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!
