Blondie's Nails

Born Pretty - Water Transfers Review

12:38

Recently, Born Pretty has sent me more products to test and review for you all! In this order, I received a magnetic polish and magnet stick to review, as well as some water transfers. These water transfers come in sets of 2 randomly selected designs (unfortunately they cannot be purchased separately) and currently retail for $1.30CAD. From my understanding, these randomly selected water transfers are all blue floral designs, and there's 5 different possibilities of sets that you'll receive (water transfers product ID #41383).

The two that I received are the ones in the bottom left corner of the image below, as well as the design pictured on the model's hand. Today I'll just be reviewing the ones that the model is wearing. I unfortunately didn't get the chance to review the other water transfers yet because I received all of the items to review for this order, as well as another order from Born Pretty, days apart from one another. I have review overload on the go right now, so I've been trying to rush through them all!

First of all, I have to say that I love, love LOVE the design that I reviewed! I have Dutch blood in me, so of course I grew accustomed to my mother and grandmother having white and blue patterned Dutch decorations around my house. This design looks super Dutch with the white and blue floral pattern, and I felt like I was representing my heritage when I was wearing it.

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!

Honestly, I love water transfers because of how easy they are to apply. I save them for days where I'm too lazy to do crazy designs, pressed for time, or have creative blocks.

If you're interested in trying some of Born Pretty Store's water transfers for yourself, be sure to check out their website!

Born Pretty Store - Magnetic Polish and Magnet Stick Review

11:51

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).

I've already reviewed one of the magnetic polishes from this collection in a previous review, which you can read here. The polish that I chose to review this time was Aurora Borealis which is a gorgeous metallic with a purple and blue shift (Product ID #42398).

This is what the polish looks like applied over black with the flower end of the magnet stick. According to the directions of the magnetic polish, you're supposed to hold the magnet over the nail for 30 seconds. I felt as though this was only good for getting about one flower per nail, as the polish tended to dry too quickly. I even tried to use very thick coats of the magnetic polish to try and make it so that the polish wouldn't dry as fast, but this didn't work very well. As you can see from the image above, the polish didn't have very prominent looking flowers like in the photos displayed on the product page on the Born Pretty website.

After creating the disappointing mani above, I wondered if I used a gel magnetic polish if the effect would look more noticeable. Thankfully, I have gel magnetic polish already that I put to the test. This time, the effect did look more noticeable. The magnetic particles had more time to get pulled towards the magnet because it didn't fully dry util it was set underneath a UV lamp. Unfortunately, the finished look didn't photograph very well for me because of the poor lighting in my house.

Because I didn't have much success with Aurora Borealis polish and the flower magnet stick, I wanted to try it again with a different magnet. This time, I used the circle magnet from my previous review. My results were unfortunately still not very noticeable. I blame the fact that I was doing my nails in a dark room (when the sun goes down, I have horrid lighting in my house!) and because I didn't have the magnets over the nail long enough. Regardless, the finished design still looked very pretty and like the name suggests, very much like an Aurora Borealis!

Beauty Big Bang Water Transfers Review

07:33

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.

If you are unfamiliar with Beauty Big Bang, they are a nail art store that offers a variety of nail supplies for inexpensive prices. They also offer free world wide shipping with no minimum purchase, which is fantastic for people like me who live in Canada! Shipping to my country tends to fall on the expensive side, so this is an added bonus for me.

Beauty Big Bang is very similar to Born Pretty Store, but because they are a newer company they don't have the same amount of variety of products to choose from. But like Born Pretty, Beauty Big Bang constantly has great sales and promotions on their products.

The water transfers that I was given to review have 5 themes: tropical, ocean, fruit, ice cream, and unicorns. For some reason though, I was sent a dessert themed design instead of the unicorns. I'm a little bummed about that because I really wanted to try the unicorns! Oh well, c'est la vie. I really can't complain because the products were sent to me complimentary to review.

Item ID#J6468TM

Application of the product is fairly easy, but if you don't have nimble fingers you may struggle a little bit. The key to application is to be gentle and patient.

Start off by cutting out the nail decals from the sheet of designs. I like to cut them all out and rearrange them in front of me so that I know which decal I want to go on each nail before I begin. Then place the decals in a shallow dish of water for 10-15 seconds. I usually place the decals in the water 2-3 at a time so that I can have them readily prepared for the next nail.

Item ID #J6465TM

Next, remove the design from the water and gently slide the design from the paper backing. You can do this with your fingers or with a pair of tweezers. Just remember to be slow, patient, and gentle while doing this step. Because the designs are wet they tend to be slightly weighed down with water. They are very thin once peeled from the backing and can easily bend and and get stuck to itself. Once it does this it can be a little difficult to unstick the design, which results in wrinkled decals with images that are folded in on itself. You can see what I mean if you keep scrolling below. My middle finger of the chocolate cake decals has a folded cake and cupcake because I was rushing and not being gentle enough with the decal.

Place the decal on the nail, and gently position it how you want it. Once you are satisfied with the placement, lightly pat the design down and smooth out any creasing that you may have caused. If there is any excess design on your skin you can easily dissolve it with a cleanup brush dipped in acetone. Lastly, apply topcoat to seal in the design.

If you want to check out these water transfers yourself, I have a discount code for you! Use the code BLONDIE for 10% off of your order.