$20 Born Pretty Store Giveaway

As you can tell by the title of this post, I have a giveaway that is sponsored by Born Pretty Store! They have kindly given me a $20 gift card to giveaway to my readers so you can choose whatever you want from their store.

You can find Born Pretty Store here and you can check out all of their products I've used by clicking here. Born Pretty Store also sell jewellery, fashion and makeup items so you can buy anything you want from their website if you win.

The rules to this giveaway are:

• Entrants must be 18 years or older, or have parental permission in order to enter
• Whoever wins must respond within 48 hours of me contacting them, otherwise I will pick another winner
• The closing date is 14th April at 12am GMT
• The winner will be chosen randomly using Rafflecopter, which uses random.org
• This giveaway is open internationally (Born Pretty Store have free international shipping as well!)
• EDIT: 'Giveaway blogs' will not be entered and I will check to see if all entries are eligible 

a Rafflecopter giveaway








Whether you win or not, you can also use my 10% discount code GZL91 for Born Pretty Store to get anything you want!

Spring Florals

As Spring is supposedly right around the corner, I thought it had been a while since I'd done some floral nails so I whipped out my dotting tool and created these bad boys.

As part of my uni work I've been making some prints and I thought this print would be perfect inspiration for Spring nails.

I wanted to use a colour background for these nails instead of a white just to make it a bit different from other floral patterns so I went for Models Own Utopia and for the flowers I used Barry M Acid Yellow, Cyan Blue and a mixture of NPP1 and Bright Purple. The leaves are done in Barry M Spring Green and I went back in with Utopia to dot in the centres of the flowers. I really like this print and I think the colour combination is perfect. 

Lychee

Lychee is one of Barry M's new Gelly polishes that they brought out mid February. I actually managed to get my hands on this and Greenberry before they were meant to be released because my Superdrug accidentally put them out early so I made sure I grabbed them. 

I'll be honest, I don't know why they call these polishes Gellys because they don't have the jelly formula they are just meant to shine more. The thing is, I think all Barry M polishes shine really well anyway but these just don't as much. They have the look of a rubbery finish that I get with Barry M Blue Moon which is the most jelly like Barry M polish I've come across. 

 The application of this polish is great as is every Barry M and it goes on completely opaque in two coats which is shown in the photos, maybe even one thick coat if you want. As you can see, there is no visible nail line showing through which is the one thing that will normally put me off any polish so I'm glad this didn't do that.

I'd seen the colour before and liked it so when I bought it, I knew I had similar colours but I've been trying to get more nudes so I'm glad I got it. Compared to my other polishes, this is lighter than Essie Sand Tropez as that is more beige/brown and more neutral than Barry M Pinky Caramel which has more of a peachy undertone than this. I wouldn't consider this to be a skin tone nude as I think you'd have to be ridiculously pale to get away with it but it's definitely a nice nude neutral colour that I've enjoyed using since buying it.
 

80s Squares

I have wanted this for so long, having my nails be fully Barry M Greenberry. I cannot explain my love for this colour so I thought it would be great for this 80s pattern.

I used my dotting tools to create these squares and dots and then a brush for the lines. I used Barry M Greenberry for the base colour, Indigo, Yellow, Coral for the squares and Matt White for the lines and dots.

Gold Glitter Gradient

For these nails I tried the glue base a I took them off the same night so I didn't want to have to struggle with removing glitter.

I wanted to make these nails different from my last glitter gradient and as most of my glitters are multicoloured, I went for American Apparel Meteor Shower which I love because it's unlike any other glitter polish I've seen before. The glue base did peel off however, I think because I didn't have it on for very long, it would have been easier to get off in one go if it had been on my nails for longer.

Neon Green

American Apparel Neon Green is the only neon green colour I have tried but I like it a lot. It can sometimes come off looking a little more yellow than green but in comparison, it's definitely green. 

Depending on how thick the coats you put on are, you can sometimes see the nail line through but as you can see on the thumb below, it's not visible. These pictures show two coats but I think sometimes of there's going to be a lot of the background colour showing, I'll do three coats just to amp up the greenness of it and make sure there is no visible nail line. 

I love the consistency of this polish as I do with all American Apparel polishes, not too thick and not a useless sheer. It applies nicely and the brush makes it neat. I know the colour doesn't exactly look like the bottle but I think with one more coat it does, I just like to show two coats as I think that's the standard amount.

This polish does dry looking a little matt which does bother me but I always top cop so it doesn't make that much difference in the end, it's just the annoyance I get before I top coat. I would recommend this polish but as I said, I haven't tried any others but all I can say is that this definitely comes out neon and isn't one of those deceiving ones.  Obviously if you don't want to spend the money  for an American Apparel polish then I'd say go for a brand you're comfortable with but I really like the formula of these and I got it on offer so for me, it was worth it.

 

Kaleidoscope Print Out

I tried something different for these nails. I had the genius idea of printing something out on regular paper and just sticking it to my nails to get a print that I would not be able to paint myself. As I tried to do a kaleidoscope print recently and found it was very hard to achieve, I decided to use this pattern and try it out. 

I printed out the patterns to fit my nails and cut them so they were rounded on one end. I then put top coat on my nails and wet the pieces of paper and put them onto the wet top coat. When I tested this out, it worked really well but I used a picture with darker colours so when I did it with this print, the colours just left the paper and I was left with a grey mess. That was my first attempt so I tried it again, making the paper less wet and I got the nails above. As you can see in the index and middle fingernails, the colour has gone, except for a pink area in the middle finger. The thumb and the ring finger worked the best but even then, they didn't turn out how I was hoping they would. 

I wish I liked these more but I think I'm just a bit too disappointed with them so if I try this again, I'll probably do it with a darker print. 

Polka Dot Mixture

So I didn't want to do anything over the top for these nails so I went for this polka dot design and used some of my favourite polishes for it.

I think I'm trying to force the weather to get nicer by wearing Barry M Yellow simply because I love the colour and I really want it to be Spring now. The polka dots are done in Barry M Matt White and Greenberry. I think these are nice spring nails however, it's been raining all day here so unfortunately, it hasn't worked so far.

Bloglovin

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

So I've heard some things about google reader stopping in July and I'll be honest, I don't know what google reader is or if I use it. I don't know whether this is the Google Friend Connect thing or not so I thought I'd say that I am on Bloglovin and if you want, you can follow me on there so that when whatever it is stops, you can still see everything I post on here.

I've already transferred over all the blogs I follow, thankfully there was a button that let me do them all at once, so now I just have to make sure I try and use that more often just incase.

 

Strawberry Ice Cream

Barry M Strawberry Ice Cream is a nice baby pink that I did not buy for a long time as I always thought it would be the same as my other bay pinks but I realised that what I had just wasn't what I was looking for in a pale pink. 

This polish is part of the pastel collection that came out a few years ago. As soon as this collection came out, I went and bought Mint Green, which is one of my all time favourites, and Berry Ice Cream which I remember using in the summer of 2010, because the colours interested me but it was only this summer that I bought Strawberry Ice Cream from the same collection. I have had Barry M Baby Pink for a long long time and I always used this as my light pink colour but I noticed that it was too light for me sometimes but I still didn't want to go much darker. 

The thing I notice about this polish is the fact that although it's a light colour, it has great coverage. A lot of pale colours don't have great coverage simply because they are so pale but there is something about this polish that on the second coat, you wouldn't think it would be so easy to achieve such good coverage. I'm not great with explaining the technical details of polishes but to me, I think this polish has a really nice warm tone to it that makes it look like a strong colour even though it's still a pale pink. I never know what people are talking about when they say a 'blue toned pink' but there is definitely something more to this pink that makes it different from the other pale pinks I have.

The colour is so nice and rich and looks highly pigmented whilst still keeping its light and airy pale pink quality to it. I don't use this polish a lot as I'm not a pink person really but I really wish I had got it sooner than I did because it's such a nice shade. I know lighter colours are meant to suit paler skin tones so that's probably why I think it makes me look slightly tanned in these photos as I am seriously pale so maybe wearing more of this colour would be a good idea to enhance my complexion.

 

Glow In The Dark Aztec

I did this aztec pattern and used this glow in the dark nail polish I got from Born Pretty Store. I painted these with a dotting tool mainly and then a brush to do more of the line work.

After my last nails, I wanted to use more colours that I normally don't so I went for Revlon Grape Icy as the base colour which is grape scented as well. I then used Models Own Tangerine Queen with Barry M Matt White underneath the glow in the dark polish.

Here are the nails in the dark and as you can see, they look so cool. The glow so well in the dark and yes, that's what it really looks like. I love these as I love the colour combination and the fact that they look like the coolest thing on earth in the dark.

Click through here to read the full review of the glow in the dark polish.

Zig Zag

I going to start by saying that I just had to google zig zag to see whether it was one word or two, turns out it's two but I wrote it and it looked wrong so I'm sticking with two words. 

I did this graphic zig zag pattern and I like the colours that I used as I feel as though they're colours I don't normally use. I know from the un work I do, I tend to stick to the same bright colours but then everything ends up looking the same so I like that these are different. 

For the base colour, I used W7 Sheer Lemon and the zig zags are done with Barry M Raspberry. I didn't want a bright red for these nails so I went for Raspberry instead of Bright Red or something. I know that for some unknown reason, Raspberry photographs lighter and I think these colours look good together it's just in real life I didn't want the bright red so the darker look in reality is good for me.

If you have any suggestions on what different colours I should use, let me know in the comments. I probably have the colour I just bypass it every time.

 

Significant Other Color

I really don't have a lot of O.P.I polishes simply because in England, they're hard to get your hands on them and when you do, they're £11/£12. This is why the only other O.P.Is I have were either given to me or I bought it on sale. This being said, I went into Sallys the other week and when I saw this polish, I was mesmerised. I've never had that with a colour and if I have it's because it's been something I've been 'missing' so this was something different for me. I normally just go for cremes as that's what I prefer so I've never intentionally bought an opalescent duochrome polish before.

I have looked online and I have noticed that a lot of people are saying that Significant Other Color is a pink opalescent polish but I definitely think it's purple. I think in pictures, it does look more pink but I think that's more down to the fact that it has a gold/green shimmer duochrome finish to it. In the bottle, it definitely looks purple so I think the more coats you put on, the more colour pay off you're going to get. 

I'm not going to deny that it doesn't look pink here but I think if you saw it in person then you would understand what I mean more. This is a sheer polish so it sounds as thought it's everything that I try to avoid but I just think the tones of colour you get in this polish is absolutely gorgeous. These photos show two coats but I've tested out three coats and the colour does show through the opalescent look of the polish. 

This picture shows just how nice this polish really is. I know I always think O.P.I is too expensive but I think I have to remember that you are getting 15ml instead of your regular 10ml and it's not as if you're going to run through it quickly. I would definitely recommend this polish especially as I don't tend to like polishes like this and I am in love with this one.

Facebook Page

So I've decided to create a facebook page for my nails. Check it out and like it if you want at: facebook.com/poppingnails

Gradient with Studs

It had to be done. I had to use this colour again and I know how I want to use it next as well.

As with the glitter gradient I posted last week, I used a sheer W7 pink as the base colour and then used Barry M Greenberry to create the gradient. For this gradient, I put on the colour at the tips of my nails and dragged it up with clear polish. I like this way of doing gradients and I definitely prefer it to makeup sponges. I then used these 2mm silver square studs I got recently from Born Pretty Store. I love the size of these as they look good on all my nails and they're not too big and distracting.

 

Birds

I haven't done nail art like this in ages. I've been doing too many patterns and technique stuff rather than actual things if that makes sense. As you can see I'm still loving the new Barry M Greenberry and will definitely use it more and more as I am OBSESSED with it.

The base for these nails is the same Essie that I used in my paint spray nails and I don't know the name of it. I used Barry M Greenberry and Cyan Blue for the birds and Barry M Yellow for the beaks. The trees and outlining are done in W7 Suede and the dots are Barry M Pomegranate.