Born Pretty Holographic Nail Foils: Review & Swatches

It's been a while since I've had some nail art on here. Not that I'm an afficianado--far from it! But I figured it was time to bust out some nail art fun again with some nail foils from Born Pretty Store!

The foils I'll be reviewing for you today come in several different patterns (you can see them all on the Born Pretty website HERE) and the one I chose is A24. This design features some pink and blue rosebuds over a silver holo background, plus a small tiger stripe design along the sides, for some extra fun and variety. I had to snap a picture of the foil in low lighting, because the holo was too intense for my camera to focus on in direct light:

As you can see, it has a nice, strong holo effect, even in dim light! Unfortunately top coat does dull the holo considerably (I tried both Seche Vite and Deborah Lippmann Addicted To Speed--same effect) so I had to sacrifice some holo to gain some longevity. Here's how the foils look on my nails, using OPI 4 In The Morning as a base. I went for kind of an abstract, grungy look.

According to the directions with these foils, all you're supposed to do to apply them is press them against slightly tacky (as in, not all the way dry) polish and then peel off, leaving some of the foil behind on your nail. Now, I've reviewed some other Born Pretty nail foils in the past and those worked exactly as described. But these were quite a bit trickier. When I tried pressing them against some not quite dry polish, barely any of the foil came off onto the nail--and I was pressing so hard it hurt. So I tried doing it when my polish was a little wetter and all that accomplished was the destruction of my manicure. I tried putting some topcoat over 4 In The Morning, waiting for the topcoat to get tacky, and then giving the foils another go. Still no luck!

Ultimately, I resorted to using some nail glue I got with a Born Pretty caviar mani set. That at least allowed me to get some of the foil onto my nails, but I still had some difficulty getting the foil to apply exactly where I wanted it to. I felt like I didn't have any control over where the foil would leave an imprint. I tried getting certain parts of the foil, like the bits with flowers on them, to transfer onto my nail but application was very imprecise.

I wanted to love these foils, but they were a lot harder to work with than I'd expected, to the point that I nearly gave up a few times. They make for a nice enough mani (I got several compliments on this mani from my co-workers) but I wish they were easier to use.  I would recommend the other foils I reviewed from BP over these. They look great and apply effortlessly!

If you would like to purchase anything from Born Pretty, 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.