Nail Stamping with Born Pretty Plates

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I'll be honest, I really thought these fuller image plates from Born Pretty Store would turn out to be my favorite plates that I own, but it didn't work out that way. I have used these plates a few times now and I'm never quite satisfied with my results, I don't know if it's my color combos or if I'm just being too critical of my work. I do have a couple nail looks to show where I have used these plates today, I'll will continue to tinker around with these to see if I end up with better results somewhere down the road.

First up is plate BP-17 I chose this plate because I really liked the 'fan' design that two of the images have. Gorgeous, right?

For the look I used Ciate Mistress and a white cream for stamping. Please excuse the quality of the photo, I took it with my phone in terrible lighting.

Next I have plate BP-22 I really liked the image from the top left and the one on the bottom, but for my first time using this plate I went with the top left image.

For this look I used Sweet Irish Cream from The Little LacquerBean and a black cream for the stamping. I like the results of this one better than the one above.

I know it's not the plates that I'm not satisfied with because they are really good plates, the etching is just perfect on them and they both have really awesome designs, like I said before it's either my color combos that I've tried or something. I will revisit these plates in the near future though :)

If you would like to grab the plates that I've shown here or any other nail art supplies you can save 10% off your order with code: SMBW10 and as always Born Pretty Store has FREE shipping!

Red & Green Christmas Nails

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One more quick Christmas Nail idea! I did use some Christmas decals that I received from Born Pretty Store, but you can do this mani with out them.

To start off I applied Avon Iceberg for my base. My first thought was to do a water marble, talked myself out of that, then I thought I'll do a fan brush mani, talked myself out of that one too. In the end I decided I would do a dotticure. I used China Glaze Running in Circles and Ruby Pumps for my dots. I really loved how this turned out, but I really wanted to use some more of the Christmas decals, so I added a snowman and Santa to a couple of my nails.

The decals worked great, had no issues with them at all. I think they are super cute and are the perfect add on to a Christmas nail look. My dots show through the snowman a little bit, but that's okay with me. 

If you want to grab these decals to use next Christmas or any other decals, you can save 10% on your order by using code: SMBW10 and as always Born Pretty has FREE shipping!

Hope you all enjoy your weekend! I'm heading out of town to visit with my family the only chance I have before Christmas :)

Christmas Nail Ideas

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I think I am finally on the mend from this sinus/ear infection! Once I did start feeling better all I wanted to do was my nails LOL and lets just say, I should not do my nails if I'm feeling the least bit out of it.

I wanted to work on some Christmas nail designs/ideas and I knew I had some Christmas decals from Born Pretty and I figured that would be the easiest thing to do to my nails. I had a great idea in my head but I don't think that it transferred over well from my head to my nails. So the first thing I did was start out with a white base (Avon Iceberg) then I did the 'saran wrap' technique on all but my accent nail, using Cherry Merry from Duri Cosmetics. On my accent nail I added a super cute Christmas tree from the Born Pretty decals. I think my issue with this is that it's a whole lot of red and just a hint of green. I'm thinking instead of using red for my other fingers I might should have used green. What do y'all think?

This next Christmas inspired mani is a very simple subtle look that can be created using any nude polish as a base and adding a red, gold, or green glitter to the top. Here I used Shore Bet from Pure Ice for my base and Sinful Colors Gilded for my glitter. It is a beautiful red and gold mix of glitter that gives a little bit of life to the nude polish. I think this would be great for a Holiday wedding or an office party where crazy nail polish is frowned upon.

I have a couple more Christmas themed manis in mind, but not sure if I will get around to doing them before Christmas. I will try my best though :)

Now I'm off to catch up on blogs that I read, I have almost 2 weeks of catching up to do!!

Review: Key West Aloe Gentle Aloe Facial Cleanser

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Key West Aloe describes their Gentle Aloe Facial Cleanser as 'A pH balanced, gentle foaming formula containing 30 percent aloe vera. It removes all residue of facial and eye makeup while still being gentle on your skin. It is idea for all skin types.' They claim that in addition to removing all makeup and being gentle that it will preserve elasticity  and rebalances the moisture level, stimulates circulation and refreshes dull looking skin and has a fresh, clean citrus scent.

The Gentle Aloe Facial Cleanser also contains some other key ingredients in addition to the aloe vera that are great for your skin.

• Basil oil to stimulate circulation and refresh dull looking skin and improve the skin color, complexion and tone.
• Sweet Orange Peel Oil supports collagen formation in the skin.
• Sandalwood oil rejuvenates, rehydrates and works as an anti-inflammatory.
• Galbanum Resin Oil promotes cell regeneration and tones the skin.
• Babassu Oil helps rebalance moisture levels in oily skin and also aids in preserving the elasticity of the skin by keeping it soft and supple while ridding it of surface impurities.
• Lemon Peel Oil possesses skin tightening and toning effects. It also serves as a purifying disinfectant making it idea for treating oily, tired and stressed skin.
• Bergamont Fruit Extract gives you the cooling and refreshing feel and helps calm inflamed skin and has antiseptic properties.

I have been using the Gentle Aloe Facial Cleanser for a little while now an I have seen a difference in my complexion and tone. My skin looks brighter and no longer has a dull look to it. I have also noticed that after I used this product I have less redness to my face as opposed to using my other cleansers. Since colder weather is here this cleanser has been great for keeping my skin moisturized, usually during the colder weather months my face is super dry and I have not had any real issue with that since using this cleanser. After I use it and pat my face dry it feels so incredibly soft and smooth. I also get a cooling sensation after using it to, which feels really nice on my skin. For me this did remove foundation makeup really well, but it did not remove all of my eye makeup. I don't know if that is because my liner that I use is waterproof or what the deal with that is. However, I like this cleanser so much I don't mind pulling out my little bottle of eye makeup remover to finish getting my eye makeup off! The cleanser has a little foaming action, but it seems to be very minimal.

I also really love the scent of this cleanser, it is exactly as they described it; a fresh, clean citrus scent. You can definitely smell the sweet orange peel and a hint of the lemon peel oil. The scent is and extra plus for me because I love lemony scents.

I also want to address the one statement above about oily skin. I always fear if something is good for oily skin, that it will be drying to my already dry skin. This cleanser, as I stated above has been a huge help to my dry skin, so if you have dry skin don't let that one note turn you off from this amazing cleanser.

I'll be honest I tried this cleanser out before I checked to see how much it was. After using it for a while and seeing how good it made my skin look, I figured it would be rather expensive, but it's not! It's $16.50 for a 6oz bottle. My current cleanser comes in a 6.8 oz bottle for $14.99.

Have you heard of the Key West Aloe Company?

** I received this sample courtesy of BeautyStat **

Fall Nails

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Today I am sharing with you what will probably be my last Fall mani of the year, and I'm loving it. One of my favorite things about fall is when the leaves begin to change colors, I especially love Maple leaves, they are so brightly colored. Because of that fact when I seen these Maple Leaf Water Decals from Born Pretty Store I just had to have them. If you are interested in these you can save 10% with code: SMBW10  and shipping is always FREE!

After receiving these I had to decide on a base color that would look great with the leaves, I decided to go with Urban-Nights from China Glaze. It's a beautiful deep plum-purple cream that is just perfect for fall and in my opinon really helped the color of the leaf decals stand out. These decals were really easy to work with and I had no issues with them at all, like I do some decals.

Y'all know me, I can't just leave well enough alone, so I added some of It's Real 18K top coat from Sephora by OPI to give it a little something more. I really like how it turned out, but my camera just could not capture how pretty it really was in person.

Do y'all like doing the Photo-a-Day challenges? Well I've never done one and I've always wanted to, so I found a few for the month of December and pulled prompts from each of them and made up my own little challenge. If you are interested in doing it, I have it posted over on my Instagram. Let me know in the comments if you will be doing it too :)