Sweater Weather - Born Pretty Nicole Diary 124, Born Pretty BP-WN05 Dark Armor, Orly Au Champagne

Time for some Christmassy looks!

[Sweater Weather]

These look like Christmas sweater patterns, which I really like!

[Born Pretty's Nicole Diary - 124]

This here is Born Pretty's stamping plate Nicole Diary 124 which was sent to us for review. You can see the cross-stitching type for the patterns.

[Base: Orly Au Champagne; Stamping plate: Nicole Diary 124;
Stamping nail polish:  Born Pretty's BP-WN05 Dark Armor]

The stamping polish used was Born Pretty's stamping polish BP-WN05 Dark Armor, a creme red stamping polish. It's very easy to stamp with. The base polish is Orly's Au Champagne, a white polish with a beautiful white shimmer.

Overall, the stamping plate is lovely to work with and the pattern is awfully cute, I really like it! It's a great Christmas look!

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

Across the Night Sky - Orly Au Champagne, Born Pretty Outer Space L002, Born Pretty Birth of the Queen

Wheeeeee, today, I'm doing a stamping review with items from Born Pretty!

[Starry Night]

I used Born Pretty's Outer Space L002 stamping plate and Born Pretty's Birth of the Queen stamping polish to produce this starry result! The base coat is Orly's Au Champagne, a really old nail polish that I still love dearly. It's my favourite white polish, as an icy white polish packed with shimmering white microglitter.

[Born Pretty stamping plate Outer Space L002
Born Pretty stamping polish Birth of the Queen]

Here's the stamping plate Outer Space L002 and stamping polish Birth of the Queen. There's some really pretty stamping patterns on the plate and Birth of the Queen is a gorgeous royal purple chrome. I love the name too! :D  Birth of the Queen looks more blue than purple in the photos but that's just my camera that doesn't always pick up purple as a shade.

[Base: Orly Au Champagne; Stamping Plate: Born Pretty Outer Space L002;
Stamping Polish: Born Pretty Birth of the Queen]

You can see the stamped results above and I think they turned out great! I really love the one on my thumb's nail, of the snow-peaked mountain with the constellations above it, and the cat looking out into the night on my ring finger...and actually I really like the filigree moon and the string of stars and beads, okay I like all of them! They're just such lovely patterns!

[Base: Orly Au Champagne; Stamping Plate: Born Pretty Outer Space L002;
Stamping Polish: Born Pretty Birth of the Queen]

These ones on my other hand are more unusual but still interesting! I did have trouble stamping the one on my middle finger, as you can see it's off-center unfortunately. But it did give me fun Card Captor Sakura vibes, for those of you familiar with manga/anime, heh. I also like the one on my thumb and the mountain scene on my little finger.

All in all, I really like the patterns on this stamping plate. The stamping polish as well as the stamping plate came together nicely to produce very nice crisp stamping results. The stamping polish was easy to use, opaque and I just love the rich purple colour.

If you like what you see here, you can check out these items at Born Pretty. Our code here will give you a 10% discount off full priced items as well!

Sweet Candy - Orly Orange Punch, LA Girl Glissand

I've got some edible looking manis today...

[Sweet Candy]

The base of this nail polish is Orly's Orange Punch, a jelly-ish vermillion nail polish. The tips of my nails and the polish on my ring finger is LA Girl Glissand which is a pink textured matte polish. Glissand isn't terribly textured to be honest, and it dries slower than most matte polish.

After I sealed it all with Seche Vite Dry Fast Top Coat, the combination of high glossyness on jelly polish against the frosted matte reminds me of hard candy and chewy soft ones.

[Base polish: Orly Orange Pinch
Tips and ring finger: LA Girl Glissand]

Using free hand to do my tips resulted in doing them a liiiiittle bit too deep. Oops!

Lunar New Year - Orly's Heartbreaker, Hit the Bottle's Spun Gold, Sally Hansen's Gilded Lily, MdU's Reddish

Happy Chinese New Year!!

[Lunar New Year!]

I have been very, very busy, but I did manage to whip out a Chinese New Year themed mani.

[Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-65]

The pattern stamped here is from Born Pretty's BP-65 stamping plate, as shown above. For the accent nail on the ring finger, I used Orly's Heartbreaker, a red nail polish with gold shimmer, as the base polish. I then stamped over that with Hit the Bottle's Spun Gold, a pale gold chrome polish. For the rest of the nails, I used Sally Hansen's Gilded Lily as the base, giving the base a sparkly gold glitter. Then I stamped over the lot with MdU's Reddish, a creme red stamping polish.

[On the accent nail: Base is Orly's Heartbreaker, stamping is Hit the Bottle's Spun Gold
The rest of the nails: Base is Sally Hansen's Gilded Lily, stamping is MdU's Reddish

For the last picture, you can see that I tried a different pattern for the thumb, but then changed my mind and went with what I had for the rest of the nails. I love how the whole thing turned out. It has a nice festive feel and has lasted for a week so far, without issues.

Star Echoes - Essie, Hit the Bottle, Emily de Molly, Orly, Jordana, Sally Hansen, Born Pretty

This was the mani I had on when we rang in 2018, and I wanted to go for a NYE theme at that time. I didn't post this that week just because I didn't have the time. ^_^;

[Star Echoes]

So I was going for a starburst, colourful kind of look against a dark background. I used Essie's Lots of Lux for the base, which is a dark blue glitter that dries matte. I also used Hit the Bottle's Holo There Beautiful, a silver holo stamping polish, with Born Pretty's BP-L050 stamping plate, which Ev has reviewed here in the past.

After I stamped the starburst pattern on, I added touches of nail polish randomly to the mix, such as Emily de Molly's Quest for Immortality, Orly's Here Comes Trouble, Jordana's Magenta Magic and Sally Hansen's Sea-ing Stars. They were mainly to add touches of different colour and sparkle to the whole affair.

[Base: Essie Lots of Lux
Stamping pattern: Born Pretty BP-L050
Stamping polish: Hit the Bottle Holo There Beautiful
Top coats: Emily de Molly Quest for Immortality, Orly Here Comes Trouble, Jordana Magenta Magic, Sally Hansen Sea-ing Stars]

 It's a bit of a mish-mash but I think it still looks nice!

Tree Decorations - Born Pretty V-shaped nail sequins, Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe

Hello, hello, and seasons greetings! I have a little box of shinies to try out today.

So I got my hands on what I'll call iridescent V-shaped nail sequins from Born Pretty. These are interesting and you can do all sorts of things with them. You have probably seen some pretty shiny flower patterns, made out of these sequins.

I decided to try something more Christmassy in theme.

[Base: Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe
Born Pretty V-shaped nail sequins]

I started with the base of course, which was Orly's Meet Me Under The Mistletoe, a dark green colour with hints of duochrome-blue at extreme angles. Then I stuck on some of the sequins so it would have a passing resemblance to a Christmas  tree.

So, does that pass as a Christmas tree, with an additional nail rhinestone at the top to symbolise a tree topper? I wasn't sure, so I thought I would keep going.

[Base: Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe
Born Pretty V-shaped nail sequins]

More nail rhinestones to represent baubles! :D  These are just regular nail rhinestones.

Then I decided the other nails were too bare so I thought I would add little symbolic Christmas trees.

[Base: Orly Meet Me Under The Mistletoe
Born Pretty V-shaped nail sequins]

You'll notice in the last two photos, the V-shaped nail sequins seem to have changed colour. So in the earlier photos, the sequins have a distinctive purple to gold duochrome sheen. But in the last two photos, the sequins are of a solid rose-gold shade. Apparently, the top coat to seal in the sequins eats away the layer of duochrome on the sequins to leave a rose-gold shade. If you go without a top coat, it's not likely the sequins would stay on for longer than a day, so it's not something you can skip.

What do you think about the Christmas theme? Did I pull it off?

If you're interested, you can also check out similar items at Born Pretty and use our 10% discount code for full priced items!

Glass Leaves - MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003, Missha HBR01, The Face Shop GL111, Orly Here Comes Trouble, Maybelline Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie

Let's do a combination of things on a silicone nail art mat!

[Glass Leaves]

So first, I painted twenty patches of clear nail polish on the silicone nail art mat. I think having a clear base polish helps with lifting the patches of nail polish off the mat later.

[20 nail patches on silicone nail art mat]

Then I did a hack job creating a gradient mani on twenty patches. I used:

• Missha's HBR01 - Copper polish with holo microglitter
• The Face Shop's GL111 - A pale gold foil 
• Orly's Here Comes Trouble - A gorgeous bright green glitter
• Maybelline's Beaming Blue - Blue glitter with a gold shimmer
• LA Girl Groupie - Purple jelly with microglitter

And I played around with the direction of the gradient so they're not consistent.

[Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L003]

Then I used the pattern I highlighted above from Born Pretty's stamping plate BP-L003 and stamped over those nail patches using MdU's Black stamping polish.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

Voila! How does it look? I had to double stamp for the bigger patches, which you will see the use for later.

The above are how the nail patches look once peeled off the silicone nail art mat. Not bad, not bad...

When applied on nails, here's what I get:

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

The gradient hack job isn't so bad under the stamping, hey?

I took the photos below using my phone and under brighter artificial lighting, so that you can see how shiny the mani looks.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

 Overall, I'm very pleased with the result!

And you probably noticed the 20 nail patches, instead of the usual 10. I decided I wanted something more funky on my toe nails as well! I have a bit of a hang up over how my toes look so I dithered quite a bit over whether I should post this photo or not, but decided what the hell. Go easy on my tiny toe nails and stubby toes please.

[Stamping: MdU Black, Born Pretty BP-L003
Gradient base: Missha's HBR01, The Face Shop's GL111, Orly's Here Comes Trouble
Maybelline's Beaming Blue, LA Girl Groupie]

So that's another fun use I found for the silicone nail art mat. Usually, the most exciting thing I might do with my toenails is paint them with funky colours. But with a silicone nail art mat, I can actually do more exciting things like create gradient nail polish and stamped manis for my toenails now. I have done a few toenails mani like this since.

Naturally, it was funner to do during summer, when my feet and toes can often be free from shoes and socks. Not so with this weather on us right now!

Wheeling Stars - Born Pretty Stamping Polish #9, Haru No Uta plate L008, Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle, Orly Au Champagne Stamping

I tested out this stamping plate and polish in my last post here, but I actually tried another pattern on the stamping plate too which I'm sharing today. It's less snowflakey and more like a star with a wheel in the center.

[A star-shaped wheel]

You can see the pattern I chose below from Born Pretty's Harunouta (Haru No Uta) 春の歌 plate L008 which was sent to us for review. I've included a handy arrow in the picture so you can't miss the pattern I picked. ;)

[Haru No Uta 春の歌 plate L008]

Like the other mani, I tried a white base as my accent nail for contrast to the rest of the nails. But it wasn't that great an idea considering the shade of the stamping polish.

[Dark base: Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle
Light base: Orly Au Champagne
Stamping: Born Pretty Stamping Polish #9, Haru No Uta plate L008]

It's still an interesting look but I quickly decided to stamp over the nail on my pinkie finger.

[Dark base: Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle
Light base: Orly Au Champagne
Stamping: Born Pretty Stamping Polish #9, Australis Jeanie in A Bottle, Haru No Uta plate L008]

Much better, in my opinion! The designs on the stamping plate are a little large so the pattern doesn't come together in a perfect, complete picture when all the nails are held close together. But parts of it are certainly recognisable even on the nail and they are pretty cool patterns. Overall, a pretty pattern to have!

There's currently a discount so you can get the stamping plate for the price of $2.99. You can get 10% off on other items by using the code above at Born Pretty's store!

Snow Blues - Born Pretty Haru No Uta Plate L008, Born Pretty Polish #9, Australis Jeanie in A Bottle, Orly Au Champagne

In the last post, Ev mentioned that it seems like the theme of the year for us is Stamp All The Things! That certainly does seem to be true! But then she also said that we were getting pretty good at it, and the post I was preparing immediately disproves that... /o\  She's doing fine, but I obviously still have a ways to go...

[We're all a 'special snowflake'...]

Look! Snowflakes stamping! And to show my hand that I'm still an amateur, it's clearly smudgy and spotty in parts. Oh dear...

[Haru No Uta 春の歌 plate L008]

This is Born Pretty's Harunouta (Haru No Uta) 春の歌 plate L008, sent to us for review. You can click on the image above to see it in full size and properly admire the beautiful detail on the rectangular plate. It comes with a new, rather pretty pink sleeve, as shown above as well, and the plate has a protective plastic sheet which I have already peeled off.

The designs consist of a variety of large snowflakes and also a couple pretty wheel patterns. I really do like the patterns, although it's difficult to show all the different parts of the large snowflakes. There are also small snowflakes at the top and bottom of the plate which fits easier on each nail. I rather like the webbing-lace pattern that joins all the snowflakes together. They stamp rather nicely!

[Dark base: Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle
Light base: Orly Au Champagne
Stamping: Born Pretty Stamping Polish #9, Haru No Uta plate L008]

What I originally did was have my last nail as the accent nail and use a white base coat for it instead. I did a single nail close-up so you can see the pattern better. The near-black navy blue base coat is Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle, while the white base coat on the last nail is Orly's Au Champagne, my favourite white polish which dries a matte almost foil-like white. The pale blue stamping polish is Born Pretty's Stamping Polish #9, which was also sent to us for review.

Alas, what was I thinking in regards to that accent nail? Pale blue against white does not contrast well enough. So I decided to stamp over it.

[Dark base: Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle
Light base: Orly Au Champagne
Stamping: Born Pretty Stamping Polish #9, Australis Jeanie in A Bottle, Haru No Uta plate L008]

The stamping polish I used for my last nail is... Australis' Jeanie in A Bottle! Yes, the base coat that I used for the other nails. It's pretty convenient that this nail polish works as a stamping polish too. I don't even have to look for another nail polish. :P As you can see, there's a vast difference in colour and that's because this Australis' collection has a thin formula. When used for stamping, where you scrape off most of the excess and leave only a thin coat behind, it stamps as a very pale version of what's in the bottle. So a navy blue nail polish ends up as a mid-blue stamp.

I think you can see the mistake with this new accent nail. The snowflake pattern was in the wrong direction, which makes the overall design on all four nails less cohesive. Oops...

The pale blue stamping nail polish #9 is rather good. I chose this colour because I wanted to test a pale colour and I'm rather glad with how it turned out. The pale blue polish stamps opaque and easily, and on a more expert hand, would produce crisp lines against a dark base.

I like the stamping plate, as described above. I love the new packaging and the designs on the plate are varied and pretty easy to stamp. You can choose almost any spot to stamp from and there's enough variety for several different manis!

If you like the stamping plate, it's currently on discount for $2.99 over here, which is a pretty solid deal in my opinion. You can get 10% off on other items if you use our code at Born Pretty's store!