Some items provided for honest review.
I completely fell behind reviewing products this summer because of my summer camp job. I was just too exhausted to paint my nails let alone try and maneuver new products. Back in May, new to me brand, Nicole Diary, contacted me about trying some water decals and I jumped at the chance. You all know how much I adore water decals. They are quick and easy nail art which are perfect when I don’t have time or am too tired to do my nails.
I also played around with coloring the designs in with watercolors since I’ve been on a huge coloring stint lately. On paper, I use everything from pens to pencils and gel pens (throwback to the 90s!). It was fun to do my nails in the same way but took a lot of patience and a steady hand. Regardless, I am definitely pleased with how well these came out and think they are worth the extra time.
I couldn’t leave well enough alone and added some Born Pretty Store nail sticker/vinyls. I waited a full day to add these since I didn’t want to ruin/bring up the base color.
The water decals are typical, run of the mill and easy to use. After submerging them for about 20 seconds in cool water they slid off the backing paper smoothly. Over at Amazon.com and Aliexpress.com Nicole Diary has a wide selection of cute designs.
While I am personally not the biggest fan of the nail stickers this is more a personal choice than an issue with the actual product. I prefer easy, quick nail art options (like water decals) instead of waiting a full day to apply vinyls. Yes, I could have waited a couple of hours but a) I didn’t want to and b) it didn’t seem like enough time! While in theory the circles are extremely cute they would work better on larger bigger nails as to capture more of the design. On my short nails, I did not get enough circles and got too much negative space.
You be the judge, though!
Bases: China Glaze UV Meant to Be, Formula X Nails White Matter
Decals: Nicole Diary (linked here – design 08)
Vinyls: Born Pretty Store ($1.79 here)
What do you think? I hope you like these as much as I do!
Hi, my name is Monica and I have RA.
Don’t forget to use my discount at BPS!
I was recently contacted by a PR agency I’ve worked with in the past to test and review a new-to-me brand called “daniPRO”. According to the PR statement, this brand is innovative because it was created by podiatrist, Dr. Gary Evans. daniPRO lacquers are 4-free (meaning they do not contain toluene, formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin and DBP). However, upon closer inspection, I noticed these nail polishes do contain camphor, which is considered a toxin making daniPRO’s “free of toxins” statement website not completely true.
I noticed 
I think my favorite part about this stamper is I can transfer the stamp straight onto the nail. The stamper head is squishy I do not have to roll it from side to side or up and down. This eliminates any stretching of the image.
I did notice that this stamper is more temperamental than most. All squishy stampers are sensitive but this CJS is definitely more so. I have to make sure I use it on a completely flat surface or the image does not transfer from the stamping plate.
I tried several polishes (metallics, cremes, and stamping polishes) and noticed some key differences. This stamper works well with thin, smooth colors but has trouble with glitter and shimmers.
As of now, I have not experienced any deterioration (I use medical tape to clean and prime the stamper) but am very careful to keep acetone away from it.
This is a gorgeous deep purple with blue and red shimmer running throughout the polish.
You can see a hint of the gold shimmer that is so prominent in the bottle but it really only exists there.
the Rite of Aging...early 