Water Decal Review: Born Pretty Store

Hello!

Last month I was contacted by Born Pretty Store and they offered to send me some items to try out in return for a review. I love Born Pretty for cheap nail art supplies and have bought from them lots of times before, so I was more than happy to review some items for them - I even got to choose what I wanted!

One of the items I chose was these pretty leaf water decals. I thought they'd be good to use in autumn, and when I chose them I was already picturing them paired with the new Barry M gelly shades! I've never actually used water decals before, which is another reason why I picked these; to give me the opportunity to do so.

I also selected some studs and charms, which I will show you in the coming weeks.

For this mani, I started with a base of Chilli by Barry M, my favourite of the new autumn gelly range. I almost didn't buy this one - I initially preferred the look of Mustard, Chai and Cardamom, but I picked this one up as part of a 3-for-2 and I'm so glad I did! Here it is before I added anything.

I had to have a quick Google to see how best to apply the decals. There were some brief instructions on the back of the packet, but I didn't think they were that clear. 

Basically, you need to take the sheet of decals and carefully cut out the one(s) you want to use. Then you carefully place one into a cup of room temperature water, letting it float upside down on the surface. After about 20 seconds, remove the decal with the tweezers. I then slid the decal off the backing paper onto my fingertip (on opposite hand) then placed it from my fingertip onto my nail. The decal will slip around your nail a bit due to the water, which means you can gently position it how you want. Then gently pat dry - I used a tea towel! I did one hand, then topcoated before doing the other hand, because if you get water on them before topcoating they'll move/come off.

I really enjoyed applying these and I love the finished look. And I still have lots of leaves left! I was impressed by how many decals there were in this set, and all the different leaf designs that were included - they were all different sizes so I could pick exactly what I wanted for each nail. My favourite ones are the fern-type ones. A few of the decals had a white line around one edge, which I couldn't decide if it was part of the pattern or whether the decal wasn't printed exactly right? Either way it's not really noticeable unless you look closely. I definitely want to try decals again in the future!!

If you feel like buying anything from Born Pretty, you should! Postage is free, and although delivery takes a while as they are based in Hong Kong (mine took about 5 weeks) it's worth the wait for the cheap prices and the massive range of pretty things they stock. If you buy anything, please use my discount code which is HHBQ10 - you can also find it in the image to the right of my blog - for 10% off. :-)