Mexican Fiesta Nails.

I recently held a fiesta themed housewarming party in my first New York apartment, and I thought the occasion warranted a manicure. I didn't get a good shot of the nails due to party preparations, but after I deemed them Instagram-worthy I thought I'd share them here too.

I was short on time when working on this design so I decided to stamp something, and luckily found a few images that were perfect for the theme. I used the pepper image from BM-06 and the citrus images from BM-04 to create limes.

The polishes I used were Orly Spark, Sally Hansen Lickety Split Lime, and a red stamping polish from Born Pretty.

Patriotic Skittle Nails.

I've tried a bunch of different designs for the 4th of July in the past, so deciding on something different to do this year took a little extra time. I ended up choosing a red, white, blue and silver holographic theme. Any excuse for a glitter and holographic-ness. 

The polishes I used were China Glaze First Mate, Mary Kay Radiant Red, Sally Hansen Hard to Get, and LA Colors Star Light.

The holographic flakes on the red nail were done with nail foils from Born Pretty and the hexagon glitter on my blue nail is my favorite Born Pretty glitter.

If you still need more ideas for your 4th of July mani, here are all my patriotic designs of the past! And hopefully I can manage to share another new red, white, and blue design before the week is over. 

Born Pretty Plate W-02 Review.

Today I have a review of another Born Pretty Store product, one of their plates. This one is basically the ultimate girly stamping plate. 

The W-02 plate has lots of bows, hearts, and even a moon. You can find this plate for $1.54 from BPS.

W-02 happens to have a lot of the same/similar images to another plate from Born Pretty that I own, m59. I didn't want to use an image I've done before, so for today's manicure I chose to use the image in the center of the plate. 

Since the image was very girly I decided I wanted to pair it with a girly glitter I've been waiting for the perfect opportunity to use, Nails Inc. Fulham Palace Gardens. 

The blue polish I used for this manicure is Wet n Wild Saved By The Blue, and I stamped with the Konad Special White polish.

I added some of the glitter to the nails with the stamped design to tie everything together, which I think worked out nicely. This feels like a perfect, feminine manicure for summer.

As always, if you're interested in getting this plate or anything else from Born Pretty, you can enjoy 10% off with the coupon code BRJ61.

Easter Puppy Nails.

I've been wanting to use the puppy water decals that were part of the set I reviewed here for a while now and when I noticed there was an easter puppy decal I knew it was the perfect time!

The polish I used for this manicure was American Apparel Office.

Born Pretty Cat Water Decals Review.

This past October I shared my experience with using water decals for the first time. And I ended up loving the manicure I came up with so much that it was one of my favorites of 2013 and I knew I wanted to try more water decals in the future.

And that future is today! This time I went for something that was totally different from what I would normally freehand (as opposed to roses which I did last time), cats.

This is the manicure I came up with. I put the flower and cat decals over a base of OPI Sparrow Me The Drama.

I'll definitely be doing more manicures with these decals in the future, the sheet they came on also had lots of puppies and ducks, and I know I want a dog manicure soon. 

The sheet with all of the decals, which has enough for at least four manicures is $3.99 from Born Pretty Store. And as always, you can use the coupon code BRJ61 to receive 10% off any BPS order!

Skittle Valentine's Day Nails.

I decided to start early on trying different Valentine's Day manicure ideas. For this design I brought out my stamping plates (something I haven't done in quite a while) and also added some freehanded dots. 

The plates I used were Bundle Monster BM02 (I heart U and the lips), BM03 (the group of 3 hearts), and Born Pretty Store m59 (the bows and the rest of the hearts.)

The polishes I used were Essie Boom Boom Room, China Glaze Rich & Famous, Sally Hansen Hard To Get, Mary Kay Radiant Red, Konad Special White Polish, and a Born Pretty Store red stamping polish.

I wasn't sure how I'd end up feeling about the manicure and combining a bunch of different images from different plates, but I think these turned out vey cute!

Glitter Tip Nails.

Today's manicure was my first attempt at covering an entire nail or most of a nail with loose glitter. I had never tried it before because I suspected it would be trying on my patience. And although it was worth it to end up with super cute and sparkly nails, my suspicions were definitely accurate. 

To create this manicure I used Nails Inc. St. Martins Lane and my favorite loose glitter, which is from BornPrettyStore.

Born Pretty Star Stickers Review.

I have another Born Pretty Store review for you today! The product I have to talk about are glitter star stickers. I have them in six colors; silver, white, hot pink, black, purple, and pale pink. 

For today's manicure I used two different sizes of stars in the white color. The white has a very pretty iridescent glitter that reminded me of snow. 

The base color I used is Wet n Wild Saved by the Blue (I hadn't broken this color out in forever but I love it!) So far the stars have received very positive reactions and the stars in combination with the blue have elicited comparisons to the 4th of July, Boogie Nights, and Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders.

These work great as an easy way to make any manicure special. They're of course super simple to use, my only tip is to use a thick top coat because they're not completely flat!

Born Pretty also sent me a couple of accessories; a bow ring and a pink lipstick pen which I've been getting a lot of use out of lately.

It's easy to forget that Born Pretty has non-nail related things since they have so many great nail art products. But they have plenty of cute things that aren't related to nails, these are just two examples!

If you want to order one of these items or anything else from BPS you can get 10% off with the coupon code below!

Born Pretty Neon Square Studs Review.

During the time I've been blogging here, I've reviewed a lot of things from Born Pretty Store, many times those things being studs. 

At this point there is only so much to be said, but they keep coming out with new studs that I want to share with you! 

Most recently, I've received a wheel of their fluorescent candy colored square studs. The wheel contains twelve different colors, which basically means endless manicure options! I already have lots of ideas of how to put them to good use, but for today's post I tested out two of the colors.

My first time using the studs I decided to do a kind of creepy, neon drip manicure. I thought it would be fun for Halloween. The polishes I used were China Glaze In The Limelight and Wet n Wild Black Creme. Then I finished off my accent nail with the neon green studs. I stuck them on using my typical method, a little bit of topcoat and a dotting tool.

Since I wanted to give using the studs another shot, the manicure you're actually going to find my sporting for Halloween is the one below.

For this manicure I used the same black polish and just added orange studs to the base of each of my nails. I've really been enjoying the simplicity of this one!

In the future I can't wait to combine lots of different colors and play around with my options. Studs are already so much fun to add to any manicure, and even more so when they're in awesome colors.

If you're interested in getting a wheel of your own they cost $7.59, or you can buy different colors individually for $2.99 a bag. As always you can get 10% off any BPS purchase with my coupon code, BRJ61. 

Born Pretty Rose Water Decals Review.

Finding time for blogging (and good lighting) isn't always as easy during the school year as it is in the summer, which is why I've been absent lately. I haven't been doing any nail art over the last two months or so, but when I received rose water decals from Born Pretty Store, I had to test them out and share the results.

I haven't had any experience with water decals before, so I was very happy to find that there wasn't a learning curve and they were super easy to use right off the bat.

My method was to paint all of my nails and let them dry completely before starting on the decals. The base color I chose for this manicure was China Glaze VIII, I wanted something dark so the roses wouldn't seem to spring-y.

Once my nails were dry I cut out all of the flowers I wanted to use and set them aside. Then one by one I dropped them into a cup of water for a few seconds before pulling them out. Then I used tweezers to separate the decal from the paper backing and placed them on my nails. Once I had all of the decals in place I just added topcoat to keep everything in place.

I love a good floral manicure, and I was very happy with how these turned out! I also tested the decals out for a week and was pleased to find that since I put topcoat on top there wasn't any peeling and they stayed perfectly in place all week.

The decals I used come in three different colors, but the ones I got are called HOT-035. They're currently on sale for $1.99 from $2.99 and you can get at least a few manicures out of one sheet of decals.

Born Pretty also has lots of other water decal options and if you're interested in trying those or anything else from BPS you can use my coupon code BRJ61 to get 10% off your order!

Born Pretty Holographic Polish Review.

Today I have another product from Born Pretty to review for you, this time it's a silver holographic polish.

There are a bunch of fun color options available, but since a good silver holo was missing from my collection I chose the polish in effect #1. 

The polish bottle is pretty small, it holds 0.2 oz of polish. I found that the brush worked nicely. 

The polish is very sheer, but it is buildable. I was able to get it opaque (in the picture below) but I lost count of how many coats it took. I didn't let this dry, but I imagine it would be quite the time commitment because of how thick it ended up being.

The better option (pictured below) is to do a coat of a silver polish (I used Sally Hansen Silver Sweep) and then a few coats of the holo polish. It's much quicker and ends up looking just as nice.

I don't know a ton about holographic polishes but I thought the holo effect was pretty strong. It looks very pretty in the light. Holos tend to look the best in the sunlight but it was still quite fun to look at inside.

Overall I'm happy to have this polish added to my collection, a bit of holographic polish is an easy way to dress up a manicure!

The polishes are available for $5.59 each and you can get an additional 10% off using my coupon code.

Born Pretty Neon Studs Review.

When I saw that Born Pretty Store had new neon studs I knew I had to try them. I've had good experiences with all of the studs from BPS that I've tried in the past, but this was my first experience with a colored stud. And they're so much fun! They have 11 different color options, the ones I chose were the bright blue (#7) and light lime green (#9.) I also think the neon yellow (#1) is super cool and could make for some awesome summer manicures. (It was sold out when I chose which colors I wanted, but it's in stock now!) 

The studs come in little bags and there are 200 studs in each, plenty to create lots of different designs.

When it came time to put the studs to use, I chose a bright base color (China Glaze Rich & Famous) and went for a random design. As far as application and wear and everything else, these worked just as nicely as any of the other studs I've reviewed in the past.

The only real difference are the colors, which are of course awesome. On the nail I think they give off a kind of candy-esque vibe. You could get more of the colors and do a candy buttons manicure!

The typical metal finish studs create more of a grunge-y look, whereas these are more youthful and fun.

After testing the studs out for this design, I'm sure I'll continue to use them in the summer and spring.

If you want studs of your own, each color is $4.24. And you can get 10% off using the coupon code BRJ61!

Holographic Bling Nails.

I was very excited to see the new Bling Ring movie and I figured I needed blinged out nails for the occasion. I considered a few different ways of going about it and ended up deciding on using lots of chunky glitter! 

The base color for the manicure is OPI Suzi Skis in the Pyrenees, and my ring finger is painted with China Glaze Some like it Haute. The hexagon glitters are from Born Pretty Store.

This manicure is a lot darker than the ones I've been wearing for the summer, but I think all the shininess balanced it out and made it very fun, and I liked the results of varying the design a little for each nail.