Born Pretty Store Review: Orange Velvet Flocking Powder

*Disclaimer: The product in this post was provided for review. All opinions are my own.*

Howdy ya'll! If you remember last week's post, I had a chance to do a really fun review for the Born Pretty Store, and today I was able to do another review! No video for this one, but I'll be writing all the information in this post. 

I wanted to do another review for something that I've never tried on the blog before. Last week's 3D spikes were definitely something different, and I think I've found something equally unusual for today's review: flocking powder!

The one I'm using here is called Fun Flocking Velvet Powder Manicure Nail Art Nail Polish- Orange, and can be found at the link. There are also a bunch of different colors and sizes, which can be found here. I chose orange because of a nail art idea I really wanted to try, but it has a long story behind it so I'm saving that for a different blog post. For anyone who hasn't tried flocking powder before, it's colored fluffy powder that you can place on your nails to give them a velvety texture. Like any other nail trend, I was a little skeptical about this one at first, but it definitely grew on me. And after trying out, I can definitely say I'm a fan of the velvet nail look... enjoy the review! 

Application:

For the application, I followed the steps found under the description tab of the item's page. I'll copy and paste the instructions here, with my comments for each one, and some pictures to go along!

"1. Lay down old newspapers or plastic to protect the work area."

Check! I set up all the stuff I'd be using on a piece of newspaper, and I also put a small index card under the place I'd actually be placing the powder onto my nails, to make for a smaller funnel later to get the extra powder back into the container. 

"2. apply base coat on your nails, wait it dry"

Checkaroo!

"3. apply nail polish(the same color as the Velvet Powder), wait ir dry"

Gasp! I forgot to take a picture of this step! Well, too late now. I'm sure you can all envision some orange nails. The polish I used was Sally Hansen - Sun Kissed (my go-to orange!), which was a tiny bit different in color from the powder, but it's not very noticeable once the flocking powder's been applied.

"4. apply nail polish again, then immediately put the Velvet Powder on your nail, then allow to dry（use the tweezer to mix the velvet powder before useing)"

Oh, hey, you can kind of see what Sun-Kissed looks like here on my other nails. But anyway, here's my first finger right after being covered in the powder. The picture's a bit fuzzy, and I learned pretty quickly that my camera did NOT like focusing on all the velvetiness. I did manage to get a few in focus pictures, but it wasn't fun! But back to the application: What I did was use the tweezers to fluff up the powder, which had settled a little bit from the shipping, painted one nail, and quickly poured the powder over that nail. I tried to use as little as possible while covering the entire nail, because the less powder I had to clean up, the better. After I was finished, I made a little funnel with the index card to put the excess flocking powder back into the container. Boy am I saying the word "powder" a lot. But that was really it! I figured the application would be challenging and involve covering my desk and floor in orange fuzz, but I had no problems. And although this wasn't in the instructions, I used a finger to push the powder into my nails a bit more. I'm not sure if that's required for it to stay longer, or if it helped, or what, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to have the nail polish hold onto the fuzz a bit more. 

"5. use the black brush to sweep away any excess velvet, which can be captured in the accompanying tray. Don't discard it—pour it back into the bottle."

Check! I was really worried about the powder getting stuck in my cuticles, but I was able to get it off with the brush. I swept it all onto the index card again, and poured it back in. I was a bit confused by the "accompanying tray" part, but it looks like a past version of this product used to have a tray with it and the description hasn't been changed to fit the product again. I think I survived quite well without a tray, though! Hooray! 

"6. because of the 3D texture, there's no need for a top coat."

I wasn't planning to include this step, but I decided to just because it was extremely helpful for me. I've been having Seche Vite issues and ordered a new top coat, but it wouldn't arrive for awhile. I was thinking I'd have to wait ANOTHER week before making a blog post, or come up with something matte, right when the flocking powder arrived. Thanks for saving the day, flocking powder, and allowing me to have a post this week! 

(And oh, yeah, my new top coat arrived yesterday, so I'm all set for the future! Thank goodness for quick shipping.)

Overall application opinions:

Completely amazing! I had no problems whatsoever. If you've decided not to buy flocking powder because you're afraid of a huge mess, then forget that worry and go and order yourself some this instant. I wouldn't use it around kids or a fan or something that could bump into you while you're using it/blow the powder into the air (I almost had a huge catastrophe of Oscar trying to knock over the container... that would have been bad), but if you can find a nice quiet room to yourself you'll have no issues. 

Durability:

Durability is definitely good in terms of "Oh, yay, I didn't end up with powder falling off all the time and covering my hands and clothes!", but it did definitely wear off after a couple of days. Here's a picture after three days of wear (ignore the cat for now - I'll talk about it in my next post!). You can see a bit of the powder on my pinkie, but for the most part it's pretty worn out. However, it's probably something that you'd wear for one fun night of partying or for matching a certain outfit, instead of just a regular wear-to-work kind of nail art, so I think if you don't go into it with hopes that your nails will stay soft and velvety for weeks. I'd say it remained "pettable" for about a day, before it started to really lose its fuzz. Maybe all that petting was the cause. Yeah, I had a lot of people asking to pet my nails. It was slightly unusual but kind of awesome. 

Practicality: 

Ehh, so turns out fuzzy nails aren't the most practical of things. Don't get me wrong, you could probably do just as much as you normally do with flocking powder on your nails, but I think you just... shouldn't. Example time: Making zucchini fries about an hour after painting my nails. I couldn't back out on that dinner idea, but it involved dunking the little pieces of zucchini into milk before coating them in breadcrumbs, and I really didn't want to have this nails soaking in milk for ten minutes straight. Eww. I ended up wearing gloves for that. I don't think you really HAVE to be as careful as I was, but I really didn't want to get milk in my nails and miss some when washing it out, and have them grow moldy a few days later. That would be awful. In general these weren't too bad, but if you plan to do a lot of cooking or cleaning while wearing them, they're probably not for you. 

Quality:

There's not much to say about the quality of these, because how do you really judge how good flocking powder is? It's just... powder. One unusual thing was that in the picture on the flocking powder's page, it comes in one large container. I received two smaller ones. I'm not sure if it's the same issue of the page not being updated to match with the product again, or what, but it was different than I expected. I *think* I got the same amount as with the one container, but I don't know for sure. That's the only issue I had with quality - everything else was exactly what I expected. 

Price: 

I know the price does change, so it might be different in the following months, but currently the price is $7.99. For this you get the flocking powder, tweezers, and a small brush. At least in my opinion, I think this is a great deal for what you get.

Final Opinion:

Not practical for every day, but something completely fun and worth it to try, as well as great quality for the price! 

And since this post didn't have enough pictures already: 

That's it! Again, you can find the orange flocking powder here! And a reminder: you can still use the code

PDPW10 for 10% off when you make an order!

This applies for anything on the Born Pretty Store, not just the products I've reviewed. Thanks for reading! I'll have a related post (which may or may not have anything to do with that cat you saw in the "durability" section...) up sometime this week. Catch you all later! 

*Disclaimer: The product in this post was provided for review. All opinions are my own.*