Review: Stamping polishes by Hit The Bottle Polishes

(Press sample)

Hello!

Today I have a bevy of beauties to show you from Hit The Bottle, a wonderful  new Australian indie that specializes in top-quality stamping polishes.

Wait, don't freak out--if you're not in Australia, that's okay! She sells through several retailers worldwide--I will of course link these sources for you. But first, check out these lovelies!

Michelle has an entire rainbow of colors to choose from, everything your stamping heart could desire; she sent me ten to test, and that's only half of what she currently has to choose from!

Hit The Bottle To Have And To Gold, Tangerine Scream, Copper Haired Girl, and Everyday I'm Truffling

Hit The Bottle Peach Blow, A Rose By Any Other Name, and Purple Reign

Hit The Bottle Absinthe Minded, Pool Party, and Blue-tiful

Rich, saturated colors...lovely to be sure...But do they stamp?! Let's take a look. These first swatches show how well the stamping image quality is with these polishes; the next set will show the colors more closely:

Now let's look at color. I wanted to test the full range of color opacity, so I stamped over white and black base polish. To Have And To Gold is an expensive gold shimmer, we're talking 24K gold, not some cheap 14K stuff; Tangerine Scream is a deep burnished orange shimmer; Peach Blow is a delicious duochrome that shifts from a from a burnt sienna to a blue-lavender shade; Copper Haired Girl is a rusty-red copper; Every Day I'm Truffling is a luscious dark chocolate shimmer; A Rose By Any Other Name is a dusty rose that shifts a little lavender; Purple Reign is a strong royal purple; Pool Party is a bright sky blue; Blue-tiful is a bold cerulean blue; Absinthe Minded is a bright grass green:

Top row left to right: To Have and To Gold; Tangerine Scream; Peach Blow; Copper Haired Girl; Everyday I'm Truffling.
Bottom row left to right: A Rose By Any Other Name; Purple Reign: Pool Party; Blue-tiful; Absinthe Minded.

Peach Blow shows her color shift over both polishes; here's a second shot to help you see it. This one isn't in stock right now, but there are several other duochromes to choose from (Drunken Elf, Stamper Un-Teal You Drop and Be-Cider Self):

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As you can see, these outperformed even my high expectations: all of them stamped fully opaque over both white and black, no show-through or  faded colors. I felt like a kid in a candy store swatching these--so many beautiful colors to choose from, and all of them bold and beautiful no matter what I stamped them over. And a duochrome? Are you kidding me?? Just gorgeous.

So how do they perform in an actual manicure stamping test? For my test manicure, I wanted to do something that would be a challenge for the polishes, to show their versatility and stamping strength. So I started with Zoya Jace, a medium avocado polish (I'll do the reveal on that in a separate post), because medium dark colors can be fussy about which stamping polishes they like, and then did some double stamping. I first stamped some branches in Everyday I'm Truffling (with MoYou London Mother Nature 04) to show you how crisply the polishes stamp. Then I stamped cherry blossoms over those using Peach Blow and A Rose By Any Other Name (with Konad m75 and Bundle Monster 713); I chose delicate images because I wanted to show you how the lighter polishes would hold their own despite a fragile, whispy look, even when stamped over dark brown branches:

Cherry Blossoms with Hit The Bottle Polish stamping polishes

Cherry Blossoms with Hit The Bottle stamping polishes

Cherry Blossoms with Hit The Bottle stamping polishes

So, even over a base polish that's a difficult color to stamp over, the polishes show up well, distinct and holding their heads held high. You don't get crisper stamping than those branches are, and when lighter colors show up over darker colors, you know you have quality stamping polish. The result is just gorgeous, plain and simple.

I also chose this base color to show you that even though these polishes all look bright and primary-color-ish in the swatches, they play beautifully with a full range of colors. I wouldn't call this a 'bright' manicure; it's a more subtle, muted palette. So don't be afraid to play around with these in all sorts of ways--they're very versatile. :)

The polishes are also remarkably affordable: the 9ml size is $6.75 AUD. At that price, you can afford to buy the whole spectrum.

You can find Hit The Bottle Polish's Big Cartel site by clicking here; If you're in the US or Canada you can find her polishes at Beautometry, and they're stocked in the UK at Rainbow Connection,  and if you're elsewhere in the world, you can find them at Hypnotic Polish, which ships worldwide.


Happy Polishing!
M.