Review of Double Sided Stamper & Scraper (Born Pretty Store)

Hello you guys! How have you been? My schedule is off the hook!! But we have a beautiful sunny day, I am waiting for lunch before I go back to my studies and then Español! Wiii! I am falling behind with my reviews, I am seriously late with some of them, so let us proceed with the review of the double sided stamper and scraper Born Pretty Store kindly sent to me. 

As you all probably know, I am trying to do more nail art and failing each year to achieve that goal, simply because I lack time for practise (even though most of nail art I tried is not time consuming at all). When I saw the offer of a double sided stamper, I said, why not, maybe it is easier to use and a new toy might make me do stamping more often. 

In the set (named 3Pcs/set Hot-sell Double Sided Stamping Nail Art Stamper & Scraper, item ID # 12024) you get a double sided stamper and two scrapers, one bell shaped and a classic shaped one.

The stamper fits into your palm perfectly, it is very handy that way. Plus the scrapers are both plastic so they do not scratch the templates. So far so good. But I had a big problem with the stamper. When I tried to do my first mani, it would not pick up the pattern from the template. Or it would, but very poorly, just some lines. I used the black stamping polish I also got from Born Pretty Store and when I switched to my old pink Essence stamper it worked perfectly. 

After that I tried to use the stamper with the white stamping polish from the Born Pretty Store set and with the silver Essence stamping polish. And it worked perfectly with them. After that I tried it with the black one again and again the pattern was very poor. What's up with that?!? What bothers me the most is the fact that I am using stamping polish from the same store that offers the stamper and it doesn't work with it? Major disappointment. 

I think the shape of the product and the scrapers are great, I will be using them instead of my usual credit card, as they do not damage the templates. But the fact that stamper apparently does not work with all stamping polish is a major turn-off. And all the varnishes were stamping varnishes. So go figure. I will use it for the white and silver polish I have, but the fact that I need a back up stamper just in case this one won't work with some polishes is bad enough that I would not recommend buying this product. It might work perfectly fine for you though. 

If you are purchasing something from Born Pretty Store you can use my discount code for extra 10% off (SSL91):

Did you encounter the same problem with this (or any other) stamper? Any advices on how to fix it?


Thank you for reading and commenting!

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Stamping mani with Orly and Born Pretty Store

Hey my people! For today I have a manicure that I really like even though it was not executed as well as I hoped it would be. Still, I love the combo, I need to practice it even more!

This stamping plate was sent to me as a part of my review package, I already shown you the package in my New-in post. This template is called Exquisite Arabesque Floral Pattern, number QA65 (item ID is 12025) and I think it is my favourite from all the templates I own. I love the arabesque patterns!! So Born Pretty Store kindly sent it to me. Right now it is only 99 cents too, so if you feel like buying it, it is your chance to get it!

As you can see, the pattern did not come on the nail as perfectly as I would like it to. Still, from afar it looks fantastic. And I love all the patterns on this plate, so I will definitively use it more when trying to work on my nail art. 

If you are shopping at Born Pretty Store, don't forget to use my 10% discount code SSL91!

Do you have a favourite template?


Thank you for reading and commenting!

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Born Pretty Store: Stamping Polish in Black

Hello everybody! How are you doing? I am actually doing better from the nasty cold, yay for me! Today I wish to show you the second part of the Black and White stamping polish set Born Pretty Store kindly sent me for review. I wanted to try a completely new stamping pattern with it, that also seemed a bit complicated with all the fine lines, to really put this black (and my stamping skills) to the test. Let's see how it turned out!

First, let me copy the observations i have made with the white stamping polish, because they are completely the same for the black one.

As you all know, Born Pretty Store holds everything possible you would wish for in relation to nail art. They have it all, and at a very affordable prices. So far I had not have a single bad or unpleasant experience with them. BTW; my code for 10% discount is still valid: SSL91.

In this package two stamping polishes were hidden, in black and white, the ID code for the set: 1381).

• The bottle is small, 3 ml. Consequently it is cheap. 3.41$ for the set, 1.70$ for the bottle. 
• The brush is wide and big enough so there are no troubles with quick application to the plate.
• Formula is thicker, obviously that makes it very nicely opaque and easy to work with. The pattern got on the nails easily, where I noticed mistakes it was due to me pressing the stamp too hard on the nail (still haven't lost the habit).
• The pattern does not smudge when top coat is applied! Praise the nail polish fairy, this was my biggest issue when stamping before and now it is gone! 

Both black and white polish are of the same excellent quality when it comes to stamping. They don't smudge, they make the stamping process extremely fast and easy ... no complaints! To the pictures:

I really loved how this turned out. The orange base and black fine pattern. And the black stamping polish acted wonderfully. I wore this until it chipped during my sauna visit. Too much water, what can you do. Anyway ... I really recommend this stamping polish set of black and white colour. They are both great to work with. Here is my code for -10% if you decide to shop at Born Pretty Store, to get the low prices even lower. :)

What do you think about this combo?

Thank you for reading!

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Born Pretty Store: Stamping Polish in White

Heya people! How about that, I come back with a stamping mani! Yay for me! Actually, I received another package from Born Pretty Store and this time I decided to try stamping polish. I am still surprised by the fact how much simpler it is to do a mani with a good stamping polish. Before I did them with regular polish (that I knew had good coverage, but still) and lots of times I had to re-do the pattern, or it was barely visible. This time making of the pattern was swift and easy. Now I get it! The stamping hype! I am about 5-7 years late to the party, I'd say, but hey, better late than never. ;) 

But to the product and the BPS. As you all know, Born Pretty Store holds everything possible you would wish for in relation to nail art. They have it all, and at a very affordable prices. So far I had not have a single bad or unpleasant experience with them. BTW; my code for 10% discount is still valid: SSL91.

 In this package two stamping polishes were hidden, in black and white (ID code for the set: 1381), plus a royal blue 'fur' for the nails (I can't wait to play with that either!). Today's mani is done with the white one, I was curious about how the white one will held up, so I tried it first. Observations:

• The bottle is small, 3 ml. Consequently it is cheap. 3.41$ for the set, 1.70$ for the bottle. 
• The brush is wide and big enough so there are no troubles with quick application to the plate.
• Formula is thicker, obviously that makes it very nicely opaque and easy to work with. The pattern got on the nails easily, where I noticed mistakes it was due to me pressing the stamp too hard on the nail (still haven't lost the habit).
• The pattern does not smudge when top coat is applied! Praise the nail polish fairy, this was my biggest issue when stamping before and now it is gone! 

All in all I love it. I can see how it would be too small of a quantity for a regular stampler, but I personally do not mind small bottles, since I do not stamp often. Plus it is a very good stamping polish, I guess you can buy more when you run out of it anyway. 

I noticed this is by far my most used pattern ever. I love it. And you probably noticed my nails are here still not in the best shape, let alone my cuticles. That is why they are shiny, I put some cuticle oil on them, to make them look nicer. I loved this manicure, how it turned out. Fun. I at least have to have spring on my nails, if the weather decided to ignore it.

What do you think? Have you tried Born Pretty Store stamping polish in any other colours too?

Thank you for reading! 

*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.

Born Pretty Store review: Angry Birds stamping plate (QA17)

Hello my dear people! How are you doing? Again a review, but this one is so awesome, I could not wait to show it to you. Angry birds!! Actually a very simple game, that is saved by the cuteness of it. I am a big fan of the game, I used to played it all the time. Now I do not really have the time (plus I can only play it on my BF's cellphone, mine does not cover the applications and games), but I still think the entire game is adorable. 

And now you have the opportunity to join the Angry Birds game with your nail polish obsession. Born Pretty Store carries the Angry Birds stamping plate, item ID is 4872. I was happy to receive one for a review. BTW, my 10% discount code is still valid: SSL91!

Let's see what I came up with. First some general observations:

1. The plate is really cheap, 2.99 dollars.

2. The birds actually look like Angry birds! 

3. The birds are very big, or the patterns are very big. I have done all the stampings on very short nails, so that is very obvious. 

I did two manicures for this review. 

First, I wanted to make a bird attacking the pig. There's the catapult, and my second favourite yellow bird (first one is the black one that explodes) and the pig. As you can see, I had the help of an Angry bird taking these photos, a birthday present I received last year. :) The pig is so big, it fits on my nail by millimetres, and the catapult is cut off by a millimetre or two.

Second is "bring forth all legions" kind of mani. I wanted to do four Angry birds in their colours. Alas, the red and the black one acted really funny, they did not want to get nicely stamped. I redid them twice with the same result. Pity. Here you can also see how big the birds actually are, only the yellow one fit on my nails, the rest have their feathers cut off. 

Since I love Angry birds, this plate is loads of fun for me. But I will try again when my nails are longer, I think then the results will also be much better. I would love to see another plate done with eggs and with different pigs. I like the designs on this one, so I think they would do a good second one as well. 

I think the only minus of this plate is the patterns being too big for short nails. My nails beds are rather big, so even when I'm having short nails, they are often bigger than short nails of people I know and the patterns are still too big for my short nails. So it is more of a longer nails stamping plate. I do not really mind this, since I wear my nails long too, but I know a lot of people that keep their nails short, so that could present a problem for them. 

I am happy with everything else. Born Pretty Store has tons of items to choose from, they are nice and they pack the goodies good, so the items arrive safely. I think the stamping plate is a neat toy, especially for an Angry bird fan. I recommend it. Here is also my 10% off code if you choose to buy anything from Born Pretty Store:

Do you like Angry Birds?

Thank you for reading!


*Product sent for reviewing purposes, you can read my disclosure here.   

Guest Post at Polish Chest

Hei everyone!

Today I'll be extra short. I have prepared a guest post for Danny at Polish Chest and I invite you to check it out here, as well as her wonderful blog. :)

Have a great evening!

Catrice Am I Blue Or Green? with stamping

Hello! How are you doing? It's a lovely day here in Ljubljana and I'm just about to run to my friend's place for a movie (she moved in a couple of months ago and now lives like a minute of walk away from me, pretty darn cool, eh?), so a quicker one today.

Am I Blue Or Green? is a Catrice I never got around to buying. I like the colour, but since I had Mint Candy Apple from Essie I avoid the colour for the bitchy application it arrives with. But I guess this little thing was meant for me, because I got it as a lovely surprise present and I put it on today (thanks, U.!). 

To answer the question the name of the varnish asks - it looks blue on me, i think. Mint blue. And the formula, sadly, still sucks. I needed three coats on about a half of my nails and 4 on the other half (2 coats auftragen my ass). But the colour oh so rocks. I love the brightness of it and, pardon my arrogance, it looks so awesome on my hands.

  

I like how this one turned out, I had to take a picture of a brooch for a friend of mine. The same friend that gave me the polish, actually!

 

Then I figured Am I Blue Or Green? looks like a good base for stamping and since my stamping skills are non-existent thanks to me not doing it at all and with two of my few plates still untouched, I said I shall try it. I grabbed a black polish, hoping it will work and the m85 Konad plate I got from licila.si as a gift and this is what happened.

Essence TC smeared it up, I hate it for doing that, I was so proud of my achievement. It is far from being perfect, but it's by far the best pattern I've done so far. Plus, I think the combo simply rocks. Luckily most of smears aren't visible if you don't look at my nails too carefully. Either way I like what I did and I love that i found a good black to work with: Vollare cosmetics Nail Artistic black, it comes with a very thin brush, for nail art, but I never use it (surprise surprise). Awesome that it's good for stamping, as far as I remember it's rather cheap, much cheaper than original Konad polish at least. 

Any stamping noobs out there or am I the last one? :D Your thoughts on Am I Blue Or green?, are you a fan of colours like this?

Thank you for reading!

Born Pretty Store review m69 plate

Hello people! How are you doing? I'm finally posting this review. I am so late with it I actually feel bad about it. After I got the plate (the package appearantly got lost somewhere on the way and it took longer for it to get to me) I went on my blogging break due to the studies and now that I got back to blogging I still didn't have enough time for my plan on this review. I planned to do each pattern in seperate post, having at least 3 manis done with it. Since now I'm back to my studies, I realize this is not going to happen this year. So let's make this the official Born Pretty Store review with extra linking on every design I'll do from now on with the plate, making them little reviews too, deal?

I'm showing you what I already created with this plate and my experience with stamping. With this plate it's basically the first time I tried stamping and liked it. Since I'm sure you all know your stamping and are admiring the same bloggers simply rocking the whole stamping deal as I am (yeah, I'm looking at you, Ohh Shinies!), you'll immediately notice my stamping is still rookie stamping. 

So let's see some observations of a rookie that just might help another rookie out. :)

• Stamping actually takes a lot less time than full scotch tape mani.
• Practice makes perfect. Seriously, the more you do it, the better will you get.
• Born Pretty Store plates have the design cut deep enough you actually pick up the pattern.
• It's fun! I used to think it's just a lot of work, but it's really fun! :)

All in all, I can only recommend buying from Born Pretty Store. They're really really nice and helpful and their prices are very low. Plus the choice they have of plates is almost endless: click! IMHO they also make a very awesome place for your Chirstmas/NY gift shopping. 

Pictures!

Misa Grey Matters with Brucci Sapphire. My latest mani too, I loved it. :)

Misa Hot Couture with Catrice Back to Black. This is the pattern I don't really understand. What is it suppose to be? Well, Hot Couture reminded me of Winnie The Pooh and the pattern of honeycomb, so this is what came out. 

Finger Paints Give Pink A Chance with Color Club Hot Like Lava and Cold Metal. You've already seen this. I wish I would do the blue pattern on all my nails ... oh well, next time!

Essence Barefoot Thorugh The Moss with BB Couture Clyde. My very first try and I disliked how I couldn't capture the tiny dots.

The funny thing about the whole deal is, I didn't use my favourite pattern on this plate, wanting to do an awesome green combo and ran out of time. That one is waiting for the proper moment, the idea is running in my head for way too long. 

What do you think of stamping? Are you a fan? Did you shop at Born Pretty Store yet? Any suggestions what I should buy when I place my order?

Thank you Born Pretty Store for providing me the plate for the review! 

Nail polish blogger Challenge day 3

Heya darlings! Another day, another combination for the challenge! This one is kinda special. Because it's my first real attempt at stamping. I got the chance thanks to Born Pretty Store who kindly sent me a Bundle monster plate for a review that i have yet to post, but I will, I promise! I actually love how this turned out. 

I'll try to do an accent mani in these posts too, so my ring finger will tend to be a bit different from the rest. Here is the same. I used Color Club Hot Like Lava for stamping on most of my finger and Color Club Cold Metal on my accent finger. Then I mattefied the whole thing with Essence Matt Top Coat and I love how it looks. Pictures!

 See how the pattern still shines due to the foil finish of Color Clubs? Love it!

And how it looked before getting mattefied ...

As you can see, I have miles to go before I get the stamping thing. My lines were not perfect at all and it bothered me quite a bit, but then it sort of grew on me with the imperfections and all. Sure, some just might call it sloppy work. We live and learn.

What do you think about this one? 

Thank you for reading & check the art of other lovely participants:

• Beauteous Blog
• Emerald Sparkled
• Gejba and Maestra of Parokeets
• Good Lack, Nail!
• Lucky Lacquers
• Nail Polish Art Addiction
• PolishSis
• Rebecca likes nails

Finger paints - Groovy Green mattefied + my first (half-decent) stamping

Heya people. You can see I'm back to studying and that's why I'm not posting as much. I have planned one more post for this week, then I'm MIA at least until 14th August. Just to let you know. I'm preparing a mini giveaway for some time now and hopefully I'll launch it when I get back to full blogging again.

Today I have one of Finger paints from their Summer 2011 collection called Peace, Love & Color. I love that collection, but I effing worship their Fall one, Fall Fashionista (My Lucid Bubble review with added looks with the colours, love the review!)! It's SO awesome, so gorgeous, man, they beat the hell out of China Glaze and O.P.I. IMHO! The only one they couldn't beat is Smoke and Mirrors from Zoya for me. But they are a close second, I want like half of their collection, Cordur-Orange could make me cry, it's so awesome.

But today I have Groovy Green for you. The problem child of the collection, Kris warned me the formula was problematic and it sure is. Still, when I saw the mattefied version of it at Fashion Polish, I just new it will be love, no matter how the formula is.

Sam was right, this looks like green sister of Zoya Phoebe thanks to the silver shimmer, it's fantasitc!

This was three coats and a lot of cursing. The formula is a nightmare, effing tooth paste. I remember my right hand looking like a five-year-old would painted my nails. Still, the awful forumla aside ... isn't this green SO gorgeous? So fresh and crisp and ... springy? I loved it on my nails. Especially after putting the matte TC on, then it was just a plain perfection. Matte TC also reduces the visible brushstrokes, so yay for that. Still, you've been warned (several times now) - the formula sucks on this baby. Still, I love the colour so much, it goes to my Diva department. :)

Holly also sent me a Bundle Monster plate in the GA package and back then I was itching to try it out, having a bit of spare time on my hands. Btw, for stamping rookies such as myself, check Maestra's tutorial. It's fantastic, by far the best I've read and watched online. 

I tried two images, one on my left and one on my right hand. This is the first time I actually serously attempted to make a stamping pattern on my nails, so I know it looks awful, but give me some credit for trying. ;)

 I hate how I couldn't pick up the finer lines of this pattern, I like it so so much.

The best one  I did that day. Of course on my thumb, that is rarely seen. Only two fine lines missing, yay!

This was awfully off center, I know, I admire you girls greatly for placing the pattern where it should be. That was by far my biggest problem when doing this, I have no idea how you pull it off. I used Catrice Back to Black, of course, I thought it will be pigmented enough. I'd like to invest in some very well pigmented polish for stamping, any suggestions? I know, Konad does them best, but they are pricey. 

Oh well, hope this wasn't to awful for you to see. I actually had fun with it, but I couldn't do it every day, it takes a lot of time. 

Did you get any Finger Paints from Summer collection? What do you think about Fall collections for this year, which one is your favourite?

Thank you for reading!