In The Pale Light - Sally Hansen, Australis, Born Pretty

Hello all! I come with stamping!

[In The Pale Light]

[Born Pretty - Pure World L002]

This mani was done with Born Pretty's stamping plate Pure World - L002. The base is the gradient mani I posted about in this post, using Sally Hansen's Crush on Blue and  Australis' Aqua. The stamping polish is Born Pretty's Throne, a black polish. I really like how the scenery turned out on the ring finger.

[Base: Sally Hansen Crush on Blue, Australis Aqua
Stamping: Born Pretty stamping plate Pure World L002, Born Pretty Throne]

I kind of botched the stamping on this other hand. I didn't scrape off the polish sufficiently, which is why the pattern isn't so discernible for some. :(

Otherwise, I do love the patterns here. The flowers and scenery stamps look really good, and they were easy to stamp.

If you like the plate, you can find it here at Born Pretty. You can get a 10% off any full priced items too!

Placid Waters - Sally Hansen, Australis

Today is just a simple gradient mani that I did freehand!

[Sally Hansen Crush on Blue, Australis Aqua]

The pale blue polish is Sally Hansen's Crush on Blue and the pale teal is Australis' Aqua. They match each other really well to make a gradient. The colours are close enough that you don't need sponging to do the gradient, in my opinion. It makes for a simple and easy to create gradient mani!

Precious Pearl - Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder

I've been experimenting with nail powders, but this is the first time I've posted about it on the blog! =) So this might be a loooong one~! I'll go through how I apply the nail powder, as well as what polishes and topcoat I'm using.

[Mermaid blues]

Aaaaahhh, such pretty iridescent goodness! This particular nail powder was generously supplied by Born Pretty for reviewing purposes. This one is called the Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder and comes in one shade that you use over different coloured base shades.

[Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder]

It comes in a little matte ziplock bag, which contains the little pot of 0.2g nail powder complete with safety seal, plus a handy sponge applicator. I like it when nail powders come with their own applicator as it stops any mixing of different powders/finishes from sharing applicators.

[Left to right: Australis Friend Like You, Rimmel Bestival Blue, Rimmel Little Boy Blue,
OPI Dating a Royal, OPI Russian Navy Matte, Emily de Molly Special Effects Base Coat]

Now before we have a look at the powder itself, here's the base shades I tried out. I definitely wanted to try a whole bunch of shades so I decided to go for a blue creme gradient. From lightest to darkest, left to right, this is Australis Friend Like You, Rimmel Bestival Blue, Rimmel Little Boy Blue, OPI Dating a Royal, OPI Russian Navy Matte.

As you can tell, these are all regular polishes, rather than gel polishes! Our secret weapon (more on that later) is the last bottle on the right - Emily de Molly Special Effects Base Coat.

[Pinky to thumb: OPI Russian Navy Matte, OPI Dating a Royal, Rimmel Little Boy Blue,
Rimmel Bestival Blue, Australis Friend Like You (2 coats each)]

Here are the 5 shades of blue, from darkest to lightest, pinky to thumb. Each was two coats plus a thin layer of topcoat. You can see that OPI Russian Navy still has a hint of matte to it.

[Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder]

So, back to the powder! Peel the seal off! Try not to destroy your freshly painted nails while you're at it... I like to lay down a sheet of scrap paper to make cleanup easier after. Also, there's always going to be traces of powder left on the seal, so don't throw it away! There was more than enough on there to do all 10 nails (and some!).

Now, apply a thin layer of Emily de Molly Special Effects Base Coat over your dry base shade. Leave it for a minute or two - I like to gently tap the surface of the nail with a finger to test if it's ready. It should be slightly tacky to the touch.

I also actually did half the nails without the Special Effects Base Coat - just a regular non quick dry base coat that was a similar level of tackyness. I think the clue here is to have a thin topcoat so you're less likely to be moving/squishing it down when you apply the powder.

[Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder]

Now when you're ready with your tacky nails (I recommend doing one hand at a time!), press the sponge applicator lightly down on the powder. You do not want to overdo it! You really don't need very much at all. Gently pat the powder over the entire surface of the nail, trying not to miss any spots. When you're done, you'll notice that it's not nice and smooth/chromey as it should be. Don't worry, the next step is where magic happens!

Using your finger, gently pick up a bit of powder and pat over your nail. Gently rub over the surface of the nail to buff the powder in and get a nice even surface. You should keep doing this till you no longer feel a tacky surface - the powder will have stuck to and covered the sticky bits.

Remember, the clue here is light but thorough rubbing in! It's great fun to watch the chrome-y pearl-y effect appear!

[Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder]

Voila!! Fancy effects for all! This pearl powder seems to be an iridescent duochrome. On the dark base, it is a green-gold shifter, and on lighter shades, you get the pearly pink/blue iridescence. I think the ring finger combines both best of all. The colour and finish are also spot on compared to the product page.

[Born Pretty Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder]

It also changes in different lighting! But, wait! Before you prance off into the sunset with your mermaid nails... what topcoat to use? I think with a pearl finish, it's not as crucial as a holographic or mirror chrome powder. However, to be safe, I used Born Pretty No Smudge Top Coat which is a water-based topcoat that I've previously reviewed. Definitely maintained the mermaid effect and kept it going through showers and doing dishes... =p

Now if you're worried about glitter getting everywhere, don't worry. Nail powders are different to nail glitter and washes away much more easily!

Are you excited to try it out now? My initial reservations were regarding having to use a UV base, gel and cured topcoat, as well as the potential mess. But this works fine on regular polish, and cleanup was pretty easy! So I'm happy to keep playing around with these nail powders!

You can check out the Neon Unicorn Mermaid Nail Powder here, or have a browse through Born Pretty for a whole bunch of different nail products! As usual, our code up above will get you an extra 10% off full-priced items. Happy shopping~

Fruity Sunset - Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream, Australis Bless Thy Socks, pa AA38, Born Pretty BPL-023

Ah! After last week's gradient on my long-ish nails... I totally broke a nail! So I chopped them all back down, phew~

[Pining for apples]

And stuck a stamp over the top! Cutting my nails down also conveniently solved the tipwear issue, hehe...

[Cuticle to tip: Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream,
Australis Bless Thy Socks; Topcoat: pa AA38]

Quick recap, here's my base which was a sponge gradient manicure using Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream and Australis Bless Thy Socks, with pa AA38 flakie polish over the top.

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night; Born Pretty BPL-023]

Using a plain black stamping polish (Hit the Bottle As Black As Night) I used the pineapple stamping design from Born Pretty plate BPL-023.

I think this may be the first time I've used a stamp where the base polish is in the negative space! It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to get a nice coverage over the base polish. You can see a bit of the orange base peeking through but it's not particularly visible to the eye.

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night; Born Pretty BPL-023]

I quite like the look of a stamped-over gradient, however I'm not sure how clear it is that these are pineapples! As you can see, I didn't quite manage to pick up the fine hatching on the pineapple itself. I know what they are meant to be so it seems obvious to me, but I asked someone and they had some trouble at first.. I think it would be more in-your-face if this design was stamped in black, and then leadlighted in green and yellow - just a thought for next time!

Juicy Jubes - Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream, Australis Bless Thy Socks, pa AA38

Once in a while, my nails get long and I feel like I should probably do something to take advantage of it. 

[Sparkles for spring..]

Which in this case, means gradient time! I decided to go for some juicy fresh shades as the weather is just starting to warm up here in Sydney.

Here are the polishes I used - from left to right, Maybelline Color Show 60 Seconds in Lux Lobster, Rimmel Brit Manicure in Peaches & Cream and Australis Bless Thy Socks. I applied a base layer of Lux Lobster, and then painted stripes of all three onto a little cut-up square of (dishwashing!) sponge and sponged over the base to create a gradient from the darkest to lightest shade.

I then coated the gradient with a layer of that polish there on the right - pa AA38, a polish I picked up in Japan. This ones a translucent orange base with a generous helping of orangey-gold flakies all throughout. The flakies do settle, as you can see in the photo, but are very easy to resuspend. 

[Cuticle to tip: Maybelline Lux Lobster, Rimmel Peaches & Cream,
Australis Bless Thy Socks; Topcoat: pa AA48]

I think the jump from Lux Lobster to Bless Thy Socks was a bit much actually! Maybe just the first two shades would've been enough for a gradient. I know my nails don't seem all that long in these photos, but trust me, when I cut them down, they are totally nubbins!

Sneaky Side-eye - Rimmel Winky Pinky, Australis Totes Orchs; Hit the Bottle As Black As Night; Born Pretty BP-128

Check out today's silly cute mani!

[Kitschy Kats]

It doesn't get any better than having some sneaky kitties on your paws...

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Winky Pinky (2 coats)]

My dusty pink creme from last week (Rimmel Winky Pinky) was a great base for some stamping action.

[Born Pretty BP-128]

The plate I'm using was kindly provided by Born Pretty. This is plate BP-128 which features a whole host of adorable kitties, and a little group of bears too! As usual, it comes in a pretty cardboard storage sleeve, and a protective blue film over the plate.

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-128;
Base: Rimmel Winky Pinky (2 coats)]

I decided I wanted coloured-in kitties for this mani, so I painted a few patches of clear polish onto a silicone nail art mat to prep for some stamping decals.With a black stamping polish (Hit the Bottle As Black As Night), I stamped several different parts of the plate onto my dry patches of clear polish. I then filled in different parts of the design with white and a deeper pinky purple (Australis Totes Orchs).

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-128;
Base: Rimmel Winky Pinky (2 coats)]

When the decals were good and dry, I peeled them off the mat and cut them to fit my nails. I applied a clear coat to my base shade to get some tackiness, then placed each decal on and removed any excess, finishing up with a clear coat to seal.

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-128;
Base: Rimmel Winky Pinky (2 coats)]

I'm happy that I managed to get both cats and bears on my nails! The colouring-in could've been a bit neater, but I was lazy and used the polish brushes to fill in the pattern instead of searching for some fine brushes.

[Stamping: Hit the Bottle As Black As Night, Born Pretty BP-128;
Base: Rimmel Winky Pinky (2 coats)]

I love the look of coloured-in stamping decals! Definitely one step above a regular stamping mani.

If you want to try it out, you can find this plate and more at Born Pretty. As always, our discount code above will take 10% off full-priced items. =)

Twilight Waves - Born Pretty Ocean Illusion, Australis Jeanie In A Bottle, Sally Hansen Ivory Skull[

Here we have Born Pretty's Ocean Illusion from their Mermaid Series.

[Twilight Waves]

I tried it against different bases as the effect is rather different.

[Born Pretty Ocean Illusion]

Ocean Illusion comes in a neat little box, complete with a cut-out circle so you can see the colour of the nail polish.

[Base: Australis Jeanie In A Bottle, Sally Hansen Ivory Skull
Top coat: Born Pretty Ocean Illusion]

You can see that Ocean Illusion looks like a mid-blue polish in the bottle. It's very sheer though. So I had used Australis' Jeanie In A Bottle as a dark blue base for the ring finger and Sally Hansen's Ivory Skull as an off-white base for the rest of the nails. There's about two coats of Ocean Illusion against the dark blue base and about three coats of Ocean Illusion against the white base.

Ocean Illusion has a sheer blue base that I needed more coats of it against the white to build up its colour. It hasn't gained opacity and you can still see the white beneath the blue. There's also fine duochrome microglitter that colour shifts between blue and purple. You can see the sheen of blue and purple at angles. The colour shift is far more obvious against a dark base but there's something different and more delicate about the nail polish against a light base.

You can use Ocean Illusion without a base, it'll look like the shade against the white base, but you'll need to use about four to five coats instead to build up the colour.

[Base: Australis Jeanie In A Bottle, Sally Hansen Ivory Skull
Top coat: Born Pretty Ocean Illusion]

Overall, I rather like how this turned out. It's a bit sheerer than I expected but it has the colour shift I was curious about.

You can check out their Mermaid Series here at Born Pretty, and you can use our code above for a discount on full priced items!

Heart Abound - Australis Pinot-Dah, Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, Born Pretty BP-L013

It feels like I haven't done a stamping manicure for a while so I made myself go through my plates and found a design I've been wanting to try out..

[<3 <3 <3]

Hearts! I like these scribbly heart design from Born Pretty plate BP-L013. I originally planned to stamp in a dusty pink creme but all my Mundo de Unas stamping minis are currently terribly separated and I haven't yet figured out an easy way to mix them back up together..

[Bottle to nail: Australis Pinot-Dah (1 coat)]

Just to quickly recap, my base shade from last week is Australis Pinot-Dah, a dark wine red creme.

[Bottle to nail: Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink (stamping);
Base: Australis Pinot-Dah (1 coat); Plate: Born Pretty BP-L013]

The stamping polish I ended up using was Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, a hot pink shimmer finish stamping polish. Ahh, Hit the Bottle polishes never let me down.. <3

[Base: Australis Pinot-Dah (1 coat);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Psycho Pink, Born Pretty BP-L013]

I think I'm a little out of practice doing stamping manicures though! Gotta swipe faster/lighter! At any rate, I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. A bit less obvious than my original pastel pink stamp idea, but this is nice and subtle instead! 

Fine Wine - Australis Pinot-Dah

Feeling a bit uninspired lately... and I always seem to default back to red shades when that happens. Eh, well, you just can't go wrong with the classics, I guess!

[Bottle to nail: Australis Pinot-Dah (1 coat)]

This time, I chose Australis Pinot-Dah, a deep wine red creme, as you may have guessed from the name!

[1 coat: Australis Pinot-Dah]

I only used one coat, and it was pretty much opaque. I've taken these photos under direct lighting so you can almost see some lighter parts, but this is pretty much invisible to the eye. The shade is also a a little darker than shown and actually leans a bit cooler.

[1 coat: Australis Pinot-Dah]

Formula was great, leveled nicely and dried glossy, though as usual, I applied a layer of topcoat over to finish. A nice basic vampy shade. As a bonus, Pinot-Dah also works great as a stamping polish, which Jme previously posted about here!

Painted Weave - Revlon Budding Chrome, The Face Shop GL111, Revlon OceanChrome, Australis Goth Rock

This look I'm sporting today can be achieved with stamping, or with nail art stencils, if you know what I'm talking about. Today, I'm trying out the latter.

[Painted Weave]

What is the proper name for this? Nail art vinyls? Nail art stencil vinyls? Nail art template stickers? Well, as you can see from the photo below, they've used the name 'Nail Art Hollow Sticker'. Sounds weird. I think I prefer nail art stencil vinyls. But in the end, a photo speaks a thousand words:

[Silicone nail art mat and nail art hollow stickers]

I usually don't get very crisp results from nail art vinyls when I use them straight onto my nails. So this time, I thought I would try the nail art stickers on a silicone nail art mat. The stickers were just so much easier to deal with, understandably, when applied on the flat surface of the silicone mat.

[Nail art hollow stickers applied onto the silicone nail art mat]

I cut up the vinyl based on the dotted lines they provided and stuck them onto the silicone nail art mat. I'm only using 6 pieces here because they're pretty large, so I figured that other than my thumbs, the other pieces will cover two nails each.

Side note, I really love the holo on these vinyls. So pretty! Even if they all get painted over in the end!

[Manicure in progress]

I don't actually have in progress photos since I had to move pretty fast. If you do this too slowly and your nail polish dries too much, you end up peeling off your nail polish as well from the mat when you pull off the vinyl.

So here are the steps I went through, with references to the photo above.

1. Stick the vinyl onto the silicone mat, as shown in (A). Now paint over it to cover the hollow parts. In this case, I painted over it in a gradient of colours  
2. Peel off the vinyl which leaves only the pattern behind, as you can see in (B)
3. Paint over the pattern left behind with your base shade, as shown in (C)
4. Leave it to dry completely. You will know it's completely dry when the patches of nail polish are completely flat against the mat. 
5. Peel off these nail patches from the mat carefully. Bend the mat to help the peeling off endeavour. 

[Homemade nail art patches/decals]

And voila! I did cut the nail patches into rectangles, so they would look so much prettier for my photos. :)  Then I used a clear base coat on my nails, let it dry enough to be slightly tacky and applied the nail patches on. I used a combination of stretching the nail patches and nail clippers to cut off the excess nail polish.

The nail polish I used for the mani were:

• Revlon's Budding Chrome - a light peachy chrome nail polish that rather overwhelmed everything
• The Face Shop's GL111 - a pale gold foil 
• Revlon's OceanChrome - a teal chrome 
• Australis' Goth Rock - a near-black maroon nail polish

[Revlon's Budding Chrome, The Face Shop's GL111, Revlon's OceanChrome, Australis' Goth Rock]

I do like using the nail stencil vinyls on the silicone nail art mat. I think the results are a lot neater, with crisper lines. With gradient manis and nail stencil vinyls done straight onto the nails, I often feel like the process is usually rather messy and requires quite a bit of clean up after. With the use of the nail stencil vinyls on silicone nail art mat, the mess was constrained and easier to deal with.

I just really like having these new tools to work with now!