Products marked with an asterisk (*) were provided to me for impartial review.
Hiyaaa! Hope you all had a lovely weekend! I'm delighted to be sharing my first ever Born Pretty Store review today. If you're unfamiliar with BornPretty, then you have been much deprived: BPS is an online retailer selling (amongst other things) what seems like an infinite array of nail art supplies - and they are adding new products all the time. Their prices are very competitive & shipping is free worldwide. I'll have a discount code to share with you towards the bottom of this post.
I chose to review these 3x3.5mm conical spikes* in silver and I also made rather liberal use of these rhinestones (these are the smallest ones, 1.5mm) which I had already, (e.g. here). 3D nail art is still relatively new to me, so spikes were quite a bold choice, but I had so much fun playing with them!
My base colour is Nails Inc 'Belgrave Place', which I hadn't used in ages but I'm so glad I did because it is awesome. It's a rich, deep blue with a very strong purple undertone - mostly I'm sure it's a blue, but in certain lights it seems undeniably purple. It is a beauuut!
I somewhat stepped outside my comfort zone with these nails but I looove how they turned out! I messed about with various rhinestone colour combinations before I settled on this one. Generally I outlaw red+pink/orange but since I was putting spikes (spikes!) on my nails I thought I might as well go wild and just embrace all the colour clashing. #REBELLIOUS
I had originally planned to do every nail the same as my middle finger (I tested it out on this one first) and thumb, but I thought it might be a bit of a squeeze on my pinkie - I'm so glad I ended up with this mix of designs instead!
The Product: The spikes themselves I thought were fantastic. They definitely make a statement but they're smaller than a lot of similar products I've seen, so you can go bold without going (too) big - a good thing if you're new to 3D stuff, I'd say. It also means that the flat bases of the spikes sit flush against your nails, which is pretty much crucial for me as visible/palpable edges would drive me crackers. The points are quite sharp (surprised?), so you need to take a certain amount of care when washing your hands/getting dressed/doing stuff. They're not lethal, though.
Application: I used a toothpick to plop a dab of nail glue on my nail where I wanted to attach each spike. Picking them up was probably the trickiest part! I used an ordinary pair of tweezers, aligning the flat end of the tweezers with the base of the spike, to lift each on and drop it on my nail - you have some time to adjust the position of the spike before the glue dries, so you don't need to get it perfect straight away. When lifting with the tweezers, it's really important to use only minimal pressure - if you squeeze too tight, the stud will most likely go flying! [I used broadly the same technique for the rhinestones, but picked them up with a moistened orange stick instead.]
Longevity: This was the only real issue I had with these spikes: I had to reattach/replace three out of five of them over the course of two-ish days. However: 1) They might last longer with better nail glue - I'm not convinced of the quality of mine; 2) There are probably alternative, more effective adhesive methods (I think you can use gel or acrylic, if you have those); 3) How long do you want spiky fingers for, anyway?! If you make a good job of applying them (with a decent dollop of glue or whatever you choose), I'm sure these would happily last a night out. [If I'm only using rhinestones/flatter studs, I usually attach with top coat then seal with a full layer of top coat and I find that keeps them on really well. I didn't do that here and I seemed to lose rhinestones more quickly.]
Please feel free to use my discount code - HZL91 - for 10% off whenever you purchase anything from BornPretty. I've also placed the code & link in my sidebar so you can find it any time! Be warned, though, that browsing their website can be addictive!
What do you think? Do you buy into 3D nail art? I used to think it was something I could appreciate on others but never on myself, but I think I've proved myself wrong - it's not an everyday look, but I'm dying to road test these on a night out!
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