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!

Beauty Big Bang had recently sent me some products to review. One of them is a beautiful green chrome powder (Item ID#J6463TM-1C). Chrome powders can look gorgeous, but only if you apply them correctly!


One of the main things that you will require to use the chrome powders is a gel top coat. I tried using a regular topcoat at first but it dulled the metallic sheen and made the nails look less like chrome. If you don't use a gel base coat or base colour, you will need to make sure that you create a smooth base for the chrome to adhere to. To do this, using new polish, or an old polish thinned out with nail thinner tends to work best. If you create any bumps or dings in the nail, it will show through the chrome and get rid of the smooth mirror finish.

To start off, apply base coat, then a black polish. Next you can either use regular top coat or gel topcoat before the powder. If you use a regular top coat, you must wait for it to get almost dry, but not completely. If you use a gel top coat, simply cure it under a lamp . Then you need to use a burnishing technique to buff the powder in. Pick up some of the chrome powder with the application sponge provided and tap it onto the nail, then very lightly buff it in. I actually found that using my finger tips allowed me to lightly buff in the chrome powder much easier than by using the application sponge. Lastly, apply gel topcoat and cure the nails again.

I rushed through all these steps and it shows in my final look. You can see some of the bumps and dings under the chrome unfortunately. I also wish that my camera could see my nails how I see them, because they looked much more mirror-like and metallic in real life. They looked much more like the stock photo that I've provided below.

Beauty Big Bang offers a growing variety of nail polishes and nail art supplies, and also offers free worldwide shipping. IF you have't checked them out before, they're definitely worth a try!

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!

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.

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 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.