Beauty Big Bang sent me some free stamping plates and a jelly stamper to review. Today I'll be reviewing 2 separate orders that happened to both arrive at the same time (yay Canada Post strike!). One of these is from an order back in August, and another is from October.

I've received more products from Born Pretty to test and review! I chose a Thanksgiving themed stamping plate as well as a stamping polish to test out and review for you guys. I received them a little too late to post on time for Canadian Thanksgiving, but I hope that my design can at least inspire some of you on time for American Thanksgiving!

I'll try and keep this review short and sweet. Born Pretty sent me some products to test and review, and one of the polishes that I picked was a Peacock Holo Polish in a beautiful purple shade called Rose of No Mans Land (item ID #43165). The polish is a gorgeous colour that looks amazing worn over a coat of black polish or sponged on.

Below I tried wearing the polish three different ways. The first and last nail are one coat of the holo polish over black, my index finger is a coat over white polish, and the ring finger is the holo sponged over black. The polish looks amazing no matter how you wear it!

If you haven't checked out Born Pretty before, they're worth your time to check them out. They offer a wide variety of inexpensive nail art products with free worldwide shipping. I've been using their products for years and I love trying out their new products!

A couple of weeks ago I received some NeosStrata products to test and review for free courtesy of Influenster. It's probably one of the most expensive items that I've ever received from Influenster (or any review program) to review. In the NeoStrata VoxBox, I received four items to review: a facial lotion, facial cream, facial cleanser, and a glycolic peel.

The products that I received are supposed to help enhance skin clarity by smoothing the texture and reducing wrinkles through exfoliation (which is weird, because they're all very smooth products that don't feel exfoliating at all). I'm only 25 and don't really think about using products to target signs of aging, but I do have some thin lines on my forehead that I'm concerned about so I figured that these products may do me some good.

NeoStrata Resurface Glycolic Smoothing Lotion - $45 CAD

The facial lotion that I received is supposed to improve the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles, enhance skin clarity, exfoliate with AHAs, and is ideal for people with normal and oily skin. I have oily skin so this product is suitable for my skin type. The lotion came in a 10ml bottle and was okay, but didn't feel like anything special for me. It wasn't the most moisturizing facial lotion I've used, and I couldn't tell at all that the lotion was exfoliating my skin. I do think that it has helped a little with the redness on my skin, but aside from that I wasn't wowed by it.

NeoStrata Restore Bionic Face Cream - $75 CAD

The Bionic Face Cream honestly didn't wow me (and holy hell, look at that price tag). The cream is ideal for dry and sensitive skin, and is extremely hydrating. I received a 10ml bottle and I find that the product goes on very thick, a little sticky, and doesn't fully get absorbed by the skin. I can put it on an hour before bed and still have my face sticking to my pillowcase. My face feels super greasy afterwords which isn't very impressive for a $75 face cream.

NeoStrata Restore PHA Facial Cleanser - $30 CAD

One of the most affordable products in this line, the facial cleanser was probably one of my favourite products that I received. I received a 10ml bottle to test out, which I feel isn't a whole lot of cleanser for this particular product. I feel this way because the product applies a with a jelly-like consistency, and doesn't have much spreadability when applying it to the face. However, it's a very gentle cleanser. It's soap-free and lightly exfoliates without drying out the skin. It's also ideal for dry and sensitive skin types.

NeoStrata Smooth Surface Glycolic Peel - $80 CAD

The glycolic peel started off by wowing me, but quickly turned into my least favourite product from the line. It's a high strength exfoliating treatment that is meant to reduce the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, uneven pigmentation, roughness, and pore size when used as part of a NeoStrata regimen. It's most ideal for normal and oily skin types. For $80, I thought that this product was going to be amazing. Boy was I wrong. When I started using this product, it definitely reduced the redness of my face as well as diminish the size of some of my larger pores. It stung a little with the first use, and only for a few seconds, but I may have just had some open sores (i.e. I popped some black heads). The more I used the product though, the more white heads appeared on my face. At first I figured it was like the skin regimen that my doctor prescribed me when I was in high school; that my face would get worse before it would get better. But my face progressively got worse and worse. I hadn't had such a bad breakout for several years. So sadly, after two weeks of using the peel, I had to give up on it. It's been a few days since I stopped using the peel and my face has almost instantaneously recovered.

I wish that I could say that I loved these products, but I just can't. For a luxury skincare line, I wasn't wowed. I've tried drugstore brands of products that are more gentle on my skin and don't cause me to break out in horrible whiteheads across my face. I expected more from a brand that is so ridiculously expensive and meant to help my face recover. Instead, it made my face look reminiscent of my years in high school — of when I had horrible teenaged acne. A memory I'd strongly like to forget.

Hello everyone! Born Pretty sent me more items to review for you, and one of the items I chose to review was a stamping polish from their White Night collection (Item ID#42857). The White Night set of stamping polishes has a gold, silver, black, white and red polish. I ended up choosing the red polish called Dark Amor.

Now if you know me, I hate stamping. I also hate red nail polish because it always bleeds when you apply topcoat and doesn't remove easily from the skin with acetone. So what was I thinking, right?

A couple years ago, I created a Halloween design with blood dripping from the tops of the nails. I loved the design because it had Ghostface from the Scream movies, which is one of my favourite movie series. While the design still looked really cool, the red didn't show very well over black polish. I wanted to create a similar look for a Friday the 13th mani and I knew that I needed a red that would show over the black.

Ghostface/Scream nails from October 2016

Thankfully, I already had a stamping plate to create the blood drips. The plate doesn't actually have a blood drip design, as it was from the nail polish themed "Keep Calm and Polish On" plate. It's technically nail polish that's dripping, but I figured that the design could have multiple uses. I bought it from Born Pretty a couple years ago and never used it (because I hate stamping). Born Pretty doesn't seem to sell this particular plate anymore, so I'm unable to share the product link with you.

Recently I was contacted by Born Pretty to review some more products for you guys. One of the items that I chose to review is a peel off thermal nail polish. I haven't really tried any thermal polishes or peel off polishes before, so I figured that I would kill two birds with one stone.

If you're not familiar with Born Pretty, they're an online nail polish and nail art supply store that offers inexpensive items and free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase required. I love Born Pretty and have been buying their products for years. They're definitely worth checking out!

The collection that I chose from is the Champs Elysees series (item ID#42543). The Champs Elysees collection of thermal polishes has several different colours that are all thermally activated. Each polish is supposed to change into four different shades that are activated by temperature and sunlight.

When the polish is warm, it turns a transparent powder/pastel blue like in the image above. After three coats of polish, the product wasn't fully opaque which was disappointing. As you can see, you can still see my nail tips.


In the sun, the polish turns lilac purple. You can see that it's not fully opaque, but it's a little more opaque than how the polish looked as the powder blue from warm temperatures.

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Beautiful colour changing polish from @bornprettystore! It changes colour in different temperatures and in sunlight! Colour is The Smurfs (Item ID#42543) from the Champs Elysees collection and I used 3 coats. The light blue is in warm water, dark blue in cold water, and it also turns purple in the sunlight. It was hard to take pictures by my window like I usually do because I’d dip my nails in cold water and as soon as I’d go to snap a pic of my nails they’d then purple from the sunlight! Super fun and I definitely want to try out their other colours from this collection.

A post shared by Christina - Blondie's Nails (@blondiesnails) on Sep 25, 2018 at 2:30pm PDT

Application is very easy. You start by cutting the shapes out of the paper, then soak them one at a time in a shallow dish of water for 10-20 seconds. Next, place the design on your nail. When you are satisfied with the placement, press the design down to secure it and then dissolve the excess edges with some acetone or buff it away with a nail file. Lastly, secure with top coat!

Last month, I was sent a magnetic polish as well as a double ended magnetic stick from Born Pretty to review. The magnet stick had a rectangle magnet to create a cat-eye effect, as well as a circular magnet to create radial designs. This month, I was sent another magnetic polish and a different double ended magnet stick to review. This magnet sick has a ridged end that can be used to create a snake skin effect by dabbing it close to the magnetic polish, or straight lines if dragged over the polish. The other end has a flower pattern to create floral designs (Magnet stick product ID #42023).

Beauty Big Bang has reached out to me to test and review some more of their products. This time they've sent me a set of 5 water transfers to review, which you can find here (Product ID #ZHSP032). Right now they're advertised at $14.32CAD for the set, but the prices are always fluctuating due to their ever changing sales.

Item ID#J6468TM

Item ID #J6465TM

Item ID #J6470TM

Item ID #J6467TM

Item ID #J6469TM

This polish had a beautiful multichrome cat eye effect. The colours shifted from bronze to green, gold, and pink depending on the lighting. The above picture is what the product looks like in the shade. Again, I will note that you don't see the magnetic cat eye effect very well on the pinky nail because I didn't use a thick coat of magnetic polish. Thick coats of magnetic polish = more magnetic particles that can be pulled toward the magnet. I guess that's what I get for testing the polish on my picture hand instead of my picture-taking hand.


This picture shows what the polish looks like under a camera flash. Here you can really see how the product can look pink in some lighting!


Lastly, this is what the product looks like under direct sunlight. This is when I found the product looked the most green/gold. No matter what the lighting was, this polish looked simply stunning!

The Born Pretty Aurora Magnetic Polish is now available for purchase on the Born Pretty Store website. If you haven't checked out Born Pretty's site before, I strongly suggest it. They offer a wide variety of inexpensive polishes and nail art supplies. They also offer free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase! This is my favourite part about their store, because I live in Canada and shipping here tends to be pricy. Plus, for a limited time they have an offer where you can get $3 off a $6 purchase, which is so easy to do because they have so many great items to choose from!

If you purchase one of their Aurora Magnetic Polishes, be sure to tag me on social (@blondiesnails) so that I can check out your magnetic mani!

I love trying new and exciting nail art supplies, and I love it when companies reach out to me to review their products. Born Pretty Store contacted me to ask if I would review some of their nail art products for them. Of course I said yes! What I love about BPS is that they offer a large variety of inexpensive nail art supplies and free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase. It's one of my favourite nail art stores because of their affordable prices and because most stores charge a lot to ship to Canada.

One of the products that I chose to review are their laser flakies (Item ID #41970) in colour #1. I've shortened the name for when I have to refer to the product, because "0.2g BORN PRETTY Holographic Chameleon Mirror Nail Powder Laser Flakies Sequins Nail Art Paillette" is a bit of a mouthful! I chose colour #1 because of it's dominant pink colour, as I usually tend to pick blues and purples when I review products. And if anyone recalls, this product is essentially the same as the blue/purple Chameleon Aurora Flakies that I reviewed for Beauty Big Bang awhile back.

This product can be worn two different ways: flakie effect and mirror effect. Both of these effects are absolutely stunning, but I like wearing the mirror effect most to see the multi chromatic colour shifting.

The product page on the Born Pretty website gives directions on how to apply this product and says that you need to use gel polish to wear the flakes. However, I dislike wearing gel polish because the removal process is time consuming. So if you continue reading, I'm going to tell you how you can wear this product without using any gel polish.

Application for the scattered effect is incredibly easy. Start with base coat, a black base, then apply a thin coat of top coat and wait for it to become tacky instead of fully dry. Next, start lightly tapping a sparse amount of the flakes over the nails. Remember to do this in random motions, and to leave space between each part of the nail that you've tapped onto to create the scattered effect. When you are happy with the design, apply a thick coat of glossy topcoat to seal it in.


To create the mirror effect, apply base coat, a black base, then apply a thin coat of top coat and wait for it to become tacky instead of fully dry. Then start tapping the flakes onto your nails until most of the nail is covered. This part is important, because once most of the nail is covered you're going to lightly buff the product onto the nail to cover any spots that are still black. By covering most of the nail before the buffing process, you're preventing the applicator from sticking to the tacky topcoat and smearing your design. If you've missed any spots and the topcoat has dried, simply repeat the process of applying more topcoat, wait for it to become tacky, and buff on more flakes to even out the design. Lastly, finish the look with a thick coat of glossy topcoat.


The mirror effect is absolutely mesmerizing to look at once it is finished. The colour shifts from predominantly pink to gold and green, and interspersed are smaller flecks of holographic flakes. The design can look more evenly buffed in if you use gel top instead of regular topcoat, but as I said before, I hate using gel polish because of the time consuming removal process. And I also wanted to make sure that you guys knew that there's an alternative way to wear this product if you don't own gel polish or a UV lamp. Using regular topcoat for application still creates a desirable look, and I think it would look especially cool if you used nail vinyls that look like scales overtop to create a dragon or mermaid scale design.

I loved wearing these laser flakies, and would definitely wear them again. If you haven't already, be sure to check out Born Pretty's website and check out their other nail art products. They have more nail art supplies than you could ever imagine!

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I swear it's like every product that I've been waiting to review these past few months have gotten lost in the mail or have arrived super late! And there's been a few products that I've been very eager to review but will never get the chance to because of the packages getting lost. But one of the packages that I thought was lost in the mail finally arrived!

Born Pretty Store sent me some products to test and review and I'm so excited to share them with you. If you haven't checked out Born Pretty Store's website yet, you're truly missing out! BPS offers inexpensive nail art supplies and offers free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase.

One of the newest nail art trends that I hadn't had a chance to try yet was magnetic nail polish, so when I picked out the items I wanted to review of course I picked a magnetic gel polish! But you can't just buy a magnetic polish and expect it to work on it's own. To make magnetic polish work, you also need a magnet. The items that I'm reviewing today are the BPS double headed magnet (Item ID #42347) and BPS magnetic cat eye gel polish (Item ID #41907). Of course, if you're familiar with BPS you know I've just shortened the names of these products. It's much easier to say "magnetic cat eye gel polish" instead of "5ml BORN PRETTY Holographic Chameleon Magnetic Cat Eye Soak Off UV Gel Nail Polish Black Base Needed". Plus, this product is not holographic, so to say that it is holographic would be lying to you guys even though it's in the name of the product.

The type of magnetic polish that I chose to review comes in five different colours, but BPS has many other magnetic polishes on their site. And let's be frank, these names are kind of intense! There's Eye of God, Forever Young, Pillars of Eternity, Galaxy in Flames, and No Darkness Within Thee. Whenever I get to pick products to review, I tend to choose blue and purple colours because those are my favourite colours to wear on my nails. However, I decided to pick something different this time and chose Galaxy in Flames, which is a nice, burnt orange colour.

I prefer not to use gel polish unless it's necessary for using certain nail art supplies such as powders and pigments, so I don't have any gel polishes other than gel top coats. But as long as you have a UV lamp to cure this polish, then you can use regular base coat, black polish, and top coat with this product.

To use this product, start off with a base coat and then apply a black base. Apply an even coat of the magnetic polish, and then hold the magnetic stick as close as you can to the nail but without actually touching the surface of the uncured gel polish. The magnetic stick has two ends, one long magnet for straight lines, and a small circular magnet for radial and wavy designs. I chose the long magnet to create a cat eye effect going across the nail and found that using the magnet for about 3-5 seconds worked best to achieve a bold and pigmented strip across the nail. The longer I had the magnet close to the nail (about 10 seconds) the more the pigment tended to disperse across the nail instead of making a clean, more centralized strip of magnetic pigment. I probably had a bit of a shaky hand, causing the magnet to make the magnetic particles in the gel polish travel across the nail. Another important thing to note is that it is best to try and keep your fingers splayed apart so that the magnet doesn't get close to more than one nail at a time. It's a small magnet, but stronger than you'd think. It can ruin the design of the nails that you've already finished if you haven't cured them yet.
Next, you'll want to cure your nails under a UV lamp. I found that even after the product was cured, the polish on my nails were still very sticky, so I used an alcohol wipe to clean them off. This helped so much! Then lastly, I applied a regular topcoat to protect the design. The finished result is so lovely and my pictures don't do it justice. There's much more of a holographic effect on the nails. Not like HOLO (shout out to my fellow Simply Nailogical fans), but like the holographic/lenticular shifting images that you used to see on plastic collectable cards as a kid.

Overall, I wish that the cat eye effect looked more bold like it did in the pictures advertised on Born Pretty Store's product page. However, I was pleased with the effect that I achieved and would definitely try it again. I'd like to test out a radial or wavy design next time, and would also like to see if I can mix the magnetic gel polish with one of a different colour to create a multicoloured look.

There's some things that only people with long nails will understand. Things that nubby nailed people just don't get about us individuals with long nails. Not sure what I'm talking about? Well read on, because I'm about to get real with you.


1. Picking small things up can be a challenge



Some smaller objects can be extremely difficult to pick up. Coins, cards, bobby pins, etc. Once you drop the item on the ground your choices are limited. You can either struggle trying to pick the item up, have someone else pick it up for you, or accept your fate and leave it where it lays.

2. When you break a nail it's like losing a friend



This one hits home so hard, I just broke my thumbnail on my right hand (thank God it was not the hand I take pictures of for this blog, or I'd be even more devastated than I already am). It took me MONTHS to get it to the length that I had it at. Thumbnails are the slowest, most difficult nails to grow for me, and it was the longest it had ever been. But then tragedy struck, and I broke my nail. All my hard work and patience was gone. And if you think for one second that I'm going to file down all of my other nails to match the length of this one, you're dead wrong. This nail betrayed its sisters. It's a traitor. A back-stabber who needs to earn their place back in the family.

3. The click-clacky sound



You know the one. The one you make when you drum your fingers on a table that is oh-so satisfying but will annoy the hell out of anyone within earshot.

4. Using keyboards can be a bit of a challenge



If you grow out your nails naturally like myself, you adapt to being able to type with long nails. But if you get an acrylic manicure and try to use a computer right at the get-go, typing is a challenge. It can also be uncomfortable trying to type with that extra length that you're not used to. Even if you're a good typist your sentences can start to look like lorem ipsum. 

5. Touching your eyes is a no-no



Your nails are long and pointy! Touching anywhere remotely close to your eyeballs can be scary because you can jab your peepers. Forget about wearing contacts. If you do, I admire your bravery of not fearing temporary blindness.

6. Opening soda with your nails is dangerous business



Unless you want to break a nail, you have to change how you do some daily tasks. The most dangerous one is opening soda cans. I often use a knife or some other utensil to pry open the tab. Rule number one of long nails is don't use your nails as a tool! If I need to open a can and have no tools at my disposal, I make my boyfriend open it for me. Adapt. Overcome.

7. You give the best back scratches



People may complain that your nails are too long or too pointy, but they won't complain if they ever need a back scratch. Because with your long nails, you give the best scratches!

8. The undersides of your nails can get dirty as heck



No matter how great you are at maintaining personal hygiene, the undersides of your nails can get a little filthy. Scrapings of foundation from touching your face, bits of food from prepping meals, globs of lotion from moisturizing your skin, etc. Everything and anything will get caught under there. And to be honest, it's a little gross.

9. Your nails are an unintentional dangerous weapon



Sometimes you scratch yourself or others accidentally. You may wake up in the morning with scratches and you don't know how you got them. My boyfriend fears holding my hands, or having my hands near him in general because my squared-off tips have been known to knick him. Long nails are beautiful but deadly.

10. Every time you do your nails you have to show everyone and anyone who will listen



Us people with long nails don't care if it's a creme polish, multichrome, glitter, holo, or Van Gogh painting on our nails. We'll show off our fabulous manis regardless, take pictures of them, and post them to our social media accounts. Because if you got it, flaunt it.