I'm a little bummed that I'm not getting ready to walk over to see the Chicago River dyed green and collect some St. Patrick's Day Beads (you get them by paying $2, not the Mardi Gras way), so I did the most chipper manicure I could: Chanel Jade with the addition of some Nubar Nail Gems.
After I posted about my love of nail jewelry decals last week, Nubar's PR lady offered me samples of theirs to review, and I got them Monday night. I'd bought a few packs a year or so ago and liked them a lot, so I enthusiastically accepted her offer, this time with the recent experience of using the Konad ones to compare. If you don't care about nail jewelry, I'll just get to the manicure pictures first so you can skip to the end, but for those who do like them, I wanted to show you what I have while there's a 20% off code today.
The manicure is three coats of Chanel Jade, which is such a cool green, and I used one packet of the Nail Gems on it. Unfortunately, I apply to my left hand first and didn't really get the hang of the wavy Nail Gems until my right hand, and I am completely inept at taking picture of my right hand (I tried, they're awful). So about 90% of the imperfection in the decals is due to user error - I took them off and reapplied several times on most nails. Still, I like the mani - it's happy.
Chanel Jade Nail Polish, Three Coats with Nubar Nail Gems
If you click on the picture for the big version, you can see where I messed up - my thumb and pinky are the only decals I applied only once, so those represent how they'd really look. I sealed them with a coat of Diamont. They're pretty different from the Konad decals: the Nubar ones have the plastic backing go a bit further out (a minus, to me), but the stones are much more delicate and feminine (a huge plus) and smaller (another plus). The Nubar ones have ten to a packet, one manicure, and are really well sized for each nail. So they're both pre-arranged stones on a plastic decal, but other than that, it's apples and oranges.
I took pictures of the packets sent to me to show you, but there was an incident in shipping. They also sent me some of their Nail Jewels, which turns out to be a product much more appropriate for a frankener than for me. The ones I got are hex glitter, and UPS was a bit rough with the package and two of the little plastic tubs of glitter broke in transit. I have hex glitter everywhere - it was leaking out of the UPS box and got into everything inside. When you see stray bits of hex glitter in the Nail Gems packets, they don't belong there - it was just my shipment mishap.
These are the ones I used today, kind of a wave pattern on aquamarine and clear rhinestones.
Nubar Nail Gems, Aquamarine Wave in Packet
These are neat ones. They're pear shaped fake amethysts with clear round accents.
Nubar Nail Gems, Amethyst Pear Shaped in Packet
This one's like round fake blue topaz and clear stones in a V shape.
Nubar Nail Gems, Blue Topaz V Shaped in Packet
This one has a cool shape - it's much rounder, and is a square clear stone with clear and yellow round accents.
Nubar Nail Gems, Square Clear in Packet
A gold heart underlined with graduated clear round stones is right up my alley.
Nubar Nail Gems, Gold Heart in Packet
Next is a teardrop fake blue topaz with round clear accents.
Nubar Nail Gems, Teardrop Topaz in Packet
The last is the most ornate, a round blue stone with a circle of tiny clear stones, then the side accents extend to the rest of the nail tip. I have to figure out a special use for this one.
Nubar Nail Gems, Ornate Topaz in Packet
My original intention had been to just show these to you one at a time by using them, which I'll do, but after Nubar tweeted a code for just today, I thought I'd give you a peek. This is just a sample of them - there were more on their site. The site can be challenging to navigate, so here's a link to these. They have a lot of other cool nail art stuff too, I saw in getting the link, like fake pearl and mirrored nail art stones - now I have my eye on those! I know not everyone's a fool for nail art toys like I am, but I thought I'd show you what I have for those who are.
The code I mentioned is 20% off of $30 or more, and is STPAT2030. When they have codes, I usually get a big refill bottle of Diamont and anything else I'm coveting to get free shipping too. With 20% off, the refills of Diamont are cheaper than Seche Vite at the etailers per ounce, and since I go through top coat like water, I need to get it cheap.
That's my Saint Patrick's Day manicure, more nail jewelry, and a sale. It's a good day, green river or no!
Until tomorrow, Dear Reader, I wish the luck of the Irish, love and nail polish to you! 
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