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 :)

Camo Nail Fail

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So about a month ago I received these Camouflage Water Decals from Born Pretty Store, I was so excited to try them out and even had a pretty good idea of what I was going to do with them. I gathered up all my supplies and got to work, I didn't get very far before I ran into an issue. I have used several water decals and they are usually very easy to use, these I just could not get them to work. I followed all the instructions, clean and polish the nails, remove film from decal, put it in water, apply to nail, soak up excess water, blow dry.

They would not adhere to my nails to save my life. First time I did it, I did have on base coat, so I took that off and tried again and it still did not work.

I would not recommend these particular decals, but their other decals have worked great for me. If anyone has any suggestions on how to make these work I would love to hear them :)

 As always if you do make a purchase from Born Pretty Store they do have free shipping and you can save 10% with the coupon code: SMBW10

Essence Let's Get Lost & Born Pretty Decals

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Today I am using another one of these fabulous polishes from Essence, Let's Get Lost, and pairing it with some Black and White Star Water Decals from Born Pretty.

Let's Get Lost is a fun cyan blue shade that my camera refused to get an accurate photo of, and just like Break Through, it's a cream with a jelly like texture/finish. Application was a breeze and the drying time is just amazing on these polishes, by the time I painted both my hands the first hand I painted was already dry and ready for the second coat.

After I applied Let's Get Lost I thought it would make the perfect base for the Born Pretty Decals. I found these decals fairly easy to work with. The directions say to remove film from the product and cut the patter out, to fit on your nail. Then you simply put it in water and wait for 10-20 seconds, I found that I had to wait a little while longer. Then you have to slide the decal off the paper, moisten your nail and place the decal where you want it. Take a paper towel and press it on the nail to soak up the water, then the decal will be stuck to your nail. Finish off with some top coat and you are good to go. The only real issue that I ran into while using these was trying to see the decal, since they are white and so is the paper it's on.

I really like the way this polish and these decals looked together, just a simple but pretty nail look. Please excuse my tip wear had this on for a few days before I got a photo.

Don't forget if you shop Born Pretty Store to use the coupon code: SMBW10 to save 10% off your entire purchase, plus shipping is always free!

Hope you all have a great Saturday! I'll be spending mine working on some fun posts for next week :) What are you doing with your Saturday?

Review: KKCenterHK Water Transfer Stickers

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Over the weekend I tried out the Cute Dot and Bow water transfer stickers from KKCenterHK. Basically they are just like water decals, the are just made to cover your whole nail.

It comes with a strip of 12 water transfer stickers (decals) and a 'smoothing tool' which is just a small nail file. Below is what the strip looked like after I had cut the individual decals.

The directions say to clean, cut & trim to fit, soak & apply, smooth and apply top coat. It also says to peel off the protective film, but there was no protective film on mine. So I followed all the directions and the decal would not stay on my nail, it just kept sliding off, so I went to their website to see if there were any tips. On their website it says to soak the decal for 10-15 minutes, ain't nobody got time for that LOL and they will come off a lot sooner. It also says to dry the decal off with something so I used a cotton ball, it did help keep it from sliding around, but it still did not adhere to my nail. The second issue I had was the decals were so long and my nails are not, so most of the bow got trimmed off.

For me these were a fail, I didn't ever bother with putting top coat on them, I just took the photo and peeled them off. The packaging says by applying a top coat the decals will last up to 7 days, and only 1-2 days with out. Maybe they would have worked better if I had applied a base coat, the instructions did not say anything about it so I didn't do it. I also think they should have a long and short version so us nubby girls could use these too with out loosing any details.

KKCenterHK's Full Water decals cost $7.20

If you shop at KKCenterHK you can save 10% off your order with this coupon code: SBB2013

Review: Born Pretty Water Decals

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Today I have a nail look and review. Born Pretty sent me a couple packs of of their Feather water decals for review. I have used the Fing'rs nail tattoos and they are quite similar to these water decals.

The instructions say to paint your nails, let them dry. Remove film from decals cut out the one you want to use and plunge it into water for 10-20 seconds. Moisten the fingernail and stick the pattern in position, sop up water with a paper towel and blow dry, then top with a top coat.

When I read the instructions I thought why do I have to blow dry them, I didn't the others, so I did not blow dry them, I just put on my top coat. My top coat ate away at the decal!

So a few days later I thought let me try them again and see what happens. I still did not blow dry them, I just waited about 20 minutes after I had finished applying the decals to apply my top coat and that seemed to work just fine.

I like these water decals, I think they are a great inexpensive way to spice up a manicure. The decals only cost $.99, come in a variety of styles and you get free shipping! Plus you can save an extra 10% by using the coupon code: SMBW10

Have you used water decals before? What did you think about them?

Nail of the Day: KKCenterHK Water Decals

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Today I have a cute nail look to share with you using Blue Feet water decals from KKCenterHK. The set came with 26 decals, 13 blue feet and 13 green feet. I chose to use the blue for this nail look.

I used Sally Hansen Blue Me Away! for my base on three fingers and Sinful Colors Snow Me White for my accent nail, to help the decal stand out better. After placing the decal on I thought my other fingers looked too plain, so I used a dotting tool to add a few dots to my other fingers. I really like the look I got, just something cute and fun.

This was the first time I had ever used water decals like this, so it took me a few tries before I got it right. The decal kept wanting to curl up on me, I was using tweezers and I think it would have been better to just slide it off with my finger then placed it on my nail. I will be giving these another try. They are just too cute!

Have you used water decals before? What is the best way to do them in your opinion?

 Take 10% off your order with coupon code: SBB2013