I’ve been saving these water decals to wear until today, Remembrance Sunday. They were sent to me for review by Born Pretty Store.

I’ve only used a few water decals. These seemed a little more “plasticy” than others I’ve used, but were no less difficult to apply than any I’ve tried out before.

You just soak them for 20 seconds so that the backing paper comes off, and then apply to the nail. You slide them into place and then press hard with a paper towel to soak up the excess water, after which they have adhered to the nail. Lots of people cut theirs to size before applying, and indeed, that’s what the instructions recommend. But I preferred to use acetone to just take the excess off the cuticles end and sides and to wrap the extra length under the ends of the tips. It doesn’t give a particularly sharp outline at the cuticle end, as the decals melt unevenly due to the plasticity, but that’s only evident on close-up photos, not in person.

I placed these over a coat of white. The decals themselves have a white background, but you only get ten, and with a couple of them (the ones I chose for my ring fingers) I had to cut a couple of pieces out of as they were a little narrow for my nail and would have left a half of a poppy and a stalk just hanging in mid air. Hence the requirement for a white background.

These full nail decals are very striking and very easy to use to achieve a good-looking manicure in a very short time. I’d say the only drawback is that you only get ten. So there is no room for error. I did manage to make a mistake. I forgot to remove the plastic sheet from the front of one of the decals before soaking, and after being in the water, it wouldn’t separate at all. I used some acetone to clean off one outer edge, and then did manage to pull the decal from the plastic, but it was stretched and didn’t look as good as the others. User error, I know, but if I’d had a couple of spares, it wouldn’t have been an issue.

You can buy these poppies water decals from the Born Pretty Store. If you want to buy these – or any other items – then you can get 10% off with the code ZSL91.