This is me cheating at nail art! It's only because I'm on holiday without any nail art accessories and a very limited amount of polish! The theme is blue, and there's some blue sky on these water decals, so I might just scrape through on a technicality!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is another one of Jilltastic Nail Design's brain child's, so be sure to visit her website for a list of participants.
Today's challenge is simply BLUE.
And here's a bit of a ramble explaining how I got to this post:
KK Center HK kindly sent me some nail decals for review early this year. I've posted about one set here
I requested some easter egg and bunny decals especially for an Easter themed manicure, unfortunately, in typical Michaela style, I left them in Chch when I went on Easter break :(
It felt bit silly to do a very belated Easter post once I went back to uni so I just put them to one side until I could think of something non-Eastery to use them for.
The other decals I got for review required long nails and I haven't had them all year without major breaks! I got some gorgeous floral french tips and the full nail water decals that I'm showing you today. The french tips are very long and I want to show off the whole pattern so they will be used for a special occasion. The full length ones were just too cool to wait for longer nails so I bit the bullet and brought them on holiday this time with the express purpose of wearing them!!!
This is what the set looks like.
You get 10 decals in a pack so you use them for one full manicure or as accents I suppose. I'm not sure why they have made the two biggest (presumably for the thumb nails) decals off centre. The the middle two in the pattern should be the biggest but instead the 6th and 7th decal are so the bird gets a bit mucked up unless you have tiny thumb nails!
On the back of the pack are instructions for application, but you basically roughly cut them out take off the protective coating and soak them in water til they come off the backing. Then you place them on your nail and smooth out and crinkles and wait for them to dry.
Then you file off the overhanging decal on the free edge and apply a layer or two of clear top coat for protection, shine and longevity (I suspect they could fall off whenever your nails get wet otherwise!!!).
Well here's how mine turned out:
Keep in mind that this was my first experience applying full nail water decals! I included the close-up of my pinkie because that was my tidiest nail!! I didn't end up doing my right hand because it was so much work!!!
I have to say though, that it's not really the decal's fault!!!!
From just a metre away my nails looked great, you couldn't see the wrinkles/creases.
My nails just do not conform to the dimensions of the decals is all! Or any sort of stick on nails/ nail polish strips that exist on the market.
I have very small nail beds so every decal had to be trimmed down. This was very finicky because I had to soak them, apply them, remove them, trim them down slowly til they kind of fit, then wet them and apply them again, wait for them to dry and file the huge amount of excess decal off (my nails are very short at the moment). All the crinkles mainly came about because I didn't trim them enough and then I didn't apply a thick top coat so they wrinkled a tad from the brush strokes. I added more top coat later and they looked way better. Mum told me she really liked this, she thought it was polish though...
What I Like:
On nails that are wider and longer these decals would ROCK! The design is really cool, like a dragon bird!!! If you mess up the application you just add water and start over!!!!
Also as messy as my photos make the mani look, only people who examine your nails up close will see the mistakes!
Also water decals are a way cheaper alternative to the nail apps/polish strips on the market from Sally Hansen, OPI etc. The wear time is probably shorter due to the material they're made of, but I would never get my money's worth of wear out of the '2 week polish strips' on the market.
In NZ Sally Hansen strips retail for something like $20 - extreme and I won't be buying any of them for this price ever!!!
The KK Center HK decals however, start at US$5.05 - way more cost effective. You can find these decals
http://www.kkcenterhk.com/Nail-Water-Decals-Full-Nail-Tips/c106_114/p3806/X%26D-Full-Nail-Art-Water-Decals-24%23/product_info.html and HEAPS more on the KKCentreHK website.
They were also kind enough to provide a 10% discount coupon to my readers BLGA345MI10. You can find it any time on my sidebar under all the Labels links. They have a 15% discount running at the moment as a Facebook promotion, so if you plan on buying from KK soon, get to it!
xxx
NPA
This is another one of Jilltastic Nail Design's brain child's, so be sure to visit her website for a list of participants.
Today's challenge is simply BLUE.
And here's a bit of a ramble explaining how I got to this post:
KK Center HK kindly sent me some nail decals for review early this year. I've posted about one set here
I requested some easter egg and bunny decals especially for an Easter themed manicure, unfortunately, in typical Michaela style, I left them in Chch when I went on Easter break :(
It felt bit silly to do a very belated Easter post once I went back to uni so I just put them to one side until I could think of something non-Eastery to use them for.
The other decals I got for review required long nails and I haven't had them all year without major breaks! I got some gorgeous floral french tips and the full nail water decals that I'm showing you today. The french tips are very long and I want to show off the whole pattern so they will be used for a special occasion. The full length ones were just too cool to wait for longer nails so I bit the bullet and brought them on holiday this time with the express purpose of wearing them!!!
This is what the set looks like.
You get 10 decals in a pack so you use them for one full manicure or as accents I suppose. I'm not sure why they have made the two biggest (presumably for the thumb nails) decals off centre. The the middle two in the pattern should be the biggest but instead the 6th and 7th decal are so the bird gets a bit mucked up unless you have tiny thumb nails!
On the back of the pack are instructions for application, but you basically roughly cut them out take off the protective coating and soak them in water til they come off the backing. Then you place them on your nail and smooth out and crinkles and wait for them to dry.
Then you file off the overhanging decal on the free edge and apply a layer or two of clear top coat for protection, shine and longevity (I suspect they could fall off whenever your nails get wet otherwise!!!).
Well here's how mine turned out:
Keep in mind that this was my first experience applying full nail water decals! I included the close-up of my pinkie because that was my tidiest nail!! I didn't end up doing my right hand because it was so much work!!!
I have to say though, that it's not really the decal's fault!!!!
From just a metre away my nails looked great, you couldn't see the wrinkles/creases.
My nails just do not conform to the dimensions of the decals is all! Or any sort of stick on nails/ nail polish strips that exist on the market.
I have very small nail beds so every decal had to be trimmed down. This was very finicky because I had to soak them, apply them, remove them, trim them down slowly til they kind of fit, then wet them and apply them again, wait for them to dry and file the huge amount of excess decal off (my nails are very short at the moment). All the crinkles mainly came about because I didn't trim them enough and then I didn't apply a thick top coat so they wrinkled a tad from the brush strokes. I added more top coat later and they looked way better. Mum told me she really liked this, she thought it was polish though...
What I Like:
On nails that are wider and longer these decals would ROCK! The design is really cool, like a dragon bird!!! If you mess up the application you just add water and start over!!!!
Also as messy as my photos make the mani look, only people who examine your nails up close will see the mistakes!
Also water decals are a way cheaper alternative to the nail apps/polish strips on the market from Sally Hansen, OPI etc. The wear time is probably shorter due to the material they're made of, but I would never get my money's worth of wear out of the '2 week polish strips' on the market.
In NZ Sally Hansen strips retail for something like $20 - extreme and I won't be buying any of them for this price ever!!!
The KK Center HK decals however, start at US$5.05 - way more cost effective. You can find these decals
http://www.kkcenterhk.com/Nail-Water-Decals-Full-Nail-Tips/c106_114/p3806/X%26D-Full-Nail-Art-Water-Decals-24%23/product_info.html and HEAPS more on the KKCentreHK website.
They were also kind enough to provide a 10% discount coupon to my readers BLGA345MI10. You can find it any time on my sidebar under all the Labels links. They have a 15% discount running at the moment as a Facebook promotion, so if you plan on buying from KK soon, get to it!
xxx
NPA
Wow, the colour on these is amazing, and even without the whole design you still get a great impression of a dragon flowing across the nails. Really good price for these too--I may just have to try them out!
ReplyDeleteBeautifyllll
ReplyDeleteoh, those are soo pretty!
ReplyDeleteso cute
ReplyDelete