Festive Blossom - Rimmel Double Decker Red, Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, Born Pretty BP-L024

Happy Lunar New Year!! Sorry for the lack of posts, I have just been snowed under with work and social commitments~

[Lucky Fortune 88888888]

It is the Year of the Pig but rather than having little porkers on my nails, I ended up with a fairly traditional look once again.

[Base: Rimmel Double Decker Red (1 coat);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold; Plate: Born Pretty BP-L024]

I used Rimmel Double Decker Red as the base (this is totally my go-to red creme base; you can check out my previous review here). I then stamped over with Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold, a bright yellow gold stamping polish with the flower and leaf pattern from Born Pretty stamping plate BP-L024.

[Base: Rimmel Double Decker Red (1 coat);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle To Have and To Gold; Plate: Born Pretty BP-L024]

I did consider a less traditional colour scheme! Or maybe making some fancy nail decals, but I just did not have enough time to do much~ I very recently was reorganising my nail art stash and boyyy do I feel guilty when I see all the pretty goodies that I have yet to try. Shame!! Shaaaame~!

Spring Retro - Rimmel Orangina, Hit the Bottle Snowed In, Born Pretty BP-L015

Who else is looking forward to spring? Only a few more weeks to go!

[Happy print]

I was inspired by the cute print on the lid of Rimmel Orangina last week, so I searched through my collection of stamping plates for something similar to stamp over..

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Orangina (2 coats)]

Again, Rimmel Orangina is an interesting coral-leaning orange creme polish which looks different in different lighting.

[Base: Rimmel Orangina (2 coats); Stamping: Hit the Bottle Snowed In;
Plate: Born Pretty BP-L015]

Using the simple daisy print from Born Pretty plate BP-L015, I stamped over Rimmel Orangina with
Hit the Bottle Snowed In, a white creme stamping polish.

[Base: Rimmel Orangina (2 coats); Stamping: Hit the Bottle Snowed In;
Plate: Born Pretty BP-L015]

So happy with the result, simple fuss-free and just a little retro. This combination lasted ages on the nail as well!

So Juicy - Rimmel Orangina

I think I bought this on a whim because it was on special and I wanted to build up my collection of creme polishes at the time (what do you mean I already have a dozen orange cremes...??)

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Orangina (2 coats)]

This is Rimmel Orangina, which from the lid I assume is associated with Rita Ora. Orangina is actually a really hard shade to photograph! From the name, it looks like a straight orange creme, but it actually leans more coral than my photos show!

[2 coats: Rimmel Orangina]

It's also unique in that in certain lighting it looks muted/pastel but in other lights, it almost looks fluoro! What a strange shade, but I really liked it!

[2 coats: Rimmel Orangina]

Formula was excellent, I used two coats for this and lasting power was pretty good too. I'm really happy with this impulse buy!

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~

Spot the Difference - Rimmel Bestival Blue, Sally Hansen Barracuda

Sometimes a mani just comes together... even when you didn't plan it that way!

[Bump bump]

This is one of those... I was actually trying to decide which blue to use and so had swatched one shade on each finger. Then I thought to myself... that looks pretty good together! And so, this mani came to be~

[Bottle to nail: Sally Hansen Barracuda (2 coats)]

The lighter blue shade is Sally Hansen Barracuda from the Complete Salon Manicure range. This one is sort of a pale duck egg blue. Nice colour but the formula was a bit of a pain. Not very opaque, a bit prone to flooding and fairly long dry time. However, I persevered and used two coats for these!

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Bestival Blue (2 coats)]

On every alternate nail, I used Rimmel Bestival Blue from the Rita Ora series. This is a great cornflower blue shade (and one I suspect is very similar to others in my collection!) with good opacity and dry time. Could possibly be a one coater but I used two here.

[Base + Spots: Sally Hansen Barracuda (2 coats), Rimmel Bestival Blue (2 coats)]

I then used a dotting tool to place spots of the other colour on each base shade. Topcoat generously and there you go! It actually gives a bit of a textured finish due to the raised spots. A fun happy manicure that I was quite pleased with!

Hot Buns - Rimmel Fondant Fancy, Hit the Bottle Snowed In, Born Pretty BP-L088

I have such an adorable mani here today!

[Buns away!]

Check out them buns! Their round little heads! Tiny eyes and mouths! So adorable!!

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Salon Pro Fondant Fancy (2 coats)]

My base from last week - Rimmel Fondant Fancy, a dusty mauve creme.

[Born Pretty BP-L088]

I was given this plate to review from Born Pretty. This is Born Pretty BP-L088 which you can find here. As usual, it comes with a pretty cardboard sleeve for storage and a blue protective film. There are so many cute animal-themed designs on here, including pandas and unicorns!

[Born Pretty BP-L088]

I almost chose the pandas, but ended up going for the bunnies instead. This is because the bunny heads are fairly large for my narrow nails and I had a bit more length going so I thought I'd take advantage of that fact.

[Base: Rimmel Fondant Fancy (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Snowed In, Born Pretty BP-L088]

I chose a white creme stamping polish, Hit the Bottle Snowed In, so that there would be a nice contrast with the dark base shade. Check out the fine lines, especially on the rabbit mouths!

[Base: Rimmel Fondant Fancy (2 coats);
Stamping: Hit the Bottle Snowed In, Born Pretty BP-L088]

I actually used a different stamping polish for the thumb, one of my Mundo de Unas polishes. But I was having a bit of trouble with fine detail, I think because these tend to separate quite badly when stored so I need to mix it up a bit more before use.

Anyway, I'm quite pleased with the quality of the plate and the super cuteness of the patterns! If you're interested, check out Born Pretty and feel free to use our 10% off code for full-priced items. =)

Lady Like - Rimmel Fondant Fancy

A simple work-safe creme mani for today...

[Bottle to nail: Rimmel Fondant Fancy (2 coats)]

This is Rimmel Salon Pro Fondant Fancy, a dusty mauve creme. It's a bit darker on the nail than in the photos and in the bottle. Not quite the shade I think of when I think of fondant though!

[2 coats: Rimmel Fondant Fancy]

Definitely a nice no-fuss polish - excellent application, opaque and level in 2 coats. You could possibly get away with one thick coat on short nails.

[2 coats: Rimmel Fondant Fancy]

As I mentioned before, it's a bit darker than I expected so maybe more of a autumn/winter shade than all this warm weather we're currently having here!

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. =)