It's been a long time since I last showed my nails on this space but that's because I had some issues with broken nails and I really couldn't wait for them to grow back so that I can try this duochromatic fine glitter from Born Pretty Store.        

The glitter comes in a small pot (be careful each time you open it as you are bound to make a mess) and can be used both on nails and for make up as well as for crafts and decorative purposes. I decided to use it on my nails to spice up a nude nail polish and boy was I impressed with how it turned out!

All I did was apply the nail polish as usual and allowed the second coat to go tacky before I dipped the opposite index finger into the pot and gently dabbed the powder onto my nails. I thin sealed everything with a top coat to make it last longer. I wore this manicure for my first fashion week show as I think it looks very fashion forward!

Born Pretty Store offer a wide range of colours to choose from and each pot retails for $3.99. Remember you can knock 10% off the price with my code EBABK31. I think these would also look great mixed with some clear lip gloss to create stunning new lip colours as well as other nail art looks :)

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Review | Born Pretty Store Gel Nail Polish (new line)

Born Pretty Store have once again introduced a new line of gel nail polishes and they have kindly sent me one of them to review.

The new gel polishes come in a square shaped bottle with a black cap and a completely opaque, white bottom part. The only downside to this packaging is that you don't know what colour the polish is and how much is left in the bottle.

I used the silver one in this fish scale nail art and I must say it was very easy to use. All you need is to apply it and cure under UV light for two minutes and seal with a top coat. It lasted me for five days and it came off easily after soaking my nails in acetone polish remover. This particular shade dries matte but you can always add a glossy top coat to add shine to it. To create the fish scales, I used vinyls from Born Pretty Store.

These gel polishes come in a large colour variety and they retail at $3.95 for 10ml of product and you can claim 10% off your purchase when quoting the code EBABK31 at checkout.

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Review | Born Pretty Store Transparent Stamper

Finally, all stamping nail art problems have been answered!! If you are familiar with stamping, you would know that one of the biggest issues with this nail art technique is the difficulty of knowing where you are placing an image on your nails, because it is kind of hard to see when using a fully opaque stamper.

Thankfully, Born Pretty Store have a new stamper in stock that actually looks like a magnifying glass and has a transparent squishy stamping head and you can even see through the hole on the opposite side. This makes it easier to know which part of an image you're picking up especially when it comes to the larger ones and also, you can see where you are actually placing the design on the nails.

All it took for the stamper to work was just a quick roll on a lint remover to prime it, take the usual steps for stamping, roll the stamper onto the image, et voila! the image is clearly picked up, ready to be stamped on your nails! This makes it perfect for placement and landscape manicures as well as a multitude of other nail art creations. The plate I have used for this nail art is also from Born Pretty Store and it is the BPL-007 plate. I'm not a big fan of the scraper that comes with this stamper though and I prefer using the transparent credit-card like one.

If you're a fan of stamping, I highly suggest you get this one even if you're a beginner. The price is $2.99 and you get 10% off your order with my code EBABK31 at checkout.

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Review | Born Pretty Store Nail Art Palette Metal Ring

Sometimes nail art designs are quite elaborate and nail artists need a palette to pick out their colours from. Such palettes can be large sometimes and cause the work area to be cluttered. Well, here is a cute little invention that doesn't occupy much space:

The Born Pretty Store metal ring palette is designed to be worn by the nail artist to facilitate work both when working on oneself and when working on clients. I have quite thin fingers so the fact that the ring is adjustable makes things easier and it fits me without moving around.

I found it was more comfortable to use than the larger palettes I usually use and there is much less risk of a mess.

The palette is available in two versions - a paw print or a mini artist's palette and retails for $3.59 from the Born Pretty Store website. Remember to use the code EBABK31 at checkout for 10% off your order.

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Review | Born Pretty Store Holographic Shell Paper

Hello lovelies I hope you're all doing well and have settled in the new year nicely :) Today I wanted to share with you the manicure I have been sporting for the past few days courtesy of Born Pretty Store.

I picked out this shell sticker paper when they asked me to pick out some products to review and I immediately thought of incorporating the product in some shattered glass nail art. The shell sticker comes as a whole piece which you can cut down to size.

For this nail art I cut out a small piece and cut some pieces randomly off it with a pair of scissors, peeled off the backing and stuck them on my nails (base nail polish is Models Own Rose Chrome). To finish, I sealed everything with a top coat. I must say the shell paper seals in nicely with top coat and doesn't lift off and lasts well.

Featured in this post is shell paper #8 but there are loads more colours to choose from and you can check them out here. Each sheet costs $2.25 from the Born Pretty Store website and you can get 10% off your order with my code EBABK31.

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December Collective Haul

I meant to publish the December posts before departing to London but I didn't manage for I was all over the place for the whole month of December so here is the third post for the day to show you what I bought. There will be a separate post for what I got for Christmas and all the things I bought while in London so do watch out for that in the coming days.

First up are the fashion items as I do not have that many for I tried to save money to spend in London. I got this River Island bag and scarf from their online sale as they were really a couple of nice bargains and I can get a lot of uses out of them.

I also treated myself to one of the Ganutell scarves from local designers Charles & Ron and I have already worn it a couple of times and got a good number of compliments on it. I admit it is a little pricey for a scarf but there is nothing wring in splurging every once in a while ;)

I also bought this set of earrings from Accessorize mainly because of the large snowflakes which are my favourites from the whole set and I also bought this dainty gold Fossil necklace from Sunlab.

Moving on to the beauty items, I want to share with you what I got from the Pupa Milano Christmas Collection Stay Gold! Of course I couldn't pass up the Diamond Dust and Golden Plumage nail polishes so I got those as well as this beautiful burgundy Multiplay Eye Pencil in shade 67. I was also given this cute lip shaped I'm keyring with my purchase :)

I also have something from each of this year's The Body Shop Christmas collections - Glazed Apple, Frosted Plum and Frosted Cranberry and I also got a bottle of Lightening Drops to adjust darker foundations.

I placed an order on kosmetik4less.de along with Marija from Pocalocca and I got some items from Essence & Catrice which I cannot wait to review for you guys. I also bought a backup of the La Roche Posay Ultrafine Scrub and a bottle of China Glaze Don't Get Elfed Up from their Christmas 2015 collection.

More nail stuff from Born Pretty Store which includes new nail art decorations, a new stamper and scraper and a stamping plate, some nail vinyls, chrome nail polish, holographic nail polishes and a makeup palette and spatula set.

That's it for my December haul ladies! Keep your eyes peeled for the London haul ;)

Review | Born Pretty Store Camellia Nail Stickers

Hello guys :) I hope the laziest day of the week is treating you all well! We actually have some rain and freezing cold today in Malta and I really don't want to get out of my fleece pajamas to get to run some last minute Christmas related errands, but well, Santa's helper's duty calls ;)

While I still have some free time, I wanted to share with you the manicure I have been wearing this week which features some nail art thanks to Born Pretty Store. They sent me this sheet of Camellia flowers nail stickers which instantly reminded me of my favourite French designer, Chanel as camellias were her signature flowers. Of course, when one thinks of Chanel, one also thinks of tweed, pearls and monochrome, boyish outfits and everything else that is classy really (hence the red base colour). Another bit of inspiration behind this manicure was one of my favourite sweaters which is why I went on to use studs in my manicure but still remind me of the edgier side the house of Chanel has crossed over to lately.

Back to the camellia stickers, they come as a single sheet which has different sized full flowers and half-flowers and are available in 8 different colours with either gold or silver borders. I chose style #1 which features white flowers with gold borders. They are very easy to apply as you just have to lift them up and place them where you want on your nails, where they will last for as long as you keep your manicure, provided you seal them with a good top coat. All other embellishments featured in this manicure are also from Born Pretty Store.

The stickers retail for $1.09 a sheet from the Born Pretty Store website. Get 10% off your order with my code EBABK31 at checkout :) 

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Review | Born Pretty Store Mixed Christmas Nail Decorations Wheel 120pcs

With Christmas literally around the corner, Christmas nail art designs can't go amiss. Today I am sharing with you some fantastic metallic motifs from Born Pretty Store that you can definitely use at the most beautiful time of the year! The wheel also features some designs that can be used all year round too.

So you get 10 pieces of each of 12 designs in metallic colours, mostly bronze or gold but there are also some black coloured ones such as the pumpkins which would be suitable for Halloween.

I have used the star cluster motif in this manicure (tutorial coming up later) and I put the gold side up. I would suggest you give the designs a bit of a curve on a pencil or such so that they fit your nail bed better if like me you have a curved nail bed. Also, make sure to totally cover the design in top coat to avoid any points snagging onto clothes etc.

I have sealed the designs with gel top coat so lasted really well but if you use them with regular top coat, try applying a coat every other day to make them last.

This nail art wheel retails for $2.20 from Born Pretty Store. Get 10% off with my code EBABK31.

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Review | Born Pretty Store Gel Cube Rhinestone Picker

Hello guys I hope everyone is doing well :) Today I have a Born Pretty Store review for you, so, nail art lovers, rejoice!

The product I have here today is the Gel Cube Rhinestone Picker which as the name implies, is meant to help you pick up your rhinestones and place them on your nails to complete your nail art designs. I have never used any kind of rhinestone picker before as I always used a dotting tool dipped in some clear polish but I was curious to see how this will fare out.

Basically, the pink cube comes in a little plastic wrapper and has a piece of protective backing on both sticky sides. The cube is meant to be cut into smaller pieces so it will last you for a long time. 

To use, cut out a small piece of the gel cube and remove the protective backing from both sides. Next, use an orange stick like you would a rolling pin and roll out the gel to thin it and make it more pliable, then wrap the gel around the orange stick to have your rhinestone picker ready for use. Here is a little step-by-step tutorial:

I found that the gel cube works better at picking up rhinestones and placing them on your nails than my usual method of using a clear polish. It is great for picking up any size or shape of rhinestones and you really will not need anything else! The best thing about this gel cube though is that you can change to a new bit once it isn't sticky any more. I do store mine in a small plastic bag to avoid it getting dirty and help it last longer though.

Buy the gel cube rhinestone picker from Born Pretty Store for only $1.63 and quote my discount code EBABK31 at checkout for 10% off your order.

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Review | Born Pretty Store Ice Cream Cone Nail Polish #25

Lately I was experimenting with sheer jelly nail polishes more often and the latest one to join my collection is this sheer red nail polish from Born Pretty Store.

I was really curious to see how this will turn out in a pond manicure nail art and how it would look layered over a silver glitter but it turns out this just went on clear with only the slightest red tinge whatsoever that almost doesn't change the base colour at all, except if it is white of course (it will turn slightly pink).

Born Pretty Store Ice Cream Polish #25 over holographic silver glitter and white nail polishes

It does work exceptionally well as a top coat though because it self-levels nicely and lasts long enough. I also like how it intensifies the reflects in holographic polishes and how it completely takes away the gritty feeling of textured polishes if you want to use it as a top coat over them. In the picture below I have used the polish as a top coat over pink nail polish on my pinky, middle finger and thumb while I left the ring finger an pointer without top coat. The colour is barely altered but you could say that it looks more intense.

I do have one issue with this polish though - it has a very strong scent that lingers on for quite some time.

Born Pretty Store have a full range of these ice-cream polishes which look promising from reviews I have seen about them and they retail for $3.95 for 12ml of product (I suggest you get one of the creme ones though for better pigmentation) and remember, you can take 10% off your order with my code EBABK31.

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