Review: Messy Mansion Artist Collection & Hydrangea Collection stamping polishes!

(Press samples and affiliate links** ahead!)

Hello!

So guess what?! Messy Mansion has vastly expanded their line of stamping polishes to run the whole spectrum! I reviewed their black, white, silver and gold polishes before, and was very impressed with them--they're the best I've used. So I couldn't wait to get my hand on the colors, colors, colors!

There are two collections of polishes, but you can buy each polish individually--you save a little buying the whole collection, but if you know you're never going to use yellow, say, you can skip it. So while I'm going to review these as collections, you can buy them in any combination you like.

Let's start with the Artist Collection, which features rich, pigmented, primary colors. I made a video if you want to see them in action:

Here's a shot of them in their cute box:

Messy Mansion Artist Collection stamping polishes

Here's what you get:

Banana Bender: Bright mustard yellow
Forest: Forest green
Blue You A Kiss: Cerulean blue
Royal Purple: Royal purple
Red-y Or Not: Cherry red
Happy Now: Mandarin orange


And here's a closer look at the hue goodness:

Messy Mansion Banana Bender, Happy Now, and Red-y Or Not

Messy Mansion Forest, Blue You A Kiss, and Royal Purple

So when you're looking for a stamping polish, you're looking for a couple of things. You want it to pick up easily (take a look at my video o see how easily these babies pick up), you want the to stamp cleanly, you want them to show up over as many colors as possible, and you don't want them to smudge. Here are the swatches I made in the video, the very first time I tried stamping with them. You'll notice I apply from left to right, so at the bottom right of each swatch there's a little bit of imperfect where I lift off--that's my fault, not the fault of the polish. Check out how well these show up over even the black:

Messy Mansion Banana Bender, Happy Now, Red-y Or Not, Blue You A Kiss, Forest, and Royal Purple

These polishes pick up the detail of this fine-line image perfectly, stamps crisp and clean, and that's right--show up over black. They also don't smudge with topcoat, but I'll show you that in a minute.


The second set is the Hydrangea Collection, and, of course, I made a video showing this collection live and in person, too:

This set is the pastel cousin of the Artist collection, with a range of soft sweetness for your stamping needs:

Messy Mansion Dogwood Pink, Petal, Lilac, Hydrangea Blue, Spring Green, and Top Notch topcoat

Here's what you get in this one:

Dogwood Pink: A whisper-soft baby pink
Petal: A rose pink
Lilac: A lilac purple
Hydrangea Blue: Sky blue
Spring Green: A mossy green
Top Notch topcoat

I couldn't find the topcoat for sale alone anywhere on the site; I'm not sure if it's available for now only with the set, or if you can buy it separately and I'm just missing it.

Messy Mansion Dogwood Pink, Petal, & Lilac

Messy Mansion Spring Green & Hydrangea Blue

Messy Mansion Top Notch topcoat

I know what you're thinking. Sure, the bright colors stamped over black, and that's impressive and all, but there's no way these pastel colors are gonna cut it. Well, you would be very wrong:

Messy Mansion Dogwood Pink, Petal, & Lilac

Messy Mansion Hydrangea Blue & Spring Green 

(Yes, I somehow rotated some of these, lol.)


Check. That. out. Even the palest of them, Dogwood Pink, shows up perfectly over the black. And, these pick up the image well, with crisp, awesome stamping--keep in mind, this is my very first attempt stamping with these, so there wasn't some learning curve to get excellent results. Straight out of the box awesome.

You may notice that Dogwood Pink looks like it might not show up over the white. The truth is, it's very close in color to the white, but it is absolutely visible. If you look closely, especially at the bottom of that swatch, you can see the differentiation. It's subtle, but it's there. Here's a closer look--the color is true at the top of the swatch, it only looks darker at the bottom because of the light source, but you can see it doesn't just fade into the white:

Messy Mansion Dogwood Pink

So hey, what about that topcoat that comes in the Hydrangea kit? Well, did you notice that the Hydrangea collection swatches above were pretty darn shiny? That's because there's topcoat on them, and it didn't smudge the stamping one bit. I tested the Artist collection colors too, and had the same excellent results.


I was also very impressed with how the topcoat performed in terms of dry time and application. Within about two minutes I was soft-touch safe, and within about five I felt safe to resume normal activity (I'd probably wait a little longer than that before climbing into bed and pressing your sheets onto your nails, of course). Very impressive.


Overall, I couldn't be happier with these polishes! 'Happy' doesn't quite cut it, I'm ecstatic! They exceeded the high expectations set by the other Messy Mansion stamping polishes I've tried, and without a doubt these are my go-to stamping polishes now. Stamping with them is as easy as cutting butter with a hot knife. To be so easy to use and to cover black like that AND still not smudge when topcoated--absolutely amazing.


I'll be back next time with a manicure using these polishes...In the meantime, you can buy them on the Messy Mansion site, or on Amazon if that's easier for you. And don't forget to follow Messy Mansion on Facebook and Instagram for updates and inspiration!


Happy stamping,
M.