26 Aug

Zentangled Nail Art (Ft. Girlstuff Sophia) 

Hello!

Two posts from me within a week? It’s like old times again! I’m sharing a look I wore a while back. I have recently been on a Zentangle kick and, after making cards and borders for projects, of course the next step was to bring the tangling to my nails!

Girlstuff Sophia with Zentangle Nail art

I started with two easy coats of Girlstuff Sophia. Sophia is a very pretty beige shade with pink undertones. Looking at the bottle, I honestly wasn’t 100% sure it would be very flattering on my skin tone but I was pleasantly surprised. I LOVE it! I was also happy to find that I only needed 2 coats for full opacity and it dried quickly. The Zentangled designs are done with black acrylic paint and a teeny tiny brush. Aren’t they awesome!?!?  Here is a shot of Sophia on its own.

Girlstuff Sophia Swatch

I love that I’ve been finding some neutral colors that I like on my skin tone. By looking at my polish collection I can see that I really favor dark colors. I find it very refreshing to have a clean neutral tone on my nails from time to time. Neutrals also make  great base for nail art.

What is your favorite neutral shade to sport on your nails? And have you ever done any Zentangling? Please take a moment to share in the comments. I hope you have a zentastic day!

Hugs,
Rach

 

29 Apr

Useful Tools: Tilted Nail Polish Bottle Holder

Hello lacquered ladies!

Today I’m going to tell you about a super cool little tool that I have in my nail art stash. I bought this tilted nail polish bottle holder. from Born Pretty Store a while back, and it has come in quite handy, so I thought I would share it with you in case you wanted to get your hands on one too.

It’s flexible enough to hold several different shaped bottles in. China Glaze might give you a problem because the base of the bottle is so wide, but all the other imported and local brands that I own fit fairly well. A big plus is that it can hold skinny little bottles. Those little tubes of polish that come in nail art pen sets are so hard to hold while you polish your nails with them. This little gadget solves that problem.

Titled Nail Polish Bottle Holder

The downside to this design is that it doesn’t tilt the bottle as far as I would like. When the bottle is about half full (See my optimistic view on that?) you are going to need more of an angle to get the product near to the neck for easy dipping. But you can set the edge of the bottle holder on a thin book or coaster, and it will tilt a bit more and still feel pretty sturdy.

Tilted Nail Polish Bottle Holder with small and large bottles

I also love to use this to hold my bottle of nail glue. Nail glue usually comes in small, lightweight plastic bottles that tip over easily. When glue spills into the threads it makes the cap stick and hard to open. I used to need a pair of locking pliers to open my nail glue after a few uses. This bottle holder keeps it upright, and I don’t have any problems with spillage and sticking anymore.

This particular tilted nail polish bottle holder costs $2.46 from Born Pretty Store and is totally worth the small price. I would definitely suggest getting your hands on one if you are searching for something like this. BPS gave me a coupon code to share so that you can get 10% off your entire order from their store.

Born Pretty Store Coupon 10% Off Code, TEAW10

I hope you found this post useful. Have a great day and don’t forget to make someone smile!

Hugs,
Rach

02 Dec

SanSan Warm Blue with Icy Ruffian

Hi ladies!

Just because it is Monday doesn’t mean we should feel blue. Of course, that is easy for me to say because Monday is my hubby’s day off, and we went out today, had a grand time with the kids, and got most of our Christmas shopping done. Win! Plus it is finally December 1, which means Christmas everything. Bring on the holiday nails!

Warm Blue Glitter Ruffian snowflake

I’ve got a quick and easy look to share with you today. All it takes to do this is a pretty icy blue shade and some glitters. I started with couple coats of this lovely, light, icy blue polish, ironically named Warm Blue (by Sansan). I added a glitter ruffian flair with the pearly glitters from the hexagonal glitter set sent to me by Born Pretty Store. After applying the second coat of Warm Blue, I used a damp orange wood stick to pick up the glitters and place them where I wanted them. Then I finished with topcoat. Easy peasy!

Warm Blue Glitter Ruffian

This was easy to do and ended up looking so pretty! I will definitely be doing this type of look again. The glitter adds just the right amount of sparkle. The colors I chose are definitely winter appropriate. I had a couple of people tell me they looked like “Frozen” nails. I can totally see Elsa rocking these babies and singing, “Let it SNOOOOOW”! Haha!

Well, I hope you liked these. If you want to order the 12-color glitter set from Born Pretty Store (or anything else for that matter) you can use my coupon code for 10% off your entire order!

BornPrettySore Coupon Code TEAW10

I hope you have a great start to the week! Keep smiling!
Hugs,
Rach

10 Nov

Born Pretty Store Hexagonal Glitter Review

Hi there!

I’ve got another product review to share with you. When Born Pretty Store contacted me a while back asking me to review some of their products, I knew immediately that I wanted to get my hands on their 12-Color Hexagon Glitter Set I’ve heard so much about. When I received the package, I immediately set about putting tons of glitter all over my nails! I was thinking of doing something pumpkin related with these. But after I finished with the orange glitter, I realized that they looked more like koi fish scales. They were so fantastically glittery, I decided to leave them as is. Aren’t they pretty?

Orange Hexagonal Glitter Placement mani

To achieve this flashy look, I started with two thin coats of a similar base color (Caronia Bourrée in this case). After my base color was dry, I applied a bit of clear polish down the center of my nail and, using a damp orange wood stick to pick them up, carefully placed the glitter piece by piece in a straight line down the middle of my nail. Then I worked out towards the sides of the nail, applying clear coat column by column to get the glitter to stick. Using my cuticle nippers, I cut some glitter in half for the edges of my nails. After the nail was covered to my liking, I applied a generous layer of clear coat to seal it all in.

Orange Hexagonal Glitter Placement mani 2

I can’t believe that it has been a year since I did a full glitter placement mani! They are so pretty and fun to wear.

Hexagonal Glitter Review

Let me tell you more about the 12-Color Hexagonal Glitter Set from BPS.  The pack comes with 12 different colors each packed nicely in a clear pot with a screw top lid. There is a ton of glitter in each pot and the colors are very pretty.

Born Pretty Store 12 Color Hexagonal Glitter set

I have to say that some of the hexes are cut very well , like these orange ones for instance. There may have been one or two oddly cut pieces that I found while I was placing these bits, but most of them were just right. The silver ones that I used for another look, on the other hand, were not so perfect. I had wonky hexes, half hexes, and wonky half hexes (you get the picture). If you plan to use these on a matching base then the wonky shapes won’t be such a concern. But if you look closely at my other mani, you can tell clearly that they are shaped a bit off—a contrasting color makes it a little more obvious. In reality though, I wore that design for several days and had many compliments on it with no one noticing anything amiss. Maybe it’s just my OC self making note of the shape issue, but the silver hexes are the oddest of the bunch. The rest are significantly better.

I decided to include a little gallery with a sample from each pot of glitter so that you can see for yourself the general quality of the glitter. The color is hard to make out on some of these, but the silhouettes show just how well-cut (or not) each color is. Just click/tap an image to enlarge it and then flip through them one-by-one.

Overall, I think this is a great product. This 12-color hexagon glitter set usually goes for $6.85 on Born Pretty Store. They are having a sale at the moment, and you can get this set for $5.48, but the sale ends in just a few hours. If you live in the Philippines, I want to remind you again that, though there are no shipping costs from Born Pretty Store, you WILL have to pay customs fees (about 150 pesos) on any package coming from outside the Philippines. Delivery is also slow if you choose their free shipping option. So don’t expect your package soon. If you plan on ordering something from Born Pretty Store, you can use the coupon code below to get 10% off your entire order.

Coupon

Glitter placement manis are sooo eye-catching and versatile. I need to try a gradient type one soon or try different colors on each nail.

Orange Hexagonal Glitter over Caronia Bourrée

Have you done any glitter placement nail art? I would love to see! Please feel free to share a  link below in the comments if you feel like it. 🙂

I’m off to play some video games with my boy! Have a lovely day and keep smiling!

Hugs,

Rach

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

 

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