Stamping with BornPrettyStore

                                                                              - stamping polish sent for review by BornPrettyStore

Hello friends!

I have another treat from BornPrettyStore to show you today. It's a pink/purple stamping polish :)

As you can see, this is a 15ml bottle, which is a lot of product for not really that much money (it's currently on sale for $4.59), and, as I will show you soon, it stamps really well.

See? No gaps or bald spots. The plate I used for this manicure is also from BornPrettyStore, it's L003 plate and I love it! I tought you would like to see how this polish behaves on light and dark bases, so I made a black and white gradient for it:

As you can see, it shows really well on both colours. I do have to tell you that this polish does have a smell, but it's not overpowering and it completely disappears when the polish is dry. I also have to tell you that I am very sensitive to smells, I often get migraines if something smells strongly unpleasant, but I didn't have such problems while doing my nails.

Here is the link to the stamping polish: http://www.bornprettystore.com/15ml-born-pretty-nail-stamping-polish-newly-sweet-style-nail-polish-p-22179.html

And the link to the plate: http://www.bornprettystore.com/large-designs-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l003-65cm-p-17921.html

Don't forget to use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off your purchase :)

xoxo

Stefi

Neon cats with BornPrettyStore water decals

                                                                                                  -item sent to me by BornPrettyStore-

Hello folks!

You love cats, yes? Well, I do. I have 3 and they are a constant source of mischief and joy in our house :) So, when BornPrettyStore offered to send me some cat decals to try and review, how could I say no, especially when they are so very cute:

These are water decals, which is self explanatory: you cut the decal you want, soak it in water for around 15 or 20 seconds, take it of the paper and place it on your nail. It helps if dip you nail in water, but it's not necessary. When you have your decal where you want it on your nail, smooth it out, put top coat on, and that's it, you cute manicure is done! Just make sure your polish is dry before you smooth out the decal. I decided to go with bright pink neon polish as a base:

As you can see from the pic above, there are 20 decals on 1 sheet, and you can choose between these cats, and a sheet with a little more spooky cats, which would be perfect for Halloween :) I can honestly tell you these are super easy to use, and you'll have a great manicure done in minutes.

Item number for this product is 16035, and this is the link: http://www.bornprettystore.com/nail-water-decals-transfers-sticker-pretty-black-pattern-sheet-p-16035.html

Don't forget to use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off your purchase. Also, be sure to grab some stamping plates, Halloween is around the corner, and I know for a fact BornPrettyStore has some very spooky ones :)

xoxo

Stefi

Nail care with Cuter Cuticles

                                                                                                            - all items purchased by me

Hello friends!

How are you? Are you looking forward to autumn? I have to admit, I am. We've had a pretty hot summer in Croatia, I feel like we were on heat wave alert for 2 months, and my migraine was acting up during those hot days, so I am very much looking forward to autumn crisp nights. However, I am not looking forward to all the fog: I live in a town with 4 rivers, and sometimes I think the fog here is a living, breathing, scary creature. :)
Anyway, back to business. :) I always talk of nail polish and stamping plates and all sorts of nail art here, and I thought today we might go back to basics: nail care. I'm sure you all know all kinds of tips and tricks for having healthy nails, so I will just tell you what I do.
First of all, I have to tell you that I've been blessed with good genes, my nails are basically healthy and they are really very low maintenance. They are quite hard, which means they are prone to breaking, and that's why I need a good moisturizing routine, to keep them flexible so that they bend and not break. As far as a base coat goes, I always use one, these days it's either The Knight by A England or Essie's Help me grow. But, the real secret is the cuticle oil. For a very long time, I've been using products from Cuter Cuticles.

Cuter Cuticles is a Canadian indie brand with nail care products, and I got myself addicted to Coffee Bean Cuticle oil. I have my own oil blend I made at home, and I use it, but I always go back to my Coffee Bean, I am never without it :) It smells like freshly ground coffee, but the scents is not overwhelming, just enough to make you sniff your fingers all the time :)
This was my last order:

Yes, I am the coffee monster :D What can I say, I really really love coffee. :)

There are a whole lot of scents in the shop, and if you would like a scent that is not listed, just ask, and the owner Sammy will hook you up :)

Except oils, Cuter Cuticles has balms, they are called Barrier Butter and they are perfect, especially for winter, when our hands, nails and cuticles are more prone to be dry and suffer from the harsh weather. There are also mani bombs, and mani tea. I bought mani tea with my last order, and it's excellent, smells divine and after you soak your hands in it, they feel so smooth and nourished.

They work like tea for your hands, take a bowl of hot water, put the bag in, wait for a couple of minutes for the water to cool and the tea to soak, and then you can enjoy a little bath for your hands, and your feet. :)  I usually soak my hands after I file my nails, once a week, sometimes more often if I was gardening a lot

See how my nails are healthy? I know they are yellow, that's what you get when you wear dark polishes most of the time, but still, they look quite nice :)

Cuter Cuticles also has liquid latex called Cutie Guard, it's a latex barrier you put around your nails when you do messy nail art, like gradients, and it's a life saver for me.

I can't recommend Cuter Cuticles products enough, so please go and check the store and order something, you will not regret it! The prices are reasonable, you won't pay a lot for shipping, and I'm sure you will get yourself hooked just as I did :)

This is the shop: http://cutercuticles.com/shop/  
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Cuter-Cuticles-748037935244372/timeline/
Instagram: https://instagram.com/canaildian_girl/
What do you use for nail care? Tell me in the comments :)

xoxo

Stefi

BornPrettyStore plates, stamper and stamping polish review

                                                                                                       -items sent to me by BornPrettyStore

Hello friends!

I know, I know, it's been a while since I wrote a blog post, but it's summer and I've been taking it easy. Plus, got a Kindle and basically, I haven't lifted my face from it since :)

I do, however, have a treat for you :) BornPrettyStore was kind enough to send me some goodies for review, and I'm sure you'll love them as much as I did.

First up, a square stamper with 5 different colour stamping heads.

This is a 1.6x2.6 cm sized stamper, the stamping heads are squishy and a little sticky, which, in my book, is a good thing, it makes transferring the images from stamping plates easier. The surface of the heads is quite glossy, but that didn't seem to affect image transfer. Let me show you: 

See, all clear! I did take my buffer file and gently filed the glossy finish off of heads to see if it will be better, and it was by just a little. However, my black polish I currently use for stamping reacted much better to primed stamping head. 

I especially love the red stamping head, all polishes just look so crisp with it and it's quite easy to aline the image to your nail. 

All in all, I like this stamper, and I think it's a bargain: you basically get 5 stampers for 5.65 USD. 

The link: http://www.bornprettystore.com/stamp-holder-5pcs-marshmallow-squishy-stamper-head-refill-head-p-21591.html

Next up, stamping polish. I chose a nice green stamping polish with gold sparks, and I just love it! 

It transfers very well, it is a little thicker than normal polish since it's for stamping, but the color is just gorgeous! Look!

Can you see how well it's visible on black polish? I love it! The only downside? It's 6 ml, I really hope BornPrettyStore will start selling it in a bigger bottle :) Also, the might still be some gold shimer left on your hands after cleaning up after stamping, but it's nothing a little soap and water won't fix. :) 

The link: http://www.bornprettystore.com/green-nail-stamping-polish-born-pretty-nail-varnish-stamp-p-18134.html

I also chose two stamping plates, one round with feathers and and a big square one with lace. They are both very well etched and the images transfer with no problem. 

I especially love how this stamping polish looks over white base, it's almost teal, and still sparkly :)

This plate is gorgeous, and I recommend it with all my heart! 

The links: 

Feathers plate:  http://www.bornprettystore.com/birds-dragon-feather-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-bp75-p-20794.html

Lace plate: http://www.bornprettystore.com/hollow-lace-nail-stamp-template-image-plate-born-pretty-l030-65cm-p-21816.html

I am really happy with these products, and will be using them a lot, especially the stamping polish. 

BornPrettyStore has lots of other stamping goods, so be sure to check them out here: 

http://www.bornprettystore.com/born-pretty-stamping-plates-c-268_94_652.html

And when you choose your plates and stampers and polish, use my code RAPYX31 for 10% off of your entire purchase. :) 

Until next time, 

xoxo

Stefi

Obsessed With Tropical

Hello, friends! :)
A lot has been going on these pas few weeks. My brother in law was getting married, and that included a whole lotta organizing to do, because my Dad didn't want to go to the wedding and the party, and we had to figure something out because we can't leave him alone for a whole day and night (he's in early stages of dementia). He was at his sister's house for the weekend, so we were able to attend all the wedding stuff. Maybe I should clarify, in Croatia, if someone close to you is getting married, the wedding basically starts at around noon, we gather at the house of the bride or groom (depends which one are you related to), then you go pick up the bride (or wait for the groom), then the church, and then the party, which usually lasts the whole night :) Anyway, it was a very fun day and night. Of course I had to have special nails for the occasion, so here they are:

I did a gradient with Essence white and Parrot Polish The Lioness of Brittany, and stamped with MoyouLondon Tropical 02 plate.
They kind of matched my dress :)

Tropical theme seems to be my favourite these days, and I did quite a lot of those. There's a hash tag on Instagram #hawaiianshirtmani, it was started by LadyAndTheStamp, and we do hawaiian shirt themed manicure every friday, and I think I might have gone a bit overboard with it. I think it's because it's been so hot here for the last few days all I can think of is being in a tropical paradise :D
Here are a few of those manicures:

This is a gradient with Catrice Will You Berry Me? and China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy, then dry brushed with Barry M Cotton, and then stamped with my go to tropical plate, MoyouLondon 02.

This is a gradient with Essence love is in the air, Eveline 922 and Barry M Berry Cosmo, stamped with, again, MoyouLondon Tropical 02

The base for this manicure was Misslyn Bikini season from their Neoprene Collection, stamped with A England Fonteyn and then Essence Black Stampy, all using images from BundleMonster BM-313 plate. :)

Which one is your favourite? Do you like tropical themed manicures?
Tell me in the comments, on hop on over to my Instagram @therapywithnailpolish :)

xoxo

Stefi

Nail Art Challenges in June

Hello, friends!

Last month I joined 2 nail art challenges on Instagram, and it's been so much fun, I continued it in July.
Sometimes I don't have any inspiration and have no idea what to do on my nails, so this was a very nice way to get ideas, enjoy other people's manicures, and find some very talented ladies to follow.
The first WNAC 2015 challenge, basically, you get a theme of the month and an idea, a subtheme if you will (is that even a word, subtheme?) for every friday. This were my manicures for that challenge.

If you are interested in the details, you can check my Instagram, but I think my favourite of these is this one:

This is Colors By Llarowe Young Turks, a beautiful holographic turquoise polish, stamped with black Essence Stampy and Moyou London Fashionista plate. The necklace I'm holding is hand made by my friend and polish partner in crime SecretJewelGarden, go check out her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/thesecretjewelgarden. There was no sun when I took this photo, but this polish is pretty either way.

The second nail art challenge I joined was ClaireEstelle8, this one is very fun. These are the manis:

I'd say my favourite of these would be this one:

It's and ombre with Essie's Garden Variety and Essence play with my mint stamped with Bundle Monster BM-315. It's the first time I did an vertical ombre, and I think it turned out very well.

One of the prompts for this challenge was new technique. So, I decided to tackle watermarble. I've been trying to do it since I started blogging, and it always ended horribly, so I am quite proud of this manicure :)

There is still room for improvement, of course, but this is the first time I managed to get the polish to spread and make a decent design :) All polishes used were A England, details, of course, on Instagram :) 

What do you think? 

Do you have a favourite among these? 

xoxo

Stefi

Parrot Polish Holo Goodness

Hello friends!
It's been a while since my last blog post, but that's just how life goes, sometimes other stuff comes first and you have to deal with the real world. :) To be perfectly honest with you, I haven't had much inspiration for writing, so I didn't press my self.
But then, I got invited to join a group Hella holo customs group on Facebook. Basically, it's a group that has custom holo polishes made from indie makers, 2 of them every month, and than you have the exclusive chance to buy them. The month I got in, Parrot Polish was one of the makers, and, since I a a faithfull fan of Parrot Polish, I jump on that train. Usually, members of the group vote on a color they want for a custom, and the makers does another, exclusive color of their own choce. David and Sonja made a blackish holo polish as an exclusive, and my black heart can't pass on a black holo, so that's what I wanted. Here it is, it's called Midnight.

 

It has a huge holo flame, and some blue glitter in it. Very sparkly, and very special. :)

I loved it so much I left in on my nails for 2 days, but I had to do some stamping :)

The plate is Moyou London Fashionista 08, one of the first I ever bought, and still my favourite.

There was another Parrot Polish in my order, one I've been wanting since I first saw it: The Lioness of Brittany, in all it's holo glory

I adore this polish, it has such a unique colour, and, as always, super strong holo. The best thing about Parrot Polish is that they dry really fast, and are a breeze to apply.

Do you have any Parrot Polish? If not, you are missing out. I've linked their shop and IG feed (you see them bold), so go check them out. :)

xoxo

Stefi