Born Pretty Leopard Pattern Water Decals: Review & Swatches

I've got another review of Born Pretty Store's water decals for you today! I can't get enough of these things. There are so many cute designs to pick from and they make it so easy to create awesome nail art--just wet 'em, stick 'em on and go!

I love me some leopard print, so this time around, I was drawn to this fun set of animal print decals, which you can see HERE on Born Pretty's website. There's lots of different animal-themed decals on this little sheet and I decided to do a manicure with some of the leopard and zebra print decal stripes. I paired the decals with Deborah Lippmann Break 4 Love as my base and used OPI 4 In The Morning and OPI Push And Shove for some accent work.

I've used Born Pretty's water decals countless times and this was the first set that ever gave me any type of trouble. I don't know what it was, but these just did not want to stick to my nail. I originally wanted to use the leopard print hearts on this sheet for my Twinsie Tuesday Valentine's manicure, but I could not get them to lie flat or stay put on the nail. They kept curling and when I tried to just cover them in topcoat to get them to stay on, the silver lining around the hearts started to crinkle and sort of come apart. It was a strange effect and something I had never experienced before with water decals.

After struggling to apply three of the hearts, I abandoned the mani altogether and did the one you see above instead. Maybe there is some type of different component to the metallic parts of the decals that doesn't get along with topcoat and makes these harder to stick to the nail? I really am not sure. :-/

These weren't a total wash--after a few wrecked decals with my first manicure and a little babying with the second, I did get them to stay put and they do look pretty once they're on--but they didn't have the quick, no hassle application I'm used to with Born Pretty's decals. While I absolutely love their water decals in general, this particular set wasn't 100% up to par.

If you would like to purchase anything from Born Pretty Store, they offer 10% off for Nailed readers:

Disclosure: This product was sent to me for my honest review. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.