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I've had Born Pretty's version of Liquid Palisade on hand--get it, on hand? No, not funny? Whatevs--for awhile now so how about we get into the review.


Use of this product is pretty simple. You paint it on the areas you do not want nail polish to be.(i.e. the skin surrounding the nail bed.) See, simple enough right?  After it dries, you can paint your nails per usual. Then, peel off the barrier around your finger for an easy cleanup.

I find this to be really good for gradients, but absolutely terrible for water marbles.

It's worth noting that I have no idea what the label says and BornPretty's website doesn't have an ingredient list so use at your own risk. I haven't had any issues since I started using it though.

It does smell like perfumed school glue. You know, if that's any help.



Anyway, the White Peel Off Liquid Tape is available for $3.99 on BornPrettyStore.com. use promo code NCL91 at checkout for 10% off.


Have you tried liquid palisade or any of the alternatives for it?
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As you all know, I am an absolute sucker for neon nail polish so my hunt for Color Club's Poptastic Pastel Neon collection was on from the first day I saw them online.


Ever since, I've been heavily stalking my favorite local polish retailer until I could finally call those babies my own.  Weeks passed and I finally asked an employee when they would have them in stock. In short, her answer was, "don't know, we might, we might not." With my little polish tale tucked between my legs I went home and had to find them elsewhere.
A week or so later I find the entire collection online for $29 plus free shipping! And here we are with today's post.


I did a water marble--as non-uniform as it may be--on my index, middle, and pinky fingers. As for my thumb and ring finger, I sponged the colors on.

Press Sample|Purchased by Me I'm getting down to the last of the items I've had on hand since I got behind last semester of school. So today I've got a stamping mani using a Born Pretty stamping plate and some neon lacquers I bought earlier this month.


I started with a base color of my go-to black nail polish, Wet 'N Wild Wild Shine Black Créme. Then, I chose miscellaneously what pieces of a pattern from Born Pretty stamping plate 8 usually the entire Virtuous Polish Women of Valor collection. And finally, I made the whole mani matte Using Nicole by OPI Matte Top Coat


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Press Sample Saturday afternoon I was having a conversation with a co-worker about, what else, nail polish. My co-worker was telling me about how often she has to buy bottles of nail polish remover, then I told her to quit playin' and just buy it by the gallon.

Now, if you're like me and you've stopped buying little 10oz and 12oz bottles of acetone and nail polish remover, and started buying gallons of it instead, you're going to need an easy way to actually use this large amount of necessary liquid.

Queue acetone & nail polish remover pump!

I bought two on eBay over a year ago and my problem with those were that after you've gotten more than half way through the acetone it wouldn't pump anymore; oddly enough this problem didn't arise when just plain nail polish remover was used. *shrugs*

Acetone being a staple product for me, I had to find a pump that worked just as well with acetone as it did with nail polish remover. So when I found this nail polish remover pump on Born Pretty, I immediately knew I had to try it out and see if it would work well with acetone.

I've had this pump for a few months and I can attest that it pumps acetone almost down to the last drops. There have been a few times when it didn't work, but overall it performs better than the ones I bought on eBay.

This nail polish remover pump is available on BornPrettyStore.com for $3.18.


And if you use promo code NCL91 at checkout, you'll get an additional 10% off your purchase of this item, nail art supplies, and everything else available on BornPrettyStore.com.

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Do you guys still buy regular sized bottles of nail polish remover? Wanna share advise on other things that people obsessed with nail polish should have? Let's chat in the comments!
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Yesterday was the first day of spring, but that meant absolutely nothing here in Western NY. The temp was in the thirties and in between me getting to work and going across the street for lunch it had rained, stopped, snowed, stopped, and snowed again. But my nails were so hot my fingers could've sworn it was summer! You ready?

Are you not in summer induced love right now? You have to be if you love super bright colors and 3D embellishments like I do.

I laid down a base color of OPI My Vampire is Buff--my favorite OPI shade by the way--to start. Next, for my thumb, index, and pinky I carefully placed some striping tape and sponged a gradient over all of it.

For my middle finger I skipped the striping tape step and sponged on Illamasqua Optimist, Illamasqua Gamma, and Illamasqua Lament; which are the same lacquers I on my other nails. After my gradient reached full opacity I placed these full-nail nail charms from Born Pretty Store.

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Affiliate Link As all of you nail art lovers know Valentine's Day is this week, and I put together a small series called Nail Crush. Everyday between now and Friday this blog will be packed with nail art of my own, products I love, a few giveaways, and guest posts from a few ladies I emailed and asked, "Would you be my my nail crush?" So let's things started with the first contribution to Nail Crush, some nail art featuring products I'm pretty crazy about!

I usually don't lean toward "soft shades" but I felt after years of turning my nose up at them I should give them a try.


I used two coats of Barielle Dusting Powder on all of my nails to start and then I mixed things up a bit!
My ring finger has a stripe done in Orly Instant Artist Crisp White and topped with China China Glaze Passion via a Born Pretty stamping plate.
My middle and ring fingers are gradients using, again Barielle Dusting Powder and China Glaze Passion, LOVE and lemniscate (a.k.a. infinity) charms I got in a six pack from Charlotte Russe for (wait for it) .99¢!


And lastly my pinky is another gradient, but this time done in Barielle Enduring and Barielle Dusting Powder. After the subtle pink-to-white gradient was complete I broke out China Glaze passion and the same stamping plate I received from Born Pretty.

You can get the stamping plate I used in this mani for $2.99 at BornPrettyStore.com and if you use promo code NCL91 at checkout you get 10% off your total purchase!

But wait! there's more! You can actually win items from some of the brands mentioned today! Ready to see what could be yours if the price entry is right?

I've mentioned on more than a hand full of occasions that I love three things when I comes to nail polish collections.
1. A good crème finish.
2. Bright Summer collections.
3. Barielle's amazing formula.
So why not giveaway something that embodies all three of these? I mean, it only makes perfect sense.

But that's not it!
Nail Art Society relaunched and I was waiting for the perfect time to giveaway these brand new Orly Istant Artist shades! And remember when Hard Candy did some revamping and we all collectively fawned over Black Toe Optional? Well one winner will receive that, both Barielle Summer 2013 5-packs, and four Orly Instant Artists.

Tired of my teasing you with what you can win? Wanna Enter? Fill out the Rafflecopter form below and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

No purchase neccesary.
Must be at least 18 years or have parents permission to enter.
Contest open to residents in the Contiguous United States.
Please allow 2-4 weeks for shipping.
Once prize is shipped Nail A College Drop Out is NOT responsible for lost or damaged items.
Winner will be notified via email and will have exactly 48 hours to respond before new winner is chosen.

Any brands, nail artists, or nail bloggers you're nail crushin' on? Let me know in the comments.
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Flashback to earlier this summer Born Pretty had nautical themed water decals listed as a new item and I knew I had to have them. Fast Forward to now (a week before Thanksgiving) and I finally used them. I know, nautical themes are typically a summer trend, bad Briana.


See! Off-season manis can be fun!

I started with Sation Strumming My Nails a base color for all of my nails. For my index and middle I sponged Sation Strumming My Nails, Barielle Surf's Up, and China Glaze Mingle With Kringle. And on my thumb, ring, and pinky I used China Glaze With Love for the stripes.


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Okay. So it's officially fall. But it is never too cold for ice cream or neon nail polish so why not have your cake AND eat it too?


I wanted something simple and sweet. Get it? Sweet because I has ice cream on my nails. Okay, so my jokes are cheesy, but they'll never be as bad as my 11th grade social studies teacher. More on Mr Kelly later on.

I started with a base of Icing Candy Shop (swatch here) and paint some drips using a white nail art pen I bought in a set of five from urban Outfitters.



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As the title may suggest, today's nail art had every intention to become a bomb ass set of galaxy nails. How does that saying go? Something or other about good intentions right? Oh well. I ended up loving these easy, yet admittedly very strange, nails anyway!


I started by painting a base color of China Glaze Creative Fantasy. Soon after that dried and I had all of the other lacquers I wanted to use laid out I nixed the original design I had in mind.
So how did I got this end result? I randomly sponged Essie DJ Play That Song, China Glaze Grape Pop, China Glaze Manhunt, China Glaze Calypso Blue, Barielle Smarty Pants, Sation Strumming My Nails, and China Glaze Creative Fantasy. I know it sounds like a lot of work but I promise you that it was quick and painless.
And finally I applied a few gold stars from Born Pretty and sealed it with a few layers of top coat.


You can get 1,000 of these metal gold star shaped decals for $8.80 on BornPrettyStore.com. By the way, the promo code NCL91 will get you 10% off your entire purchase at checkout!


The addition of stars kinda brings the cosmic theme together right?
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Press Sample Every so often I find things that aren't nail related pretty interesting and this is going to be one of those posts.

Recently I got this heart shaped double finger ring from Born Pretty Store.
I have been wanting a double finger ring for awhile but I could never find one that fit properly. So what I really like about this one is that it's easily adjustable.


You can get this ring as well as a ton of different nail art supplies from BornPrettyStore.com and you get get 10% off your entire order using code NCL91 at checkout!
Okay so maybe I did my nails for this post. This is actually my tried and true. old faithful, go-to nail design, when all else fails this is what my nails will look like! For the full details on this look click here.


Press Sample Have you been stepping up your accessory game?
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Affiliate Link I work at a mortgage company and for obvious reasons we're not allowed to have the following items at our desks: paper, pens, and/or pencils, newspaper/magazines, cameras--why would I have my camera at work? There is absolutely nothing exciting enough in my office to photograph, but whatevs.--cell phones, mp3 players, etc. Nowhere on this list does it say anything about nail polish, top coats, and feathers. 

And that is precisely why I was at work doing my nails on a Friday. For the second consecutive Friday.


I started with two coats of Sinful Colors Paradise and let dry. Next, I dabbed on Dazzle Dry Top Coat and carefully positioned the feather on my nail and cut the excess off. (I should mention that I did this one nail at a time.) Finally, I commenced this mani with two layers of top coat.

Getting the feathers to stick to each nail wasn't as easy as I originally thought it would be. Not difficult, but not smooth sailing either. The feathers themselves aren't as malleable as, let's say, paper. (I know what you're thinking, duh Briana they're feathers!)
If you decide to try this at home, you should wait until your top coat becomes somewhat tacky. Don't worry about smudges. That's what the final additional layers of top coat are for!

While I'm on the subject of trying this at home, these feathers are available in five piece sets in twelve colors at BornPrettyStore.com for $1.35.

But wait! There's more! Insert infomercial voice-over voice here. You can get these, as well as everything else at Born Pretty, for 10% off using code NCL91 at checkout!


You feeling today's feather nail art? Chime in!
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Recently Born Pretty Store got spikes in stock. Me being the ostentatious embellishment lover I am, I had to get my well-manicured hands on them!