Mundo de Unas Stamping Polishes Swatches and Review

Hello Lovelies!  As many of you know I have been on a quest to improve my stamping game.  Earlier this week I tried my new XL squishy stamper from Fab Ur Nails, which easily solved half of my stamping problems.  The other half of my problems was having adequate polishes to stamp with.  After asking around a bit, I decided to go with Mundo de Unas because they have good reviews and from what I've seen, their polishes produce vibrant colored stamped images.

Please bare with me because I have never done a swatch review of stamping polishes.  You'll notice that I swatched these on swatch sticks that I painted half black and half white.  I used Konad plate m63, houndstooth pattern to stamp all these polishes.  Also, I photographed these under daylight lamps. I did break this review into three categories: metallic, neons, and pastels.

Metallics

When I placed my purchase I knew I had to purchase these two, because gold and silver are staple colors for stamping.  I was very impressed with who well these transfer and they are incredibly opaque showing up very clearly over both black and white.

Neons

I had to try out as many of the neons that I could, because neons are just so eye-catching and they are really great for the summer season.  So I got, 'Neon Pink,' 'Neon Orange,' 'Neon Yellow,' 'Neon Green,' & 'Neon Blue.'  All transferred very easily but like most neons they are brighter and visible over the white.  As you can see though most of the colors have some presence over the black too.

Pastels

I only order a few pastels, 'Pastel Pink,' 'Pastel Blue,' & 'Aqua,' because I didn't have much hope that these would be that great.  However, they surprised me more than any of the other colors.  It is rare to find a really opaque pastel, but these pastel stamping polishes are phenomenal.  They transferred so well and are so opaque that they are easily visible over both black and white.  Wow!

Final Thoughts

These stamping polishes are absolutely unbelievable.  The only downside is that they do have a very strong smell, and the shipping did take several weeks.  However, these stamping polishes were entirely worth the wait and the smell is something you can overlook because the colors are so awesome.  The hardest part of making this purchase was they there was so many colors to choose from that it took me a while to narrow down which ones I was going to get.  I purchased mini bottles to get myself started but I have a feeling that I will be placing another order for full size bottles soon.  Their prices are very reasonable too, full size bottles are $3.50 and minis are $1.65.  A small amount of this polish goes a very long way, so I know these will last me a while.

I decided to do a quick practice double stamping manicure.  I used China Glaze 'Release' and with my new Fab Ur Nails stamper, stamped an image from Pueen plate 07, in 'Neon Green,' & 'Neon Blue.'

This is not a color combo I would usually pick, but I am so excited about how well the images showed up and how bright the stamping polish is.  I have a feeling you are going to be seeing many more stamped nail art designs from me in the future.  Having the right stamping supplies makes me feel like I have mastered this technique, even though I have had little practice.

I hope you enjoyed these swatches, quick mani, and found the review useful.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,



Gothic Gala Lacquers Science is Beautiful Swatches and Review

Hello Lovelies!  The sun was shining yesterday so I took the opportunity to swatch the gorgeously glitteriffic polishes from Gothic Gala Lacquers.  I discovered Gothic Gala when I purchased the Indie Mani Bunny Box a couple of months ago, and recently she had a promotion I couldn't refuse.  I had been drooling over these lovelies, and know they are mine.

First and foremost, how awesome are these bottles?!  I love the square shape, the long handles, and the minimalist style labels.  There incredibly sleek, I want to just keep them out on display because they are so interesting.

This collection is a micro glitter collection full of holo sparkles that I just had to photograph outside.  All of the hand shots are photographed outdoors, but the macros are all done under daylight lamps.  I swatched all of these with two brushed on applications (not sponged) with a glossy top coat.

Science is Real

This is an incredible burgundy fuchsia micro glitter full of bright blue holo glitters.  This is really eye-catching an elegant.  The rich color is very warm an inviting while the holo glitter is bright and exciting.

Sounds of Science



This is a gorgeous emerald green which has two shades of green.  There are also bright blue holo glitters in this as well.  This reminds me of a mermaid, and may end up in a mermaid scale nail art design in the future.

Blinded Me With Science

This is probably the hardest of the collection to describe.  It appears to be mostly silver which makes it light and bright, but there is also a dark element to it too.  Upon closer inspection, I noticed there is purple and blue along with the silver, which makes it look just like a rainbow.  This is a truly unique glitter polish.  I'm currently wearing this on my toes and I have been getting many compliments about this.  Even my husband, who has zero interest in polish compliment on how interesting this is.

Theory of Everything

This of course, is my absolute favorite mostly because it is blue but this is just so gorgeous!  Icy blue micro glitter with silver holo.  My two year old daughter, loves this one too!  She was calling it Princess Elsa polish.

Weird Science



This is another drool worthy glitter.  This gorgeous gold has wonderful warm copper tones.  The copper almost appears to be a pale primrose color.  I am always on the look out for a good gold polish, and I think my search is finally over because this is just too pretty.  I decided after swatching this that I had to wear it for a while, so I've had this on my fingers for a bit now.  It has been very distracting.

Final Thoughts

This collection is so incredibly gorgeous, with beautiful holo rainbow glitters.  Each color is vibrant and bright making them absolutely irresistible.  Initially I had a bit of a problem with the polishes being thick and a bit sticky during application, but after a good shake to mix up the suspension base and the glitters the application was much smoother.  In addition, to the beautiful polishes, the shipping was phenomenally quick too.  All in all, I was very pleased with this purchase.

There is news that the collaborators of the Indie Mani Bunny Box will be doing a Christmas in July Box and Gothic Gala Lacquers will be one of the contributors again.  So, you know I'm going to have to get my hands on one of these new collaboration boxes.  I hope you enjoyed these lovely swatches and found the review useful.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,

 

Fab Ur Nails XL Stamper Review

Hello Lovelies!  If you have been reading my blog for a while you know that I have had terrible luck with stamping.  I often cannot get full images to transfer or the images come out faded.  Many of my problems are because of technique and lack of experience stamping, however, I believe part of my problem is due to the fact that I have very curved nails.  Before recently the stampers that I had were fairly firm.  I have had to press very hard to get an image to transfer onto my nail and even when using a rolling stamping method I still often had missing spots in the image.  After doing a bit of research I discovered that a squishy stamper would be ideal for someone with curved nails such as mine.  After a bit more research I decided to order a XL squishy stamper from Fab Ur Nails.

I decided to purchase this stamper set from Fab Ur Nails for two reasons: 1) the price is less than most other XL squishy stampers ($12 + s/h for everything you see above) and 2) they have excellent customer reviews.  It did take me a few weeks to receive them in the mail, but I was willing to wait.  The kit includes two stampers, two scrapers, and a buffer.

As you can see the set I order came with two stampers, a white one, and a blue one.  If you order a two pack like this you can choose a variety of others, but I picked blue because it is my favorite color.  There is no difference in the stampers other than the color.  The color stamper is ideal for picking up images with white polish.  This is particularly helpful if you are going to do reverse stamping (stamping decals) with white polish. 

I decided to try these out using black and white stamping polish from bornprettystore.com, these are the only stamping polishes that I have ever used.  They are not the greatest but they work well enough.  Using a variety of images from some Pueen image plates, I stamped images in black and white over black and white on a practice template that I printed from Black Cat Nails blog.  (She is an amazing blogger/nail artist that has many great DIYs and templates as well as great nail art, go check her out.)

Aside from being disappoint with the stamping polishes, and being really bad at lining the image up properly, the stamper itself works perfectly.  With the very first image it picked up and transferred so easily.  Of course, the real question is will these stampers transfer a full image onto my nails?  I decided to compare the rectangular stamper that I had been using against my new squishy stamper.

Using the far left image on Pueen image plate 25 and the black stamping polish.  I tried press straight down method first.  The rectangular stamper barely transferred the image because it was to firm for my curved nail, as you can see the image didn't transfer anywhere near the edge.  The Fab Ur Nails XL stamper, actually transferred the entire image but my aim was poor so that's why there is a void around the edge.

Next I tried the rolling press method, which had similar results.  The rectangular stamper transferred the image but not as well as the XL squishy stamper from Fab Ur Nails.

Here is a look at the entire hand.  It is quite obvious that the Fab Ur Nails stamper is far superior to the rectangular stamper.

I was so pleased with my new Fab Ur Nails stampers that I decided to go ahead and create this quick stamped manicure.  I used a Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White' for a base color, and stamped a floral image from Pueen image plate 25 in black over top.

I am so excited that I have found a stamper that has solved 95% of my stamping problems.  I can now create all the gorgeous stamped manis I've been dreaming of.  Now that I have discovered the perfect stamper, I need to find the perfect stamping polish.  I did receive an order of stamping polishes that I ordered a while ago that I will be trying out very soon, we'll see if they hold up to their reputation, stay tuned to find out more.  Thanks for stopping by, see you next time.

Your Fellow Plebe,