Hey friends!
Where do you get your nail art supplies?
I usually go to my local beauty product chains or order on-line. I know that I may be preaching to the converted, but for those of you who are new to nail art/polish/care you may (or may not) find this post helpful. Hopefully, it's the former! I tend to buy a lot of my nail art supplies on-line but it tends to be from wholesalers who don't ask you to make a minimum spend.
Ebay is a very good source, as is Amazon. If you find a reputable seller you can buy at a good price with fast delivery and a great service. You can also get burned if you are not careful; try having a look at the scores and reviews of a vendor before purchasing (if you are new to either of those Internet market places). If you are into adorning your nails with shiny things that can be glued on, you could also take a trip to a craft store such as Hobbycraft - you may just find what you are looking for there.
There are a few popular on-line stores that are good. I have found Catherine Arley polishes
here and they are as cheap as chips.
Beauties Factory UK seem to have some good items and you can shop wholesale if you want to. I haven't ordered from them yet, but I've got my eye on a few items which I may treat myself to soon...Christmas IS coming and I've been a very good girl.
I have put in my first order with
Bornprettystore and I'm waiting for my delivery. When I get my parcel, I'll let you know what bought. A lot of bloggers seem to use this site and again, they do have some nice items. If you like what you see, use this code: TENOFFK31 and get 10% off your order. As they are not based in Europe, you won't get next day delivery, but they offer free international shipping, so that makes up for the wait!
In the meantime, let me tell you about
Vivalanails. I've used this site on several occasions to buy my nail art supplies, partly because the price is reasonable and also because they sell my beloved nail art magazines which are so hard to find in the UK. Don't let the web address fool you though, they are based in Latvia, not the UK! This means you won't get your shipping the next day or the day after that, but their prices are very reasonable and service is great. They also give you the opportunity to review some of their items for the price of postage alone. Now, as I love a good nail sticker, I couldn't pass up THAT opportunity!
First, let me show you what I purchased...
Skeleton leaves (which you could find at a craft store in larger quantity...and at a higher price), water decals and flower stickers.These stickers were in the bargain section for about 45p! I love these rhinestones too-the first I've seen like this. I also bought a blade with a safety covering to cut my fimo canes and another glossy Japanese nail art magazine - these aren't pictured.
Below are the water decals and stickers that I got for review purposes:
The ones on the black card are sticker and the others are decals. I didn't get to take a picture of the ones I used *slaps forehead*.
These butterfly decals are too cute. If you don't already know what to do with these water transfers I'll tell you. The images come attached to a piece of backing card. There is also a thin piece of plastic top sheet which is there to protect the images. You will need to soak the images off the backing card, in order to apply them to your fingernails.
After removing the plastic top sheet cut out the card with your desired image on it. Place the card into a bowl of water for a several seconds. When you remove the card from the water, you should find that you can easily slide the image off. Don't do this all at once though, the image may end up sticking to itself. Instead, slide only half the image off the card. You can apply that part of the image onto your nail and slide away the rest of the card after the image is in the desired position. Add a top coat and you're good to go.
I love water decals - especially these ones. They are flat, easy to use and leave you with a smooth finish. These ones are quite sturdy too and don't take a lot of soaking to get the image off either. I put one to soak, went off to get a cuppa and when I got back, the card had sunk to the bottom of the bowl and the butterfly was floating on the surface of the water. As a result, it stuck together when I tried to fish it out with an orange stick...but putting it back into the water made it un-stick again! Good stuff.
In the review pack were some self-adhesive stickers:
Removal was hardcore too. I rubbed and rubbed with my trusty non-acetone polish remover but the only thing that came off was the polish surrounding the stickers. I had to scrape the stickers off with my thumbnail and then remove the residual polish. This probably wouldn't have been an issue had I used some acetone, but I don't generally like to use it unless I am using acrylic/glue/layered glitter.
Overall, I liked both products, but the water decals were by far my favourites.
Do you know of any good retail sites that are either based in Europe or ship internationally? Perhaps you could supply me with some nails and I can try to make a directory page...what do you think?
xx
This is 'Sour Apple' by The Garden of Colour from Viva La Nails.
I really like this green!
The crystals are from eBay and they were stuck on with only nail polish. 
