Monthly Archives: October 2014

31 Oct

Nightmare Before Christmas Nail Art

Happy Halloween!

The kids were super cute in their costumes, and they had a blast trick-or-treating. As of today, there are a bunch of sales girls at Park Mall that have photos on their phones of an adorable Mario and Elsa. I had a lot of fun with them. I never did get around to doing any Halloween nail art for myself aside from my stamped spiderwebs from last week.  My baby sister (aka The Shutterbug) asked me to do her nails last week though, so I do have another design to share. I knew she needed some Nightmare Before Christmas nail art for the season. I looked online for some screen shots from the movie and did some doodling and came up with a few nail ideas. I asked her for some input as well since I’ve never seen the movie, and this is what we came up with. To do these, I used brushes from the 8 pc. nail art brush set I reviewed yesterday. I did use a striping brush and one of my other brushes that I cut down to a teensy size (like 8 strands) to do the stitches and lashes on Sally. But everything else was done with those brushes from Born Pretty Store.

Nightmare Before Christmas Nail Art - both hands
Cute huh? We got out the lightbox out to take pictures of these and Mr. Nailinator took the liberty of taking the photos for me since I wasn’t feeling well at the time. They turned out too bright and a bit fuzzy because he didn’t check them before he released sent The Shutterbug off to enjoy her nails. Anyway, he tried to sharpen the close up shots for me a bit so that they would be as clear as possible. Though the pictures don’t really do them justice (IMHO), I still wanted to share these with you as I’m pretty darn proud of them.

Nightmare Before Christmas Nail Art - Jack and Sally

Nightmare Before Christmas Nail Art - Sally Close-up

Nightmare Before Christmas Nail Art - Moon/hill

I’m not really into gory, bloody, and creepy stuff, and I don’t like scary movies. I’m a mom of two little ones who mostly watches Winnie the Pooh and The Magic School Bus, so don’t expect much nail art like that over the years. What you can expect are Christmas nails when it’s the season. Because I. LOVE. CHRISTMAS! Seriously though, it makes me ridiculously giddy.

Have a faBOOlous day!
Rach

 

31 Oct

Born Pretty Store Nail Art Brush Set Review

Today I’m reviewing a brush set from Born Pretty Store. They sell all sorts of nail art supplies and products (plus makeup, jewelry, etc.) and ship internationally for free, which is great! If you live in the Philippines, you will have to pay customs and a parcel fee on the package when it arrives. So keep that in mind. It cost me about 150 pesos to claim a package with 3 items in it. Just something to consider when ordering online.

The product I’m reviewing today is their 8 pc Nail Art Brush Set.

8 Pc. Nail Art Brush Set

I am rather pleased with this affordable brush set. They cost USD$4.32 right now, which is about PHP 190. The set includes seven different  brushes and one small dotting tool. The handles are pink, which I personally love.

Born Pretty Store Nail Art Brush Set

If you look at the close-ups of the brushes below, you will see two sizes of brushes that come to a point, one angled brush, one flat brush, and two sizes of flat brushes that are slightly rounded at the end. I love these flat brushes for cleanup around the cuticle or for making bigger shapes for nail designs. If I had any skills whatsoever with one-stroke flowers, I’m sure they would be perfect for that as well. The set also comes with a very small tip brush, which is great for detail work (like the leaves of my roses in the picture below). The dotting tool in this set is a very small one and it’s perfect for making tiny polka dots like you see below and for the swirly parts of these roses. I use this size of a dotting tool to do the markings of leopard print nail art.

Close up of Born Pretty Store Nail Art Brush Set

The set is shipped with these protective covers (pictured below) to help keep them from being bent. It is best to store them with the covers on, just to be safe.

Born Pretty Store Nail Art Brush Set with protective cases

Overall, this is definitely a good set of brushes. The price is right, it has a decent variety of tools and uses. If you purchased this set, you would be able to do a lot of different designs with them. You could even cut some of the bristles off  one of these brushes to make finer tip brushes if you want something smaller. I’ll be sharing some nail art I’ve done with these very soon.

Nail Art Brush Set in hand

Well, that’s my review of this 8 pc. Nail Art Brush Set. What do you think of this set? Do you want it? Already have it?

I’ve got a coupon code for you that will give you 10% off your entire order if you get the hankering to order this, or anything else, on BornPrettyStore.com.

Coupon

I hope you have a great day. I’m off to bed so I can get up in the morning and take my two little ones (Super Mario and Queen Elsa) trick-or-treating at the mall. Yeah, we do things a bit differently here in the Philippines.
Hugs,
Rachael

24 Oct

Eeeek! Inspired Glitter Placement Nail Art

Hello!

It’s a great day! It’s Friday and it just so happens to be the birthday of one of my all time favorite bloggers EVAR! Jemma of Eeeek! Nail Polish! has just completed another trip around the sun. To celebrate the occasion, several of us got together to honor her by recreating some of her fabulous nail art. I chose this glitter placement mani that she did recently. Check it out. Isn’t it just lovely? If you love nail art you NEED to follow her because she is a never-ending source of amazing inspiration!

Eeeek! Nail Polish tribute Glitter Placement mani

Happy birthday Jem! Thanks for being such a darling and an inspiration. I hope that you get spoiled and have a great day. Here is wishing you a great year ahead and many more fabulous manicures to come!

Hugs!
Rach

PS. Thanks Brijit for being a sweetheart and organizing all this.


23 Oct

I Love Nail Polish Indie Go with Spiderwebs

Hi, Dolls!

I may be slacking a bit in the blogging department, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing my nails. I am also working on some product reviews which will be featured here very soon.  In the past couple of weeks, I have been doing several overdue craft projects here at home. Did you know that, in addition to nail art, I love to sew, cross stitch, paint, and make all sorts of crafty things? I am also fond of cultivating my OCD tendencies and germophobia by indulging in my long-time hobby of organizing and cleaning the house. With two little ones running around, I’m never at a loss for something to clean.

I was up super late doing some awesome “The Nightmare Before Christmas” nail art for The Shutterbug (I’ll share those soon), so I went for some thing quick and easy for myself. I started with two coats of  I Love Nail Polish Indie Go. It happens to be my favorite indie polish and a very cool shade to wear for the season. I used my MJ XIII plate from MyOnline Shop with some special stamping polish and stamped these neat cobwebs on my nails. I used this same stamp last year, but with a new nail shape and a change of colors, I think it looks completely different. Wouldn’t you agree?

I Love Nail Polish Indie Go with spiderwebs

Check out my swatch of Indie Go. It’s what I would call a “blurple”—meaning it’s blue, but it’s also purple. I had trouble catching the holo magic using my lightbox, and it rained every day while I was wearing this, so I never could get a snapshot of it in the sun. #bloggerproblems

I Love Nail Polish Indie Go (lightbox)

This last photo is in direct indoor lighting.

I Love Nail Polish Indie Go (direct indoor lighting)

I hope you have a wonderful day and that you get the chance to make someone smile.

Hugs!
Rachael

13 Oct

Beauty & Butter Cebu Review and Giveaway

Beauty & Butter Giveaway

This giveaway is sponsored by Beauty & Butter.
My review of their salon is based on services I paid for myself.
All opinions are my own. 🙂

It’s giveaway time!!!!

Beauty & Butter is graciously sponsoring a giveaway for my lovely followers in Cebu. One lucky lady will win a 500 peso gift certificate to spend at their SM City Cebu branch. The rafflecopter for entries is at the end of this post. Read on for my review of Beauty & Butter.

Beauty & Butter Review

Like many nail hobbyists, I’m not really into giving myself pedicures. It’s just awkward and hard to bend that way. Ya know? So occasionally I need to go salon hunting. I recently needed a pedi and decided to try out Beauty & Butter, and I was so, so, so happy with the service there. Let me tell you why…

The staff was very pleasant and knowledgeable about their products and services. I thoroughly enjoyed discussing nail art with the ladies there and sharing some tips and tricks. They have many types of nail art available upon request. I was thrilled to see that they sterilize their tools between clients. Clean tools may be the norm elsewhere, but many, MANY salons in the Philippines still do not sanitize their tools which, in addition to just being gross, can spread fungus and infections.

Beauty & Butter

The decor of the salon is fun, and they offer many services from facials and waxing to nail art and gel polish. They also sell several brands of imported polishes if that is what you are searching for—Zoya, OPI and Ruby Wing just to name a few.

The manicure/pedicure services do cost more than they do at most salons I have visited. Honestly though, I don’t visit salons very often. You can see their price list here. But for me, it is worth it to know that my nails are in safe (and properly sanitized) hands when I go get a pedicure every now and then! Say “NO” to fungus and infected cuticles! Say “YES” to sanitized tools! Props to you, Beauty & Butter! Thanks again for sponsoring this giveaway!

The Giveaway

Now on to the fun part! All of my followers in Cebu are welcome to join.
The giveaway will be live until October 24th at 12AM. One winner will be selected to win a 500 peso gift certificate to be claimed and used at Beauty & Butter SM Cebu Branch only. Please read the terms and conditions for full list of rules. Good luck to everyone who enters!

You can connect with Beauty & Butter via Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Beauty & Butter Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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