More Halloween Nails

I'm still in the Halloween spirit, so I tried a ghoulish manicure for the big day.

The plate is from the first Bundle Monster set (where the stamps are a little small) so you can see a little green peeking out of my index finger, but I think the mani should be enough to keep the goblins at bay.

Halloween is a fun time for nail stamping.  Have fun everyone!

Base Color: Sinful Colors Happy Ending

Stamping Color: Milani Black Magic
Stamping Plate: BM 16

On the Savannah: Giraffe Nails

My mom loves giraffes!  And I guess I like them, too.  I tried this out as a different option for animal prints. Hope it inspires your own safari!


Base Color: Pure Ice Georgia Peach

Stamping Color: Revlon Top Speed Espresso (my go-to deep brown!)
Stamping Plate: BM 215

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!

Halloween Masala Manicure

This Halloween mani started with a base of Rimmel 60 Seconds Extreme polish in Va Va Voom.  I added a little sponging in orange and bronze.  I stamped the spooky tree branches in Revlon Top Speed Espresso using Bundle Monster plate BM 224.  I tried out random other Halloween stamps (most also from the second Bundle Monster set) in Milani Black Magic for the bats, haunted houses and spiders.  Two coats of Out the Door top coat, and voila!

Have a fun and safe Halloween everyone!

More Cupcakes Step-By-Step

In my second attempt, I tried to create a more interesting background for the cupcakes so I applied a base coat and stamped swirls in a slightly darker pink before stamping the cupcakes.  There was a little bleed through with the colors, but I liked the overall affect.  I'll walk you through how I did this one.

Peppermint Cupcake Nails

I love the Bundle Monster Plate BM14! I had a fun time experimenting with varying ways of stamping these little cupcakes.  In the end, I sported two designs.

Base Color: Natural Glow Super Shine in Peppermint

Stamping Colors: Revlon Top Speed Espresso
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Blue Blast
Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Rose Run

Stamping Plate: BM14

After stamping, I applied chunky glitter to fill in the empty spaces and to add sparkle.  Ahh...it's kind of sweet!

Elegant Emerald and Stripes

I'm so excited to post my first blog entry!
The change in seasons and beautiful Fall colors inspired me to create this mani.  It's hard to fully capture the colors, but I like how the color combination turned out.
Hope you like it!  Thanks for reading!

Base color: Revlon Top Speed Emerald
Stamping color: China Glaze Hi-Tek
Plate: Konad S6

Here's a peek at the base before the stamping: