Nailz Craze: mint

Dandelions For Spring

May 25, 2013
13 Comments

Simple nail art with Etude House & Modi

For this weekend I wore this simple and gorgeous nail art, which is actually a combination of two Korean polishes I recently purchased. I won't lie, it had it's cons and pros, but the result was really pretty.
I got both of these polishes with the help of The Cutest Makeup blog (which I will explain about in another post) along with some other cool polishes.

I started this nail art with Etude House - Tint Mint (DGR701), a gorgeous mint color (I really love minty shades and I have plenty of them. I wouldn't say it's really something special that you can't find with other brands, but I still wanted to get this one). It's a creamy polish with a great formula that gave a good coverage with just one thick coat, so I was very happy about this. I also want to mention that Etude House changed their brush and made it slimmer, which is a great improvement since the previous brush was really wide. It was ok for glitter application but made it harder to get accurate strokes, so I'm very pleased with this change.
Then I applied one coat of Modi 48 which contains black and silver shreds of matte glitter in a clear base. When I ordered this polish I actually didn't see any swatches of it, and I was just curious to try a nail polish from this brand. I was very surprised and happy to find out that this polish was exactly what I was looking for from another brand. It was great on the swatch stick, but then when I applied it to my nails, I found it a bit hard to work with. There were a lot of large shreds that stuck to the brush and to the nail, too big to put on my nails, so I had to wipe them on paper to remove them from the brush. There were also some shreds that were not straight but folded, again something I can't use. Another thing that I was a bit disappointed about is that there were lots of tiny black bits that made it look a bit dirty, and not as clear as Dance Legend Aztec No 6 which looks similar to this polish. It gave the polish a dusty look, which I didn't like at first.
I did like the combination of the silver and the black colors, I think it's a nice addition to this polish and much more interesting this way.
Then I added one coat of Poshe on top of that, I hopped it will smooth the surface but it still remained quite bumpy at some parts, even though I applied a thick coat of top coat.
I know it probably sounds like I had a really bad experience with this polish, but I guess it wasn't that bad after all because I came to love this nail art and enjoyed it for whole 3 days which is a lot for me lol. Well, I guess it was because I was really busy this weekend as well, but still - I enjoed wearing it, it's just that the application was a bit tricky.
After all I think this nail art turned out pretty nice, and it photographed very well. I think it's worth giving this Modi polish a second try, it really looks great with this color and it made me want to do another mani with this polish over a gray base and a matte top coat. I think it will look great and will create some sort of marble or stone look, which could be really nice to try.
I hope you liked this posts and my nail art. Thanks for reading (the long long post)! :)

May 20, 2013
7 Comments

Geometric Skittle Nails

born pretty store

I wanted to share with you another awesome and fun mani I did with water decals I receive from Born Pretty Store for review.
This was my first experience with full nail designs, unlike the previous small decals I've used, these were a bit tricky for application at some parts, but as you can see I managed to place them quite accurate on most (oops) nails. The result looks very much like stamping, and apparently I found that there is an exact design just like this one on a stamping plate. I really love this geometric design, so I will defiantly thinking about getting the stamping plate.

This time I chose two bright colors that I wouldn't usually combine - mint and orange, but I'm so happy I chose them both because they made the design so bright and pretty. The colors I used for this design are Bourjois - Tangerine Fatal and GA-DE - Pool Party, both are very bright and vibrant colors which I think really flatter each other. :)

The water decals set I chose to review in this post includes 4 designs, and there are 10 decals in total, so that doesn't leave a place for mistakes. I was bummed there were only 10 pcs, because when I made a mistake and one of the decals got all crooked, I had no choice but to leave it like that (or to remove it completely). I guess it doesn't look that bad, but with straight lines and geometric design, it's quite noticeable.

I found that the designs were a bit small to cover the entire, but mine are quite long right now, so I think they are in a normal size. I decided to use the curved line to my advantage and aligned them so they created a half moon look.

3 interesting facts about the large water decals that you might want to know:

1. They tend to curl and stick to themselves (and to the fingers) so it's better to work quickly (before they dry) and carefully (not touching them too much). I didn't have much trouble placing most of the decals, but some were pretty stubborn and really wanted to wrinkle, so I had to wet them again and again until I could place them correctly and smooth them to the nail.

2. They dissolve with acetone. It's great since I thought I will have to cut the excess decals around the cuticles, but apparently they dissolve in acetone, so I removed them with a q-tip. I wouldn't advise using a nail brush for cleaning, it will look like it's working at first, but then it will stick to the brush, and eventually will ruin it (at least that what happened to me).

3. They can smear! So be careful when applying your top coat. Work carefully and lightly with your brush using a big blub of top coat, to prevent smearing. It didn't smear when I used the small colorful decals (review in previous posts), but I had some smearing while using these decals, so they might be made by another technique or different materials.

Overall I was really happy with these decals, I think it's quite easy, and if you are struggling with full nail stamping, this might be a great alternative for you. I would defiantly say there are much cleaner to work with, and you can correct and replace the decal a little (with some water, but do it fast!) unlike stamping - once stamped wrong, you have to remove and start all over to correct a mistake.

The design I reviewed in this post in available for purchase at this link, and more water decals can be found here.

Born Pretty Store Water Decals design # 191

Born Pretty Store Water Decals design # D188-191

Born Pretty Store offers a large range and various designs of water decals for really great price, actually I think they offer the best price I've seen online.

You can also use this code to receive a 10% discount on your entire purchase at Born Pretty Store: PNL91.

May 03, 2013
13 Comments

Sakura Blossom Nail Art

Essie

March 20, 2013
33 Comments

Swatch & Review: ILNP - All Gold Everything

All Gold Everything

March 11, 2013
1 Comments

Minty Sweater Nails

Essie

December 26, 2012
26 Comments

Essie Mint Candy Apple Swatch

cream

December 26, 2012
4 Comments

Review: Born Pretty Store stamping plate CK-04

born pretty store

I received this stamping plate for a review from Born Pretty Store and I couldn't wait to try these out.

When I was requested to choose one item, I knew it would be a stamping plate, but I had hard time deciding which one I want because Born Pretty Store has so many designs to choose from. Finally I decided to go with the plate CK-04 because I really loved the designs on it, and there were some designs I didn't have yet.

When I received it I was a bit surprised to see how actually small it was, but I needed to give it a try and see how it goes.

I started with a base color for my stamping: I applied 2 coats of Wet n Wild I Need a Refresh-Mint, and one coat of KIKO 298 to add a little sparkle. Then I stamped with Wet n Wild Black Creme.

The plate itself is not that big, it's 14x8.5 cm, and the designs were disappointingly small, not larger than 1.3x1 cm. Unless you have tiny nails, this plate will probably not fit your nails, but... You can get creative with it and try different methods, for example stamping twice on the same nail, or using a tape to create some kind of french tip nail art.

For the index and the middle finger I I stamped each nail twice because the designs were too small for my nails, but it actually looks like it's one large pattern so you can't really tell.

I really love how they both look and I will be using hem again in a full mani sometime soon.

The plate came with blue protective film to prevent scratches before the first use, and it has a backing paper to prevent cuts from the sharp metal plate.

As I said before, the designs are very small. You can see the comparison to Bundle Monster's plate (which are not too large as well). I've also recognized a lot of designs I'm familiar with from Konad's and Bundle Monster's plates.

Most of the designs are about 1 cm wide and 1.3 cm high, some are much smaller. Not all of them stamped well for me, and I had to try several times until I got a good enough image that I can use, but that can happen with other plates too.

Overall this is a nice plate but it probably will not fit most people's nails, As I said before, there are other creative ways to use this to create lovely nail art.

You can find the plate I reviewed and many other stamping plates in this link, there is a large variety of plates, and the prices are really cheap. I know they also have regular rounded plates and the designs are supposed to be larger so that's worth giving a try. I know I will be shopping from Born Pretty Store for few new stamping plates for myself.

You can get a special 10% discount for your purchase if you use this code upon checkout: NL91.

Hope you liked my review. I will be happy to know what you think about it and if you have used any plates from Born Pretty Store and liked / didn't liked them, please share it with me :)