The Nerd-Geek Challenge - Prompt 1: Favourite Character!

*Disclaimer: some items in this blog post have been previously received for review.

Hi!!!

I'm SO excited about today!! It's time for the first prompt of Franzi and mine's Nerd-Geek Challenge!! (in case you need a refreshing of what and how and why, click here for the explanation!)

Basically, we're both really into Sci-Fi and Fantasy stuff so we decided to combine our geeky side with our artistic side and do a nail art challenge! The first prompt is character - are you excited to see what I came up with? Then read on! ;) 

Oh yeah, this post will be filled with nerdy gifs because NOW IS THE TIME TO GO ALL OUT!! So be prepared :D

Hipster Harry Potter

Disclaimer: some items in this post have been previously received for review.

Potterheads rejoice, for your hearts will be warmed by today's design!

A few weeks ago I won a giveaway hosted by Accio Lacquer (if you are not following her already, GO! NOW!). The prize was a set of vinyl nail decals of Harry Potter by Lacquer By Lissa. I picked the colour silver because I thought it'd look great with a galaxy design - so I've had this design in mind for quite some time now! I showed you the galaxy design already here, so we'll go straight on to the decals!

Blue Galaxy Nails

Disclaimer: some of the products used in this blog post have previously been received for review.

GALAXY NAILS!! WHOOT! SPACE PARTY!!!

As you can see from my introduction, I'm quite enthousiastic about these. This is my second attempt at galaxy nails (you can see the first one here - and here is an added bonus!) and I decided to go with the classic space colour: blue.

Cats in Space! - BornPretty Store Review

*Disclaimer: this product was provided for review. All opinions in this blogpost are my own and are not influenced by anything of anyone.

Hi everyone!

Today I have my last BornPretty Store review for you!

(in case you missed the previous ones: here's the star stud review and here is the sea shell stud review)

But today is actually my most fun review! I chose some water decals from BornPretty Store - you can find them on their website here. And let me tell you already now: I am so so so pleased with these decals.

On the sheet I picked, there are some various decals (cats, ducks and flowers), but I was drawn to the cats. I immediately had so many ideas to do with these, until I finally found the craziest one: cats in space! I knew I just HAD to try this out. I mean, what on earth could be better than cats in space?! I do love crazy designs ;)

I had never worked with water decals before, so I was actually a bit scared for this review - what if I messed it up just because I didn't know anything about using decals? But everything turned out so great! 

There are instructions on the back of these decals on how to use them:

So first you have to paint your nails with a colour (or a design). I did a galaxy design - you already saw these nails in my previous post here - I wanted to show them off on their own because I was quite proud of them.

Now for the decals: when the polish or design is dry, you have to cut out the decals you want to use and remove the plastic sheet that covers them (on the explanation on the back of the decals, it says you have to do it the other way around but of course that way you remove the plastic sheet of all the decals - since I wasn't going to use all of these right now, I cut them out first).

I then plunged the decal in a bit of lukewarm water for about 15 seconds and also moistened my fingernail.

I took the decal out of the water and took it from the white paper it was still on, and then stuck it onto my nail. This was really easy - the decals didn't rip or tear apart, and I could easily still manoeuvre them around on my nail to position them a bit. I then sealed it in with top coat.

It really was easy-peasy and I had no problems whatsoever if I followed these instructions.
I just randomly stuck these cats on my nails - like they were kind of "huh I'm floating in space oh well alright I guess." Hehe :)

What I should tell you: these decals are a tiny bit see-through (like most decals, I think?). I had some white dots in my galaxy design and if you look closely (in real life) you can see these dots shining through the white parts of the decals  bit. It didn't bother me at all though and again, you only notice it when it's pointed out.

And there's another thing I should tell you - this is more of a tip really: I had some trouble with the decal on my middle finger, but that was entirely my own fault. I wanted this cat to be placed at the tip of my nail. The decal, however, has a tiny edge of see-through decal, so where the image of the cat ends, that's not where the decal ends (if you know what I mean?).

So I wanted to cut this see-through bit off, because otherwise it would stick out on the tip of my nail since the cat image was placed so close to the edge of the tip. I didn't have any trouble cutting it a bit, but of course by the time I had cut it the water in the decal and on my nail had dried up a bit and I couldn't really place it properly anymore when it was dry.

So I put some top coat on my galaxy design and stuck the cat on there - this, however, was a bit tricky. If I pushed on the decal a bit to move it around, my fingerprints would be on it because of the wet polish underneath, and there were also super small tears in the decal - you only notice this when I tell you though, and it's not even visible in the pictures. It got better when I applied top coat on top because that smoothed things out, but I learned it's best to not stick the decal onto top coat but really place it when the nail is still wet.

This is in no way a fault of the product though. And it isn't even very visible, I just though it was important to tell you that you shouldn't try to stick it to some top coat :)

The final judgement: I honestly am over the moon (hehe, notice the space pun!) with these decals. They are so fun and different, and I love all the crazy designs I can create with them! I had no problems with the decals at all (except for the middle finger, which was my own fault) and they were very easy to use. I am really pleasantly surprised with how easy it was, as I had never used water decals before.

The price: These cute decals cost $2,86 at the moment. For this price, you get one sheet of 40 decals with three different things on it: cats, ducks and flowers. There are various designs.

Where can you get them: You can order these decals here on BornPretty Store.

Discount?: Like I mentioned in my previous reviews, I have a discount code for BornPretty Store that will get you 10% off on your order! Just use XDX31 when you order something :)

That's it for this review and this was also my final review for BornPretty Store for now! I really had fun doing these reviews and pushed myself further to try some new designs with the various items - I hope you liked these reviews too!

Thanks for reading! :)

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In a Galaxy Far Far Away...

Hi everyone!

Today I have a galaxy design for you - and let me tell you, I am SUPER proud of this one!

I've been wanting to do galaxy nails for a long while now, and I actually tried it once but failed miserably. I always though it was very hard (it looked very hard!). But now, I can tell you: no it isn't! Well, with the right tutorial anyway it isn't :)

I found this really good tutorial by Lucy's Stash here. I also adored the colours she picked, so I decided to make a purple galaxy manicure.

For this design I used:

- Alpine Snow - OPI

- a purple nameless ombre set by Guylond

- another Guylond polish (soft blue-purple), also nameless

- white acrylic paint

I just followed the steps from Lucy's tutorial and at first, I wasn't really convinced this was going to look right. BUT: when I added the white dots and stars, it definitely looked really cool, and the shiny topcoat just made everything fit together and it looked perfect. So if it doesn't look good at first when you try it, no worries! :)

So first I painted my nails with two coats from the darkest purple (on the right in the picture above). When that was dry, I sponged on the pink and then the white, but I thought the white was a bit too white if you know what I mean, so I sponged over it with the light blue-purple polish. 

Then I sponged the darker purple and added some bits here and there. Finally I made the dots with Alpine Snow and painted the stars with acrylic paint.

I'm really glad it turned out like this! Of course Lucy's design looks ten times better still, but I adore mine and I'm now really confident to try galaxy nails out again, maybe with some different colours too!

I also still owe you one review for BornPretty Store - and I actually did something fun with this galaxy design for that! But that's for next blogpost, because I loved these galaxy nails on their own already so much that I wanted to show them to you separately :)

Do you like these? Did you try out galaxy nails yet? I'm sure many of you have, it's such a popular design and I'm really glad I finally found the courage to try it :)

Thanks for reading!

Starlit Sky - BornPretty Store Review

*Disclaimer: this product was provided for review. All opinions in this blogpost are my own and are not influenced by anything of anyone.

Hi everyone!

Today I have a super fun review for you! Remember my blogpost from a few weeks ago - about the reviews I got to do for BornPretty Store? Well, the items I had picked have arrived and here's my first review!

If you don't know BornPretty Store yet: it's an online store that sells an abundance of things, including a lot of nail art items and nail polishes! BornPretty Store kindly let me pick some nail art items I wanted to review, and the first item I chose are these lovely little golden stars.

These stars exist in a multitude of colours, as you can see here on BornPretty Store's website. There are eight colours available - I had a hard time picking a colour because I thought they all looked really fun, but I eventually went for #3, gold.

As you can read on the website, the stars are 3mm big and you get 200 in a pack - that's a lot!
I don't think I'll be running out of gold coloured stars anytime soon.

When I received the stars, I had a bunch of ideas and at first I just couldn't decide which idea I'd do for this review! But then I looked over at my April polish haul and saw the gorgeous Golden Tears by Park Avenue and I knew immediately what it was going to be!

The stars are just perfect for some space-y galaxy nail art with lots of black and gold! I didn't want to do a classic galaxy nail art, but I wanted the design to resemble a black sky with lots of tiny sparkly stars. So I used Black on Black by Sinful Colors, Golden Tears by Park Avenue, and BornPretty Store's golden stars to create this design.

Here's how the design looks without the stars:

Ela, you'll be happy to see this I think as you were curious about Golden Tears! :)

I just did two coats of Black on Black and added a very thin coat of Golden Tears. It's packed with glitters so a thin coat was all I needed - especially for this design, as I wanted the golden stars to stand out a bit against the black instead of being swallowed by gold glitteriness (okay that's not a word but you get what I mean). It was very hard to take proper pictures of Golden Tears, so trust me, it looks much prettier and sparklier in real life!

Then I added the stars. I just put on a coat of top coat and while that was still wet, I stuck the stars onto my nails. Then I went over it with some top coat to make sure they stayed in place. I thought it was very fun to actually have some "real" stars in the design instead of just golden polish sparkles.

I think the stars really add something to the design here - they make it more special and lively, but it's very effortless to use some studs or stars like this so you get some great nail art with minimal effort :)

I tested if the colour of the stars would come off when you remove everything with nail polish remover, and it does - as is the case with about all of the studs I ever bought from anywhere. But if you pick them off your nail, you'll definitely be ably to re-use them! But anyhow, you get 200 of them so you can afford to throw some away, in my opinion.

Here's a blurry picture, to show off all the sparkles!

And to finish my review, another proper picture:

The final judgement: I'm very pleased with these stars. They are really fun and can make a design instantly look more special. I also loved the other colours BornPretty Store offered for these stars, so I might go order some more myself :)

The price: These little stars are currently on sale and cost $2.29 (instead of $3.37). Another great thing is that BornPretty Store offers free shipping worldwide! 

Where can you get them: You can order these stars in 8 different colours here on the BornPretty Store website!

Discount?: If you are thinking about ordering something from BornPretty Store, don't forget: I have a coupon code that will get you 10% off on your order! Just use XDX31 when you order something :)

That's it for today's review, everyone - I hope you liked the design I created with stars and enjoyed my very first official review!

 Thanks for reading!

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