I have tried out a few brands of monomer recently, so I thought I would share some of my findings with you. There are so many brands out there that I want to try, but as I am only doing a few sets of nails a week it takes me awhile to get through a bottle! Now all the monomers I have here I have checked do not have MMA (if you are new to this, I suggest a quick google to see how evil MMA is...). And every one of these I bought out of my own pocket. We have some fails and some wins, but let me know what your fav monomer is - I would love to add it to my wishlist. 

Born Pretty Acrylic Liquid
$8.08 AUD - 100ml
PROS: Cheap and easy for anyone to get, well packaged and ships worldwide. Very light purple colour liquid, no strong smell
CONS: It applies very weirdly, beads will not blend (might be ok for 3d sculpting or 1 bead technique, but for the 3 bead it just doesn't look good), need to work with very wet beads
Score: 1/5

Hawey Illume Fusion Monomer
$33 AUD - 100ml
PROS: Very smooth application, pretty bottle, Australian company
CONS: Has a fairly strong smell, a bit more pricey than some other options
Score: 5/5

DNS Liquid Monomer
Approx $15 - 150ml
PROS: Cheap, easy to get if you live near by, easy to work with
CONS: Smells like a toilet when you file (Literally!), lid had melted from chemicals so had to be decanted, impossible to get if you don't live near by. No size listed on bottle ?
Score: 2/5

Hawley Black Label Odorless Liquid
Approx. $36 AUD - 125ml
PROS: Has no scent
CONS: Takes forever to set - particularly if you use it with glitter acrylic, really hard to find a stockist
Score: 2/5

Mia Secret Liquid Monomer

4oz (118ml) $16.95aud
PROS: Cheap for it's quality, easy to work with, moderate smell
CONS: No Australian Stockist (yet....) so takes time to get from USA.
SCORE: 5/5

Born Pretty Haul

Happy New Year everyone! Sorry I was a little MIA over the break – between us hosting Christmas, my birthday and then going away, things have been a bit crazy. Not to mention I didn’t actually get any nail items for Christmas (yes I am judging myself). But when I got back to work, I had a couple of parcels sitting waiting for me to get into. So here is the first of a few haul posts. These are all new items from Born Pretty Store.

The first is a scattered holo gel. I was a little worried as I have bought so many cheap holo gels in the past that have been so sheer they are useless, but I was really surprised when I went to try this one as it is actually really opaque and super holo.  This picture is only one coat!!!! The only downside is Born Pretty bottles are only 6ml and if you’re anything like me, that won’t last long! But I will definitely be getting all the other colours.

This shade is ITN08 Together With Me (#44395)

Next up is a stamping plate that I was hoping to wear for New Years, but it didn’t arrive in time. But I can totally rock fireworks nails all year right? It has a great selection of different shapes of firework which means it’s perfect for layering. In fact everything including stamping polishes and holo powder in this mani are all from Born Pretty, just not this haul. The plate is Christmas S001 (#44319)

I am LOVING that Born Pretty has started to have more professional items (or at least items for those of us who wear false nails). So I’ve been trying out their acrylic powders as much as I can (and I will have the monomer review up soon). This one is a glittery red with iridescent glitter mixed through all in a clear base. Really easy to work with and very pretty. Once again my ow down side is how tiny the jars are. 10ml – perfect if you are doing your own nails at home, but not enough if you want to use this on clients. Still it IS very cheap so you can stock up or use it for some accent nails. This shade is DAS03 Smile Eyelash (#43818)

Last of all is this peel of polish. I don’t wear a lot of normal polish anymore  (I am way too impatient to wait for them to dry!) but I wanted to try this one because I think we all know the pain of trying to remove black nail polish. Even filing off black gel still always seems to get some lingering colour. So this polish was really nice and opaque, only needing one coat. I topped it with some flakies and 2 coats of top coat. And once it was all dry I went to peel it off. I think this is intended for natural nails as it took quite a bit of scraping to get it off my acrylic. But hey, still easier to remove than normal polish! This shade is Dark Chocolate (#44293)

As always, you can use my code VHW10 for 10% off full priced items. And let me know if you try any of these and what you think!

www.bornprettystore.com