Sassy and Chic Stencil Stickers

While on my recent Dollar Tree expeditions, I found these Sassy + Chic Nail Art Stencil Stickers. For a buck, I figured I'd try them.



The directions are straightforward: start with clean and dry nails, put on a base color and let dry, put on the stencil, paint over it, let that dry, peel off the stencil.



I skipped ahead to the putting on the sticker step, as I just used my existing Essie Treat Me Bright as my base color. The stickers are long enough that I was able to cut them in half, leaving more in the package for later. They were a tad narrow for me, though, with the design not quite reaching to both sides of my nails in all cases. I used Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Purple Heart and Cerulean to paint over the stencils.



When it came time to peel off the stencils, I felt they were a touch too sticky and hard to peel off. Mostly they worked okay, though, with the exception of one nail where the base color peeled up along with the sticker. It was so light a color, though, that it wasn't too noticeable. On the other end of the spectrum, I had some problems on a couple nails where I hadn't stuck the stencil down quite well enough at the tip of the nails so the design wasn't crisp there. Everywhere else, though the lines were good. The stencils are thick enough that topcoat is a must, but I didn't pick mine well. First I used OPI, which both smeared the design and wasn't thick enough to completely smooth out the nail. Topping the topcoat with OPI Sec 'n Dry did the trick (but couldn't fix the smearing, of course).



Here's the spot where I pulled up the base color (and you can see the issue with the narrowness of the stencil leaving blank stripes along the edges of my nails).



But when you pull back, it's not too bad.



For the money, I think these are a good value. Probably not as easy to work with as more expensive vinyls, and there's not much variety in available designs, but they do the job.

Dragonflies and Flower

Assisting me in my quest to try all techniques at least once, Born Pretty nail art store sent me some stencils for review. They came in a set of 10 different designs, each one with enough stencils for a full mani.





The stencil material is sticky like tape but thicker so it's easier to manipulate than tape. The stencils come on a backing paper and are easy to pull off and place on the nail (base polish should be dry). The directions say to put the stencil on your skin first to reduce the stickiness, but I stopped doing that after the first couple nails because it seemed I was reducing the stickiness too much and getting gaps that let polish seep underneath. Once the stencil is in place, it's simply a matter of painting polish over the openings, then carefully peeling off the stencil. It's not necessary to fill up the openings—too much polish in there just makes it more likely it'll get messed up, I found.





In my excitement to use these, I didn't write down the details of what polishes I used. I think the base color is one of the fall Finger Paints, Vintage Velvet, and the metallic is definitely a Sally Hansen Insta Dri, most likely Metallic Momentum. I didn't put topcoat on after the stencils for fear of smearing them, but I see from the photos that I should have, just like I would have with stamping, to seal the designs and keep them from looking like they're just sitting on the base color (which they are, but a top coat would smooth out the look).







To sum up, these were easy to use, and I'm sure I'll do a neater job next time now that I know not to paint too thick a layer of polish over the stencil. I know there are plenty of you who could freehand these designs but these stencils are very nice for those of us who haven't developed those skills yet.

This set of stencils is available on Born Pretty's site here. They cost $4.18 for one set; quantity discounts are available if you buy more than one at a time. In addition, if you use code KARENDK31 you can get 10% off on any products from Born Pretty from now through October 31, 2011.

The stencils used for this entry were provided to me for free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the products for my own use.