Born Pretty - Faux Acrylic Bows

This is an interesting product available from Born Pretty. It gives the appearance of sculptured acrylic, but in reality it's a silicone product! The cute looks without having to know how to work with acrylic. (Which I certainly am not experienced in.)

Here I used them over a manicure of Essie Carousel Coral.

 I just applied the flexible bows when my topcoat was wet. I did have to hold them down while it dried because the edges wanted to pop up when I didn't.

They are mostly white with coral tinted centers. Some have little bits of the silicone remaining around the edges, it's not a crisp bow. But that is easily resolved with some cuticle nippers because the material cuts aways easily.

Can be found HERE for $17.55 for 500 bows.

 

 

Was sent for review by Born Pretty Store. If you're thinking of buying these, don't forget to use my coupon code:



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Essie - Master Plan

Essie Master Plan

My mom knows how to spoil me. She picks up random polishes that she gets for a good price. Some are great finds, others are fails. She managed to get this Essie for $0.30! A discount grocery store near our home buys overstock items from pharmacies and this is what happens!

Pictured is 2 coats. A light putty/taupe creme.

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Tale Spin

Were you a fan of Tale Spin? The series with characters adapted from "The Jungle Book," I chose to focus on the logo and Baloo.

 Base polish is Essie Navigate Her, all the rest of the details were done with acrylic paints.

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Natalie's Koi Fish

These nails are inspired by this look from Natalie over at heartNAT. It's been pinned on my "nail art inspiration" board over on Pinterest for a while now. I don't have the same polishes she used, and I don't have the fancy koi fish image plate she has, but it's still pretty cool. :)

 The polishes I used were:

Base of Orly Decades of Dysfunction. Then I sponged on - L'Oreal Macaroon Me Madly, China Glaze Flirty Tankini & Passion For Petals, & Zoya Ziv.

Then 1 coat of Essie Shine of the Times for an extra "fish-scale" vibe.

Then stamped M.A.S.H 39 with Konad black

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Beautopia Nails Floral Copy Cat

Inspired by Beautopia nails on Tumblr. More floral nails.

I really loved these and ended wearing them for 4 days last week!

I used China Glaze Electric Beat, Dance Baby, Something Sweet, Orly Fresh, Essie Navigate Her. The black was then done with a Sinful Colors black nail art striper polish.

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Shimmer Polish - Kelly, Jovie, & Maria

Cindy was nice enough to send me some more Shimmer Polishes to swatch for you guys.

Check out Cindy's Etsy shop, website, or facebook for more information on purchasing. Or you can always email her directly with your paypal address and the colors you would like to purchase:

shimmer484(at)gmail(dot)com

 

Kelly is green with bits of gold. This is one coat over Essie Navigate Her.

 

 Jovie is a delicate pink with an opal look. 

Here I layered one coat of Jovie over China Glaze Second-hand Silk.

Maria is a gorgeous mix of blues. Here I layered 1 coat of Maria over Orly Snowcone.

Keep an eye open for more Shimmer swatches coming soon!

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Flakie Flip Flop Fantasy

Essie Shine of the Times over China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

It's mesmerizing!

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Disney Cars - Mater

I couldn't do the movie Cars without featuring Mater! He's my favorite character from the movie!

I really like the plain nails that mimic the rusty antique metal.

 

Here's how I did it.

Paint nails with 2 coats of Essie Very Structured

Randomly sponge on Barielle Coco Bar, Zoya Dea, Essie Penny Talk, & Barielle Sweet Addiction.

Begin the outline for his eyes and mouth with black acrylic paint.

White acrylic paint.

I used a shimmery green matte polish for his eyes iris'. Then defined his back teeth with gray acrylic paint.

Add black pupils and a white shine spot, then topcoat the whole thing with Seche Vite.

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Disney Princess French - Tiana Inspired

Here's another princess design! I painted her as her frog version self on my thumb. I hoped it would turn out better, but I should have used a different background (it's Orly Ancient Jade). 

It simply blends in too much... :(

I started with masking off my tips and painting Essie Navigate Her.

Then I stamped an image from Konad m36 with Orly Ancient Jade 

(it transferred very lightly which was my intent)

Then I took China Glaze Adore and used my smallest dotting tool to go along the french tip.

Topped it with Seche Vite topcoat.

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Basketball Nails

I get a lot of different requests for nail art, and frequently sports or cheerleading has been suggested by my school age followers. So here is a basketball design. I was greatly inspired by The Daily Nail. I remember when she first posted them in 2011 and I thought it was brilliant. To leave the dots without topcoating them. It saves the texture! 

And of course a hoop & net for the accent nail.

Step by step:

Base coat only on the accent nail. 2 coats of Essie Very Structured for the others.

Apply dots of Very Structured mixed with some brown polish.

I used half of a hole reinforcement sticker to mask off my half moon and then stamped the rest with BM-209 & Konad Special White Polish.

Then remove the sticker and apply Sally Hansen Celeb City to the dividing line. Use a black nail art striper to apply the basketball lines.

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Born Pretty - Marquise Studs & Beaded Chain

Another couple of items provided by Born Pretty to review. 

First up are these marquise shaped gold studs. They can be found here for $5.83.

I didn't have any trouble with them. They lie flat and adhered with just wet topcoat. My only preference would have been if they were smaller. They are quite large which limits what all designs you can do. I have another idea in mind that I will try and post at a later date.

For this look, I used KleanColor Cobalt to paint a french tip, then I placed the studs with a dot of topcoat. After that I painted the gold accent swirls with Essie Good as Gold. Then I topcoated the entire look.

The second item is this beaded chain that can be found here for $5.61. It's 100cm in length and that'll allow for a lot of different uses.

In this look, I was trying to line up the beaded chain along the half moon. You can see it didn't really work. :( The chain is too stiff to bend much. I used cuticle nippers to trim off the length I wanted to use, and it cut easily.

 

You can see the edges stick up even under topcoat.... I'm just not loving this beaded chain. I need to find another way to use them perhaps.

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