Born Pretty Microbeads Review

Accent nails have been very popular lately, so I decided to go crazy and dress up my favorite nail polish (Layla Hologram Effect Flash Black) with all sorts of accent nails.

Layla Hologram Effects 

(with Born Pretty microbeads, Hot Topic holo bar glitter, and American Apparel Light Year)

When I got these micro beads from Born Pretty to review, I originally had a full "fish eggs" manicure in mind, but once I got it, I realized that there wasn't enough of each color. I think this wheel of microbeads is more for nail art using the bullion pieces to create patterns like Sammy's manicure inspired by fashion. If you're looking to do a full fish egg manicure, I'd probably go with the jars of microbeads instead.

The container these came in is a little tricky.  Every time I turned the top clear piece to move the opening to a slot of beads, micro beads from all over would stick to it (static cling) and migrate into the other colors. You can see what I mean in the picture below.  It makes them a little bit hard to use as solid color accent nails, but I would imagine it'd still be fine for delicate nail art.  

The Born Pretty microbeads can be purchased from their site as well as a lot of other awesome nail art decorations and polishes and nail wraps! You can also use the code GG5J61 to get a 5% discount on your order!

Fish Egg Friday (aka. Banding Together Against Ciate)

This picture was never actually meant to be posted. I decided to try the "fish egg" look a couple weeks ago and took this picture just to show some friends and my mom.

However, after I started seeing these "Fish Egg Friday" posts going up around the nail blogs, I wanted to join in. I support my fellow bloggers and it's irritating to see companies attack them for ridiculous purposes. (Not to mention, it's kind of just plain stupid on their part if they understand the blogging community at all.)

Basically, Ciate has been sending C&D letters to bloggers who have been using the term "Caviar Nails" or "Caviar Manicure" with the explanation that they are IN THE PROCESS of trademarking it. Not only is this silly because they do not yet HAVE the trademark, but there is also another issue: someone else had done it first! THIS blog post on the idea was posted over a year ago! The full story of the letters sent to one blogger can be read here.

Fish Egg Manicure

So here are the Kaviar/Fish Egg nails! This look can be done for a FRACTION of the price of Ciate's (the Ciate Caviar Manicure retails for $25!). I got a set of microbeads from Michael's scrap booking section for about $7 for 6 "tubes" (that will last for MANY manicures). You don't need any special polish either. I found that using a coat of Gelous OR Seche Vite both worked to stick the beads on, though with SV you have to work really quickly or the beads won't stick.

So join me and the other bloggers in boycotting Ciate and their overpriced "fish egg" manicure. To quote Cris from Let Them Have Polish...

"Ciate can kiss my microballs!"

Here are some of the other bloggers who participated in Fish Egg Friday!