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!

Mean Candy Heart Nails.

I've been enjoying my break from nail art lately but I couldn't let Valentine's Day pass without doing this manicure! It's a design I've been wanting to do since last year after being inspired by mean spirited candy hears on tumblr.

The polishes I used for this design are Essie First Timer, Orly Pixy Stix, Orly Spark, OPI Can't Find My Czechbook, OPI You're Such A Budapest, and Sephora Formula X Dark Matter.

I thought these turned out very cute and were something a little different from my other Valentine's Day designs!

January Wrap-Up.

January is officially over and I successfully posted 31 days worth of new nail art! And of course I wanted to share my thoughts after completing my little goal. 

Throughout the month I often wondered how when I started blogging back in 2012 I was able to post almost every single day, multiple months in a row. I don't remember it being quite so stressful and time consuming as it was this time around. I certainly don't see myself doing this month after month, but I think it's a great way to get out of a nail slump and force your creativity a little. 

I was proud of a bunch of manicures I created this month, and here are a few of my favorites...

Another thing that's cool about consistently doing new designs is getting to see the progress your nails make! Below are both my first and final manicures of January. My nails started out super short and grew to a much preferable length by the end of the month. They've also seemed much stronger and aren't breaking all the time anymore.

And now it's time for a little nail art break!

Neon Distressed Nails.

For my last manicure of January I decided to re-use a technique that I tried for the first time in my January 1st post. 

This design actually incorporates a bunch of my favorite techniques and decorations; distressed streaks, water color, studs, glitter, etc. 

Here's the manicure before the streaks were added, I liked this tie-dye version too.

The polishes I used were Sally Hansen Hard To Get, China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, China Glaze Shocking Pink, American Apparel Neon Yellow, Color Club Starry Temptress, and Sephora Formula X Dark Matter. And the studs are these ones from Born Pretty Store.

Hard to believe my month of nail art is over! But there will be more about that in a wrap-up post tomorrow!

Ikat Heart Nails.

Ikat hearts were one of multiple designs I posted in my very first blog post. I've always thought it was a design worthy of its very own post, so I decided to do a new version as one of my Valentine's day manicures this year.

I made a few changes for my updated design, this time I stuck with one heart per nail and went with a purple colors scheme. The polishes I used were OPI You're Such A Budapest, OPI Sparrow Me The Drama, OPI Pamplona Purple, and China Glaze VIII.

Purple Border Nails.

Today's manicure is my first attempt at doing a border design. Freehanding clean lines isn't my favorite so I was a little apprehensive to try this out but they turned out better than expected! The polishes I used to create the design are OPI...Eurso, Euro and American Apparel Dynasty. 

I don't know if I'll be freehanding borders all the time in the future, but I do think it's a great way to refresh a solid color manicure that has started to wear at the tips.

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!