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

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

 

Review for Born Pretty Store: 3D Nail Decoration – shield

The last of the items to review from Born Pretty Store are these very, very cool 3D nail decorations. They are filigree and have stones set into them – this one is silver with a clear rhinestone, but there are others to choose from too, and can be found here.

I kept this mani simple to let the decoration stand out, the base is Star Kin Moon Dark, and all that is needed is some nail glue, and press the shield onto the nail and hold for awhile.

shade

My only complaint is that my nails all broke, and are shorter than this decoration! Wah! The measurements are on the page though, and would have fit my nail perfectly pre-break. And when they grow again, it’s going to be GREAT 😀 They are, however, a great width for me 🙂

the reflection from the decoration is freaking my camera out 😀

I am looking forward to using these on a night out too, it’s great to have a selection of fun things to jazz up a simple mani with. Free shipping from Born Pretty Store, and feel free to use my coupon code (in the right sidebar) to get 10% off. Shipping times are a bit sporadic, this time they arrived very quickly (in about a week), other times it has been 5-6 weeks, usually somewhere in between. So, I’d recommend stashing one or nice pieces for future use, and not having to be concerned about that 😀 Stockpile like a squirrel! 😀

Have a great day

Ami

Note: Item provided by Born Pretty Store for my honest review

BPS review: THE most awesome metal fox nail decorations!

I was contacted again by the friendly Daisy from Born Pretty Store to ask whether I’d like to review a few more products for them, and um yes, yes I would 😀 They are so much fun! I went for a few new-to-me items, like these metal fox nail decorations (find them here) and waited with anticipation.

Well.

These are amazing. I am wearing one here over a Handmade by Kyleigh Starry Starry Knight. I haven’t top coated, relying on the polish (which was damp and I just pressed Mr Fox down into the polish) to hold it in place, and it seemed very stable. I would use glue if I was going out wearing these, though, I couldn’t bear the thought of losing it 🙂 You get three in the packet 🙂

They have a decent weight to them but are not heavy and do not stick up too much, no danger of an inadvertent eye gouge here.

And, of course, they are SUPER pretty

Then I integrated another one into another mani, and I think it worked even better…

This is a skittlette mani: left – right: Lyn B Designs Double Bluff (amazing polish, post coming later), a purple jelly I made with Double Bluff dots over the top, the purple jelly with Mr Fox decoration, and purple jelly with Star Kin Dainty over the top.

These little foxes are gold with clear sparkly stones and black eyes – Born Pretty Store has heaps of others to chose from, too 🙂 My code for 10% off is AJQB10 , or you can click the Born Pretty Store icon on the right side of this page to go to their site and use the coupon – or any other 🙂

Usually, items from Born Pretty can take a goodly length of time to arrive – this time, they arrived within 9 days. That is right up there with the quickest arrival from China, and I’m really impressed, and hoping that will be the new trend 🙂 I have a few other reviews to show shortly, and a few other items that I have bought myself, so yes, I do buy their products as well as being sent them 😀

Have a wonderful day

Ami

*Fox nail decoration sent for review. All other items bought by myself, opinions my own 🙂

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 😀

Born Pretty Store Review: Geometric Metal Nail Studs

The second of my reviews for Born Pretty Store, this is for these cute geometric nail studs. I have a few studs (nails! Sorry, my life isn’t quite that interesting hehehe), but these have to be some of my favourites now. Just so versatile!

There are 200 various sized studs here (according to the title, I didn’t count them), and they are either silver, gold or red. So I combined them in this skittles mani over some yet to be released Star Kin polishes, and it ended up making a (very accidentally!) patriotic combo 😀

These are easy to work with: get the stud you want, and plonk it on your still-slightly-damp nail polish. With the smaller studs I tend to use a little skewer or a nail dotting tool which I dip into a bit of water in order to pick up the little things, and with the bigger ones I use tweezers.

Once on and in the right place, add top coat if you want them to last awhile. The red star was too large for my ring finger, it looks fine in the photos but the edges stuck over the curve slightly, and then they get lost during the day. Great for thumb nails though 😀

Like most 3D effects, this would be great for a fun day, or night out. I really quite liked this combo, and I made it through most of the day before losing a few studs here and there, though most I just removed and put back to reuse at a later stage.

I may go have another look through Born Pretty Store, they have loads of goodies 😀 If anyone is thinking of doing similar, my coupon code can be found on the widget at the bottom right hand task bar, click it or any of the links in this post, and feel free to use my coupon code AJBQ10 for a 10% discount 😀

Have an awesome day

Ami

Star Kin Update

Over on the Star Kin blog 😀 New polishes for February, plus if you check my other posts I have the non chosen polishes and a chance to vote for a readers choice polish 😀

Have a great day!

Ami

Skydiving Nails :D

Saturday a week and a bit ago, I went skydiving with my mother and Sister V. My mother had gone the week before and was so hyped about it she wanted to go again (as in, immediately!) and offered to take my sister and I with her. Sister V leapt at the chance. I took a night to think it over and do the research .. .which all came back with, if something happens and I die in a tandem jump, it’d be a miracle. A nasty one, but none-the-less, miraculous (which I call Terry Pratchett’s Miracle, as it was one of his amazing books that pointed that pointed that concept out to me) 😀

So… after that angst, next came the nail angst! (ok, and the have a shower / straighten hair / shave legs angst because hey, if you’re going to fall out of a plane, might as well feel like you made the effort should someone have to lever you out of the ground, right?). But THEN came the nails 😀 I tried a few different combos, and they failed. The polish themselves worked, but little things like my eldest son bumping them etc etc.. so I went another option.

This is – mostly – Emily de Molly Hole in the Sky. My Sister C bought this for me (wheee!) and it is STUNNING. Perfect pale periwinkle blue with silver holo glitters including mid size silver holo dots. Just gorgeous.

The accent nail is Star Kin Cashmere as the base, stamped with Star Kin Green Shift (from the Bundle Monster plate) to make the earth, I filled in some more with a small brush and Green Shift, and then used the brush to fill Star Kin OhNo! around the edges for the space / starry sky. I feel like I could have done a better job, but I liked it overall. 🙂

And I LOVED Hole in the Sky. One, it’s the perfect name for going skydiving. Two, I got to say ‘I am wearing this so I can make a Hole in the Sky, and NOT a Hole in the Ground’ – which is the kind of thing I really enjoy saying 😀 I am sad, yes. But I have fun with my type of sad 😀

And how was it? Amazing. I’m NOT a thrillseeker – I’ve been on one rollercoaster and hated it. I went for the experience, I wanted to know what it was like, I’ve always wanted to fly, and to take a ride in an open helicopter or something (ok, maybe I just don’t seek all the thrills but there are a few…). And I’ll admit, those first five seconds before the stabiliser parachute opened were the most terrifying thing. My tandem jump guru took me through a nice barrel roll during that time so I did get to look up at the plane as we fell backwards, sort of. I may have been quite busy screaming and trying to turn us over into a proper falling position 😀 BUT once I was in the proper flying position, it was amazing. We were still freefalling, we did 10,000 feet in 60 seconds, but there was some purchase (especially once the stabilizer chute opened), the view was amazing, and it was just wow. Then the main parachute opened and it was surreal and serene and glorious and I wish that I could parachute everywhere, every day. I didn’t want that to end (though I did tell him off every time he tried to spin us – I don’t like that feeling, plus I wanted the float down to last forever) :D. So, yes. Amazing. I’m not sure I’ll do it again. O.K, I’m pretty sure I’ll do it again.. but may leave it for when I need a life reboot. Because man it does that. YAHOOOOO! 😀

Parachuting over Lake Taupo with Liam, the tandem jump guy 🙂

Have a great day, and may you find your own life reboot when you need one!

Ami 🙂

Spider decals from KKCenterHK – review

The other review post! These spider water decals were the other things I requested to try from KKCenterHK, and I’m so happy I picked them 😀

They are just AWESOME. Look at them! The squishy round 3D-ness of them. I do like spiders. I think they are fascinating animals. However, I do have a policy where if they do not jump on me, I do not jump on them. Fair’s fair! So, no, I’m not one of those people who like to have spiders on me, but these don’t creep me out at all. They’d be perfect for Hallowe’en, too.

Nails, right 😀 My pinky and index finger have two coats of Star Kin I Love Cookies and Cream, and then on the middle two fingers I have three thin coats of Star Kin Polished.

The water decals are easy to use, I flipped back the  plastic cover and cut out the spiders I wanted to use, then one at a time dropped them in a saucer with a little bit of water in it – enough to cover, but not so much I needed to wring out the carpet if I dropped it (it’s a clumsy time for me, ok? Don’t judge me! hehe)Then I found it easiest to just sort of slide the spider so that an edge was sticking out over the backing paper, which I grabbed with tweezers and placed on my nail where I wanted it. Top coat and done, just that easy 🙂

One of the girls in the facebook polish group I’m part of said they looked badass 😀 I’ve never had that said before, and I kinda like it 😀

My coupon code at KKCenterHK is EVERYSENSORY, which will get 10% off 🙂

*decals sent for honest review*

Have a wonderful day

Ami

Star Kin Rainbow Elements Swatches

Hello! Just throwing up a quick link to a collection of polishes I made, that I will be putting on Etsy tonight – one bottle only of each though, so I’m telling everyone in case someone desperately wants something, then beats me up when they find out later 😀

The post is here if you are curious! Our Etsy shop is here.

Have a wonderful day, I’ll be back with plenty more swatches and reviews soooon

Ami