Cosmetic Cupcake

I was recently given the opportunity to review nail art products from Born Pretty Store. Many of you will have heard of them but for those who haven't, Born Pretty Store is a great online store that sells lots of fantastic nail art, nail care and makeup items. I've bought from them previously and I also won a giveaway for a voucher to the store so I've tried and loved their products already therefore I was very happy and excited to try out other products! Kevin kindly allowed me to choose some items and below is what I chose:

1800 nail art rhinestone wheel - which you can purchase here:


5 2 way dotting pen tools - which you can purchase here:


Hello Kitty & Snow White nail decals - which you can purchase here:


I decided to do a Hello Kitty manicure using the above products. I wish I had chosen white polish to do the dots instead of the yellow but oh well! I love me a good Hello Kitty mani ;)


I started off with 2 coats of Korres Watermelon (fully swatched here) on all fingers except accent fingers where I used 2 coats of China Glaze Empowerment.


The rhinestones are quite large - about 3mm in diameter - and come in an assortment of colours which is great. I placed a few of the rhinestones in different colours onto the middle of my thumbs using a wooden orange stick and clear polish. I have many rhinestones in different sizes but none this large so I'm very happy to add this wheel to my nail art collection.


The dotting tools are double ended and each is a different size. These are very easy to use to create polka dot nails which I love! The smaller sized ones are quite similar though and I would have liked to see more larger sizes. They are easy to use and great for beginner nail art!


For the dots for this manicure, I used the blue tool which creates medium sized dots.


I love water decals and these were fantastic to use. I've actually purchased water decals from the same brand last year when I went to HK (not from Born Pretty) and LOVED them and the quality of these was the same. They don't take long to soak in water before they are ready to use and can be manipulated on the nail if you don't get the perfect position right away. I need these water decals in every design possible x)


I used the Hello Kitty decals for this manicure and they are so so cute! They adhered easily and smoothly to the nail.


I also chose a stainless steel cuticle pusher remover to try out. Unfortunately this didn't work too well for me as I don't think it was curved enough to allow me to push back my cuticles properly. I'm used to using orange sticks to remove my cuticles and I find they work better.


Would I repurchase from Born Pretty again?: YES! I've purchased from them before and will do so again in the future. They have an absolutely fantastic selection of products (tooo many for this indecisive girl actually!) and I especially love the fact they have such a large range of nail art products. You all know my love of nail art and to be able to buy so many different items from the same site is great. The products arrive promptly and well packaged.

You can check out the great selection of products yourself at the Born Pretty Store online store.

A big thank you to Kevin for sending me the above products to sample! I was sent the above products for my consideration but this in no way influenced my review in any way. As always, my reviews are my 100% honest opinion.

Thanks for looking as always!

My post today will be short and sweet as I've run out of creative juices at the moment. I'm also not in a very festive mood - I'm still in my post holiday slump and it's taking longer than usual to get back in to the swing of things. I wanted to do 10 different designs but I drew a complete blank when I sat down to polish my nails so this mani is very simple. As usual I ran out of days to do all the festive themed manicures I wanted haha. Here is another Christmas mani for you all =)


My thumb was a failed attempt at Christmas lights - I definitely need more practise at freehand nail art. I used some more of the awesome water decals I found in HK and this time around it was much easier to use them. You can't really tell in this pic but I tore my left thumb nail today!!

The polishes I used:


Pinky: 2 coats each of China Glaze Mistletoe Kisses and Party Hearty.

Ring finger: Gold gradient nail using China Glaze Midnight Kiss for top 1/3 of the nail and 5 Golden Rings on top 2/3 of nail. I then placed snowflake and angel nail stickers which I hauled in HK.

Middle finger: 2 coats of Ulta 3 Lily White topped with 1 coat of China Glaze Frosty. You can see the lovely shimmer up close! Frosty was also fantastic over the white because it covered the streakiness of 2 coats hehe. I then placed a stocking water decal on top (also from HK).

Index finger: 2 coats of China Glaze Ruby Deer and Christmas Tree water decal on top (also from HK).

Thumb: 2 coats of China Glaze Sugar Plums as base. I then used CM nail art striper in Pearl to draw the wire and then used yellow, blue, red, metallic green polishes for the lights.

I then topped it off with a coat of Color Club Vivid Color Intensifying topcoat (2 coats for some fingers). I very kindly received this from Color Club NZ and I'll be using it for my upcoming manis. So far so good!


Do you get times when you've planned something fun and then it just doesn't evolve when you do your manicure? I hope this passes soon!

EDIT: I also updated my "Where to buy" page tonight so take a look Aussie ladies!

Thanks for looking =)

Omgish I cannot believe that it's only 11 days until Christmas! Where has this year gone?? This time of year is always fun and I'm particularly liking the holiday season this year because of all the fun Christmas manis I can do! It's especially fun with the awesome polishes from the China Glaze Holiday 2010 collection that I've been dying to try out. Here's a fun candy cane manicure that I wore today using some of the polishes from the collection. My nails will be nubbins for a while as I broke about 5 wrestling with suitcases on the return home from my holiday!


I used 3 polishes in total from the collection - China Glaze Phat Santa, Frosty and Mrs.Claus. First off I started off with a base coat of Color Club Vitabase nutrient nail strengthener which I kindly received from Color Club NZ. I'll be using this on my poor weak nails for my upcoming manis and I shall do a review later!

I'm sure you've all seen and read about this fun collection so I won't go into too much detail about the polishes themselves. I used 2 coats of China Glaze Phat Santa on all fingers except accent finger were I used 2 coats of Frosty. I then added a thick coat of Mrs. Claus to thumbs to create a thumb accent. The polishes all applied really well for me - formula was smooth and easy to apply.

To create the candy cane effect, I used Kiss Nail art striper paint in white to freehand diagonal stripes. I am quite out of practice at the moment having not done nail art for the last 3 weeks so please bear with me =p


I picked up these cute Christmas water decals in Hong Kong and applied the candy cane on my accent fingers. These were a little more difficult to use compared to the Viva La Nails decals - I had to soak these for a while longer before they would come apart from the paper however they were still simple to use and look fantastic.


Close up of the water decal:


Hope you like it! Have a great start to the week ladies and thanks for looking!

I decided to add to my Catrice Just Married NOTD by using the other items from the Viva La Nails sample pack they generously sent me. You can see part 1 of my review here.


From thumb - pinky:
Butterfly water decal; flower coloured nail sticker; floral nail sticker with rhinestone; floral water decal and star metallic nail sticker.

I am TOTALLY in love with the water decals! They are so darn simple and easy to use. I had to watch their tutorial on it first which explains the application really well. It literally took less than a minute to apply this gorgeous nail art! I am most definitely going to be stocking up on these after my shopping ban! So many designs, which to choose?!!

The coloured nail stickers and nail stickers with rhinestones are a winner too. They are very cute and come in all sorts of designs. The stickers with rhinestones need a thick coat of topcoat though to stop them snagging on clothing.

I really liked the look of the metallic nail stickers but they seemed to catch on everything as they didn't mold to my nail. Perhaps it was because I put it on my pinky, but it was the smallest size. I used 3 thick coats of Seche Vite to try and prevent it from snagging or breaking off my nail.

Overall, I love the items sent to me in the sample pack. The products are of fantastic quality and the range is extensive catering to the beginner at nail art to the expert. I will definitely be purchasing a few of the items later!!

You can get your free sample from Viva La Nails here.


Thanks for looking!! Don't forget to enter my 200 followers giveaway here!