Born Pretty sent me a thermal gel polish to review (Item ID#43620). I wanted to try a particular colour that Born Pretty sells called Truth of Lie that turns black from clear. I've already tried one of the thermal gels from this collection, so I knew that I'd like this polish. Born Pretty included one of their thermal gels from this collection in my last batch of products that I reviewed, which I think was an accident because it's not one that I requested or was told that I'd be receiving. But I'll show you both of the shades that I own!

The thermal gel polishes dry with a demi-matte finish, but if you don't like that you can always top it with a glossy top coat. Truth if Lie will change from clear in warm temperatures to black in cold temperatures. I find that one coat works fine, but you can use two coats. Just be wary that the more coats of Truth of Lie that you use, the smokier-looking the clear colour will be in warm temperatures.



I decided that for Truth of Lie, I wanted to add a design underneath the polish. I chose a stringed-up star design from an old stamping plate that I already owned from Born Pretty (Item ID#36245). I was hoping that with the smoky top coat overtop, that the design would look less like stars and more like barbed wire. I really wanted this design to look grungy!

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Thermal gel nail polish from @bornprettyofficial (Item ID#43620). Colour is Truth of Lie, which is a sheer/smoky clear to opaque black thermal. Sheer when warm and black when cold. The finish is a demi-matte but you can always add a glossy top coat overtop. Thank you #bornprettystore for sending me this polish to review! 🖤

A post shared by Christina - Blondie's Nails (@blondiesnails) on Mar 9, 2019 at 7:29am PST

The other colour from this collection that I own is Strawberry Shake. It turns burgundy in cold temperatures and hot pink in warm temperatures!



I love both of these thermal gel polishes and would definitely want to try out some of their other shades! I got so many compliments when I showed people that my nails could change colours too. If you guys are interested in checking out some of Born Pretty's thermal gel polishes, they currently retail for $3.40 CAD and Born Pretty offers free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase!

Born Pretty Store sent me a thermal holographic top coat to review (Item ID #44195), and I'm honestly digging it. For those who aren't aware, Born Pretty has a wide variety of nail art products for low prices, and offers free worldwide shipping with no minimum purchase. This polish is currently retailing for $5.24 CAD.

What intrigued me about this product is that it's marketed as a top coat that can be used over any colour! When I first saw the product several months back, I thought that it was a thermal polish that only came in blue/black and red/black because that's what the stock photos showed.

I wish that I got to photograph some more colours other than the one that I chose to pair it with, but due to an unfortunate incident, I broke my nail on my index finger. So now my picture-hand is temporarily out of commission until it grows out a little.


The colour I chose to test this top coat with is a fun turquoise/green colour called Turned Up Turquoise by China Glaze (Ignore the stock photo on Nail Polish Canada's site if you click that product link. It is waaaaay more green/turquoise in real life than that neon-blue that they show. It also has a matte finish.). I wanted to pick a fun colour that I haven't worn on its own or have been able to fit into any designs I've done in the past.


One coat over any colour of your choosing will look fine, but if you want the thermal polish to be completely opaque over your base in cold temperatures, you'll want to use two coats. The brush is wide and the polish tends to apply a little thick and gloopy. But it finishes really well over the nail and smooths out with thick coat of glossy top coat.


And let's be honest, the results are stunning! The product turns clear when it's warm, and if your nails are long the tips may stay black. When the nails are cold, they'll turn completely black (2 coats makes for a nice opaque black finish).


Photographing thermal polishes is so difficult! Even with a bowl of hot and cold water on standby while taking my pictures, my nails kept changing colours too quickly for me to photograph. My home is warm, so therefore, it will stay my base colour or have the black tips. So how can I get my nails to stay cold? Eventually, I had the bright idea of taking pictures of my nails outside because I'm in Canada and it's winter. Oh boy. Was that the most un-fun idea I've ever had. It worked, but I didn't like it. I stood under the entryway of my home for a good 10 minutes trying to get the right angle and lighting while it was snowing/sleeting/raining a foot away from me. But if it works, it works!

I love it when products that I need in my life happen to fall into my lap. I really needed a new primer that would be kind to my oily skin when Influenster let me know that I'd be receiving Ole Henriksen's new Banana Bright Primer to review.

When my friend who works at Shoppers Drugmart told me that GOSH was being discontinued from their stores, I was a little sad. Their metallic liquid liners were amazing and I rocked the heck out of them when I was in high school. But I'm 26 now, and need to rock some more "adult" makeup looks for when I go to work. GOSH has been pulled from Shoppers Drugmart's stores and has since been replaced with a new brand called Nude by Nature — a brand that boasts being made with 100% natural ingredients and is cruelty-free. The products are all free from parabens, silicone, siloxanes, phthalates, sulphate, PEGS, triclosan, phenoxyethanol, carmine, talc, and bismuth. 

Nude By Nature Cashmere Pressed Blush - Desert Rose - $26

Nude by Nature Natural Definition Brow Palette - Blonde - $30

Nude by Nature Natural Glow Loose Bronzer - Bondi Bronze - $30

Nude by Nature Travel Brush 10 - $28

Nude by Nature Contour Brush 04 - $33

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!

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.

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!

Recently, Beauty Big Bang sent me some products to test and review for your all. If you don't know what BBB is, they are a nail art company that offers a wide variety of nail art items for inexpensive prices, and also offers free worldwide shipping. If you live in Canada or anywhere outside of the US like me, this is great news because shipping usually costs an arm and a leg to get to me!

One of the items that I chose to review was BBB's Chameleon Aurora Flakes. I chose the colour 5C (Item ID: J7421) which contains a variety of blue, teal, purple, and silver holographic flakes. These flakes are similar to the ones that I reviewed last year for BBB, except they are opaque instead of iridescent.

The Chameleon Aurora Flakes are listed as $7.72CAD on Beauty Big Bang's website, and are currently on promotion for $4.76CAD. They come in a container with approximately 0.1g of product, which doesn't seem like a whole lot, but it is more than enough for several uses. It also comes with an applicator, which is similar to that of an eyeshadow sponge.

What I like about this product is that it is ridiculously easy to apply, does not require gel polish, and you can wear it 2 different ways: scattered or opaque. I made sure to take pictures of both types of application for you guys!

For the scattered effect, I first applied a black polish as a base. I then applied a regular topcoat and waited for it to get tacky but not completely dry. Next, with the applicator, I picked up a small amount of the flakes and gently dabbed over various spots on the nail. You want to be careful not to pick up too much product or dab the entire nail, as you want the design to look scattered and to not completely cover up the black base.


For an opaque look, you will need to apply a black base, and apply a regular topcoat. After the topcoat is tacky but not yet completely dry, you will want to take the applicator and pick up a generous helping of the flakes. You will next want to dab the product over the entirety of the nail. Once you have done this, you can buff the product all over the nail to fill in any gaps that you may have left behind. The reason why you want to dab the product before buffing it in is so that the sponge does not stick to the polish and smudge your base around. You can also just as easily create this look by buffing it onto a cured gel topcoat. However, I understand that not everyone has gel manicure systems at home, which is why I decided to tell you how to apply the flakes with a regular topcoat.

Honestly, my pictures cannot do this manicure justice! It looked way more stunning in person, and I received many compliments for wearing the opaque look. The finished design was a gorgeous multichrome with some scattered holographic flakes here and there. The flakes made my nails shift from green, to purple, blue, and teal. I will definitely wear this design in the future!

If you'd like to try out these Chameleon Aurora Flakes for yourself, be sure to check out Beauty Big Bang's website! You can also use my code BLONDIE to can get 10% off of your order.

Beauty Big Bang's Peacock Holographic Powder - with camera flash.