Quickie Review: Born Pretty Store Stick On Eyeliner

Applique makeup and nails still don’t seem to be going anywhere, so I thought I’d give these eyeliners from the Born Pretty Store a whirl. The first time I recall seeing stick on eyeliners was the Dior Velvet Eyes back in 2011 and I thought they were pretty interesting, although stupidly expensive. I received these for review, but if you’re interested in trying this sort of thing they’re only a couple of bucks which is cheaper than the ones I’ve seen in Boots, Topshop, etc.

I liked that you got a bunch of styles. As I was pretty sure I was going to screw them up having a few options was welcome!

Aaaw yeah, drying laundry!

You have to cut as close to the bottom on the design as you can, and if there are any gaps underneath after application you can fill them in with a touch of liquid liner. I don’t really feel that this is a universal product that is going to fit everyone, and there’s not much space to work with in terms of reshaping them for your eyes. Also, if they don’t fit your eye shape, they could crease in funny places and basically look a bit odd.

Here I’m wearing the ones second down in the packet – a kind of funky, inverted shape with a glossy finish, which was my favourite part about them. I found this one easy to apply because it had a sharp corner on the outside edge, which made it really easy to line it up on both my eyes. I found the swooping versions with no corners really hard to line up and basically gave up on those ones. Other than that, it’s just a case of wetting the transfer with water and leaving it to peel off, like a regular transfer tattoo. You really do have to get them soaking and make sure you wait the recommended amount of time – nothing worse than not waiting long enough and pulling off the corner or messing it up! A lot of transfers say to apply to clean skin, but I don’t have a problem applying them over makeup – just be sure not to rub at all during the process.

 

While the product itself is fine – it  looks pretty good! – I kind of feel they’re inherently flawed in that if you don’t have a steady enough hand to do funky liner, you probably don’t have a steady enough hand to cut these neatly! They are a bugger to remove as well, which is a bit of a swings and roundabouts situation – they’re not going anywhere, which is great for a festival or a sweaty gig, but kind of annoying for just a regular night out. It look a lot of work with an oil-based remover to get it off and that’s not something I want to put my eyes through all the time. So I’m kind of torn on these – they’re a funky novelty but I don’t like them nearly as much as the eye tattoos I tried out before.

 

Stick on makeup –  yay or nay?

Review: Floral Eye Tattoo from Born Pretty Store

A funny little review you today, lovelies! Born Pretty Store very kindly sent me some goodies and I admit I was intrigued by these eye tattoos! In the last year or so, applique makeup items have popped up everywhere and in so many different forms! Nail stickers, transfers and foils are really popular and applique eyeliners, eye crystals, lip tattoos and things like Face Lace also seem to be really popular as well. I’ve seen a lot of bloggers talk about nail items and lip tattoos, but I think a lot of bloggers, who tend to be pretty good at makeup after all, probably wouldn’t look twice at something for their eyes. But I have read a lot of contrasting reviews about the lip tattoos and wanted to see if these eye versions would be a kerfuffle!

Here’s what I eventually ended up with, and here’s the package…




The first thing I noticed about the instructions were that you can’t have any product on your skin at all before applying, which made me a little upset as I wasn’t sure how good it would look alone. I decided to plough on though.

The instructions aren’t super clear, but it seems to say not to cut the transfer at all so I didn’t even try. ! I do think it would be difficult to trim these down, actually. I don’t think these would fit every single eye shape, but I don’t think many people would have a problem with them as they are quite large and there’s a big space on the inside of the shape which gives you a lot of leeway. As you can see, it *was* a little awkward to place on the eye, but once you wet it, it sticks to the skin and there’s no harsh edges on the backing card because they’re now, wet so it’s not uncomfortable while you leave them to soak. These work just like the tattoos you got in sweets when you were a kid – soak them with water using a sponge, wait for 40 seconds or so and them the backing paper will slide off. Wait for it to dry, and don’t dab the water off with tissue or cotton wool or you’ll get bits stuck to the design. You can use a little extra water to smooth down and edges that might not have stuck.

These ones are actually kind of handy to line up as there are little marks where the transfers pop out of the packaging, so you can use these as a reference marker to line up the tattoos evenly on both eyes.

And here’s what it looks like after you’ve done it. I didn’t find that powdering over it took the shine away at all, which was a shame as it makes it look more obviously like a tattoo and less like you’re amazing with the ol’ eyeliner!

I then decided to see if you could draw over it and had no problems with that at all. I was worried that perhaps a liquid product over it wouldn’t take. I really, really didn’t like that I had no product on underneath it and found it a pain in the arse working around the tattoo once I had it on.  I figured if I used long wearing products, that putting water on top of them for 40 seconds wouldn’t do anything at all, so I tried it on the other eye:

I used my usual MUA primer and some long wearing cream eyeshadows and had absolutely no problem  applying the tattoo at all! I added the gems on top using Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy and a very fine brush to place them.

Where these are just a thin film, they’re pretty comfortable to wear, but for a while you will find they restrict the movements of your lids very slightly, and if you make an exaggerated expression, you’ll be able to feel that they’re there. I have fairly wrinkly skin on my eyes, and I think perhaps they’d look slightly better on someone with a smoother eye area –  obviously, where this sits on my creases, the pattern can look a bit skewwhiff in some places. I wore the tattoos on for about 5 hours (yes, I left different eyes on all day, ha ha!) and I  had no issues with creasing or with the pattern fading, either on the eye with or without primer, so I think these are hardy enough to survive going out dancing or something. As for removal, that’s a little more tricky. If you don’t have an oil-based remover in the house, steer clear!

 

All in all, I was actually pleasantly surprised with these. I thought they’d be a nightmare to put on, line up and wear but I had no issues at all.  I’d definitely wear something like this again. I think for something like a festival (where I only wear minimal makeup and would choose long wearing products anyway) these would be dead easy to take with you (and apply in a tent, with no tools!) and they’re pretty cheap as well at a less than three bucks a pop. Admittedly I’d be worried you’d get less room for error with the more solidly coloured tattoos and I’m not sure they’ll fit everyone… yeah, these are pretty cool. You can check them out at Born Pretty.

The products in this post were provided for review. All opinions are, and always will be my own.

Playing with Water Decals

I've seen water decals on a lot of nail blogs and You Tube channels and always thought they were adorable. They remind me of the stick on tattoos that you'd get in sweet packets (and, er, lick to stick on your arm. Just me? Liars.)

This set was sent to me for review by Born Pretty, which has 10 bajillion nail art things on it. It costs just over $4, but there are also tons of designs on eBay, including full nail designs, starting from about £1 so they're pretty inexpensive. I've just bought these corset ones and am lusting over all the French tip ones. Not so much the JLS ones though!

These are super easy to use - at least in theory. You put cut them out, take them off the plastic backing, soak them in water for around 30 seconds, slide them onto your finger and then place them onto your nail. I followed Leanne's tutorial here. Where I had trouble was placing them neatly onto my nail. I started using tweezers to place them after the first two times, which is fiddly and you can rip the decals, but in my opinion, its better than wonky nail art. I might try putting them onto the rubber Konad stamps next time as well.

Edit: ndrcvrngl tells me that coating your tweezers with wax helps to stop them tearing the decals.

Pros:

-Cheap
-Tons of designs
-Wear as long as your top coat does
- They sit flat on your nail

Cons:

-A wee bit fiddly

-Some of the decals I recieved are enormous - not a massive con to me, but if you have tiny hands it is!

-Can't really wear them over dark polish as it will show through the decal.

Have you tried water decals? What nail art have you been sporting lately?