new stuff to stick on my nails: hot pink nail art studs from Born Pretty Store!

In posts past, I have professed and undying love for sticking junk to my nails. Glitter, poly clay slices, rhinestones, wee bits of metal--if it is small enough for nail art, you better believe I'll be featuring it in a mani. So, of course, when I was contacted by the folks at Born Pretty Store requesting a review for one of their products, I jumped at the chance to snatch up some brand new studs to experiment with. 

If you are not already familiar with Born Pretty Store, they are an amazing etailor of everything from jewelry to makeup to nail art supplies. They are an excellent source of all things sparkly and shiny and reasonably priced--nail art rhinestones and glitter, stamping plates, flocking powder, nail foils just to name a few items--and they are always adding new products to their inventory. Oh yea and they offer FREE worldwide shipping, too..sa-weeeeeeeeeet!

So, here's a pic of the studs I got. 

They're 2mm hot pink studs and HERE is the official link to the item's listing. The studs are completely smooth, domed and hollow on the underside. They come in the resealable plastic pouch they are pictured in above and you get TONS of them. The amount pictured in the bag  is actually AFTER I had done 2 different manis with the studs. I'll have these for a long time!

The above is a shot of a mani I created with the studs. I wanted something fun & obnoxiously girly, so I went with a dotticure using a base of China Glaze Creative Fantasy (a neon purple hot mess of a polish--don't even get me started on the abysmal formula). The white dots were made with a dotting tool and Finger Paints Papier Mache. I then used the same dotting tool dipped in a bit of clear polish to pick up the hot pink studs and place them where I wanted them while my polish was still wet. A quick coat of Seche Vite sealed the deal and I was done. Altogether, it took no more than 20 minutes start to finish for me to do both hands. 

These studs are SUPER neon bright. Because of how saturated the color was, I was a bit afraid that the studs  might bleed when I applied topcoat, but amazingly enough, they were totally colorfast! Win!!

shot to show height of the studs

One thing I need to note about these studs is they DO have a higher profile than any of the other rhinestones or studs I've used before. That being said, though, I was amazed at how well they stayed on my nail. I wore this manicure for 3 days without losing a single stud. Probably has something to do with the hollow dome shape filling up with the clear polish & getting everything all good and stuck down when I put the studs on my nail (yes this is me trying to sound scientific--scary isn't it?)...

So do I recommend these studs? Without a freakin doubt! In fact, I'm planning on getting the other neon colors Born Pretty Store offers. They are cute, bright, don't bleed, stay put and I can't wait to do more manis with them!

If you, too, feel moved to give some moneys over to crazy fun bright nail art, then be sure to use this coupon code the peeps at Born Pretty Store created especially for The Awesome People (aka, all you fine readers of my blog).

(disclosure statement: yes products in this post were provided to me for review. no that does not mean I lied about liking them)