Messy Mansion stamping plate MM40

Just for fun, I thought I’d do a review of a Messy Mansion plate. I have bought two of their plates previously, and adored the quality, and when I saw they’d restocked some plates and the stamping heads, I couldn’t resist and nabbed another two plates and the soft stamp set with the tin.

Stamping plate! This one is a knitting plate, though I see that crochet needle over there too, plus zips, buttons, and a cat. Because we all know how much cats like knitting. Or impeding knitting 😀

Like most plates, they arrive in a little bag…

with a blue protective plastic cover over them, which needs to be removed before use.

And the stamping heads – in a really adorable tin. Note though, it’s a small tin. I hoped to be able to fit a few more stamping heads in it, and I can, but not a lot.

Still, very cute 😀 These ones are the soft stamping heads, and I have a stamping barrel already to use with them. These are fractionally larger than the ones I am used to, which is perfect because they stay IN the barrel of the tool. The other ones would fall out and annoy the crap out of me.

Designs! I tried one of each of the knitting patterns, first over deep red (Warpath)

please ignore the mess along my cuticle, I used acetone and a brush but that bit remained like a stubborn salesperson… ugh

and then over a lighter yellow with glitter in it (You Go, Glen Coco).

I had this on my thumbs, and it made me giggle – I smudged it, and it looks like it reads ‘I love knots’. No, not in wool I don’t 😀

The stamping polish was one I made, but if anyone is looking for one, may I recommend Mundo De Unas or Kleancolor Black or White for stamping with.

So there it is! I have used the fox and wolf plate several times too, and it’s gorgeous. My favourite images there are the wolf howling at the moon, and the fox and the raven in the Celtic circle. 😀

Have  a great day!

Ami

Born Pretty Store Review: Stamping Plate QA93

Last of the items to review from Born Pretty Store was this stamping plate (which can be found here). I loved the stars and the swirly pattern, but was curious as to the size of the patterns, as some I have previously tried from Born Pretty Store have been on the smaller side.  Here is the plate, with the removable blue plastic on it… and as you can see, these are not small!

The first one I tried was, of course, the stars. I used A England Excalibur (the first version) as the stamping polish, and stamped a variety of stars over Dance Legend Anthem.

They turned out beautiful – I’m no expert stamper, even though I am improving, but these were lovely and clear and easy to use.

Next I tried something very different for me – the plaid pattern!

Over a nude shimmery polish I stamped the plaid in black (a stamping polish I made, but any one coat black will work), then used jelly polishes in orange and red to add some colour over the stamping. I didn’t like the effect much, so I added shimmer. And still didn’t much like it, but I have to say, the lines stamped really well, and any crookedness is just my inability to do anything straight 😀

And then finally, I used the swirly brocade like pattern

This was, again, with black, over another of my polishes. I loved this effect – simple, yet rich.

And to show the size, this is the stamp on my thumbs – which aren’t  long, but they are wide, and this stamp covered it easily.

I am very impressed with this stamping plate! 😀 This was sent free for honest review, and can be found (among many others, at Born Pretty Store ). Feel free to use my discount code if you like, found along the right side task bar there  – for a 10% discount.

Have a great day

Ami

A couple of recent nail art manis: stamping and freehand

Just a quickie! 😀

This is a recent mani I did to help a friend for a competition – using neons – providing an example (though, in my case, it’s normally a What Not To Do example):D

These were all over white, the yellow is Models Own Luis Lemon (love this colour, true highlighter yellow), the green is Color Club Feelin’ Groovy (brighter than that, but my camera hates green) and the orange is Color Club Wham! Pow!. I just dotted on the Wham! Pow! And outlined with a black polish (a franken black but any decent black will do) and some broken dots and lines, added top coat, and done! Neon leopard print. I really liked this, may revisit it when I can keep it on for more than 10 seconds 😀

And the mani I posted on my Facebook page recently in support of Mundo de Unas – and against bullying in any way!

This was Color Club Halo-Graphic and the darker pink is Star Kin R.S:

stamped with Mundo de Unas 10

 

And this is Dance Legend Mars: with a metal and rhinestone leaf decoration from Born Pretty Store

and with stamping.I liked leaving the tips free of stamping, sort of a funky french effect. I also liked this pre clean up, it reminded me of henna hand art! 😀 But, obviously, I had to tidy it up. Ah well. I didn’t take photos of it cleaned up, however. Oops. 😀

I’ll have more Dance Legend polishes in their own post shortly 😀

Have a wonderful day

Ami

 

Random Nail Post – including massage nails and nail polish jewellery

And I mean nothing nefarious by ‘massage nails’: I went on an awesome massage class leaning Lomilomi for a weekend, and well, I learned during my nursing training, and in the massage diploma course, that brightly painted nails can just not look quite right. (well, it’s outright banned in most hospitals, and then your sense of what is appropriate becomes warped, more likely). Anyway! I cut my nails short for obvious reasons, and went with a very soft neutral Color Club pink and stamped a delicate pattern on my accent nail.

Oh, the ring? Why yes, isn’t it gorgeous! My friend Serra from Peacock Pie makes the most gorgeous jewellery using nail polish, and I managed to snaffle this ring off her. And I love it 😀 It goes with everything.

The next is a polish I put on yesterday, to match a bustier I wore out dancing last night. The main colour is a deep red holographic Star Kin polish that I am planning on making available a bit later on in the year, called Holo Sailor. The stamp is done with a black holographic stamping polish I also made just for my own personal use.

The accent nail has two coats of Holo Sailor, and then put on a top coat (well, base coat, it dries slower!) and pressed on some holographic red and matte black square glitter into lines across my nail. I used the high tech method of a small wooden skewer which I dipped in water to pick up the glitters 😀 Topped off with two coats of proper top coat, it was still a bit rough to the touch but I wouldn’t have been able to sand down wood with them, and all glitters stayed firmly in place.

With the bustier – you can see I reversed the colours, but it still worked fine for me 😀

And yes, it was a great night out, good band, good friends, danced for 4 hours. Happy Ami, tired Ami 🙂

Have a great day!

Ami the Happy and Tired 😀

Some fun with stamping – Ruby Wing & Bundle Monster

Good morning!  Just a quick post here, some stamping I did yesterday and was pretty happy with 😀

The base is Ruby Wing Cut Grass, the plate is Bundle Monster 415 (I bought 7 of their plates because they are selling them individually now!) and the stamping polish is the gold polish from Mundo de Unas – I have 4 of their stamping polishes, and they are all amazing.

One thing with the stamping polishes, is they have a very strong scent. The pink one also stains my sticky stamper, but it doesn’t interfere with the stamping quality at all, nor does it stain nails. I love them, don’t get me wrong, but I just wanted to mention 🙂

So, yes! Circuit board nails! A good friend of mine sent me a link to some quite some time back, I believe those were handpainted, but I am just not that clever. I love this though! (the original link has been lost, but I did see an awesome one in blue, might try that next!)

And Cut Grass is a solar changing polish, so the gold stands out nicely over the light AND dark green. AND shipping on the BM (hehehe) plates was VERY quick. I am impressed with that, and the quality!

Have a great day!

Ami 🙂

KKCenterHK stamping plate and stamper review

Good morning! I have another two products very generously sent to me to review by KKCenterHK : this time a standard type metal stamping plate with some neat images on it…

and a mini plastic stamper and scraper!

I liked this plate for the stars and the goat, especially, but I really do enjoy the others, the astrology symbols will come in useful, for sure 😀

I recently just switched to the sticky silicon stampers, because I really and truly have no real stamping skills, and the silicon ones are much easier, so I had some trepidation over whether I could use this one… I did buff it gently (with a nail buffer) first, because that really does help. And here is the mani…

It worked really well! The polish I used was Color Club Halo Hues Harp on It over Star Kin Ink, and it went fine, the stamper picked everything up nicely, and the details in the stars were nice and clean edged. I also like how the stars are oriented as an easy half border around the nails, lovely!

You can buy this plate here, and the stamper set here, their home page is here,  Facebook page is here, and if you use the code EVERYSENSORY you can get 10% off  expires January next year 🙂

The stamper and plate were sent free for review, my opinions are my own, as always 😀

Have a wonderful day!

Ami

Nail Mail and Some Swatches and Suchlike :)

Haul from Beyond Beauty… love the textured polishes!

OPI What Wizardry is This, Honey Ryder, and Alcatraz … Rocks.

And this went on straight away!

Accent nail is Honey Ryder, the rest are What Wizardry is This. Three coats, no top coat (obviously).

These do dry quicker than normal nail polish, but still takes time without the fast dry top coat, so I did ding this. Of course 😀 That’s why the bling.. it’s hiding a ding (there’s a poem in there hehehe)

Then I stamped it, which was fun, and showed up quite well! Stamping polish used was my good old trust A-England Excalibur (old version, I have a beady eye on the new version…)

And some shopping plus mail – the Sorbet is a face cleansing bar that really works and softens, and is also good as a shaving aid, not as slippery as many, but a lovely pay-off in terms of smooth skin afterwards 😀

I feel so lucky, I don’t often get the chance to get more polish (which, harkening back to my issues with an abundance of untried is probably a good thing), but I love getting polish in the mail! Look at the gorgeous piCture pOlish (an Ozotic, yay, 505 is MINE!) polishes 😀

Here are two I got from Steph from our polish group, OPI My Pointe Exactly (been wanting this one for ages!) and Color Club Flair, which is a very pretty deep shimmery orange, yay!

And the Zoya Fall Pixie Dust collection! my first collection! And yay, so happy, been wanting the pixie dusts’ for ages, and these look amazing.

and a whole bunch from Cherry Culture’s website, yay, holographic glitters! Shipping was very quick, I think within the week, I am super impressed! Packaging was exceptionally good, too. Yay! I also got a couple of lipsticks, not included in the photo, and they are nice.

and yay, Elevation polishes! Including a very nice unscented cuticle oil, and a ‘scratch and dent’ Marmaloda, which looks pretty darn nice to me!

I also have some of the MoYou nail plates (amazing!) and the Pueen Sumptuous stamping set, but I’ve lost my photos, and energy level to retake them is in the minus figures. Sorry! 😀

 

Have a great day!

 

Random Nail Arty Spam

Just for fun! Here are some nail art designs I have done for different reasons 🙂

Starting with these, which I did for a night out at the… further away than local, but still fairly close, pub 😀 for a Yanks vs Brits music evening. Lots of fun.

I picked Brits (Rolling Stones, David Bowie, the list goes on), so had water decals (for skin but they still worked, though the base needed to be lighter) and a striping tape mani. The base was Kleancolor White (for the taped nails), the blue is piCture pOlish Orbit, and the red is Color Club Ruby

It was a good night out!

This one was based around some nail stickers my sister V bought me for Midwinter XMas, they were Vanessa brand, which is hilarious. I didn’t want to use too many because they often peel off, so used one on each hand as an accent nail – it’s the middle nail, could you tell? Really awesome pattern!

On my index finger and thumb I had Pure Ice Irreplaceable (black microglitter and mid silver hexes), two coats, over one coat of Kleancolor Black.

Then my ring finger and little fingernails had two coats of Zoya Kissy, and all was topped off (including the sticker) with Misa BREAKneck top coat. I normally intensely dislike bar glitter, but this one was ok, it was too sparkly and in-your-face pink to dislike 😀 Pretty smooth, and it all lasted at least 24 hours, which is good going for those types of stickers! Impressed, I am!

Next we have a pretty pink and happy glitter mix by L. A Colors, called Candy Sprinkles. Sigh. Silly name. Still, a pretty polish, and a quick attempt at some simple stamping.

Two coats of Candy Sprinkles, the stamping polish I used was A-England Excalibur, topped off with Misa BREAKneck. I did enjoy this, very girly and sweet, but the cool tone to the pink made it nicely flattering to wear.

And here are the nails I did for the Burgen Tough Guy / Tough Gal Challenge, last weekend, at the Linton Army Camp. Whee, talk about fun! Shortest day, about 6 degrees (C), drizzle and a bitterly cold breeze, up to neck in mud, water, and a very hard scramble to complete. And we (my cousin V and I) did the 6 km, not the 12km thank anything!

So, base was China Glaze Bending Over Backwards (one coat, over another colour, it’s a true two coater on it’s own, I practiced later!) with gold and black dots from my nail art pens, plus the writing on my index finger. That was my though before hand, what the … have  I got myself into?

But seriously, I loved it, and I’ll be doing it again next year. My bruises and cuts have almost healed too, yippee!

Another little stamped pattern, I’m really trying to improve my stamping skills, I love all the plates and images, and I neeeed the skills! 😀

This is a little silver stamp (in A-England Excalibur again, it works well for me) over Nail Pattern Boldness Hades which is layered over OPI Dazzle Me.  I’m really trying to get a good clean image over shimmers and glitters, which is quite tricky, but I think it worked here. 🙂

And

KKCenterHK Review – Plastic Stamping Plate

*Press sample!* In case people think I can be bought for nail polish and nail products… er… I’d love to be offended by that 😀 However, I can assure you that my opinions here will always be genuine, or so help me I’ll stop doing this. 😀

So, the second of the two items sent to me for review by KKCenterHK (heaps of other stuff on here too, not just nail supplies, but lots of beauty goodies, wigs, some clothing etc), was this plastic stamping plate, retailing for US $8.65 – which can be found at this link here:  I found this little round soft plastic circle intriguing because it is a stamper that removes the need for a scraper. One less step? Yeah, o.k, I’m keen to try that!

This was my first attempt with playing with it, and I used the floral/swirly nail tip pattern, dropping the corner slightly to give a diagonal effect. Yeah, I totally misplaced where it was on my nail, but I did like the look, so I kept it and am now pretending that I meant to do it. *cough*

Polishes: two coats of Color Club Abyss, and I stamped using Kleancolor Metallic Fuchsia, and some small pink blingies. At this point, I’d paint the pattern, and stamp-stamp-stamp-stamp on a scrap piece of paper, and when the excess had been removed I’d roll my fingernail over it. This worked, but I made it work better later, and I’ll explain soon 🙂

I really did like this pattern, I’d do it again, for sure. And top coat it! It was quite nice and fresh, I think.

Then for my second one, I chose the scale type pattern, which is a full nail one.

Now, by full nail it’s probably o.k for short nails, it just managed to cover most of my shorter nails, and I certainly don’t have long nails.

And, again, there is some evidence of wonkiness. I am a real beginner to stamping, I’ve wanted to do it for ages, but have no skillz yet, please blame the wonkiness on me, not the plate.

The base colour was Essie Coat Azure, and I stamped with Color Club Blue Heaven, which was lots of subtle until the light hit it, when those holographic rainbows made it look like a real fish 😀

So, tips and thoughts!

*instead of stamping the stamper onto the paper, swipe it, instead. Just wipe it back and forward on a (not already wiped on) bit of paper until all the excess has gone, it’s really quick and very effective, and the lines are clearer.

*rolling your nail over the stamp rather than the stamp over your nail means you can line it up better…. mostly 😀

*this is such a brilliant idea. I wish they had a few more patterns, there are quite a few of them on the KKCenterHK site, but not too many different ones. Make more! I do have my eye on the one with the little bird and the dots though, that’s very cute 😀

Thanks to the good people at KKCenterHK for giving me the chance to play with your products, so much fun.

Have a wonderful day

Ami 🙂