Bettina Pink Bikini & MoYou London Pro 02 XL

Happy Saturday! Man this week was so busy. My nails have been nakie for most of this week and it has finally bit me in the butt. Almost all of the corners on my blog hand chipped badly. A lot of it happened in my P.E. class yesterday. I'm pretty bummed about my nails and I refuse to round them! Lett's hope they grow out soon.

I've been telling myself this year I will venture out and try new methods of nail art. I haven't got away from stamping yet, but I did try something new using stamping and it turned out really cool! Basically what I did was paint 2 coats of a white polish on a sandwich baggie, let it dry, stamp an image on the white polish, trim to desired shape, and use as decals.

Here's what it looks like on the plastic sandwich baggie. 

Here's what it looks like when I cut and placed them on my nails. I just cleaned the rest up with acetone and added topcoat. 

Here's Morgan Taylor All White Now stamped using MoYou London Pro 02 XL in MASH Black. The Pink is Bettina Pink Bikini. My sister got me 4 Bettina polishes when she went to Puerto Rico and this was my first time using one of them. I LOVE IT! Nice buttery, creamy, opaque formula. Must get more! The black studs are from Born Pretty Store.

Messy Mansion Stamping Plate Review

Press Sample

Hi loves! I'm sure school is starting up again for a lot of you guys including myself. I started last week, but tomorrow is my first day of nursing school...again. I got my ADN and RN license last year, but now I'm in an RN to BSN program to get my bachelors so I hope this year goes by quick so I can be done with school once and for all!

Today I have 3 stamping plates to review from Messy Mansion. Messy Mansion is an Australian based online shop that carries stamping supplies including different brands of stamping plates to make supplies more available to Aussie gals. Don't worry, if you're not in Australia, shipping is still very affordable at $2.50 for round plate only orders! Julia sent me 3 of her own brand of stamping plates that she designs (Messy Mansion) and 2 Lily Anna plates--another brand she carries on her site. I decided to split them into 2 posts. First up, I have the 3 Messy Mansion plates: MM 29, MM 27, & MM 26.

Here are my scans of the plates. Feel free to click for enlargement. MM29 has a water creature theme (forgive my funky description), MM27 has a fire and ice theme, and MM26 has a present theme. 

I used OPI Can't Find My Czechbook and stamped using MM29 in OPI I Saw U Saw We Saw Warsaw. The decal was made with MASH Black and Morgan Taylor Candy Coated Coral. I think these are kind of awesome!

The koi fish came out great, but I did have to try a few attempts because parts of the fine lines in the top fin were a bit hard to pick up. I really wanted to make a decal with the woman, but I wasn't sold on how the lines came out. The entire image picks up each time, but the lines on the hair, face, and neck aren't as bold/filled as I prefer them to be. 

Ice nails: Essie Bikini So Teeny stamped using MM27 in Konad White. Fire nails: OPI Call Me Gwen-Ever stamped using MM27 in Konad Red and Konad Yellow. All of these picked up with ease and came out great. 

Here's China Glaze Too Yacht to Handle stamped using MM26 in Konad White. The glitter is China Glaze Glistening Snow. The bows picked up perfectly and also transferred nicely onto the nail.

Here I used another one of the present images to test the fine lines and they all transferred perfectly!

Overall I'm really pleased with the Messy Mansion plates. All of the images transfer nicely and the plates have a nice variety of images to choose from. Although the woman on MM29 didn't pick up to my liking, all of the lines still transfer and you can tell what everything is so it may just be my personal preference. I love that each plate has a theme so you can create a unique mani with just one plate instead of going through several plate collections to do a themed manicure. You can purchase Messy Mansion plates here and don't worry if you're not in Australia, these plates can be shipped internationally! 

Born Pretty Store--Gold Arabesque Pattern Water Decals Review

Press Sample

Hey polished pretties! Today I have some Arabesque Pattern water decals from Born Pretty Store to review. They're shiny gold and come on a fairly large sheet. I've used water decals before, and the sheet was probably about half of this size so that was a pleasant surprise. 

To get an idea of how many decals are on here, for 4 nails I used the 2 upper corner designs and had some extra decal leftover. This sheet would last at least a few manicures or to get even more use, pedicures! I don't know about you guys, but I always have designs at least on my big toes so these would be great to jazz up a plain pedicure. 

The base color is Morgan Taylor Candy Coated Coral. 

I really love how beautiful and elegant this manicure turned out with minimal effort. The only thing I had some issue with is that the plastic decal material doesn't melt when you clean up with acetone. To avoid this issue, be careful sizing and cutting the decal before placing it on your nail and make sure it doesn't extend onto your cuticle area. You can purchase these decals here for $4.99. Use my code NV7X31 for 10% off your entire purchase. 

Stamping Decal Tutorial with MoYou London Pro 11 XL

Hey friends! I have a treat for you today. Usually I just share photos of my nails, but today I have a new YouTube video to go along with the nail art I did. I've been playing around with reverse stamping and advanced stamping the past couple of months, but I have finally found a way to make a stamping decal that works great for me. I really want to make more videos, but the setup and editing takes me quite awhile to get the hang of. Hopefully after filming a few more I'll pick up some speed.

For this mani, I used Morgan Taylor All White Now and stamped using MoYou London Pro 11 XL in Wet N Wild Black Creme. I filled in the flowers with Morgan Taylor Invitation Only and it's also the polish color on all my other nails. I don't typically stamp with Wet N Wild Black Creme, but for this look, the opacity of the black was not a concern. Also for those of you who have tried stamping decals and have had issues with the decal being too stiff, it may be the topcoat you're using. I tried Seche Vite Quick Dry and the decals were super stiff. I switched to Sally Hansen Hard as Nails Clear and it works like a charm!

And of course as promised, here's my YouTube tutorial of how I created this! I would love some feedback on the video as well. I really hate talking in videos. Are the captions on the bottom sufficient or am I going to be forced to make tutorials with my voice? You guys be the judge!