Review: Plastic XL Image Templates

So, as a person on a budget, I was intrigued when I saw what appeared to be a image plate containing 200+ images on eBay for around $25.  Of course it seemed too good to be true, but I was willing to give it a try anyway. They usually look something like this:

Yes, there are a bunch of designs here, but what the ads don't tell you is that the image plates are plastic!  (Ah, yes, there's the catch).

So, do these plastic plates work?  I'll show you what I discovered:

In each of the pictures, the metal plate  (I have both Konad and MASH plates) is on the LEFT, the image on the RIGHT is from the plastic template.

Here are some of the full nail stamps:

In some cases, stamps from the plastic plate look okay.  In other cases, not so much.  The plastic isn't very deeply etched, so the images from the metal plates are more defined and bold.

Here are some samples of other stamps (again, the stamps on the left are from metal plates; the ones on the right are from the plastic template):

Again, some are okay; others not so great.  It's also worth noting -I'm not sure if you can tell here - that many of the "nail tip" type images from the plastic template are smaller than ones on the Konad/Mash plates.

Bottom Line?
All in all, it was worth the ~$25 I paid for it.  At least I got to experiment with the different designs and to decide which plates I wanted to invest in.  If you've got a specific image in mind that you're wanting to use, though, I would recommend that you buy the metal plate (since you won't know for sure whether you'll get a good impression with the plastic template).

So, buyer beware!  If you're buying an image plate on eBay (especially if it seems like an amazing deal!), be sure to ask whether it's metal or plastic!  It just helps to know what to expect.

Thanks for reading!