Born Pretty Store Plates

Hey Everyone!!! I am super excited for the upcoming Born Pretty Store Stamping plates. I just saw their newsletter and realized that they will be released Saturday the 20th!! So excited. 

You can see pictures of the new plates here and also participate by sharing their banner to get a free plate. They will be on sale for 20% off for 24hrs which is always nice. They also have deals if you buy three or more you get a free plate or 8 or more you get a free stamper. 

They have a super cute Christmas one that I am going to order immediately.

http://www.bornprettystore.com/stamping-nail-c-268_94.html

That's all for now :)

Born Pretty Store Octagon Plate Case

Hey Everyone!!! I don't know what is going on lately but the stars are not lined up in my favor. I haven't been feeling all that well and T has had a lot of doctor appointments and such. Things are starting to settle down so I should be able to get back to posting regularly. I of course need to remember to take pictures of my manis though. I had a new polish on the other day and completely forgot to take blog pictures so I will be using that polish again in the very near future. I am still working on the great stash organization. Today I have a great organizational necessity for stamping to review. I was sent this item by BornPrettyStore for review. 

Today I have a review of the BornPrettyStore 24 Slot Nail Art Stamping Plate Holder. When I first saw this holder on the site I was very excited because it was made to fit those octagon QA style plates which didn't fit in any of my other plate holders. This cute little case is sold for $5.29 on the site but you can use code JLG10 for 10% off your purchase.

The case they sent me was a dark pink but they also have a lighter pink color shown on the website. The case is very similar to the smaller case that the Pueen plates come in. 

The outer cover is one solid piece so there are no seams where the holder could potentially fall apart. There is a sturdy snap closure and a bolt that holds all the sleeves together inside. The outer cover did stain the first and last sheet slightly but it is not really that big a deal. The holder feels very sturdy.

I have a few of the octagon plates that were previously homeless so I was very eager to see how they would fit in this case. The case comes with 12 double sided sleeves.

The sleeves were made of a thick PVC plastic material and are very sturdy. I was impressed with their thickness and believe they will hold up really well.

There are slots on each side of the sleeve which I love. In one of my binders you have to slide both plates in the same slot and I much prefer that each side has a slot. 

When I initially slid these plates in the fit was snug. I was not sure that they would fit in there really well at first but after sliding the plate in and out the fit is perfect. It will be snug at first, especially when you have two plates in the sleeve, but the plastic loosens up a bit and allows the plates to slide in and out with ease.

I will definitely be needing more plates to fill this holder up! I have seen others say that you can fit the round plates in this holder as well. Since I have holders for my round plates and was interested in this solely for my octagon plates I didn't try to put any of the round ones in there. The internal size is 6cm x 6cm so most of the round plates should fit nicely. Once again you can find this holder at BornPrettyStore for $5.29. 

That's all for now :)

Cool Grey and Hot Pink Hearts Review

Hey Everyone!!! Happy Monday!! Well, we have one week of summer left. This week I think T has only two to three days of band which he greatly appreciates. He actually even came to work with me today. I am sure that decision was mostly because I offered to pay him if he helped me out. Our warehouse guy is on vacation so I am left to run the warehouse and the inside and I figured T would like to make some extra money. He happily agreed. He can't come tomorrow and I think he has to be at band Wednesday as well so this is the only day I will get the help. Of course today is on the slow side. It is still always fun to have him here with me for the day. I am not sure he thinks it is fun but he humors me. 

Today I have a review for you from an item that the BornPrettyStore sent me for an honest review. I love BornPrettyStore and frequently order from them. The shipping can take anywhere from a couple of weeks to over a month but the products are great as are the prices. 

Today I will be reviewing the 90pcs 4mm Mini Colored Heart Shaped Metallic Stud Rhinestone UV Gel Nail Art Decoration. I wouldn't mind if their products had shorter names, I think we will just call these the Mini Heart Studs from here on out. This package comes with 90pcs of one color. I forgot to take a picture of the packaging but it comes in a little baggie. I transferred mine to a clear container for storage.

I couldn't figure out how I wanted to do my nails for this mani so I actually have two different manis to show you. For the first one I used a base of Sinful Colors Cool Grey. I then used some loose black glitter mixed with clear polish to add a triangular shape in the middle. The shape wasn't very good because I forgot my striping tape. I used clear top coat to secure the heart stud to the nail.

The heart studs are 4mm which is about as big as I really would like to go on my nails. Since mine are so small having anything bigger pretty much takes over my nail. When I have the studs in this position you can see how there wouldn't be much room for anything bigger on my pinkie. I like this size a lot and think it is the perfect size for these hearts. Not too big and not too small.

I love the neon vibrant color of these hearts. They are quite bright and fun and the neon freaked my camera out a little bit. They are really neon pink but my camera couldn't capture the color most of the time. 

The hearts did stick up a little bit but they never snagged on anything, including my hair, and they stayed put nicely. I didn't have any problems with any of them falling off.

I wasn't really keen on the whole black glitter stripe for some reason so I decided to give the studs a try without that glitter.

I used a base of Sally Hansen Cool Grey and then placed the heart studs lower and more in the middle of my nails. They fit much nicer on this area of my nail and didn't stick up as much. The shape of the hearts let them hug my nail a little more in the center.

I put a coat of top coat over the studs to make sure they weren't going to be going anywhere. I liked this mani a lot better than the one with the black glitter. 

In the middle of my nail I think the 4mm size of these hearts is perfect. It isn't too big and isn't too small either. They definitely look smaller since they aren't as close to my cuticle but I love the way they look.

Since I only used top coat to secure them removal was as easy as removing nail polish. Now, I am sure you know this by now but I am pretty cheap. I like to reuse things as much as possible and always try to salvage my nail art supplies after I have used them. I know this item comes with 90 pieces but just throwing away the hearts after I used them bothered me.

One thing I did realize in removal is that the acetone is going to cause the coloring of these studs to come off as well. Perfect, I thought, now I can use them again and they will be different! After removing the mani and the coloring from the studs I was left with a new set of shiny silver heart studs.

I decided to do a mani with those to show you how you can reuse these studs instead of just throwing them away after one use. I used the same Sinful Colors Cool Grey base and put the hearts in the center of my nails again. Removing the color from the studs is easy and doesn't leave them damaged at all. 

The studs look a little scratched in these pictures but I assure you that is the top coat and the reflection. I did this mani as a quick experiment and wasn't as careful. I didn't let Cool Grey dry enough so some of the color was picked up in my top coat brush and made it onto the hearts making them look a little funny.

Basically I just wanted to show you that if you are frugal or just don't feel like throwing away the studs after use you can totally wipe the rest of the color off and use them as silver studs! 

Overall I love these cute little hearts and would definitely buy the other colors. The package is $2.63 for 90 hearts which is a really good deal. BornPrettyStore also gave me a discount code for my readers so if you use code JLG10 you get 10% off your order.

That's all for now :) 

Black Holo Foil Gel Mani

Hey Everyone!! Monday has got to be my most disliked day of all time. I dread Mondays. I think it is mainly because I spend most of my weekend at the kennel and haven't had much of a break. Friday I had a migraine but had to go to work anyway. It was quite unpleasant. Saturday I tried to relax so I stayed home all day and laid around then ran a couple of errands when C got home from work. Apparently I need more downtime than that because I am once again exhausted on this fine Monday and I would like nothing more than a nap. We also started Weight Watchers again so I would really like some food in addition to that nap. I didn't play very well and don't have much for an afternoon snack. Is it Tuesday yet?

Today I have a mani experiment to show you. I was hoping I could get nail foils to work with my gel mani. Unfortunately it wasn't a complete success but at least it wasn't a complete fail either. 

I used Fantasy Starry Holo Nail Foils Glitter Transfer Stickers #76 from BornPrettyStore. These sheets of foil was .99 and a great way to give foils a try without committing to ordering too much. I actually used twice as much as I would normally use because I had so many issues working with the gel and I still barely made a dent in the sheet. Design #76 is quite pretty and since the base of the foil is a black or charcoal color I figured I would use a black or dark gel polish. I was hoping a dark base would show off the pretty foil. 

I started with my left hand and used a black polish from Sally Hansen. I had the worst time trying to get the foil to stick to the sticky layer of the mani. I tried as many different tricks and techniques as I could come up with and nothing worked. In the end I had to use a clear polish and let it dry until it was tacky. The foil then stuck to that polish. I was able to do my gel topcoat to seal the foil in.

I didn't think that the foil was showing up as well as I wanted so I attempted a blue base for my right hand. Once again I couldn't get the foil to stick to the gel so I had to use clear polish and then gel topcoat.

I didn't get the effect I wanted but look at how pretty the foil is in the light. This mani actually reminded me of bowling balls for some reason. I really liked the look of the foil but that color spark was not as evident in regular lighting. It took a lot of bright light to really show the colors.

I didn't like the blue base as much but it was still quite cool looking.

I think the indoor shot above shows the look that really reminded me of a bowling ball. I really liked this mani but I did have some issues with it. 

The gel top coat had an issue on a couple of nails where it didn't cover the foil. I didn't notice it at first but then started to see a couple of spots where the nail was dull and I could scratch away at the foil. I was really careful about covering the entire nail with topcoat plus I had used a layer of Structure before the top coat. I am not really sure what happened to cause the issues.

Since I only had issues with a couple of nails I just applied a new layer of top coat on the problem nails and hoped for the best. It seemed to work and keep the foil from trying to escape.

I absolutely love nail foils now. They are fairly easy to use, though not quite as easy when using gel polish. They look really neat and add quite a cool aspect to your mani. I am definitely going to need to purchase more foils in the future.

My goal is to have a mani where the entire nail is covered in foil. I have yet to be able to get that result but I am determined to make it happen. Using a base that works with the color of the foil definitely helps. 

It was harder to tell where the foil didn't quite cover the black nails where as it was quite obvious with the blue base. I might have to look into the foil adhesive too. Using polish works quite well but I would like to see if there is any advantage to the adhesive. I am sure Elmers School Glue would work too.

You can purchase this and many other nail foils at BornPrettyStore. You can use coupon code JLG10 for 10% off. 

That's all for now :)

My first foil mani

Hey Everyone!!! That was a long break. Sorry about that. I am back! I might not be back with daily posts yet but I will definitely be posting more than the past few weeks. The house is still crazy with redoing the floors and moving everything around but life in general is not as stressful. 

This mani is from before the break both from blogging and of all my nails. Right now I am sporting major nubbins. In these pictures my pinky and ring nails were literally holding on by silk wraps and glue and finally gave out. I had cut them all down and all was well until they decided to break even shorter. It has been a long battle keeping my nails long especially with all of the time I spend at the kennel. Dog crates and muzzles do not treat nails well. Even with the gel manis I try to keep on there to protect them a bit. 

I had looked at nail foils for a very long time and loved the manis I saw people do using this medium but for some reason it took me way too long to try it out. I ordered two different foils from BornPrettyStore not long ago to give it a try. 

**Image used from BornPrettyStore.com**

They are .99 cents for a sheet and I decided I had to give it a try. I absolutely loved this mani. I took a ton of pictures of it because it was so very cool looking. I can't even remember how long I wore it before reluctantly removing it.

I started with a dark base that was an almost black teal. I was lazy and painted it over the red I already had on which is why you see red around the cuticles. Now I didn't order the foil adhesive because I just didn't think about it at the time. I didn't really need it but I did have to look up several places to find out how to apply the foils without adhesive.

Basically I cut small rectangles out of the sheet of foil. They were big enough to cover my entire nails but not much bigger so I didn't waste any. I ordered #18 which is a rainbow sheet. 

Honestly I wanted to do the entire nail in foil so it was a solid look instead of what it turned out as. Something Minx looking. Obviously that didn't work out but it was my first attempt. I tried using a top coat then waiting till it was almost dry to apply the foils. What I realized after trial and error is that I could apply the foil to the base color just as easily. I painted my nail with the base color then waited until it was almost dry. When it was almost dry I lightly pressed the foil to the nail and removed the clear backing. If I let the polish dry a little too much foil didn't transfer as well in those areas. It was a trial and error event but by the end it was pretty easy to manage.

If spots were missing some foil I went back over them and rubbed some more foil on. The sheet is roughly 12 inches long by 4 inches wide. I had plenty of this sheet left over for many more uses. The sheet comes folded into a square and packaged in a plastic sleeve like the picture above shows. They are really the perfect size for someone, like me, who wants to try foils out without committing to a whole roll. 

I am going over my next foil mani in my head right now. I think I might be trying the other pattern I bought, #76, tonight with a gel mani. I will see if I can get that to work together.

I thought my thumbs came out really cool so I figured I would show them this time.

The foils were really pretty and glowy.

That's all for now :)

Leather Loose is Good as Gold

Hey Everyone!! I finally finished the big star blanket I have been crocheting! I am so excited. I have to cut the little strings off but it is finally done. I started working on a little blanket that goes with it and realized after getting pretty far along I was using the wrong hook. Smack me with a shoe! I am going to start it over tomorrow so I will be fresh and alert. 

I have an official review on BornPrettyStore stamping plate m64 today. I had used this design a couple of times. Unlike m73 I had absolutely no issues with this plate. The image was clear and crisp and stamped very well. I can't wait to use the other images on the plate.

Born Pretty Store plate m64. I used the top right image for this mani. 

I used Essie Good as Gold from the 2012 Mirror Metallics collection to stamp the design. The Mirror Metallics polishes are great for stamping. I don't do gold often but I thought it worked well with this pattern and base color.

For the base I used Leather Loose from the Sinful Colors Leather Luxe collection. I used this one again really soon because I wanted to do a mani using top coat. My pictures don't do this polish justice.

I really love the image and how it comes out when stamped. Next time I think I will put glitter in place of the dots to give it more oomph. 

You can find plate m64 at BornPrettyStore right now for $1.99. I highly recommend this plate. As always you can used code JLG10 for 10% off. 

That's all for now :)

Whipped

Hey Everyone!!! I really hate when I mess up a mani about 2 minutes after completing it. I did today's mani and realized as I was top coating my second hand that somehow I got a smudge of the stamping color on the side of the tip. I should probably redo it but I don't want to. Then I realized I dinged the crap out of my thumb nail and wiped a bit of polish off. I am also not going to fix that ding because I have other stuff to do. Since you don't see my thumbs anyway I don't feel obligated to fix it just for my sake. Both little imperfections are making me crazy though because I can see them. 

Today I have the final polish from the Sinful Colors Leather Luxe Collection. This polish is the black matte polish called Whipped. I did an accent nail with Catherine Arley 803 and then stamped with the opposite color using Born Pretty Store plate m64. I will review that plate in another post since it didn't quite show up on this mani.

I used three coats of Whipped. I love the black matte! The application was great and I could have probably gotten away with two coats if I was taking my time and doing a better job at applying it.

I used three coats of 803 as well. I love this polish but there was very little sun and I was having a very hard time getting the holo to show up. It is a fun lime green, chartreuse color. 

803 wasn't really good with the stamping only in that it didn't show up very well. It might work over a lighter color and I am guessing that top coat might have brought it out a little more as well. I can't say for sure regarding the top coat but it was pretty subtle without it. 

Whipped also stamped very well but was light when it was put on the nail. I can't remember if I put top coat on top of the stamped Whipped but it doesn't look like it. I should have probably written that part down.

I was hoping that 803 stamped would have added some sparkle to Whipped but I actually rather like the subtle look. 

Hopefully my cuticles are on the mend too so I don't have to torture you with the dried out mess any longer. It was harder to apply oil and take pictures with the Leather Luxe collection because the oil left the polish looking shiny for far too long. 

That's all for now :)