Nail Polish iPhone cases

Last time I was invited by the Born Pretty Store to select some items to review, I spied that they had a number of iPhone cases and other iPhone accessories.  I chose a couple of different items to try out and show you, specifically the clear iphone cases, a Chanel nail polish design case and double sided screen guards. But don't worry, while I'm reviewing phone cases, this post is still totally nail polish!

I'm going to start off with my favourite, the clear iphone cases. I got a couple of these. On the right you can see what the product looks like, on the left is my finished creation.  All I did was paint the inside of the case with various glitter nail polishes.  

I chose to use Lynnderella polishes, because they are the polishes in my collection that I can create the best solid colour rainbow in glitter out of.  I did two thin coats of each glitter polish and then one final layer of black polish to create a nice solid background.  I then left it to dry for several days to ensure it was totally and absolutely dry before attaching it to my phone.  The main thing to remember is not to put the polish too thick, because not only will it take forever to dry, but if it's too thick then you may not be able to still get the cover on your phone.

Of course I had to create matching rainbow coloured nails to go with my new phone case. The polishes I used for my nails were:

• Thumb: Lynnderella Ruby Red Ruby and Topaz Optimism
• Index: Lynnderella Topaz Optimism and Emerald Hope
• Middle: Lynnderella Emerald Hope and Deep Blue Seeing
• Ring: Lynnderella Deep Blue Seeing and Love Potion 99.9
• Pinky: Lynnderella Love Potion 99.9 and Garden of Even

The clear iphone cases are available from the Born Pretty Store. They are normally $2, but they are 50% off right now so only 99c each.  At that price you could paint a whole bunch of them to match your favourite nail polishes and take matching your polish and accessories to a whole new level.

The other iphone case that I got is a slim line rubber one that has a black surround and the image of a bottle of Chanel Peridot on the back.  These cases have been around for a while and since I first saw them I knew I needed one.  I was really pleased with the quality of this one, the rubber case provides the phone with some protection and the bottle design on the back is glossy, hard and looks very nice.  The Chanel polish cases come in a range of polish colours and are available from The Born Pretty Store.

Here is my Chanel Peridot iPhone case with me wearing Chanel Peridot.

I also tried out some of their iPhone Screen Guards. I didn't have a screen protector on my phone because of the type of cover I previous had, and seeing as I wanted to use my new nail polish cases, I thought I should get some protectors..  The pack I got provides covers for both the front and back of the phone.  I found them really easy to apply and I got them on the front and the back easily without any bubbles. 

Here is my iphone with the clear plastic case on it, and on the right my military style case I was using.  You see, my iphone is provided by my work, and that is the case they provided for me! Certainly not what I call dainty or chic (but I have heard you can drop your from from a two story building and it will still be ok!)

If you're thinking of buying anything, don't forget to apply my 10% off code too!

Read More »

1 Comment

Unknown Born Pretty Store

Strawberries

Here is a quick nail art look I created using some water decals.  My index and ring fingers were first painted with Kleancolor Metallic White and the middle and pinky fingers were painted with Viscous Vampire by Pretty Serious.

Over the white polish I placed a water decal that featured mini fruits as well as little silver glitter dots.  The pinky finger has a water decal that say's 'strawberry' and some silver glitter dots.  The middle finger has a water decal that has the top green part and the white dotted seeds.

When I showed Mr 5 my nails, I asked him what they looked like, knowing that he liked strawberries and it should have been a pretty easy guess. His reply was, those white nails have apples, cherries and strawberry's, and that middle finger has snow falling long green grass. He was looking at my nails upside down, and totally nailed the description.  As soon as I turned my hand around he said, look that one changed to a strawberry.

I got these water decals from the Born Pretty Store.  This is the set of water decals looks like.  You could get two manicures out of the set (you can't see some of the designs because they are printed white).  The set currently sells for just over $2.  These water decals are a very good quality.  The slid off the backing paper after being in water about 30 seconds.  The only difference I noticed was that the red printing on the fruits was much paler on my nails and appeared more pink compared to the image on their site.

I'm really a big fan of water decals. It's so easy to create a very intricate nail art design and you really don't need much skill at all.

Read More »

Add Comment

Unknown Born Pretty Store

It's a full house

Yep, I've got a full house.  A pair of kings and three aces.  These are water decals from a great little set I got from the Born Pretty Store here. 

The thing that I liked most about them was that the decals actually have white printing.  Most water decals that you buy, and certainly all the ones that you can print at home are only printed in the primary colours, so when the design calls for white, you have to put the decal on a white or pale base.

Because these have white printing, you can put them on any base colour, like I did with the three aces on the black nail.  The detail in the king of hearts decal is also excellent, although I could have done a better job at positioning it toward the bottom of my nail.

The glitter polish on my pinky (and thumb) is Lynnderella Lucky Numbers, which has always reminded me of playing cards and was the perfect glitter combo for this mani.

The water decals were really easy to work with.  Nice and thin for invisible placement on your nail, but not too thin that they don't hold there form.  I didn't need to soak these decals for very long, probably only about 30 seconds for each decal before they would easily slide off.

The set comes with enough little decals to create two full manis with different designs, so for $2.16 with free postage, they are excellent value (especially when you compare the nail art sticker prices from my post yesterday). 

Read More »

Add Comment

Unknown Born Pretty Store

Watermelon nail art using decals

I'm on a bit of a roll with reviewing products from the Born Pretty Store at the moment, but I've actually found all the products I've tried so far to be very good, which always makes reviewing products much more enjoyable.

These watermelon nails looked fantastic. I particularly loved how neat the whole design was.  Plus, it would have to be the easiest nail art I've ever created.  This design was created in just two steps.  

Step 1. paint your nails in watermelon pink shade - I chose Picture Polish water melon, because it's the perfect shade and name for this mani.

Step 2. Apply the watermelon water decals to the tip of the nail and coat with top coat. 

These watermelon decals come complete with the two toned green tip, the perfectly shaped and positioned black seed dots and the fine silver glitter french tip line along the smile line.

I did find these decals a lot thicker that other decals I have used.  In fact they were quite stiff even after they were off the backing paper.  Because of that I found they wouldn't lay flat along my nail.  So what I did was roll each individual decal in my fingers to pre-curl it before placing it on my nail with a bit of water.  Once it was positioned in the right place I blot the nail with a tissue to remove all the moisture and then let them air dry for about 10 minutes before putting on top coat.  I did get a bit of shrinkage of the decal using Seche Vite, which pulled it back from the tip of my nails a little bit as can be seen in the photos.

Even though these decals are thicker and stiffer, I didn't find that the edge of the clear decal was visible on my nail anywhere after applying top coat.

This is what you get in the set of decals.  You could get two manis out of it if you did only four fingers on each hand.  I chose to do all ten fingers in the watermelon design rather than using any of the mini designs that have a wedge of watermelon, two black seeds and the words 'water melon' printed in white (which you can't see in these photos).

These decals are available here on the Born Pretty site, and my discount code is MNPG10.

Read More »

Add Comment

Unknown Born Pretty Store

Born Pretty Store Holos - Part 2

Continuing from yesterday with the first half of the Born Pretty Store holos, here are the other six shades.

Born Pretty Holo #7 - a pale green holo Very sheer and hard to distinguish between this and #1.  This was three coats, with my index showing thick coats and the others with thin coats.  At three coats it doesn't achieve opacity, but it has a good flame.

Born Pretty Holo #8 - a medium bright blue. good opacity and holo flame. This was two coats photographed in the full sun.

Born Pretty Holo #9 - a light purple/lavender holo, on the sheer side. Reminds me of OPI DS Original. This is three coats, photographed in the sun.

Born Pretty Holo #10 - A bright and rich teal blue, the sun makes this a little lighter than it actually is, so imagine this a tiny bit darker.  This is one of my favourites from the collection. The pigmentation was good and so was the holo flame. I've tried making frankens of this colour but they always loose their holo rainbow.  This was two coats.

Born Pretty Holo #11 - dark purple holo. This seems like a nice balanced purple, not too red toned and not too blue toned either.  This swatch shows two coats, but for these sun photos I should have done three, or made sure that the second coat was thicker.  On my index finger I clearly did thicker coats and it's isn't patchy, whereas on the other three fingers my coats were a bit thin.

Born Pretty Holo #12 - a dark green holo. This one is favourite, think Glitter Gal Lizard Belly, but better.  It's more obviously green, rather than being off black and the holo flame is much better. Opacity was good, and this was two coats.

As I said yesterday, the formula on these was good.  They don't require a special base and top coat doesn't dull them.  The holo flame on them is good, not super strong like Dance Legend but certainly easily visible. If you only get a few, I recommend the last three (#10, #11 and #12) or if you are into pinks then try #4. If  you want something more unique go for #5 - ive not got a holo like. If you like nudes then #6 is a must. Finally, if you are looking for a holo top coat then either #1 or #7 work.

The regular price for these is $12.88 and the bottles are only minis at 6ml.  So at full price they are quite expensive for the amount of polish you get. 

Now I don't know if my blog post yesterday made a difference, but now instead of being 30% off, they are 50% off again, so now $6.44 (which is the price I paid). I'd like to think you could then add a 10% off code too, but I have a feeling that the 10% off codes only apply to products that aren't already discounted - at least that has been my experience shopping there.

Again, let me know if you want to see any comparisons and if I have them I'll swatch them up - I going to be doing a few with #1 (in the shade to show how silver it is over other colours, and over white).

Again, here is my discount code.

Read More »

Add Comment

Unknown Born Pretty Store