Review | Born Pretty Store BK Nail Polish Remover Gel #6 Mint

Nail polish remover...GEL...sounds curious right? Indeed that is what intrigued me to give this product a try and subsequently share my thoughts with you when Born Pretty Store offered me another chance to review more of their products. 

It is easy to infer that the polish remover comes in the form of a gel instead of the usual liquid we are more accustomed to and it is supplied in a small plastic tube that holds 35ml of product. It comes with a screw-off cap and has a minute nozzle through which the gel oozes out.  The remover has a very pleasant and fresh minty scent as opposed to conventional nail polish removers and although transparent, it has a very light green tinge.

 

What you do is simply squeeze an adequate amount of gel on your polished nails and wait for a minute or two until the polish is dissolved (the gel will turn milky), then proceed to wipe everything off with a tissue or cotton disc.  I find it is similar to the foil removal metod with less resources and you won't be left with cotton threads on your nails.

 

Right hand with polish, left hand after 1 application of the gel polish remover
(approx. 1 minute wait)

However, I find that I still have to go over my nails with some liquid polish remover to remove the left over traces of polish. That said, I still do the same with conventional polish removers especially when taking off a darker polish. The gel leaves the nails thoroughly moisturized and it doesn't leave any tell-tale white residue on the nails as some other removers do.

In my opinion, this remover gel is best when used with light-coloured polishes and glitter polish as once dissolved you just wipe the polish away. Darker polishes take more product to be completely removed. The same holds true for gel top coats.

Overall, I like the concept of this innovative product and I think I would buy it again, if only for the fact that it takes the hassle out of removing glitter nail polish.

BK Nail Polish Remover Gel is available in 6 different scents on www.bornprettystore.com and retails for $3.80 a pop. Get yours at 10% off with discount code EBABK31 at checkout.

PR Sample

Designer Nails thanks to Born Pretty Store Gold Nail Decals

As a nail technician, I am very fond of hand painted nail art but certain designs are usually a little hard to accomplish on such a small area. A case in point are certain designer logos and detailed works such as butterflies. In such instances, I like to resort to nail decals and with such a wide variety available, you are bound to find what you are looking for.

Born Pretty Store have recently introduced a set of 12 different gold decals to their nail art embellishments section. You get a small rhinestone wheel with designs ranging from desiger logos to flower and butterflies, hearts and snowflakes, as well as Hello Kitty motifs.

There are 10 pieces of each motif, hence a total of 120 pieces and all are gold in colour. Unlike most metallic embellishments, I am very pleased with these as the gold colour is retained when you apply top coat on them.

The decals lasted for a whole 5 days on my nails and they are easily embedded with top coat. All of these decals are suitable for use with gel nails, acrylic nails and also on natural nails and can be used by professional nail techs as well as amateur nail art enthusiasts.
 

Get yours at 10% off instead of the usual $2.99 by entering the code EBABK31 at checkout on www.bornprettystore.com

PR Sample

NOTW: Louis Vuitton Inspired

Good morning all :) This week I have been sporting Louis Vuitton inspired nails after I was sent some decals from Born Pretty Store (stay tuned for the full review). Read on for the step-by-step tutorial!

1. Prep nails with Orly Nailtrition base coat to strengthen the natural nail and protect against discolouration.

2. Paint on a French tip with a caramel coloured polish such as Pronails no.267 on all the nails and paint two coats of the same polish on the ring fingers.

3. Allow to dry and with a light beige nail polish such as Essence Nude Glam in 06 Cookies & Cream and a detailing brush, paint on a diagonal stripe across the caramel French tip, leaving a triangle of the first colour showing through. Repeat this step with E.L.F. Nail Polish in Chocolate or any other dark brown polish.

4. Make sure that the ring fingers are completely dry and apply striping tape in the form of a grid. Paint on with the same dark brown polish and gently peel off the tape after a couple of seconds.

5. Place a small drop of clear nail polish in the middle of the nail and gently lower a gold decal. Secure in place by adding some top coat and leave to dry.

6. Top coat all the other nails and you're done! Designer nails in no time!

Guest Post | Beauty Instruments That Enhance Your Look

This is the second guest post for this week and this time it is written by Ashley Santiago. She will guide us through some must-have beauty devices that will help us enhance our looks daily. Enjoy!

 

A little here, a little there. The signs of aging creep up on us and manifest primarily on our faces, for the whole world to see. Fortunately, we have an arsenal of beauty instruments at our disposal so that we can combat the signs of aging and enhance our look regardless of the number of candles on our birthday cake.

Skin Care Instruments

• Rotating pore cleansing brush. This little gadget will deep clean facial skin and get deep down in the pores to prevent acne breakouts. A rotating pore cleansing brush will also remove all traces of makeup and exfoliate the skin, leaving you with clean, youthful-looking skin that glows.
• Facial sauna. This steam-emitting skin care instrument deep cleans pores, exfoliates skin and temporarily plumps up facial skin to eliminate the appearance of fine line and wrinkles.

 

Eye Care Instruments

• Eyelash curler. A very simple device that is a must-have to enhance your look. An eyelash curler instantly makes eyes appear larger and sexier by lifting and curling upper eyelashes.
• False eyelashes. If eyelashes are short or sparse, the addition of false eyelashes will enhance your look and draw attention to your eyes. False lashes can be purchased as a full set (one lash for each eye) or as individual lashes to be placed only where needed.
• Gel Pads. These amazing gel pads come in full size that cover both eyes or small pads that fit under each eye. Worn during sleep, these gel pads help to firm and tone under-eye skin to help eliminate bags, sags and dark circles under the eyes. The cooling comfort of gel pads also help to rejuvenate tired-feeling eyes and reduce the appearance of fine lines around the eyes.

 

Wraps and Straps

• A special hair-do requires special treatment, and wrapping hair in a silk head wrap for sleeping will extend the life of the hair-do for a couple extra days.

• Damaged or dull hair can be rejuvenated by applying a deep conditioning hair treatment to hair at night, wrapping it in a terry cloth turban and allowing the conditioner to work overnight. The turban wrap will heat the hair and conditioner, allowing the product to penetrate the hair shaft deeply and repair hair, plus the turban will keep the conditioning product on your hair and off the pillow.

• Sleeping in a specially designed chin strap will help prevent the development of a saggy chin or double chin by keeping the chin skin and muscles taunt during your 8 hours of sleep.

 

Hair Care Instruments

 

There is no shortage of instruments that can be used to enhance your look by changing the appearance of your hair. Several hair care tools are often needed to achieve the desired look, and since they are relatively inexpensive, it’s possible to have a plethora of hair care instruments at your disposal.

• A blow dryer with a detachable curl diffuser is a must-have. Both a flat and curved flat iron is needed to achieve either the perfectly straight shiny hair we want or the straight-with-a-sexy-flip look we desire. Curling irons with small barrels, large barrels and brush barrels are useful hair care tools for the time when we want to dress our hair up a bit.
• Hot rollers, barrel rollers, Velcro rollers and a host of other type of hair rollers deserve a mention, since they are the original hair care instruments that have stood the test of time to enhance women’s looks down through the ages and are still a needed beauty tool today.

Ashley Santiago is an avid learner, traveler, writer and stylist. She attended the University of Iowa and majored in International Studies, but as soon as she graduated, went into cosmetology. She now writes about beauty, health and her career as a stylist at How Do I Become A ...?

 

Confessions Of A Shopaholic | The Effects Of Having A Shopping Addiction

I bet each and everyone of you has at some point in their lives turned to retail therapy to alleviate boredom or stress or simply to celebrate an achievement. I for one am a self-confessed believer in retail therapy and I do like the saying 'whoever said money can't buy happiness clearly didn't know where to shop'!

 

Yesterday, I was contacted by Ms. Allison Morris about a graphic she helped develop for www.onlinepshycologydegree.net which specifically examines the effects of having a shopping addiction after seeing one of my posts. Read on to find out what it is all about!
 

 

This graphic has come in really good timing! I have made a resolution this year to try and avoid spending money on unneccessary stuff and save up for better things, say travel. To be honest I was really shocked with certain figures that reflect the extent people will jeopardise their financial well being just for an instant's gratification.

 

Are you a shopaholic? I thought I was one as certain points in the graphic do apply to me but definitely not to the extents shown here! Let me know what you think in the comments :)