UberChic Beauty School Is Cool mini plate!

(Press samples and affiliate links ahead!)

Hello!


Yep, it's officially back-to-school weekend, and UberChic Beauty has a fun mini plate to help you celebrate (heehee) the season, their School Is Cool plate. Here's the video review I did for the plate:

Here's a shot of the plate:

My thoughts on this plate: This is a great plate for those with children heading back to school, those celebrating school events year round (recitals, teacher conference weeks, volunteering in the classroom), and for teachers. I love the layering apples and the crayola images the best.


UberChic Beauty's full nail images are 1.7 cm x 2.1 cm, and here are shots with a ruler so you can judge the size of the other images:

The stamping quality is excellent as usual:

For my manicure, I was inspired by the scribbles to do a chalkboard mani. I started with a base of Spellbound Nails Black Eye, and stamped with Messy Mansion Chalk. For the other two nails, I started with a base of Girly Bits Just The Tip, and made decals with Messy Mansion Carbon, and filled in with Sally Hansen Lightning, Rapid Red, I-rush Luck, Brisk Blue, and Lively Lilac. Finally, I matted the black nails to get a chalkboard effect.

I think this is a cute, fun look that will keep you cheery while you drop your little ones off for their first day of school, or make you the more stylish volunteer around. :)


You can find this plate in UberChic Beauty's store, and can stalk them here around the interwebs:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/uberchicbeauty/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uberchicbeauty/

Fan group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1150090828353009/

Happy stamping!!
M. xoxox

Before & After: Inspired by red

Hello!

All I have to say is UGH. I hope this is one of those cases where I'm my own worst critic, because holy moly I hate how this came out. Maybe it's the pressure of doing your favorite color family justice--today's prompt in the CNT 31 Day Challenge is to do a manicure from your favorite color family. Maybe it's because I'm crazy sick with a horrendous cold. I don't know. All I know is ICK.

I started this manicure after doing my dupe-or-no-dupe post with China Glaze Ruby Pumps; that polish and its snowman dupe are such pretty reds, I figured that would be a good base for the manicure:

China Glaze Ruby Pumps and Sally Girl 'Glitter' Snowman

Next, I added a a layer of a new glitter polish that recently purchased from Glitzology, called Sock Monkey; it's a mix of red, white and brown-black hex glitters (medium and teeny) and gold hexes and squares and squares in a shimmery light taupey-brown base:

Glitzology Sock Monkey over Ruby Pumps and 'Glitter'

I love this whimsical blend :)

And that's when it all went very, very wrong.

I wanted to do something that went along with the dark brown-black hexes in the glitter, but I didn't take into account that they had been softened by the base of the glitter a bit. So I stamped over the tips using Konad Black, probably the darkest black you can stamp with, and Bundle Monster plate BM201:

Sometimes Konad black is TOO good...

And let's not mention the hot stamping mess on the ring finger...it didn't really show up that much until I saw it on camera

It's not horrendous, but it's not great either. What it boils down to is this. I think if I had stamped in a brownish red, this would have been really nice. Unfortunately, this is one of those times that I didn't put a layer of topcoat between the glitter and the stamping, so I couldn't remove it without damaging the base. And I thought about doing another manicure for today, but I'm so darned sick that that just wasn't going to happen. So I figured I'd post it in case I'm just being too hard on myself, or so that at least someone can learn from my misjudgment here! :)

Thanks for looking, and please check out the other manicures linked below, I'm sure the other participants had much more luck!

Xoxox,
M.

Dupe Or No Dupe: China Glaze Ruby Pumps vs. Sally Girl 'Glitter' Snowman

Hello!!

The other day I hit up the year-end clearance sale at Sally Beauty, and was delighted to find a couple of the Sally Girl snowmen polishes red-tagged. I picked up 'Sparkle', an iridescent topper, and 'Glitter', a red glitter. As I was staring at it, I couldn't help but wonder how close it was to China Glaze's Ruby Pumps, so I decided to do a comparison post on it. Here they are in the bottle:

China Glaze Ruby Pumps vs. Sally Girl 'Glitter' Snowman

Here are two coats of Ruby Pumps and Sally Girl 'Glitter' snowman; each color is on two fingers (I'll say which at the end). Can you tell them apart?

China Glaze Ruby Pumps vs. Sally Girl 'Glitter' snowman (indoor lightbox)

Ruby Pumps vs. 'Glitter', outside overcast light

Ruby Pumps vs. 'Glitter', overcast outdoor light

Ruby Pumps vs. 'Glitter', indirect light

What do you think? I call DUPE. I personally can't tell the difference in these pictures, nor could I tell a difference in real life...with one exception. The formula on these do differ; 'Glitter' dries a bit more gritty, and it took two coats of topcoat to smooth it out and make it look like Ruby Pumps did with one coat of topcoat. So while the final look is the same, it did take extra topcoat to get it like that.

So should you own them both? There's no reason to, unless you like having the cute little snowman bottle (no judgment from me, I think it's pretty darned cute!).

Which one should you buy, if you don't have either yet? In my opinion, I'd probably go for the China Glaze, so I wouldn't have to worry about the extra layer of topcoat. But, that depends on where you get your China Glaze, as prices vary, if you can find the snowmen on sale, and how pricey your topcoat is. I use a fairly expensive topcoat (Seche Vite) since I do a lot of stamping and nail art, so for me the savings isn't really there.

So for all you out there who will be making that dash to Sally Beauty and might be choosing between these polishes, I hope this helped out a bit. :)

(Oh, and btw--the Ruby Pumps was on the index and middle fingers. :) )

Thanks for reading!

Xoxox,
M.