Water Decals and top coat review

Hi girls,

Here's the decals I'm displaying today:

And there were instructions on the back:

The water decals work pretty much like every water decal works. Put in water, take out of water, place on nail, let dry and apply top coat. The only thing that was different to what I’ve seen before what the 5^th and 6^th step, where it says “blow dry”. There’s no way that I’m going to blow dry my nails for any nail art, so let us see how it goes without that step, shall we?

I prepared my nails with 2 coats of OPIs “Metallic 4 Life” from their Nicki Minaj collection from spring 2012. It’s a black base with different sizes of silver glitter. I’m not usually a fan of black polishes, but this is so packed with glitter that it’s a total win for me.

  

The decals are placed in ten “nail shaped” areas. But there are way too many stickers for my ten nails in this pack. Look at this pic: My little fingernail next to the decals that supposedly are meant to be on it. There’s for three little fingernails there:

So, I soaked the decals in lukewarm water, and lifted them out of the water as the back paper loosened. This is only the second time I try decals, but these ones were definitely trickier than the first ones. They weren’t as “willing” to be moved around on the nail after they were placed there. But I managed to get a decal on my ringfinger and one on my thumb. I stamped the remaining three nails, for test purposes. More about that in a minute or two.

Here are the decals without top coat:

Something happened just before I added the top coat: one of the decals fell off! It was still “nail shaped”, so I carefully put it back on and rapidly added my top coat. Seriously, I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.

The other thing I'm going to show today is a BK top coat.

  

I use a lot of top coat, so I would never say no to try a new one. And that’s exactly why I stamped some of my nails. I do a lot of nail art, and I want a good top coat doesn’t pull on my designs. So let’s see how that went:

I am actually impressed. The consistency is on the thin side, but lots of top coats are that to begin with. I was not being particularly careful when I applied the polish, and I didn’t get much smearing anyway! I got a little, but I actually don’t think I would have gotten it if I had been more careful. I’ll try it again next time I stamp, and we’ll see. I’m also curious if this top coat will thicken up like Seche and Poshé does!

The verdict is:

Decals

Pros:

-         Lots of pretty designs

-         They’re cheap, these were $1.99

Cons:

-         One of the decals fell off when it dried, just before I topcoated it

-         They weren’t easy to work with

Top coat

Pros:

-         The price. $4.75 for 18ml, with free shipping

-         It doesn’t smudge the designs much

-         It dries fast

Cons:

-         It’s a little bit runny, I hope it thickens up like Seche and Poshe do

-         It doesn’t smell very good