About Me & My Nails

I'm a 30-something year old nail addict.  I have been since I was a teenager, except I had the hardest time ever getting my nails to grow!  Thankfully, I discovered the magic of Opi Nail Envy at uni and then they just grew, as if by magic, and then I was hooked on painting my nails every week and that hasn't changed in over 15 years!  

I've always kept my nails around the same length, at about 2cm over my nail tip.  If they get any longer than that, I tend to trim them as I do martial arts 3 times a week, and it's just not practical.  Sad :(  On heavy training weeks, I will use gel polish to ensure they can't snap or chip.

My nails are a defining feature of mine- when my friends and colleagues think of me, they think perfect nails and kicking butt.  

My Essentials

 After years of trying products, I've settled on my all time favourites which I use for every manicure:

• Nails Inc A&E Basecoat (hydrates and stengthens)
• Nails Inc Caviar Basecoat (nourishes and smoothes)
• Opi Glitter Off (I only use this for glitter manis)
• Seche Vite Top Coat (which does not smudge stamping)

Foundations are vital.  There's no point having a beautiful Chanel polish if you just paint one or two coats on your bare nails and wonder why it's chipping after a day.  I lecture my friends on this all the time!  

Base coats are important so that you don't stain your nails and you lay a good foundation for your polish by evening out any surface ridges and giving it something tacky to cling to.
And you can't use a base coat as a top coat and vice versa - it just doesn't work as they have different purposes.

Top coat seal your manicure in (make sure you always seal the free edges) and prevent that manicure you spent ages creating from chipping and giving it an amazing shine.

Where I buy my stash...

I am not sponsored by Nails Inc or anyone and I buy all my products myself.  A tip I will give you is to visit the nail polish section of your local TK Maxx- you will find bargains galore, particularly on Nails Inc and Ciate- two of my favourite brands.  You can often find China Glazw, Orly, Butter London and Seche in there too so make sure you have a good rummage. I couldn't afford to fund my addiction otherwise! :P








 

Dashica Plates Review

So some new Dashica Infinity plates came out a couple of weeks ago, and as I am massive fan of Dashica, I ordered tons, again. I have a problem, I know. I also ordered two stamping polishes to try too, so I'll review those in my separate stamping polish review coming soon. 

Delivery and Packaging 

My plates were delivered in a week using a tracked service which you get for free if you spend €75 or more (yes, I refer you to my previous comment re my addiction).

They come in a cellophane packet and with blue film covering the images.
I've never seen any plates from her with any scratches on the film, so they're always in perfect condition. 

They have a nice white, plastic backing to so you don't risk nicking yourself on the plate itself and they're really great quality. 

It still amazes me how we can pick these up for just €4.99. Maybe that's why I have so many of them?! 

Types of Plates 

So, we have two types - full image and nail sized images. Both are stunning and you won't be disappointed in whatever you pick. The hardest part is deciding! 

The nail sized images are an excellent size for those of us with longer nails so we have enough to cover the entire nail. The size is just like the XL image sizes from Moyou London.

There are currently 145 plates in the Infinity collection. 

The other collections which consist of smaller sized plates and massive ones are available on the site too, but I've only ever tried the Infinity series. I'm sure the others are great too but I like the size of these plates as they're the same size as Moyou, which I'm used to working with and you get loads on one plate. 

Stamping

 

They all stamp like a dream. What more can I say. I've never ever had a problem getting something to stamp. They're etched to perfection and the fine detail you can pick up is astonishing, as you can see from my swatches.

These stamp brilliantly with purpose built stamping polishes as well as regular polishes which stamp. 

There are a couple of swatches from a Cheeky Girl plate I had to buy on her site because it was too cute- I'll review this in detail soon, but this is the little mite below - was great apart from the sharp edges :(

Conclusion 

Can you tell I love them?! They're some of my favourite plates and the owner Shirley is a dear. Customer service is excellent and delivery from the Netherlands has always been pretty quick. 

I'd highly recommend these for something different - you can have images which feature Hello Kitty, Frozen, intricate Mehndi to sugar skulls. 

I hope you've enjoyed this review and that you try some Dashica plates if you haven't already - they'd be a valuable addition to your collection.  (Please note I bought these plates, like everything in my collection with my own cold, hard cash so I don't get anything for my rave review other than to share my love of these plates! )

Moyou London's Doodles Collection Review!

So, I managed to last an entire weekend without ordering some Moyou plates, wow, well done, Sam.  I eventually misbehaved and ordered 4 new plates from the brand spanking new Doodles collection, so I thought I'd share my review on them on the very day I received them!  :)

Sorry for the pictures guys, shiny means reflections of me!  I will master this, don't worry, and the angle is funny so you can get a really nice shot of the pretty plates.

Moyou London plates from the Doodles Collection - plates 01, 03, 06, 07.

Doodles Plate 01

How gorgeous is this plate?!  We have 18, yes 18 beautiful little circles framing some gorgeous designs, which are so unusual- I haven't seen anything like them.  I am having crazy ideas about where to place these on the nails - you could position them so they leave some plain nail and make a french tip or the opposite, so they'd end before your cuticle.  Or you could place them randomly, and they'd still look amazing!  (Can you tell I am in love?!).There are so many possibilities and I think my next manicure will feature this plate, if I can tear myself away from the others...

Doodles Plate 03

This one reminds me of playing with my Spirograph when I was little.  I like how none of the circular designs are complete, because, let's face, how are you going to fit an entire one of those bad boys on one nail.  You can pick out the borders of the circles and use those or the centres... again, the possibilities are endless!

Doodles Plate 06

I was attracted to this plate because I loved how it reminded me of patchwork and I love that on nails.  There are a ton of different designs, all with really fine lines which stamp beautifully. We've got some floral as well as tribal and abstract designs in here, so this plate is has a lot of potential!

Doodles Plate 07

There are no words.  It's too adorable; look at the narwhal!!!  I am not a big fan of nautical/seaside plates and don't have any plates in this theme, but I was willing to make an exception for this one.  We've got cute little squids (can a squid be cute?!  This one is!), crabs, whales seahorses, sea turtles, narwhals (!), dolphins, octopi, fishes and some starfish as well as some lovely wave and splash patterns with intricate detail.  

This one would be great to use on all 10 nails, if you can pick 10 of your favourite images!

My Picks

 

 It was hard just to pick 4 from the collection (I want them all!), I absolutely love plate 1 - (no wonder they used it for the cute sleeve).  I can't wait to play with this one- I think I might try the stamping it from the cuticle upwards so that I can leave a french tip free - I think it will look stunning! :)  I'm thinking of breaking out my Models Own Colour Chromes (all 10 of them) and stamping these in black over the top...

I think all 4 plates are beautiful,  and I can't wait for more releases from this collection.

This week Moyou are releasing the Literature Collection- they look interesting- lots of lettering from various literary work.  I feel like being an English Literature graduate, maybe I should take a closer look at these... ;)

Stamping Plates 101 - The Circular Ones

So, you guys have seen my big, rectangular plates, so what about the classic style, small discs. 

Why would you want to buy small plates when you can buy huge ones with tons more designs and full images on them? Well, for precisely that reason- some stampers feel overwhelmed by the full image plates and don't know what to do with them. So, like a lot in creativity, it's down to your own preferences and tastes. 

It's always good to start with small image plates, as I did, to get a feel for designs, but it's not necessary. Maybe, if you're looking at at a Moyou London plate for example, go for one with single, nail sized images rather than a giant, full image. That said, if you're a creative soul, you'll probably love the variety and options a full sized image plate gives you.

So, onto the smaller plates in my collection! 

Konad 

 

The original and first stamping plates I bought back in the day many, many years ago.
These plates work really well, stamp crisply and are a great starting point. Just annoyed how scratched up they are because of the old style Konad scraper as mentioned previously...grrr.
The ones I have are fairly old and because I am currently obsessed with Moyou plates, I haven't bought any recently, but they now have various different collections, including square ones- they're £6 a pop, whilst the small, disc ones are £6.  Pricey, methinks.
 

Bundle Monster 

 

 

These are a recent discovery and ship from the USA.  Shipping to the UK is only $8.50, which is really reasonable and they often do discount codes and special offers, so always keep an eye on their Facebook page and Instagram accounts. 

I've just made an order with Bundle Monster and one thing I ordered was one of the XL plates, which is a rectangular one like Dashica and Moyou London. So I'll let you know what that's like when I've got it. I only have the smaller plates and really enjoy them - the designs are excellent and they stamp cleanly.  The one pictures above is from the new Secret Garden collection - it's awesome because there's squirrels on a stamping plates, who says dreams don't come true.  :)

Random note for Bundle Monster - they have really nice cases for the larger plates which fit most rectangular plates, so keep an eye out, and their thermal gel polishes look awesome. I ordered some so lucky review will follow.

Pueen

These, like Konad and Bundle Monster, portray several single, smaller images on their plates and are available from Amazon and EBay if you're in the UK. They also do massive plates, like the Fireworks one, but I can't bring myself to pay almost £20 for one plate. 

I recently discovered and bought the Buffet collection from Pueen, which is a set of full images on these smaller plates, and it's a beautiful collection. You get 3 to 4 different designs on one plate and they're really awesome and stamp brilliantly. It also comes in a cute little pink case too. 

Born Pretty 

 

 

These are some of my favourite plates. The round Born Pretty plates are no more than $3, and you can even get them as low as $0.99! There are often blogger discount codes around, so make sure you google before you checkout, so you can save a little money.

The array of plates is amazing - they range from full images on plates, to it being split into quarters, and some, as above, show single images with a common theme.  They are high on my list to try out if you're new to stamping due to their low price and the variety in their collection.  The free international postage is a big pull too!  :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and look out for one on the new Moyou Doodles collection coming shortly, thanks to my non-existent willpower!  :P