Pet'la Stamping Plates Review

So, I've been waiting a couple of months to place my order with Pet'la as a few of the plates I desperately wanted (correction:needed, you know what it's like!) were out of stock. I was after Caneveras, Spinning, Snowflakes and Three Times in particular but ended up ordering 14 in all. I did get 10% off with the coupon code 10OFF. 

The plates I purchased are listed below, along with a brief description of the inspiration behind them (I've underlined the ones most likely to go out of stock due to their popularity in the stamping community!):

• Wishes 2 - inspired by the Pet'la plate community :) 

• Three times  - triangular patterns

• Spinning - stunning and unusual spiral patterns

• Shenanigans - includes paint spattering designs, newspaper print and leopard print - pretty random but awesome!

• Rising Sun- Japanese patterns

• Oorie- inspired by Hungarian embroidery

• Laces - beautiful, detailed lace designs

• KoyDoodles - based on Indian mandalas

• Golden Russian - inspired by Eastern culture

• Flake no more - stunning snowflakes and swirls

• Fireworks- firework explosion images and Happy New Year images

• Calaveras - inspired by Mexican Sugar Skulls

• Basics 1 - Basic chevrons and lines

About 

Petra Prinner is the lovely proprietor of this brand, and she's based out in Hungary. She's a really nice lady and replies quickly when you have any questions to ask her and is another friendly member of the nail stamping community!  :)  You can buy the plates here and I particularly commend the website- it's fantastic!  You can zoom in on the awesome, clear pictures so you can see exactly what you've got on each plate.

The plates I got are described as 'expert depth' so they are very deeply etched; I understand that previous plates were etched more shallow.

Each plate is just €8 each, which is a brilliant price, and made me buy more than I had planned!

The plates are 6 x 12 centimeters (2,36 x 4,72 inches) and are comprable to the size of Moyou and Dashica plates, as well as the new Bundle Monster XL and Born Pretty rectangular plates.

 

Shipping

Shipping time from Hungary takes a while. It took almost two weeks and I'm in the UK so not sure how long it would take outside of Europe. According to the tracking, it took a week just to leave Hungary. 

Delivery was kind of pricey, it cost me €15 for 14 plates, but the prices are listed out on the site here.  Having said that, they do weigh a ton! 

 

First impressions 

Pet'la Plate: Rising Sun

 

They came in a padded envelope with thin plastic bags to protect them (no traditional blue film here).  I was pretty shocked at how heavy they were - this is mainly because they're made of brass and not stainless steel, and not as I thought, copper. 

Why? Not sure. They're very pretty to look at as they're so different from your average plate, but I'm unsure as to why this material would be chosen other than to stand out and be unique amongst other plates.

Pros: 

• Unique designs. They remind me of Dashica plates because they're so cool and unusual. 
• They aren't full image plates so they're broken down into 12 single nail images, pretty large so if you have large, wide or long nails, you should be fine. 
• They are very deeply etched so you get a beautiful crisp image. 
• They're visually very attractive. 
• They stamp like a dream!

Cons:

• The disadvantage to the deeply etched thing is that they are a son of a peach to clean. I find it a struggle to get rid of the residual stamping polish up in there, even after scrubbing.  I also got some fibres from my cotton and lint free pads stuck in the etchings as they are etched so deep.
• Brass care for the plates - apparently we're meant to clean them with brass cleaner from time to time. Think brass turns green after a while, which is kinda nasty. 
• There's no backing on these plates but they're not sharp. The brass does make your hands smell metallic though. 

 

Stamping

 

 

They stamp really well.  I did the above manicure using the 'Three Times' plate with no problems picking up the design.  The images are deeply etched so everything picked up crisply and beautifully.  

As I said, the only problem I had was cleaning the plate afterwards as polish really got stuck in the etchings and I had to scrub and use a lot of acetone nail polish remover to get a decent clean.  No biggie though, it's worth it!  Just an unusual thing to encounter in that I have plates from so many other brans and never had this happen before.

Final thoughts

 

 

In case you couldn't tell, I love these plates. But I do question, why brass? I'd have been as happy with stainless steel and having the same great plates and designs. I do recommend them though, as you can see, they stamp beautifully and the designs are so unusual and unique. 

Do you have some Pet'la plates? What do you think of them?

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

Nail Stamping- Getting Started

The Basics

So, you want to start nail stamping for the first time, but not sure where to start?

Here's what you'll need as a bare minimum:

• Some kitchen roll to protect your work surface and to wipe your scraper off in between stamping
• A pretty stamping plate :)
• A stamper
• A scraper/old store card
• Stamping polish or regular polish with high opacity
• Nail polish remover/acetone to clean your plate and scraper
• Cotton pads for the above
• Sticky tape or a lint roller to clean off your stamper and cuticles 
• Some paper 
• A good topcoat

 It's not much, right.

A couple of tips you'll need to take into consideration when stamping for the first time:

The nail surface you're stamping on:

Make sure the polish you are about to stamp on is DRY.  Not 'I've left it a couple of minutes, it should be okay' dry, but 'I am confident if I stab it with my finger nail it will be fine' dry.  The best thing to ensure this is a thin coat of Seche Vite left for a few minutes.  It also helps you if you mess up your stamping and you don't get it perfect first time, you can run tape or acetone free remover over it to remove it without risking damaging your polish!

Your stamper

If it's a marshmallow or squishy stamper, a light roll over the image will pick it up.  If it's a hard Konad type one, you'll need to press down firmly.  It's all trial and error, which is why I always suggest having a sheet of paper on standby so you can try things out before you take the plunge.

Your scraper 

When I think back to years ago when I used to use Konad scrapers, I shudder.  They had a small, long, thin blade running across them, so they would scratch your plate every single time.  I often see people using them now and think NOOOOOOOOOO!!!  Using a thin, flexible piece of plastic such as a store card or even an old credit card will enable you to vary the angle you scrape at and help you to develop good technique when scraping.

The stamping polish

Pictured clockwise from left:Barry M Foil Effects 320/442, Models Own Chrome Cerise,Avon Metallic Effects Icy Purple, Colour Club Harp-On-It, Mundo de Unas Black and Konad Blue.

There's a lot to choose from here.  The Konad ones work well, but you may have heard a buzz around the Mundo de Unas ones.  WOW.  I mean, WOW.  They are the only ones I will ever use now- yes they smell strong, but I've never found anything else so opaque and crisp for stamping or if you mess up, you can use tape to remove the stamping polish from your nail!  It's perfect!  But shipping is expensive and it sells out on European sites :(

Other great stamping polishes tend to be chrome or foil ones- for example, the ones from Barry M are great (as do some of their regular polishes), and the Models Own Chrome collection are amazing.  The Avon Metallics range also stamps really well, as do the Holographics from Color Club - I ended up collecting all of these in the end although they cost me waaaaay too much here in the UK, but hey, you can use them as a regular polish AND a stamping polish (that's how I justified it anyway!  :P)

Think of a one coater polish that's mega opaque, and you've probably got a good stamping polish.
Beware that regular polish dries faster than stamping polish, so you will need to work fast or it will dry before you even get to pick it up.

Nail Polish Remover/ Acetone

Now, this is down to personal choice.  Personally, I don't use acetone for anything apart from removing glitter (damn you, glitter!) or gel polish (damn you even more, gel polish!).  Why?  Because I don't feel it's needed.

I use acetone free polish remover to clean my plates and scraper (using acetone may also wear away at your scraper) and I use the same for clean up.
I don't use acetone or polish remover to clean my stamper- I run some sticky tape over it.  If you're priming your stamper (there will be a separate blog post which will contain tons of info on stampers) then maybe you will need to use a little acetone.  I am just overly cautious about acetone ruining my stamper and making it dry out and crack.

Technique

Everyone has a different way of stamping, and it's about finding what works best for you, but here are your basic steps:

1. Make sure your surfaces are clean - your nail surface, stamper and plates - free of any marks or hairs or bits of dust and use the tape on your stamper and nail polish remover on your plates to ensure they are ready.
2. Plop some stamping polish down onto your image in a line over the first 1/3 - 1/2 of your chosen image.
3. Scrape that bad boy.  One or two good ones should do it- try scraping at an angle of about 45 degrees so you can see the polish settle in your pretty image.
4. Roll your stamper over the image as soon as you can- like I said, vary the pressure to find out what gets you the best results.
5. And stamp!  If your stamper is squisy, you can just press your nail into it or roll, if it's hard Konad styleee, then don't press too hard or your nail will feel it!  (If you've stamped with Mundo de Unas and you're not happy with your results, get some sticky tape and run it over the nail and pull off- the stamping polish will come with it.  Repeat until you have got rid of it and start again).
6. Give it a few minutes and then float some top coat over each of your nails to seal in your design et voila!   

Practice makes perfect! 

I know you're really excited and want to stamp perfectly first time, but as I found, it rarely happens as there are variables involved, including your mood!  Try to be patient (I know it's hard) and use different techniques to improve the quality and crispness of your image, such as scraping at different angles and varying pressure when you pick up your images on your stamper.  

Use that bit of paper and swatch to your heart's content!  Then when you're confident you've got it down, go for it!  :D

Stamping Plates 101 - The Rectangular Ones

 

Why stamping?

I think the main reason to start stamping is that we saw something awesome and wanted it on our nails - either thinking 'Ooooh, that girl's nails look amazing!  How did she do that?!' and discovering it was stamping and not nail vinyls, or seeing a stamping plate with some amazing designs and thinking 'MUST.HAVE.NOW.'  Mine was a blend of the two.  I remember buying tons of stamping plates about 8 years ago from Konad and sucking at stamping; like, I could barely pick up a tiny little butterfly to stamp on my nails and I had zero patience :(  I remember the times... it was sad times.

Stamping vs nail wraps - I find vinyls and wraps too fiddly; placement is always tricky and if you had to lift it to re-place it again, its lose some stickiness and then boom, barely any wear time.  They're also pretty pricey for what they are and I just got annoyed by them in the end!
With stamping, it's all about making it unique and it's easy too!  You can pick your background colour and your stamping colour and even do gradients, blends and all sorts to make it exactly the way you want it.  Woo hoo!

 

 Which plates should I choose?

There's a ton to choose from, so I'm going to start which my favourites in the larger, rectangular variety category.

A couple of notes:

- All plates you buy brand new should have a thin, blue film over the images side of the plate to protect it from scratches.  If you see superficial scratches, don't worry, it's doubtful they will pick up when you stamp, but if there are big ones and they do affect your stamping, contact the supplier, because that's not cool. 

- Also, some have a plastic backing, some don't.  If they don't, watch yourself - they can be mega sharp on the sides and you can scratch/cut yourself.  Even the Uberchic ones with the thin backing and rounded edges are still sharp.  We are dealing with stainless steel here, after all.

- All plates are my own and were not send to me by the manufacturer, so these are my honest reviews on these plates.  If anything is sent to me and I review it, I will inform you explicitly.  :)

- I am just getting started with blogging, so if my photos suck, I'm really sorry- I am working on this whole photo taking malarkey and promise they will get better.  To add to my woes, taking plate pictures is hard because of the damned reflection!  :(

 

 Moyou London

Moyou London are a friendly UK based company but they do ship internationally and they release 3 new plates every Friday!  This is good and bad - good in that you can always have up-to-the minute designs, bad in that your bank balance depletes unusually fast!
Their plates are stunning.  Like I would hug them if they were big enough and if it wasn't really, really weird.  They make me freak out about how beautiful they are, as all awesome stamping plates will, and they make me want to swatch immediately.  Moyou also have a series called XL where the images are a few millimetres bigger for those of us with longer or bigger nails- I usually go for these as I have more chance of getting the entire image on my nail if it's not a full image plate- as shown above.  They cost £4.99 a pop and only come in the rectangular size in a cute sleeve specific to the collection you are buying.  Don't confuse these with Moyou from the USA - they sell the smaller disc plates.

 Dashica

 

 

Dashica ship internationally with a spend of over €75 (this is way too easy to hit!).  These plates, like Moyou, are absolutely beautiful- so far I have only tried the Infinity plates, but there are 3 other sizes in her plates.  I chose the Infinity ones as there is a choice of full images and nail sized designs on each plate and I am always more attracted to those images on the Infinity plates.  The designs are unique and I love the fact that you have some Hello Kitty and cuteness thrown in for good measure!  These are the same size as the Moyou plates and the quality is excellent, and they do not come with a protective sleeve for storage.  These are only €4.99 each, which is a freaking steal.

Uberchic

 

 

Uberchic ship from the USA, and if you live in the UK or Europe, take about two weeks to arrive- delivery is $10, which isn't bad.

There isn't a huge collection of these plates- just 2 sets at the moment, consisting of 3 pretty large plates, which are sold at $24.99.  I was going to buy both sets, but the second set had a load of nautical and holiday themed images, which didn't really float my boat.  Oh dear, pun unintended believe it or not!  Set 1 is awesome and if you love peacocks, flowers and pretty prints, you will love it.  They just came bubble wrapped and have no sleeve, which would've been cool to have. Again, the quality of these plates is fantastic and I love them, even if they are a little more pricey, but you do get about 30 nail sized images on each plate.

Born Pretty Store

 

 

Born Pretty is a company that offers free international shipping from China, so delivery to Europe is usually around one to two weeks and they do not come with sleeves.

They sell everything cute and shiny, including some brilliant nail plates in the classic small, round discs to the more recent launch of their larger, rectangular places- again, the same size as Moyou and Dashica plates.  These are crazy cheap, around $4 and you can often find them cheaper on ebay, which is weird, and there are always 10% off codes floating around for you to use on their site(mind you, this is only on full price products, and lots of products are always reduced by some amount, so it doesn't shave too much off, but great to have all the same).  Nail stamping groups I am a part of on Facebook often post cheaper plates from BP coming from eBay, so it's always good to keep an eye out.  These are the same size as Moyou and Dashica, but like I said, they have the little disc ones too.

 

My Online Shop

 

 

These plates ship from a lady in the Philippines from her website.  I haven't ordered from there but she told me shipping plates to the UK would be free, which is cool.  The massive plates called MJ plates are $18 each, and a friend I made on a stamping site on Facebook sent me two of hers as she didn't use them and they are the Hello Kitty and cartoon character ones- they are just too adorable.  $18 is a lot but the images are pretty unique and have around 30 images on each (obviously this varies) and the quality is amazing.  Sometimes there are discount codes around, I missed the last one, and they usually give you about 10% off.

Sugar Bubbles 

 

 

Rainbow Connection sells these in the UK and they also ship internationally.

I only have two because I just wanted to try them as they looked cute and they're £7 each, which is steep seeing as they are smaller than Moyou, Dashica and BP plates and no protective sleeve.  They stamp well and the designs are super cute (that's what sucked me in!) but I'm not sure I would buy these again as they are not value for money compared to the above ones I've mentioned.  Maybe if they were cheaper, I'd change my mind, but I have a ton of other plates capturing my attention right now so I'll probably give these a miss in future, unless they came out with something so cute I just HAD to have.

It scares me that I could talk about stamping plates forever, which is why you will have this one post about the larger, rectangular ones, and another about the smaller, classic disc shaped ones!  So watch this space for another post coming soon! :D