I Love Born Pretty!

Ok, I have something superawesome to share. Several weeks ago, I found a cute little web store online called Born Pretty that had an interesting selection of nail art goodies with pretty nice prices. I sent them an email introducing myself, and we exchanged a few emails back and forth. The result? I got to pick a few goodies to have sent to me, to evaluate whether I thought this was a company I'd like to showcase.

See, I get emails pretty often from companies offering goods, this or that, but I don't want to showcase anything on the blog that I don't actually like, or wouldn't use myself. I respect you guys too much, and I don't wanna spam you with blogs about lowering your insurance rates or ... well, I think you know the sort of stuff I'm talking about. Besides, I don't think I could write about stuff I don't like!

So... back to Born Pretty. I'd gotten a bit worried because shipping took a long time. I was really eager to get my goodies, but they did get here, and they were packed incredibly well. When I opened the packet, my husband was laughing at me because I was squealing like a child. Guys, this stuff is SWEET!! I immediately hauled out my camera to photograph everything, even though I felt like a truc had run over me. (Yes, this was mid-fibro flare, so trust me... it took a lot of excitement for me to photo this stuff!)

The first item I pulled out was a packet of gold-plated false nails. I was absolutely drooling over the photo of these on the website. If you look at the photo on the website, they look absolutely stunning. However, they're listed as 24k gold electroplated, but they only cost 50 cents? Surely they couldn't look that pretty in real life... could they?

I looked at the box closely as I pulled it out. It's cute, with badly-translated English phrases on it. Still, the nails looked very interesting... I couldn't resist. I opened them before I pulled anything else out!

I am so happy with these. While my photos look a bit yellow, in reality these match my gold wedding band perfectly. They're so incredibly shiny you can see my reflection in them! I also dry-fit them to my nails, and they seem like they'd fit well.

I'm considering painting over these, doing an animal print (or combination of animal prints) over them. I think that could be delicious... let's see, right? :D

Next I pulled out the packet of nail brushes I got. Now, let me be honest here- I wasn't expecting a lot from these. I was hoping, but realized that for $2.55 these were likely to be kind of ... well, not so great.

Unfortunately, they seem to be exactly what I was expecting. I haven't used them yet, but I'm not expecting a lot. However, this isn't a bad thing. Consider this me taking one for the team... you know to pass up this set for one of the more expensive sets. I'll be trying more as time goes on, hoping to find one I'm happy with. You'll know as soon as I find some I love.

Next, I pulled out a rhinestone wheel- my first! If I was a bit disappointed with the brushes, this wheel more than made up for it. These are SWEET!

This wheel cost a whopping $3.33, and contains 1800 rhinestones in 12 colors. I was a bit worried that the rhinestones would have been able to shift around inside the wheel, so that they'd be mixed up. Thankfully, they're all nicely separated by color, and what a selection of colors!! I am one happy camper!

I put a few out on my paper just to show them. They're a good size, not teeny tiny but not so big as to be hard to use. I'm also really happy with the color selection... there are black stones, pink stones, a gorgeous lavender... so many colors to choose from! I'll definitely be using more stones in my designs now!

And finally, if you know me at all, you'll know I had to get some glitter. It was hard to choose, because there is an absolute TON of glitters to choose from. But when I saw these gold and silver rhombus-shaped glitters, I knew they had to be mine. $3.69 gives you both bottles, and I actually have no words to describe how amazing these two are. The holographic glitter reflects the colors of the rainbow, as do my favorite holo polishes, and the rhombus shapes are large and interesting.

One thing to be concerned about though- these are packaged in the same sort of vial that liquid medications are, like my son's insulin bottles. Opening them is not easy, and the metal rim surrounding the rubber stopper is sharp! If you're not careful, you can slice the crud out of your finger. Just be careful opening it, and you should be ok. If I can do it without needing stitches, you can too. :D

I couldn't resist pouring a bit of these out as well. Honestly... is this fabulous, or what?

Now that I've shown you the wonderful goodies I was sent, I get to share the good news! Not only are the prices at Born Pretty, the people there are super nice too! They're so nice that they're giving readers of my blog a 10% discount! Just use the code LAYNIE20 when you order- how cool is that? This code is only good through March 31, 2011, so be sure and order before it expires!

Oh, and if you order? Tell them Laynie says hi! :D

All items in this post were provided by Born Pretty for consideration.

See my disclosure statement for more information.