Born Pretty Reviews That End With a BANG!

*Products provided for review*

We've got a ton of new Born Pretty Store products to show you today and we think you'll love them!

One product I chose were these cute and colorful flower water decals.  I seriously can't resist ordering water decals every time we do a review for Born Pretty.  Sorry if you are all sick of seeing them but I just love how easy they are!  

These springtime colors are just my style  They look great over my recently purchased Essie Go Ginza.  On my accent nail I actually cut out single flowers and placed them all over my nail.  These decals are super cute!

Flower Water Decals

Next up are creative french manicure tip guides.  The set I got are a zigzag pattern.  

ZigZag French Tip Guides

I used my favorite OPI shade Kiss Me I'm Brazilian.  After letting that dry I used the tip guide to stencil on the gold tip.  Then I used striping brushes to line it with white.  Pretty and funky!!  This is a summertime color combo that never gets old... coral and gold!

Last but not least... the BANG you have all been waiting for...

Nail Brush Set

I picked this set of liner brushes, which can be used for so much more than just stripes.  I did use them in the above mani for the white lining.  And then I had an idea...

BOOM!  POW!  Happy 4th of July!!!  How fun are these??? 

My pinky nail was painted red with Pure Ice Siren and then striped white with white acrylic paint using the long striping brush.  The rest of my nails were painted navy with OPI Dating a Royal.  The topper on my first two fingers is a thick and chunky patriotic topper from Hard Candy that should have been named something more patriotic than Soda Pop.  Then I used acrylic paints and the shorter brush to paint on the fireworks.  I did a few silver strokes to add some extra POW.

This was my first try at fireworks on my nails and I'm pretty impressed with myself.  What do you think??

We hope you all had a fun and safe 4th of July!  

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Vicky

*Products provided for review*

Purple Mosaic

This purple mosaic is one of my favorite designs I've made this year so far.  Striping tape makes this complicated design pretty simple!  

The base color on the mosaic nails is Spoiled Daddy's Credit Card.  The blurple shade is Revlon Impulsive and the lilac is Essie Play Date.

I created the mosaic design by laying striping tape in various angles.  Then I filled in the spaces with Play Date and Impulsive.  Be sure to carefully remove the striping tape to avoid smudging. 

I used a thin brush dipped in Daddy's Credit Card to correct any minor errors. 

I have seen the mosaic design from several nail connoisseurs, but I am loving this one.  I love, love, love purple!   These shades are two of my favorite and they contrast each other very nicely. 

Have you ever done a mosaic?  We would love to see it!

XoXo Vicky

Nail Addicted Sisters

More Born Pretty Product Reviews

**All products were provided  for an honest review**

Anything you need to do your nails you can find at bornprettystore.com. The products are extremely well priced and they always have free world wide shipping!!!

I'm always looking for new nail art brushes, so I jumped at the chance to try this set. There are two striping brushes, a smaller detail brush and a flat head brush (great for clean up).

You can check out this brush set here.

I used the small detail brush to hand paint concentric circles on each nail.

I started with a base of Essie Style Cartel and used Alchemy Lacquers Naiad of the Spring to paint the circles. I added a rhinestone for a little bling.

The brushes were easy to manipulate and they cleaned up really well.  I love the flower handle so much!! It had a durable finish on it so it won't get ruined by acetone. 

Layered Butterfly

This layered butterfly design is my last summer-inspired mani.  Now it's time for fall, how is this possible?  It feels like just yesterday we were thawing out after the coldest winter ever!  Oh well... such is life.

I love layered looks like this, especially stamping on top of stripes or other simple nail art patterns.  For this mani I painted the 3 nails in Zoya Wendy from the summer Tickled Collection.  I just love this melon shade! 

The other two nails were painted white and then I used a striping brush to paint the tan stripes, which are Essie Sand Tropez.  

Finally I used Konad plate #M36 with Wendy to stamp the butterflies.  I wanted them to stand out more so I filled them in. 

I got so many complements on this mani.  I am so excited that I have really gotten the hang of stamping because it creates so many more mani possibilities.  I guess I saved the best for last because this is by far my favorite summer mani I created this season.

Now that we are welcoming fall colors, why don't you share with us your favorite summer mani? 

XoXo Nail Addicted Sisters

~Vicky

Born Pretty Product Reviews- Water Decals and Stamping Plate

**All products were provided  for an honest review**

I was so excited to try these water decals.  Owls are everywhere these days, on clothing, pillows, jewelry... and now they're on your nails!  

How cute are they?!  I love the colors and the variety.  

The polishes I used for this mani are Sinful Shine Rendezvous and Essie Find Me An Oasis.  I used striping tape to create the striped design. 

The best thing about water decals is that they are so easy to apply.  So even if you have trouble with other kinds of nail art, you can still create an eye-catching design with little effort!  Check out Born Pretty's huge selection of water decals, you won't be disappointed!

Find these awesome decals here!

Cosmo... The Perfect Drink and the Perfect Pixie

I have to admit, textured polishes aren't always my favorite.  But, I had never tried Zoya Pixies and I finally bought some a couple of months ago.  It was so hard to decide which one I wanted!  I ended up choosing Cosmo from the Magical Pixie Dust Spring 2014 collection.  Now it is taking all of my will power to resist buying the rest of the collection!  

This is more than a glitter bomb, this is like a disco ball on steroids in a bottle.  Zoya Cosmo is a silver textured polish with large iridescent hex particles.  Textured polishes can be tricky to apply smoothly but this applied nicely with minimal effort.  I applied 2 coats for full opacity.  

The mint shade is my favorite summer polish, Essie Absolutely Shore.  I love how these two polishes pair together.  To create the gradient accent nail I used an eyeshadow applicator to dab on the glitter polish then smoothed it out with topcoat.  I did not use topcoat on the middle finger in order to maintain the textured look.  

The best thing about this particular Pixie is that it can be paired with almost any shade.  But I think I want to try one of the others too... maybe Lux?  If you haven't tried them yet, I totally recommend them.  I got so many compliments on this mani.  I think the glitter really caught their eyes.  You can see this stuff from space! 

What is your favorite Zoya Pixie Dust?

XoXo Vicky

Nail Addicted Sisters

Stamping With Color Foil is a Dream!

Have you ever hunted down a hard-to-find, coveted polish?  I'm talking about going to over 10 stores to find one particular polish.  Picture visiting Ulta, CVS, Duane Reade, Target Harmon, and Walgreens, sometimes a couple locations of each.  Well, that's pretty much what I did last week while trying to get my hands on some of the limited edition Sally Hansen Color Foils.  Any company that comes out with a limited edition polish is a genius because the minute that label is put on it we all fight to get them.   My hunt ended at a Bed Bath and Beyond in NYC.  I nearly screamed with joy when I saw them!  So of course I bought 3...

The reason I wanted some of these polishes is because I heard they work really well with stamping.  And they totally do!!

This is my best stamping mani ever! The base color is Essie Find Me an Oasis from the Resort 2014 collection.  This ice blue is awesome for summer manis.

I stamped with Sally Hansen Color Foil Liquid Gold.  The pattern is from Mash Plate #43.  

If you've seen previous posts from us you'd know that sometimes we struggle with stamping.  Some polishes smudge easily or dry to quickly and some patterns are so hard to get straight.  The Color Foil formula is so perfect for stamping.  It doesn't smudge at all and the consistency is just right.  Plus, this particular pattern leaves room for error because it can be a little more random and doesn't need to be the same on each nail like some other patterns. 

I love how delicate and feminine this came out.  I was showing off this mani all weekend long.  

I also picked up two other shades from the collection, Titanium Flush and Minted Metal.  I can't wait to stamp with them!  If you have the opportunity to buy these polishes, do it!! Whether it's for stamping or for a solid mani, these polishes are worth hunting for.  

Have you tried the Color Foil polishes yet?  If so, how do you like this new SH collection?

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters
~Vicky

The Most PERFECT Mint and a Little Lace

The search is over.  I found the absolutely perfect mint polish!  My favorite used to be Sally Hansen Mint Sorbet but the formula is very thick, goopy and difficult to apply evenly.  Then came along Essie Absolutely Shore...

The color is spot on.  It's exactly what you want in a mint shade.  It's not too light, not too dark.  Plus, it applies evenly and doesn't get streaky like many light cream colors.  This formula is somewhat thin so I needed 3 coats to achieve full opacity.  As always, Essie has the cutest polish names and this one is so clever!

  The nail decals I used are from The Born Pretty Store.  Decals are the simplest way to achieve a bold look with minimal effort.  These particular decals were a bit tricky because they shrunk and spread a little after applying top coat.  Most of them came out perfect but the thumb decal spread and my middle finger shrunk and bunched on the tip a little, which you can see in the photo below.  Of course, these imperfections are only noticeable close up.  You can find a ton of great nail decals at the Born Pretty Store here.  They are so cheap, between $1 and $4 per pack.  And be sure to use our 10% off coupon code located at the bottom of this post!

Mint green is one of my favorite shades for Spring and Summer.  I am excited to use this one over and over again in the coming months.  I think it would make a great base for an aztec design.

Please share your favorite mint green shades in the comments section!

XoXo Vicky

Nail Addicted Sisters

Valentine's Day Manis, Double Time!!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!  I know many of you are probably overloaded with Valentine's Day manis by now, but still I have to share mine!!  I've been super busy so I did two fairly simple designs.  Here we go!!

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In this first mani I painted by nails with Essie No Baggage Please.  This shade has become my go-to pink.  In fact, I need to buy more! I striped my accent nail with Zoya Dove using a striping brush. 

I painted the heart and the XOXO using NYC Wine Bar and a nail art brush.  I am loving the layered look of the accent nail and hope to think of more designs like this.

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In the my second V-day mani I painted my nails with Revlon Rich Rasperry.  My pinky nail has a layer of Glitter Guilty Glam Girl, just for some extra sparke :)

The accent nail is painted with Essie Best Friend's Boyfriend, a sheer pink, and topped with Essie Luxeffects Pure Perfection before I stamped.  Then I used Rich Raspberry to stamp the hearts from Mash Plate #48.  The more I stamp, the better I get at it.  This one worked perfectly on the first try! Yay!

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I love both of these manis because they are simple but still festive and eye-catching.  I've seen some crazy and intricate designs this Valentine's Day and I am so impressed by the creativity of my fellow bloggers!  I am planning on stepping it up a notch for Easter, watch out! 

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day full of love!

XoXo Vicky

Zoya Stamped Swirls

OMG!! It's freaking snowing again here in New York. And not a little. Like, the schools are closed and I have a snowman on my lawn. I like the winter and the cooler weather better than the summer, but this is insane!! And we're supposed to get more snow later this week!! Craziness!!

So, you saw some failed stamping from me last week when I posted about Liquid Palisade. I gave it another shot and this was what my result was. I am really happy with it even though it's far from perfect. And I used Liquid Palisade, so my clean up was a breeze!

I've been seeing a lot of two-toned stamping and I just love the way it looks. For this mani I chose Essie Play Date as my base and stamped with Zoya Belinda. This is MASH #40.  I guess I'll have to expand my stamp collection. :) Uh oh!!

You can see a smear on my ring finger, which I believe is the result from not scraping the stamp plate with enough pressure or at the wrong angle. There are some gaps on the sides of the nails too. Does anyone know how to avoid that? I think the image was big enough to transfer. I'm at a loss.

So now that my sister and I can officially stamp, you will definitely see more and I can't wait!!! The possibilities are endless!!!

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

Crazy Nail Contraption & An Dot

Calling all polish lovers!! You have got to see this crazy contraption my mom got me for Christmas. Every year she orders TONS of fun things you will never see in the store from a catalogue called LTD. This year she got me and my sister this thing called the Nail Polish Station. 

I ALWAYS do my nails while sitting on the couch watching TV. This is a tricky thing to maneuver. I usually bend my knees and squeeze the polish in between the them so both hands are free, leaning my hands on my legs for leverage. If I'm doing some kind of nail art, I have a TV dinner tray thingy I set up. And that's how the magic happens. HAHAHA!! It sounds crazy when you put it all out there.

In comes the the Nail Polish Station. This pic shows it set up with base coat, color polish, and top coat. And it is laying on my LAP. :) The contraption holds the bottles in place and has a pivoting hand rest. The perfect little tool to do your nails on the couch without making a mess!! What do you think?? Is this kind of thing for you??

 On to the mani!!! My hubby did an awesome job of stuffing my stocking with a few new polishes. He picked out some Essie shades I never saw before. This one is Essie Armed & Ready from the 2012 Go Overboard Collection. It's a olive-gray color with a hint of golden shimmer. And true to most Essie polishes, the formula was amazing!!  

I decided this mani needed a little something extra. I just picked up OPI Love, Angel, Music, Baby from the new Gwen Stefani collection. Using a dotting tool a just added a simple dot to each nail. I will definitely be showing you all more of this amazing gold  color!

This polish had a matte finish, so I added it after the top coat. 

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

Happy New Year…Belated!!

We are well into 2014, this I know, but Nail Addicted Sisters would like to wish you and yours and very happy new year.

For our first post of the new year I wanted to share with you my mani I attempted to for New Year's Eve. I say attempted because it didn't make it more than a few hours. I'll get to that later.

I guess I would call this a fishbone french manicure. I had seen something that inspired this mani that was  more of pointed french tip and this is what I came up with. I used a thin striping brush to freehand everything so each fingernail is slightly different.

From cuticle to tip, the colors I used are: Essie Mademoiselle, Zoya Trixie, Polish Yer Hooves Milky Way, and MOD Lacquer Thunderbird. I absolutely loved the way all of these colors complimented one another and more importantly SPARKLED!!

The problem I had was that none of these polishes were opaque with one coat. Therefore, in some spots I ended up with up to EIGHT coats of polish, TEN if you count base and top coat. While I left hours for this mani to dry, and it was fine while I did my daily activities, it all came crashing down when it was time to take a shower. :( I didn't realize half my polish was GONE till I got out of the shower. Needless to say I went to New Year's Eve dinner with my family with NAKED NAILS. MY WORST NIGHTMARE!!! LOL

Anyway, I was glad I had taken pics and am able to share it with you. I hope you are all have a great new year. 

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika

Crazy Cool Flakie

Yummy flakie goodness!!! Born Pretty Store has a fantastic line of flakies and I had to have at least one of them! I chose this one.

This is called Sweet Color W015. I hate that Born Pretty Store doesn't name their polishes, but numbers them. Where's the creativity?? I layered this lovely polish over two Essie fall colors,  After School Boy and Vested Interest on the accent nail. I love how this polish looks over both polishes.

The great thing about flakies is they can look dramatically different over different colors making them so versatile.

What's your favorite flakie polish??

XOXO Nail Addicted Sisters

~Erika