For my last nails of the year, I'm going with some brand new water decals from my absolute favourite shop, the Born Pretty Store. I think these are SO pretty!
My base colour is So Susan's pretty sheer pink, Mimosa (review here). This is three coats. I then added the decals. These are part of set, item no. 10825 (see here) which are currently $3.99 on the BPS website. You can get the set with silver accents, or with the gold, which is what I have here.
I've used a very small amount of the decals to make this look, which I have done on both hands. I used only the narrower band of stripes in the lower section, the chain below it, and the loose bunches of roses in the middle. I still have loads left for next time - the two big corner chunks, the wider band of stripes, the band of roses with chains, the large clumps of roses, the band of roses at the bottom, and all the gold wording and letter ovals.
Water decals are so easy to use, I love them! You just use a small bowl of warm water, drop the decal in and leave for a few seconds, then slide it off the card and onto your nail in the water. Dry with kitchen roll, topcoat, and you're done. They lie totally smooth and can last for days.
The gold is so shiny in the light! I really like this look. The roses on their own are really pretty - they'd look good as an accent nail on an otherwise plain mani. I love the multicolour stripes a lot, I'm a huge fan of stripes. The large chunk would cover a couple of whole nails, or you could stripe across all the nails, or make French tips. The gold chains are a nice little accent - I've used them here to mark off the tips on a couple of nails and as an accent on the thumb. But I think they'd also look really good as a very simple accent on the tip on black nails.
What do you think?
If you do fancy treating yourself to something at the Born Pretty Store, they are having a 20% off sale until January 3rd! With that, plus my discount code, you can get some real bargains at the moment!
I received this product for review purposes, but words and opinions are entirely my own. I do not receive anything if you use my discount code, although when it's been used ten times, BPS will let me host a giveaway for my readers! See my Disclosure page for more details.
Just a short post today. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day in the UK. This morning was the ceremony at the Cenotaph, and last night was the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall.
I used So Susan polishes (see review here) in Mimosa and Raspberry for these. I painted the poppy with a fine brush, and added a dot of Zoya Storm in the centre.
The red nails with gold studs were inspired by the scarlet coats and gold buttons of the Chelsea Pensioners. The studs are from the Born Pretty Store, and are held on with topcoat.
I was contacted recently by Susan, the founder of brand new UK company So Susan, asking if I wanted to review one of her nail varnish subscription boxes. I LOVE the idea of a nail varnish subscription box, but so far they've not been available in the UK, so I jumped at the chance!
So Susan doesn't just sell nail varnish, as you can see by the website here, but the nail varnish subscription box is the bit that interests me! For £14.95, you get a box every month containing 4 items, of which at least 3 are nail varnish (postage is free).
The box itself is a lovely solid one, in a pretty pale Tiffany green. Rather than being just a box with a lid that lifts off, the lid kind of wraps round and closes with magnets! It's really cute and clever.
Inside this launch box, there are 4 polishes, and also an eyeliner/eyeshadow pencil in a dark greeny-brown colour. I'm not much of a make-up wearer, but I do sometimes wear eyeliner, so I'll definitely try this out.
The nail polishes each come in a nice box with all the details, and a little window to see the colour. So Susan nail lacquer is 4-free, so does not contain DBP, tuolene, formaldehyde or formaldehyde resin. It also contains rosehip fruit oil to moisturise and strengthen your nails and the skin around them. The packaging also confirms that these contain no parabens, no sulfates, no mineral oils, phthalates, triclosan or animal by-products, and that the polish is cruelty-free.
The 4 colours in this box are (left to right) Raspberry, Mimosa, Silver Clouds and Pink Guava. I have to be honest - my first reaction on opening them was that they looked smaller than I was expecting (they're billed as 'full size') and that the colours didn't look particularly unique. However - on the size, these are 9ml, which is 1ml more than a standard Rimmel bottle, and 1ml less than a Barry M bottle, so they definitely are full size. The bottles look smaller than say, Barry M bottles because when you hold them side by side, you can see the glass is much thicker on the Barry M ones, making them just look bigger.
On to the swatches!
This is Mimosa, two coats, no topcoat. The first coat went on very streaky, and I was a bit worried that this wouldn't look good. However, as if by magic, it dried non-streaky! I really like this colour - it's a soft, delicate, sheer pale pink, with a lovely glossy finish.
The application was nice - the polish is smooth and even, goes on well and dries quickly. The brush is a touch on the short size for my taste, which is inevitable with the small shape of the bottle, but it's not difficult or awkward to use.
Next up is Pink Guava. This is ONE coat (yes, really!) with no topcoat.
Pink Guava is a fabulous bright pink, highly pigmented and very glossy. Excellent formula, application was easy peasy. It's a lovely squishy-looking colour and finish, so shiny and happy. I love this one!
This is Silver Clouds, which is my least favourite of the four (not that I dislike it!) This is two coats, no topcoat again. Silver Clouds is a silvery grey polish with a pinky shimmer, a little bit like Barry M Dusky Mauve, but much nicer.
This is a touch on the brushstroke-y side when it dries; not hugely so, but enough to make application a little fiddlier than the other polishes in the box. The shimmer is really pretty though, and this is very nice. It's just not as much MY sort of colour as the others in the set.
Last up is Raspberry, a gorgeous red-pink polish. This is two coats, no topcoat.
Raspberry is not quite a crème, not quite a jelly, what some bloggers refer to as a 'crelly'. It is a little bit sheer and you can still see some visible nail line - I'm fine with that. The red is a gorgeous bright shade. Again, like Pink Guava, it's highly pigmented and very zingy and glossy. I really love this one too. The brights are definitely very me!
Overall, I think these are excellent. Very good quality formula and application, and the presentation of the box is really good. For £3.75 per bottle I'd be very happy to pay for this. Now, my absolute favourite thing about this box is that you don't have to take it every month! When you sign up, you get a preview of the next box, and if you like it, you do nothing, and it arrives. If you're not so keen, you just opt out that month, and you won't pay. Or you can also choose to send it to a friend, which I think is a really cool option! It's a really neat way of sending a present to someone. I think the box would make a great Christmas present for a nail varnish lover! Mind you, from a preview, I would probably not have bought this box as the colours look similar to others I have (but then I have way too many polishes!) but on actually trying them, I really am impressed and will definitely keep all of them, and use them.
You can sign up to buy this LacquerLove subscription box on the So Susan website, details here Oh! Another really cool thing about this - when you buy from So Susan, you get loyalty points, which you can collect for money off future purchases. There isn't enough of that sort of thing around in the nail varnish world!
This box was provided free of charge to me for my honest review. See my Disclaimer section for more information.
