Review: Born Pretty Store Quadrant Nail Art Stamping Plate TO-06

Nail art stamping plates have really been a revelation in the world of nails because now everyone can create intricate designs on their nails without trying too hard.

Born Pretty Store have now launched a whole new range of larger stamping plates with designs that suit even the smallest of nail beds.  My favourite is the TO-06 with a nice variety of the ever popular floral and butterfly designs as well as some other miscellaneous motifs such as snowflakes and hearts.

The plate comes with a protective cover (which you have to take off prior to use) as well as a protective thin plastic sleeve for storage when not in use.  There are 45 designs on any given plate which will leave you spoilt for choice. Moreover, the image plate is conveniently sized to fit in your nail art kit and is suitable for both professional and amateur use.

Basically, you use the image plate in the same way you would any other... apply a generous amount of polish (check out my review on the GCOCL Stamping Polish Set from BPS) on your chosen design, scrape the excess away, roll the stamper onto the design and transfer on your nails! Just remember that you have to be quite quick so that the polish does not dry out before you transfer your design.  Also, make sure you clean the plate, scraper and stamper after every use to ensure that all your designs come out nicely. Take care not to cut your fingers on the edges of the plate and if necessary, just file them down with some sand paper.

There was one thing I noticed with this plate that is different from the others I own.  Due to the small nature of the designs, some of them are not very deeply engraved and so they might not come out perfect.  I'd say use a very fine detailing brush to touch up your design and it should work out.

Here is a simple design I created:

BPS Products used: TO-06 Image Plate | AODL UV Gel Top Coat | 1.5mm round gold stud rhinestones

There are 8 plates in the range and they retail for $4.99 each.  Quote the code EBABK31 at checkout for 10% off your order and free shipping.

*Use code BPS12 for 12% off your order until 30th October 2012*

PR Sample

Review: Born Pretty Store GCOCL Special Stamping Polish Set

Hello my lovelies :) I have another product review from Born Pretty Store today! As you can tell from the title of this post, I will be reviewing a stamping polish set which was kindly sent to me for review purposes.  As usual, Kevin let me choose which products I wanted to review and I chose this set of 7 stamping polishes just to see whether they gave different results to normal polishes with the stamping plates.

Shipping took a little longer than usual maybe because in China they had a week of holidays in October but usually, I get orders from Born Pretty in no more than 3 weeks.  Shipping is free worldwide and there is no minimum order limit to benefit from such an offer!

Packaging wise, I quite like how the polishes come in this box where you can safely store them in between uses.  Also, when I got these, there were no signs of damage to the box as it was carefully wrapped in bubble wrap and also, none of the bottles were broken.

In total, you get 7 polishes; 6 of which are colours and 1 is a clear top coat.  The consistency of these polishes is quite thick compared to regular nail polishes and it is not advisable to use them on bare nails.  The colours are basic colours which you can mix together to create totally new shades for your stamping nail art.  It doesn't say how much product you get but the bottles are quite filled up, I'd say somewhere between 7ml and 10ml per bottle.  Furthermore, the colours are very bright indeed and they are good value for money as one set costs $10.80 (which works out to approximately $1.54 pre bottle).

I compared the white stamping polish with a regular white nail polish to see which one gives the best result out of the two.  Both polishes seem to give just as good a result but the regular nail polish dries much quicker than the stamping polish.

White Stamping Polish

vs

Regular White Nail Polish

And this is a manicure in which I used the white stamping polish:

The brush is a standard size nail polish brush and the handle is just the right length for it to be ergonomic enough to work with.  After using these polishes, the stamping equipment is very easy to clean with just some polish remover and they won't leave traces behind. I thought that because these polishes are of the GCOCL brand, they would work better with the GCOCL plates but I tried them with other plates and they work just as brillaintly!

Here are some bonus pictures of stamping designs on paper with the different colours vs regular nail polishes:

Overall, I really like these stamping polishes and I will use them whenever I can as this will help me save on nail polishes as stamping can contribute to polish waste.  The only things which can be improved is the clear top cat because it tends to smudge the designs and the black one can be a bit more thick so designs come out better.

Have you ever tried stamping polishes? If you want to get this particular set, don't forget to quote the code EBABK31 at checkout for a 10% discount (shipping is always free and there is no minimum order value to avail yourselves of the discount!)

NOTW: Blinged out flowers

Here's the last tutorial for Christmas! It is a very simple one that any one can do...

1. Start with a base coat and leave to dry thoroughly.

2. Apply two coats of a gold nail polish of your choice.  Leave the coats to dry between each application. Here I used Golden Rose Prestige no. 71.

3. Stamp a design of your choice with a nice red nail polish (elf Cranberry) on each nail and seal with a top coat. That's it!

I hope you enjoyed these tutorials and maybe go ahead and try them out yourself for nails that will steal the show at your Christmas parties!  Happy Christmas to each and everyone of you and your respective families :) xxx

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Review: GCOCL Stamping Nail Art Plates

Hello my lovelies :) Today, I am going to review my stamping nail art plates.  As most or all of you know, I am a self-confessed nail art junkie and love everything that has to do with nails and taking care of them. I am always on the lookout for new techniques in nail enhancements and earlier this year, I learned about Stamping.

Let's start with a brief description of the technique. Basically, Stamping involves a metal image plate, a scraper and a stamper. On the image plate, you get all sorts of designs, some of which are very difficult to hand-paint, so I think it is a very handy technique both for the professional nail artists and those who do their own nails. The designs are like stencils, but instead of being hollow, they are sort of carved in the plate. What you do, is you take a nail polish of your choice (you don't need to use special polishes, regular nail polishes work just as well) and cover the desired design; scrape off the excess with a scraper; pick the image with the stamper and roll on your nail so it is transferred! Easy, no? Here's a short video tutorial to further help you understand how its done:

OK, now time for the actual review! I got these plates off ebay for around €8 and the stamper and scraper were free as was shipping... unarguably a bargain! With regards packing, they came in a small plastic re-sealable bag and each had a protective film on the side of the designs. The stamper and scraper came in a separate, similar bag. 

The brand of these plates is GCOCL and mine are numbered as A01, A02, K01, K02, K03, K04, K05 and K06. As you can see from the photo, they are octagonal in shape, the edges of which are not sharp at all, so they are completely safe to handle (keep away from babies and children though due to the pointy vertices).

I really like the way designs turn out with these plates, you only have to choose the right polish (light polishes will get you nowhere). The stamper and scraper also play an important role in getting a perfect final result. I have both plastic and metal scrapers, but for some reason, I prefer the plastic ones.

Cleaning is easily accomplished with just some nail polish remover, a cotton disc for the plates and a cotton bud for the stamper and scraper.  The plates won't tarnish and it is very important to clean them thoroughly after use to make sure you get a perfect result each time.

As a concluding remark, some might argue that stamping will make you waste nail polish (scraping off the excess), fair enough! But I still recommend you to get familiar with this technique as it is an easy and quick way to embellish your nails in a few minutes!

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