BornPrettyStore: Fish BP-151

So I’ve not written a review in ages! Today I’m showing you a fish themed stamping plate from BornPrettyStore. Have a little look at the following pictures and let’s play ‘One of these things is not like the others’.

Did you get it right? Why on earth has a unicorn been included, bizarre. There is actually a fish called a Unicorn Tang but it certainly doesn’t look like that. (I suppose you could argue that jellyfish aren’t fish but at least it’s related in the name and live in the sea.)

Anyway, the fish images are pretty usable and picked up crisply. They lend themselves well to reverse stamping if that’s your bag but if it’s not don’t worry as they can also be used just as effectively for as stamp-and-go images.

However, if you have quite long nails I think you’d struggle to cover them with just one image. I think you’d have to pick up the image twice and try to do some sort of over-lap. I have naturally long nails without have long growth (if that makes sense) and the images were close to being too small to cover mine. Also, as beautiful as the central goldfish is I didn’t have much practical use for it as it’s massive!

Enough nit-picking, who’s ready for some nail art example;

So which was your favourite? If you fancy trying out some fish-related designs the plate is currently on sale for only $1.59 and free shipping! Should you happen to add anything else to your basket, use my code AZYW10 at the checkout to receive 10% off all your full priced items.

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Smile, it’s almost Halloween…

So these smiling skulls definitely resemble a certain skellington to me? Also with the colour combo I’ve chosen it seems to have turned out more Chirstmas than nightmare. Oh well!

This image is yet again from BornPrettyStore plate BP-L057 (reviewed here)

Spooky attraction…

So it’s been a while since I’ve used a magnetic polish and I actually forgot how pretty they could be! This one is actually an Avon polish called ‘Hypnotic Bronze’,  they call their magnetic/cats eye polish ‘Colour Attract’ just in case you go googling it.

The crooked house, trees and bats are all off the same stamping plate from BornPrettyStore which I recently reviewed.

BornPrettyStore: Halloween Stamping Plate BP-L057

So just in time for Halloween this rectangle stamping plate has lots of spooky (and not so spooky) images to use. It was sent to me by BornPrettyStore and even though you wouldn’t receive it in time for Halloween this year it is half price at the moment.

Fortunately it isn’t a one trick pony, it’s not all witches and pumpkins. I feel it has a nice balance of themed vs normal images. The obvious example of ‘usable’ images would be the skulls as they’re not soley related to Halloween. (I also include the spider webs, cats and bats within this category.)

Skulls were the first image I chose to stamp. I used my BornPrettyStore stamping polish and clear mallow stamping head and as you can see they came out pretty crisp! The plate didn’t need much prepping, I think this was actually only the second or third scrape before it picked up this strongly. Not bad huh?

I also used a second skull image to demonstrate that it’s easy enough to isolate a single element and use that. This one is a little patchy but that could be due to a few reasons; not enough polish, not prepped enough, clumsy scraping. To be honest though I think it kind of adds to the whole effect! (I love the fact he’s already missing a few teeth.)

And ta-da, the design as a whole! Not so Halloweeny right?

So now let’s actually get on to what the plate was designed for – Halloween! I chose another ‘stamp and go’ image, this time some skeleton cats. Some of them picked up better than others, again maybe the plate needed more prepping or I needed to use more polish.

I thought it was quite a playful image (I can’t have anything too spooky on my nails as I work with children) so felt that a neon ombre would be a twist on tradition too. What do you think?

Over the next week I’ll be using this plate again to bring you some more Halloween nails! If you order anything from BornPrettyStore, use my code ‘AZYW10’ at the checkout to save yourself 10% off all full priced items and remember free shipping. This plate is already half price, so go for it!

Folded Fox…

So I thought this mani turned out super cute, but unfortunately it got chipped after only like 2.5 seconds of arriving in to work. Why do the pretty manis never survive yet ugly ones seem indestructible – it’s not fair!

The fox is from an amazing BornPrettyStore plate. Why is it amazing? Because it has so many usable images and I’ve previously reviewed it here, it’s definitely worth purchasing.

BornPrettyStore: Cute Animal Plate…

So I’ve not written a review in a long long time, apologies! Genuinely, does everyone still find my reviews interesting or at least inspirational?

I received this ‘Cute Animal stamping plate‘ from BornPrettyStore and there are some seriously cute patterns to use. A lot of them are ‘stamp and go’ meaning there’s no need to faff about with reverse stamping and the likes so it’s perfect for pros and beginners alike.

Being a bit of a dinosaur fan, it was an easy call as to which image I was going to use first. I created a very simple background, using scrunched up tinfoil to dab polish on to the green base and started to stamp with the dinosaur image. It only took two practice pick-ups for the plate to warm-up (it’s kind of like breaking in new shoes), meaning what you see below is the third: how crisp is that!

Granted, I was using Konad stamping polish meaning it’s highly pigmented but still pretty impressive especially the dinos tails, spikes and horns.

The next image I chose to use on the plate was one that I could use create a stamping decal with. The rabbits seemed pretty fun, and I like the addition of the broccoli and carrots – cute! Some of the finer lines on the rabbits faces were a little trickier to pick up but nothing too noticeable once it’s on the nail.

Pretty cute huh? This is another example of a BornPrettyStore plate that’s suitable for a variety of themes/holidays. For example rabbits for easter, penguins for winter, hedgehogs for autumn and bats for Halloween.

The last design I created was again a quick stamp and go one, featuring some giraffes. Now on the plate the giraffes are actually part of a pattern, but I chose to discard the surplus animals leaving one on the stamping head at a time. Just because an image is etched in a certain way doesn’t mean you need to use it as such!

If you feel like trying this plate out for yourself, remember to use my code ‘AZYW10’ to receive 10% off any full priced items in your order. The plate is currently (31/7) half price and BornPrettyStore does free shipping so why not go for it!

BornPrettyStore: Origami Stamping Plate…

So I am seriously in love with this plate! (Sent to me by BornPrettyStore) Please tell me that you guys are too? It has such a variety of cute images and they’re so darn versatile – you could honestly use it for any mood or season. It has it all; flowers, hearts, animals, patterns. Because of the variety of images and endless designs that could be created by using all the different stamping techniques too, I spent a few days creating four completely different looks with it.

But first up lets have a look at the plate itself. How satisfyingly shiny are new plates once you peel off the blue film! It kills me to have to do this as I’m a bit of a freak, I still have the protective film on my phone screen and one of my watches…

I’m really digging bees at the moment so the origami image of one was irresistible. I decided to do some ‘reverse stamping’ with it and pair it with an origami tulip. I used one of the patterns from the clouds as a subtle background.

As you can see the plate performed incredibly well – the images are very crisp and even without a stamping polish, the background pattern worked too. A cute and simple design to start off with!

Even though the plate is full of origami designs, I chose to avoid them for my next mani. I picked out the little strings of hearts and dots and rather sickeningly paired them with red. It’s no where near valentines day which is maybe why it made me feel so sick but it was to demonstrate that you can use the images for any occasion. Again credit where credit’s due the images are crisp and bold. This time they are stamped with black Konad stamping polish.

The next image I chose to focus on was the origami star. If you look at the plate, it’s very close to the sting ray and frog so I wonder if it’s intended to be a starfish but I chose to use is an actual star. It would work either way! I kept it very simple, an easy ‘stamp and go’ design. Sometimes I feel, especially with stamping, people show you magical designs that aren’t in everyone’s skill range (or time frame). This is do-able for everyone! Linking back to the seasonality, this would be a suitable design for christmas or the new year?

For my final design from the plate I went back to reverse stamping, by this I mean stamping the image, ‘colouring’ it in whilst still on the stamping head, then transferring it on to my nails. Roses aren’t really my thing but I thought I could make them cool by placing them on an ombre and using a rough background pattern. I couldn’t get over how crisp the rose picked up, those lines are on point! (That’s what cools kids say yeah?)

So out of all four designs, which one turned out to be your favourite? Surprisingly for me, my favourite turned out to be the rose design closely followed by the bee! If you would like to try the plate out, BornPrettyStore offer free shipping and the plate is currently on sale – hooray! If you add anything to your basket that’s full priced, use my code ‘AZYW10’ at the checkout to receive 10% off.

BornPrettyStore: Panda Plate…

So I’m starting off this week with a review about this Panda Stamping Plate from BornPrettyStore. It’s a large rectangle one, covered in cute panda images – 23 to be exact! (That works out to be 13p an image at it’s current sale price, pretty good value no?) It arrives in a cardboard pocket, and is of course covered with the blue protective film that must be removed before using.

The images lend themselves perfectly to ‘reverse stamping’ or creating ‘stamping decals’ and that’s the technique I decided to go with. I started out with one of the detailed patterns as they have small lines that are tricky to pick up perfectly.

As you can see, the pandas picked up pretty well! The only one that’s a little touch and go is the central panda but once on the nail it’s barely noticeable. I removed the black hearts, deciding to paint them free-hand later and painted in the panda heads white. I then stamped this on to my nails.

The second image I chose was the panda holding the ‘I love you’ sign, I mean it’s so appropriate for this time of year but so darn cute any other time too! I had a little more difficulty picking up the ‘I love you’ part, again I’m putting this down to the very fine lines however it’s easily corrected by painting the missing parts in if you’re wanting it perfect.

The plate certainly lives up to it’s name as the results are pretty darn cute! One problem with directly stamping the ‘I love you’ note on to your nail is that it’ll be back to front, I learned that the hard way, so I had to create that as a decal and place it on my nail the right way around.

The second design I chose to do with the plate involved using one of the images with larger spaces, to test out how well they scraped – would they be patchy? No, definitely not!

I used a BornPrettyStore Silicone Mat which will be reviewed fully next week to create the decals on. (You can just sneakily see in the background of this photo. I’ve maybe already ruined the surprise, as it clearly works well…)

I’m going to say it again, but how cute! The plate is certainly worth the money, there’s a lot of fun and versatile images. It’s actually a perfect ‘scrape and go’ plate, apply a white base and stamp away – instant pandas!

If you order anything through BornPrettyStore, be sure to use my code ‘AZYW10’ to receive 10% all full priced items when you check-out.

BornPrettyStore: Harunouta Plate L002

So today I tried out BornPrettyStore’s ‘Harunouta Stamping Plate L002‘, and boy is it a big one! It has over 36 images to use which is pretty darn impressive for one plate.

How good does a new plate look! Immediately, and rather obviously, the idea came to do reverse stamping with the Kokeshi doll images so that’s what I did. The plate is smooth, the etchings are clear so I had no problem picking up the images.

I had some slight smudging due to my top coat, grrr, but forgetting that the image lends itself perfectly to the reverse stamping/stamping decal technique! Next I decided to try out the blossom image. I had a little more trouble with this one, however I wasn’t sure wether it was due to the plate being new – sometimes they need a little bit of settling, or me not applying enough polish, or my stamper. However the image did pick up but can you see little sort of holes which became really obvious on my nails which was a shame. (Also, whoops at the smudged one and lack of extra pick up clean up!)

I decided to try again with the blossom image, but this time show a little versatility by creating a christmas design with a clearly not-so-christmassy plate! I again went with the reverse stamping/stamping decal technique. What do you think of my Poinsettia?

Okay, so unfortunately the holes in the blossom still happened. Anyone any ideas as to why that happens? The plate looks really well etched and the kokeshi doll picked up just fine. I mean this is under major scrutiny, at a distance where any normal person would be looking at your nails it’s barely noticeable.

There’s so many great, usable images on this plate that I could have painted tonnes of designs! I hope I’ve managed to show you a few ideas on how to use it, and possibly inspired you on how to turn non-christmas related images into something with festive cheer.

If you fancy ordering the ‘Harunouta Stamping Plate L002‘ from BornPrettyStore, use my code AZYW10 to receive 10% off all full priced items in your basket and remember – free shipping!

BornPrettyStore: Silver Stamping Polish…

So you’re maybe sick of all my Born Pretty Reviews by now, especially because the majority of them are all very positive. I bet you think I’ve sold out and that I’m bent over a barrel having to say false praises to stay on their good side, but I’m genuinely not. I’m not scared to say anything negative for fear of losing free stuff either, I do appreciate it but I mean they’re not sending me a gold Rolex and champagne, we’re talking about $10 worth of stuff here every 4 months or so. This review is a perfect example where the pictures and product speak for itself, and my rambling waffle isn’t even necessary, you can’t deny here that their product works well.

The product I’m talking about it their own brand ‘Silver Stamping Polish‘, at $4.99 (currently on sale at $1.99 16/11/16) I did not have high hopes. I only have 2 stamping polishes, both Konads which retail at between $8-$12 and they are fantastic so the price difference worried me. Usually with these things you’re better investing as you’re paying for more pigment and generally better quality. I was very skeptical starting this review.

The bottle arrives well packaged, it’s encased in a little foam cube which is very dense so there’s no need to fear any smashes in the post.

I was expecting the polish to be pretty runny, and maybe a little insipid. But actually it has a nice consistency, not too thick not too thin – a real goldilocks. The brush is of standard shape, it doesn’t need to be fancy as it’s only for applying to stamping plates.

The polish applies nicely to the plate, (I used one of my all time favourites, BP-16), it scraped off fine and my stamper picked it up well too. It produced a strong, neat looking image, but I suppose this is also down to a good plate and a good stamper too.

Due to my skepticism, I wasn’t holding any punches and went straight for the jugular – a jet black base. I was laughing in it’s face, I thought it was going to turn out so weak and transparent and I’d be able to mock it because I could barely see it. I was so very wrong…

The tables had turned, it was laughing at me, it knew it’s hidden strength all along. Look how bold it is. Behold how silver and shiny it is. Please accept my apologies you wonderful stamping polish. I’d started with the hardest base colour hoping it would fail at the first hurdle and it didn’t, so it was time to test it on the rest of the colours I’d chosen.

It holds it’s own on all the colours. Even on the pale ones where it could have been easily lost, it’s still bold enough to be seen. I was so genuinely impressed.

My next challenge for the stamping polish was a comparison against a non-stamping polish, I felt my silver OPI was the best rival. The pictures speak for themselves.

As you can see, the OPI on the right is dull, grainy looking and a little bit patchy. The BPS stamping polish is bold, bright and wonderful. It’s a fair test, and the results can’t really be argued with.

I chose a second stamping plate to use the polish on, just to ensure the image would still be as crisp and it certainly was. Again I used a black base to really highlight how strong this polish is.

So I’m impressed, are you? You can’t deny those are pretty amazing results. For stamping do you use regular polish or specificly stamping polish, and if so has it even been a BornPrettyStore one?