Nothing to Disclose
Hey there! I was recently approached by smART Nails to review some of their nail stencils designs. After doing a bit of research I was really intrigued by these stencils because they have a few unique features don't seem very common in the other stencils on the market. I chose to show a couple of designs here: an easy line pattern and a double-stencilled lily. Please follow the jump to see my thoughts on them (spoiler: I really liked them), a quick tutorial AND a Rafflecopter giveaway for three lucky readers for 5 smART Nail designs.
I'll admit that at first I was skeptical about reviewing these stencils. With the surge of (what I thought were) similar products on the market I thought they might not be unique. But when I looked into them further I was pleasantly surprised. The main thing I liked about them and, what seems to be unique about them, is that they're transparent so placing them is almost fool-proof. The other thing I liked about them is that they come pre-set so you don't need to fiddle with spacing, as you'll see below). And, lastly, they're reusable.
The first design I'm showing is a simple line pattern (style P018).
The first design I'm showing is a simple line pattern (style P018).
I decided to use these over F.U.N. Lacquer Million Dollar Dream (not the holo version). This is 2 coats (plus a bit of dabbing) of Million Dollar Dream over black. This is easily the most bling-y nail polish I own.
To use these stencils, you simply place the stencil where you want it over DRY polish. You can see why the transparency is such a bonus. Then paint over the cutouts and remove quickly. As with all stencils, it's best to use an opaque polish so you don't have to do too many coats of your second color. I used A England Camelot and then finished with a coat of HK Girl.
I was impressed with how these turned out. I did have to fix a couple of spots where the black leaked under the stencil with a bit of acetone but I find that's generally the case for stencils. I wore this for a couple of days and loved it. I would get distracted while I was driving with the bling of the gold and I thought the black accents added a nice touch.
For the second design, I thought I'd show what I would have thought was a more difficult design because it involves stencilling twice. But it actually ended up being really easy. This is the Royal Lily design (style P202).
I only used the stencil on an accent nail here. On my other nails I have a gradient of OPI Gargantuan Green Grape and China Glaze Tart-y for the Party. On the stencilled accent nail I just have 3 coats of Gargantuan Green Grape (which really isn't green at all. This is the newer blue version). For the first part of the stencil (the petals) I used Tart-y for the Party. When that was dry I placed the second part of the stencil and used OPI Jade Is The New Black for the leaves/flower centres. And, finally, I finished with a coat of HK Girl again. This two part stencil is great because you get a dual-colored accent that you can line up perfectly, again, thanks to the transparency of the stencil.
Each design comes with 10 pre-cut stencils and is available from www.smart-nails.com for $1.99 plus a $5 flat rate shipping. But they were nice enough to offer a giveaway for three of my readers. So enter the Rafflecopter below for your chance to win 5 designs of your choice but please note that this giveaway is only open to residents of Canada, the UK, the US and Australia. Check out the catalogue and comment with your 5 favorite designs. And for everybody there is currently a 25% off promotion running for November. Just use the discount/coupon code: NOV25.
And don't forget to follow Smart Nails on their social media sites:
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/smart_nails
'Til next time...
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