Geometric stamping over Sally Hansen Mermaid’s TaleĀ 

Yesterday I featured a swatch of Sally Hansen CSM in Mermaid’s Tale–a beautiful teal jelly glitter shade. Today I have the mani I did using that shade as my base colour! I’ve really had a lot of fun getting into stamping, & practicing, so I decided to try stamping a pattern over the glitter. I knew black wouldn’t show up over such a dark base, so I decided to grab something fun & bright (Turquoise) & the end result turned out perfect. 

For this manicure, the polishes used were:

  • Base Coat: Finger Paints Peel Off Base Coat for Glitter
  • Top Coat: Cutex Quick Dry Top Coat
  • Essie Under the Twilight 
  • Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure Mermaid’s Tale
  • China Glaze Turned Up Turquoise
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper item #24059
  • Older Born Pretty Stamping Plate that’s no longer available — this plate contains the same image. 

Can I just say how impressed I am with how well Turned Up Turquoise stamps? I was shocked with how opaque it was on the nail, especially over such a dark base colour. I wasn’t sure how it was going to look, but it turned out awesome! I always find myself so drawn to dark shades in the Fall months, but the pop of colour over top works well for a transitional manicure–just enough of Summer & just enough of Fall, all in one design. 


What do you think of this stamping? What polishes do you love for stamping? Share all your secrets in the comments below! I’m going to be ordering a bunch of new stamping plates (especially Halloween/Christmas themed plates) in the next couple days so I’m looking for all the best stamping polishes for playing. 

Easy Geode Marble nails using Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Silicone Stamper item #38611

Happy Wednesday! Today I have a two in one for you–a review of this clear silicone jellly stamper (item # 38611) sent to me for review & a new technique for creating quick & easy geode nails using it! 

I used this stamping head for a few stamped manicures (including this design) but I found it was a bit too squishy for my likes for capturing the image & I prefer this Born Pretty stamper. I still wanted to see what I could do with it because it is a great product, so I decided to play around with it using a silicone mat & discovered it was great for creating these geode style nails. The size of this stamping head is especially perfect for achieveing this look. The size of means you can stamp down in one go (which is very important for getting your design to look like this). 

For this manicure, this polishes I used are:

  • Base Coat: Cutex Brittle Nail Fix
  • Top Coat: Quick Dry Top Coat 
  • Essie Bikini So Teeny
  • Essie Mint Candy Apple
  • Essie Pool Side Service
  • Essie Peach Side Babe 
  • Essie Leggy Legend 
  • Born Pretty Store 3.9cm Clear Jelly Silicone Stamper
  • Silicone craft mat (or another nail art mat… Born Pretty Store also makes a great affordable one! )
  • Small dotting tool or water marble tool. 
  • Small nail art brush. 

I tried to make a video of how to do this, but I’m still working on figuring out the best angle/set up but this video was farther away than I would have liked. Hopefully I’ll figure how to film a video where you can really see what I’m doing. But here is a rough example of how I created this design using a stamper. 

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  1. Paint your nails your base shade of choice (I used Bikini So Teeny for mine)
  2. Gather all your shades around your silicone mat & make sure to pre open the bottles. I forgot to do this, & it slows down the process some. 
  3. Going colour by colour, drop the polish down on your silicone mat. Try and overlap the shades together. There is no amount of polish to put down but try & make sure you can see a little bit of each other. 
  4. Using a dotting tool, drag you polish through each other. 
  5. Using your stamper, press down on the polish. Next press down again your prepainted nail. The clear stamper is great for this because you can see through & decide which part of the pattern you want to apply. 
  6. Using a small nail art brush, go in & apply small lines of metallic shade (I used Leggy Legend). This is a great way to hide any mistakes. 
  7. Finish off with top coat to seal in design. 


You definitely want to move quickly & carefully when applying it to your nails. When pressing down, don’t move your nail because it will smudge the design which will ruin the geode look of the design. 

This Born Pretty stamper is so perfect for achieving this look. I tried it using a small stamper & it didn’t work well at all. You need that large squishy space for the polish to spread out. I do have a warning–be careful while cleaning this stamper. I used pure acetone to try & clean mine up (I was not thinking) & it caused some clouding of the plastic. So be very careful! 

If you’re looking for a versatile stamper, I would definitely recommend this stamper. Like I said, I had some difficulties using it for actually stamping but that could have something to do with my personal learning curve. However I will always gush about clear stampers because I feel like the options for nail art are endless! & this stamper in particular with its pink shell is just so pretty. 

If you’re interested in ordering this stamper (or something else) from Born Pretty Store feel free to use my discount code COFFK31 to save 10% off any regular price items! I’ve been ordering from them for years, & I love the wide variety of products you can find for all your nail polish addict needs! 

Born Pretty Store Review — BORN PRETTY Stamping Polish Plate Set Flower Leaf Tree Image Template item #39933.Ā 


Hey lovelies! I know… I disappeared a bit. A lot has been going on since getting home from vacation. But that’s okay! Because today I have another review of one of the items I received for review from Born Pretty Store–the flower leaf image stamping plate set item #39933. 

As I’ve said with all my reviews, I still consider myself a stamping newbie but I definitely feel like I’ve gotten better with all this practice. For today’s nails I played around with the BORN PRETTY Stamping Polish Plate Set Flower Leaf Tree Image Template item #39933 which comes with two stamping plates (a large square plate, & a smaller round floral plate) plus two stamping polishes. 

For this design I used:

As I’ve written before, I find their is a learning curve that comes along with stamping. Or maybe just natural talent. Either way I think this is a great set for beginners because it has so many image options & comes with stamping polishes. Now personally I’m not a fan of the stamping polishes, not because they don’t stamp (they do!) but I just haven’t found a way to use them that doesn’t make a huge mess! If anyone has any tips, please please share because I love the end result. But if you’re just trying out stamping I think this set would be a good introduction for you. 

Personally I liked the larger square stamping plate over the smaller round plate. I tried reverse stamping a rose, but it didn’t turn out exactly how I hoped. That plate took a few more tries to get things right, but I did eventually accomplish my goal (even if it wasn’t the prettiest). The smaller plate definitely worked better for me when I was just stamping the image straight onto my nails, & not taking time to be fancy. 


All in all, I would definitely recommend this set to anyone itching to try out stamping, but would warn practice does make perfect. Don’t be frustrated if it takes a bit of time to get things looking perfect because the end result is worth it. 

If you’re interested in ordering this stamping set (or something else) from Born Pretty Store feel free to use my discount code COFFK31 to save 10% off any regular price items! I’ve been ordering from them for years, & I love the wide variety of products you can find for all your nail polish addict needs! 

Born Pretty Store Review — UR Sugar Adhesive Nail Vinyls Heart Pattern Nail Art item # 39723Ā 


Good morning & happy Friday! Today I’m sharing another review of a fun item from Born Pretty Store. This time I’m reviewing some sugar adhesive heart pattern nail vinyls (item #39723). These vinyls comes with two different styles — the swirly hearts & the multiple hearts. Let’s consider this part one as I’m just reviewing the swirly hearts. 

For this manicure, I used:

  • Base Coat: L’OrĆ©al All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Quo by ORLY Color Amp’d Paparazzi 
  • Layla Cosmetics Hologram Effect Mercury Twilight
  • UR Sugar Adhesive Nail Vinyls Heart Pattern item # 39723 

I’ve used a lot of nail vinyls over the last little while & I have to say these are definitely high up on the list. They are easy to peel off their backing & stick to the nail–easily adjustable but not so flimsy that they just stick together & crumple. Also they stick really, really well. I had zero issues with colour bleeding underneath. Also, you get two stencils in one with the heart swirls, which means you can do 20 nails total! I also really like that they have the useful little tab for pulling up your vinyl. 

All in all, I really like these vinyls. They’re easy to peel off & apply, they don’t bleed & they just work really well. Using nail vinyls can be difficult sometimes, but these make it easy! I also like the fact you get 2 different designs per sheet which can be used separately or combined together. I can definitely see myself using these again & would say anyone who is curious about trying out nail vinyls should give them a shot! 

& for fun—a shot of this holo manicure in action. 

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If you’re interested in ordering these nail vinyls (or something else) from Born Pretty Store feel free to use my discount code COFFK31 to save 10% off any regular price items! I’ve been ordering from them for years, & I love the wide variety of products you can find for all your nail polish addict needs! 

Born Pretty Store Review — Origami Pattern Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127



Happy Monday! Today I have a new manicure featuring another stamping plate so kindly sent to me for review from Born Pretty Store. This time, I’m reviewing the Origami Pattern Manicure Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127. This plate called to me because of all the gorgeous origami shapes. & the arrival of the plate was just in time that I could wear these nails to my sister in laws baby shower this past weekend! 


For this manicure, I used: 

  • Base Coat: L’OrĆ©al All in One
  • Top Coat: Essie Speed Setter
  • Revlon Gel Envy To The Chapel
  • Essie Chillato
  • Ardene Fluffy Tutu
  • Born Pretty Store Black Stamping polish (from this set)
  • Origami Pattern Stamping Plate Harunouta L040 item #39127
  • Born Pretty Store Clear Jelly Stamper

I think I’m finally getting the hang of stamping. The images are so delicate that you really have to move quickly (or the stamping polish dries) but I’m figuring it out! I’ve used Essence Back to Black for stamping before & it worked really well but my bottle was all used up so I’m going to get a new bottle & try stamping with that to see how it does. I definitely had more practice using this plate, so it went a lot easier. 

I love how adorable all of these images are! You have the hanging pictures, the individual pictures & then the cool geometric cloud images. So many different ideas & manicures that you can create! Like I mentioned, I wore these for a baby shower but I could see this being perfect for lots of occasions (or just for fun everyday). 

I still consider myself a stamping newbie, so while this plate was a little difficult for me after a little fiddling & practice I think I came up with a very pretty manicure! This plate could definitely be suitable for someone still new to stamping, as well as those pros out there I hope to someday join!

If you’re interested in ordering this plate (or something else) from Born Pretty Store feel free to use my discount code COFFK31 to save 10% off any regular price items! I’ve been ordering from them for years, & I love the wide variety of products you can find for all your nail polish addict needs! 

Stay tuned because I still have 2 more Born Pretty Store reviews coming your way!