Inspired by a Bracelet

Do you often get inspired by clothes or accessoires? I do, and I even picture the suitable manicure designs in my mind, it's just not that often that I implement them. However, I didn't even hesitate when I first unpacked and saw the bracelet I got from SammyDress store for review.

The bracelet is dark blue with gold, white and pink abstract patterns, it's very light and fits perfectly to my somewhat wide wrist. It clips easily and doesn't fall off during the day. I also like that it doesn't catch neither hair nor clothes when you wear it.

The bracelet retails at 4.43$ (!) at SammyDress store - here you can find the direct link to the item. There are also other colours and patterns, but I think you can never guess which one you get, hehe. I didn't mind about that because I liked all the colours and pattens they offer.

As for the manicure - it was very easy to create: I started with 2 coats of Layla Ceramic Effect #13 (swatch), applied rhinestones on my index and pinkie fingers, then added some drops of gold, white and pink polish and made some random movements with a needle. Easier to create than to describe :)

To be honest, I haven't done any nail design with a needle since high school, and I was happy to experiment with it again. And, what is good about abstract designs - you can never go wrong :)

Stamping Plate KD3 from Born Pretty Store

Keeping my promise to show you another stamping plate that I got from Born Pretty Store. The more I use them, the more inspired I get: for such a price these plates are simply a treasure! Because look what a mani I got without any effort:

As a part of the "standard operating procedure" I would like to devote some words to the base colour. But just a few, because there is nothing much to describe, you will know everything yourself as soon as I say the name - Essie Lilacism.

Essie Lilacism is a light lilac cream - just as the name hints. Just because it's one of my first Essie polishes ever - I like it more than I should, probably. To be honest, it's nothing special, neither unique. The formula is good, so is the drying time.

What is more interesting is the stamping plate. I like 2 things about it: the designs it contains are quite simple but always handy and cute - hearts, dots, bows, stars - standard girly set :) And second, the full nail images are big enough not to care if they fit the nails. And my nails are relatively long at the moment.

Just FYI - the stamping plate costs... how much? No. It's 1.55$!!! You can find it at Born Pretty Store here, and as you know they have free shipping worldwide. Sounds great to me.

The stamping turned out quite fine, even though I made it within 7 minutes and used a usual polish for stamping, not any special one. 

So far so good, now if I see any nice stamping pates on Born Pretty Store - I'll take them because I got sufficient assurance in their quality.

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from stamping plates they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 
*The stamping plate was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Flowers'n'Gems

Long time no see from... water decals. Although they are such an easy upgrade to a manicure, I haven't been using them for ages. That's why I was happy when I got my package from Born Pretty Store with a sheet of cute white flower decals to try. Immediately I thought: what a delicate spring pattern - and did a simple manicure with them.

But hey, hold on :) I can't omit a couple of words about the base colour - Kiko #340. Oh, sorry, Kiko Celeste. But who cares, noone knows Kiko polishes by names except for the creators anyways.   

Kiko #340 is a bright blue creme with a glossy finish. The texture is pleasant to work with, opaque yet not goopy. The application was easy as hell, 2 coats and I didn't even apply a top coat - there was no need in it.

Sorry for the photo spam, but the shade is pretty (I reckon) and it was so easy to photograph. Couldn't stop. And it's not even a holo.

And now finally - on to the decals from Born Pretty Store. They arrived in a pink hard paper and with a protection film on top. Very easy to unpack and prepare for using. There was even a "user guide" printed on the back of the pink carton, but hey, who of us doesn't know how to use water decals.. :P

So, what I did was just applying the flower pattern on 2 nails and placing rhinestones on the other 3. As simple as that.

I should say that the water decals were so easy and pleasant to use that even my 7yo niece would cope with them! And the quality was great, they slid gently from the paper back, they didn't tear or fall apart during the application. Also, after I applied the final layer of a top coat the decals looked like I hand painted the flowers. People were really asking if I did!

You can find the water decals shown in this post here - they retail for 2.86$. As usual, the prices of BPS are very customer-friendly :) 

Moreover: here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from stamping plates they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 

*The stamping plate was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Stamping Plate QA27 from Born Pretty Store

Let me boast about my new stamping plates: for a while I was not buying any, but I was lucky to get some plates for review from Born Pretty Store. And below is a sneak peek of the result I got with their help:

But let me tell a couple of words about the base colour first: this is a 1EUR (sale) Alessandro Candy Floss Pink polish that I own for ages. Together with 2 other little Alessandros.

 

Alessandro Candy Floss Pink is a baby pink creme wannabe, quite whitened out and with a drop of coral. The application is everything but easy, this little b...baby makes such bald spots that you can't imagine. If you get away with 3 coats - you are lucky.

I don't think this polish is still available in stores, but it doesn't matter because I don't recommend it anyway :D The shade is interesting, but not so unique, so you can easily find a substitute. I like how it looked on my nails in the end, and it was a good base for stamping.

The duty is done - the swatches are posted, the honours are paid to the polish, now it goes to "use-them-up" bin and I move furhter to the stamping plate. Here it is, below - QA27, with a blue protection film on the left and ready to use on the right:

As you might know, I prefer the full nail designs over small ones. And for me the major factor is the size of the image on the plate, as I'm not willing to double-stamp, we are not in 2009 ;P In this particular case the size was not a problem at all, the image is 1.6 x 1,4 cm (for comparison: Bundle Monster (2012) is also 1,6 x 1,4 cm, Konad is 1,5 x 1,2 cm). Quite good, eh?

Even better is that this plate retails at $1.99 (!) - you can purchase it here. For this price, the quality was superb - I had no problems with the stamping process whatsoever, I hope it is visible from my pics, even though I used a normal nail polish for stamping - Alessandro Strawberry Daiquiry. 

I'm looking forward to testing the other stamping plates as well, but even now I can tell you - I'm quite inspired by the price/quality ratio.

And finally, here's a coupon for 10% discount at Born Pretty Store. Check their site, apart from stamping plates they have a whole huge variety of different decorations, nail art tools and supplements and other nice stuff for nails! 
*The stamping plate was kindly provided by Born Pretty Store PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.

Khaki Squared

Always wanted to try studs in my manicures, but I never could choose which sizes and colours appeal to me more.. A chance turned up recently, when KKCenterHK offered me to post a review on their studs, allowing me to choose whichever I wish to try out. Only then I figured out that I want something middle-sized and silver/gold. Let's start with the gold ones.. :)

...right after I shortly introduce you the base colour - Cliché Khaki. What's so special about it? It killed one of my lemmings which I would probably never own anyways: Chanel Khaki Vert. I know it's not a dupe, and probably H&M Hunt Me Down resembles Chanel even more, but it was this polish that killed my desire for Chanel. And saved me some 200€ lol.

Cliché Khaki is also a... khaki semi-jelly, cold-shaded. Application was great and I only needed 2 coats. The formula is on the runny side, but everything dries fast.

Overall, it's a great shade, and I showed it once already - that was some years ago. By showing it again I'm just trying to show how much I like it :)

And this is how the studs arrived: great packaging idea in my opinion, this little jar is so convenient to work with! The studs themselves are shiny, coloured in gold and 3,5mm in size.

So, after stamping the square pattern with BM-322 and CG 2030, I quickly applied the studs and covered everything with the top coat - this is how I got the "look" :) 

Summarising here.. what you should know about these studs is:
+ they are easy to use and to glue on just one drop of clear polish (top coat);
+ they last pretty long without falling off (esp. with a top coat);
+ you can reuse them (yes yes!!);
- it's was a bit hard to pick them before application lol - or I haven't figured out how to do it yet :D
Overall I'm more than satisfied!

Lastly, I'm sharing a 10% discount code for KKCenterHk online store with you: just enter "ritterbraten" before paying! Check their shop, they really have interesting stuff for nail art and other beauty supplies : )
*The studs were kindly provided by KKCenterHk PR team for my consideration. In this post I expressed my honest and unbiased opinion about the product.