Today I have another Polish Pickup goodie for you, and this one is a stamping polish!! Take a gander at Lantern & Wren Jailhouse, a royal blue holo that covers in one coat and stamps beautifully:
Lantern & Wren Jailhouse
Lantern & Wren Jailhouse
Lantern & Wren Jailhouse
Lantern & Wren Jailhouse
Coverage: ONE coat! Formula: Excellent application, and you can see it shows up over both black and white. The effect is more subtle over black, but it's definitely clearly visible. :) Plate: The image I stamped here is from Lantern & Wren's City Life plate--which is also only available during Polish Pickup! I'll show that to you tomorrow, along with several full manis. Watch this space...
This polish was inspired by the little jails in the McDonald's playgrounds in the 80's--specifically, by the blue siren light at the top of the jailhouse sculpture. How fun is that?
Lantern & Wren Jailhouse
This beauty will be on sale during Polish Pickup's sale, May 3rd through 6th. It will sell or $12.00, and will have a cap of 200. So if you love holo stamping, set that alarm and grab it! In the meantime, come hang out with the Polish Pickup Pack for sneak peeks of upcoming awesomeness. :)
Today we're going to take a look at the new Gemstones stamping polish collection from Moonflower Polish--which is a HOLO stamping polish collection!
Moonflower Polish Gemstones Collection (Part1)
I made a video to show the polishes in action:
And let's take a closer look here...First up is Moonflower Polish Aguamarina (Aquamarine):
Moonflower Polish Aguamarina (Aquamarine)
For all of the manis, the nails I painted with the polish covered in one easy coat. Also, all of the images are stamped with UberChic Beauty Art Deco Chic plate.
Aguamarina is a rich, blue-leaning teal/aquamarine that calls up images of the deep sea for me. The opacity is excellent, and the stamping shows clearly over white and black, with full holo flash in effect!
Next up is Moonflower Polish Amatista (Amethyst):
Moonflower Polish Amatista (Amethyst)
Moonflower Polish Amatista (Amethyst)
Amatista is a deep, red-based purple that leaps out over both white and black--but that flash over black is particularly gorgeous! This is the sugar-plum fairy all grown up. Just stunning.
Next we have Moonflower Polish Diamante (Diamond):
Moonflower Polish Diamante (Diamond)
Moonflower Polish Diamante (Diamond)
Diamante is the perfect silver holo stamping polish--look at how perfectly solid that stamping is, fully opaque! This silver is a cross between a silver and a pewter, which makes it look bolder, in my opinion, and there's just no missing it's a HOLO. Love.
Next we have Moonflower Polish Obsidiana (Obsidian):
Moonflower Polish Obsidiana (Obsidian)
Moonflower Polish Obsidiana (Obsidian)
Obsidiana is a charcoal grey, not quite a black, but pretty darn close. I was surprised that it showed up as well as it does over black--the effect is subtle, but the holo still pops, and it's a classy effect. And look how beautiful it is over white! It's just a bit more sophisticated than a stark white on black.
And finally, we have Moonflower Polish Oro (Gold), which technically isn't a gemstone, but I think it counts because we set gemstones in it:
Moonflower Polish Oro (Gold)
Moonflower Polish Oro (Gold)
This isn't a 14K gold--Oro is pure, 24K all day every day. It's rich and bold and classy. Look at how beautifully that stamping pops!! Even without the holo, this could be a stunner. Add that holo in, and even Daisy Buchanan would kill to have this on her nails.
So what do I think overall? I'm extremely impressed with this collection. These are the most opaque, holo-est holo stamping polishes I've tried. If I had to pick a favorite, my head would explode--all of these will be in heavy rotation in my stamping. We're talking gorgeous color and top-notch quality here. GRAB THEM.
Moonflower Polish Gemstones Collection (Part 1)
These polishes will be available for pre-order in Moonflower Polish's store between October 12th at 12pm EST, through October 14th at 11:59pm, and future restocks will depend on the number of orders. They'll sell for $14 for full 15ml bottles, and $8 for the 7ml minis I show here. Set a reminder, because if you like stamping with holos, you don't want to miss these. I can't wait to see with she does with part 2 of the collection...
In the meantime you can follow Moonflower Polish all the places:
You all know I love Hit The Bottle Polishes' stamping polishes--Michelle makes great colors that stamp perfectly and show up over dark colors like a boss. So when I found out she had introduced holographic stamping polishes to her line--that's right, you heard me, holographic stamping polishes--I did a little happy dance. Sign. Me. Up.
Today we're going to take a look at four polishes from her holographics, one official duochrome stamping polish, one that I personally think should qualify as a duochrome stamping polish, and eight other beauties from her line:
Stamping polishes from Hit The Bottle Polishes
I did a video to show all of the polishes in action, including a topcoat test:
Let's take a look at the beauties, first the holographic polishes:
Hit The Bottle holographic stamping polishes in Lucky Spark, Holo There Beautiful, A Glint Of Gold, Amethyst Sizzle
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in Champagne Shifter, Let's Go To The Peach, Midnight Pumpkin, Drop Red Gorgeous
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in It Mossed Be Love, See What I Green, and Peacock Shimmer
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in Aubergine, My Suitor Wears Pewter, and Shadows Of Darkness
In addition to the four holographic polishes, Champagne Shifter is a duochrome polish, and while it isn't officially listed as a duochrome, I also get a duochrome flash from Peacock Shimmer.
To test them out, I stamped them over both black and white:
Hit The Bottle Polishes Champagne Shifter, A Glint Of Gold, and Holo There Beautiful
This picture shows the duochrome of Champagne Shifter beautifully; you can see also that it shows up over both black and white, but it does show the duochrome a bit more dramatically over White. A Glint Of Gold Shows up over both white and black, and while it doesn't look as fully opaque in the picture as Champagne Shifter, that's because of the holographic effect with the light--same thing with Holo There Beautiful. Check out the video to see what I mean.
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in Drop Red Gorgeous, Let's Go To The Peach, and Midnight Pumpkin
Check out how beautifully these three show up over black! That's just amazing--really, really impressive.
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in See What I Green, It Mossed Be Green, and Lucky Spark
Again, I'm amazed at how well these show up over black. And, to get the full effect of Lucky Spark, check out the video to see that holographic flash.
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in Peacock Shimmer, My Suitor Wears Pewter, and Shadows of Darkness
See what I mean about Peacock Shimmer? She doesn't list it as a duochrome, but that sure looks subtly duochrome to me. And check it out--My Suitor Wears Pewter shows up clearly over black! Seriously??!! Even Shadows of Darkness shows up a bit--it's very, very subtle, but it's there. If you want a subtle black-on-black effect, give this a shot.
Hit The Bottle stamping polishes in Aubergine and Amethyst Sizzle
Aubergine does show up over black, but it's a subtle look, not a dramatic one like the others above. And in this picture you can see a bit better what I mean about the lighting effect of the holo when it's stamped over black--it's there, but the light plays tricks with it. Again check out the video for the full effect of how the holos look.
Finally, I tested each of these with topcoat--check out the video to see in real time how I suggest you apply topcoat to any stamping you do, and do see how these refuse to smudge even when I go over the same spot twice. And even when I dropped one of them on the napkin when the topcoat was wet. Yep, that's me, the epitome of grace. I mean--I did it on purpose to test it out! Yeah! That's it!
Michelle does recommend that you wait half an hour when stamping with the holographic polishes before applying topcoat, or you may dull the holographic effect. This varies with different topcoats and personal chemistry. However, that said...I covered with Seche Vite right away and had no problem. BUT, test this beforehand to be sure how your topcoat and your personal chemistry react to the combination, and no matter what, if you wait that half hour, you should be fine.
Yesterday I showed you a manicure stamped with these polishes that you can see here, and today I have a manicure done entirely to show off the holo. I started with a base of Zoya Merida, a scattered holo I chose to complement the holographic stamping polish, and Zoya Olivera. Then I stamped the binary and the circuit board images from Lina Nail Art Supplies Hipster, Chic, or Geek Plate:
I stamped with Holo There Beautiful:
Hit The Bottle Polish Holo There Beautiful over Zoya Merida and Olivera, stamped with Lina Nail Art Supplies Hipster, Chic, or Geek? plate
Hit The Bottle Polish Holo There Beautiful over Zoya Merida and Olivera, stamped with Lina Nail Art Supplies Hipster, Chic, or Geek? plate
Hit The Bottle Polish Holo There Beautiful over Zoya Merida and Olivera, stamped with Lina Nail Art Supplies Hipster, Chic, or Geek? plate
These are fairly fine-line images I chose because I wanted to show you how this holds up with fine lines--to get a sense of the holo glash, check out the pinky--see the gold band in the center? Yep, holo flash, baby! Now imagine using this for a large image or even a negative space image that covers most of your nail--actually, don't worry about imagining it, 'cause you know I'll show you soon, lol
I mentioned above that Michelle recommends waiting half an hour after stamping before you apply topcoat; I also mentioned that in my tests with Seche Vite, I didn't have any problem will dulling even when I covered immediately. So, in the manicure above, I waited half an hour to topcoat one of the two binary nails, and the other one I immediately covered with topcoat, about 30 seconds after stamping. Can you tell which is which? Yeah, neither can I. Still, make sure you test out your topcoat with the holographics before counting on them to stay pretty. :)
So, to sum up:
(1) Crisp, clean stamping.
(2) Vibrance over black in most cases, except for the dark purple and the soft black--and even those do show up subtly, they don't just disappear into the black.
(3) Absolutely no smuding.
(4) Beautiful holographic flash from the holos. To maximize the impact of these, I personally recommend using images with larger areas or at least thick lines with these or any holographic stamping polishes--when the light plays with holos it can make it hard to see fine-line images. Try it, of course! But if you don't like the effect, try something a bit bolder before deciding how you feel about them.
You can buy these lovelies directly from Hit The Bottle Polishes, and of course you should check out Michelle's Facebook page and Instagram account for news and inspiration. Depending on where you're located, you might prefer to get them from Beautometry, especially if you're in the US.
Happy stamping!
M
*PS: The middle finger is the one I topcoated immediately. :)
Messy Mansion has released a new set of stamping polishes, the Christmas Collection, a set of autumn/winter colors! Their previous polishes, which I ADORE, have all been cremes, so I'm super excited that there are four metallics in this collection. And, the previous polishes were brights and pastels, so these jewel-tones round out their offerings very nicely:
Gingerbread: a metallic burnt orange-brown Pudding: A creme chocolate Holly: A metallic cranberry red Jingle Bells: A bronze-ish metallic gold with an antiqued feel Ivy: a metallic forest green Spruce: a creme slate blue
I did a video to test them out over both black and white, and to see how they held up when I applied topcoat:
How did they stack up? They all stamped beautifully, with great detail in both fine and large areas, as you can see before. The formula was excellent on all of them, except my bottle of Jingle Bells was a little thick--it still stamped well and didn't smear, but I thinned it a little for future use.
Gingerbread and Jingle Bells pop the most over black; Holly shows up almost as well. Pudding, Ivy, and Spruce are a more muted over black, but are still clearly visible--they don't just disappear into the black the way some polishes do. So the effect will be more subtle, but it's still there.
Messy Mansion's Christmas Collection stamping polishes with topcoat: Pudding, Gingerbread, Holly, Jingle Bells, Ivy, and Spruce
Messy Mansion's Christmas Collection stamping polishes with topcoat: Pudding, Gingerbread, Holly, Jingle Bells, Ivy, and Spruce
As for smearing--these pictures are taken with topcoat, all applied within about 5 minutes of initial swatching, except for Spruce, which was applied immediately after swatching, within about 15 seconds. As you can see, there is no smearing whatsoever.
That said, I always advise with any stamping polish that you wait a couple of minutes before topcoating if you can, and avoid going over the same spot twice. I use three strokes (middle, left, right), trying not to overlap, and if I miss a spot, I wait until what I already applied dries, and then go over it again.
Messy Mansion Spruce and Pudding over Lina Nail Art Supplies Born To Sail 01
Messy Mansion Spruce and Pudding over Lina Nail Art Supplies Born To Sail 01
Seriously, this makes me want to head on down to Cape Cod for the weekend, or the Hamptons even. Of course, this might not be quite the right time, but a girl can dream, can't she?
If you want to see the swatches in action, take a look at my video review here:
Here's an up-close and personal look at the colors; first up, Little Black Dress, White Wedding, Fire Engine Red, and Silver Bells:
Girly Bits Little Black Dress, White Wedding, Fire Engine Red, and Silver Bells
Little Black Dress, White Wedding, and Fire Engine Red are all cremes, while Silver Bells is a metallic, and a very pretty one--it has a little more of a glittery finish than some other silvers I've seen.
I often get asked what I'd recommend for a beginning stamper--if I had to put together a started set of colors, this would be it. The colors I use my by far are black and white, followed by silver and red. If you don't love red the way I do, I'd suggest throwing in gold. This will get you far in your starter stamping adventures.
Next up are Flame, Firebrick, and Bronze Goddess:
Girly Bits Flame, Firebrick, and Bronze Goddess
All three of these are metallics. When I look at these colors together I see fall, fall, fall. I couldn't help throwing together a fall manicure with them instantly--see my sample mani below.
Then we have Ker-minty Frog Here (this name gives me life), Coral Reef, and Silly Daffodilly:
Girly Bits Ker-minty Frog Here, Coral Reef, and Silly Daffodilly
These are halfway between a creme and a full metallic; they're more like traditional shimmers. And these are three of the most awesome pastels I've seen--I love a good coral, and that yellow is so delicate and feminine. And mint! You can't have pastels without mint!!
And finally, we'll be looking at Girly Bits What A Rush, their quick-dry topcoat in combination with the stamping polishes:
Awesome colors. But the big question is, do they stamp well, and do they show up over black and white? Let's take a look:
Girly Bits stamping polishes swatches over white and black
As you can see, all of these polishes stamped well, and except for White Wedding and Little Black Dress (of course), showed up well over both black and white. Fire Engine Red lost a little bit of saturation over the black, but got some of that back when I applied topcoat (see below). The formula was easy to work with on all of these, except that White Wedding was a little thick--I suspect I got a slightly thicker-than-normal bottle, and while I stamped it as is here, I added a little thinner and it was perfect after that.
And can I just say--a light yellow, coral and mint that SHOW UP over black??? That is impressive, my friends. Very impressive. Just. Stunning.
The other important quality in a stamping polish is a resistance to smearing when you apply topcoat. To test this, I applied topcoat over a sampling of the polishes, including the cremes, the shimmers, and the metallics:
Whenever I apply topcoat to my stamping, I do my best not to tempt fate--my technique is to make sure I have a good amount of topcoat on my brush (not so much that it's totally goopy, but enough that my stroke won't run out of polish), and I only go over each spot once. for my nail width, I can do this in three passes--stroke down the middle, left, then right. If I mess up and I don't have enough on topcoat to completely cover on one of the strokes, I leave the bald spot alone, and once the rest of the topcoat is dry, I go over it again. It will level so that you'll never know there was a problem.
Some stamping polishes will smear even with this technique. However, note that there is not a smear to be found on any of these swatches! And, as with most stamping polishes, the topcoat really allows the color of these beauties to shine.
As for the topcoat itself, I was also impressed with the drying time. I waited a couple of minutes before messing with it, and was fine. I'd suggest waiting at least five before doing anything intense like washing your hands or cooking, etc.
That leaves us with just one thing on the agenda--that's right, it's sample mani time! I started with a base of The Lady Varnishes Hatred & Revenge, then stamped with images from Girly Bits 1-01 using Flame, Firebrick, and Bronze Goddess. On the index and pinkie, I just stamped the regular image; on the thumb, middle, and ring, I layered the negative image over the positive, purposefully leaving a gap so the base polish would shine through:
Girly Bits 1-01 stamped with Girly Bits Flame, Firebrick and Bronze Goddess, over The Lady Varnishes Hatred & Revenge
Girly Bits 1-01 stamped with Girly Bits Flame, Firebrick and Bronze Goddess, over The Lady Varnishes Hatred & Revenge
I love the feel the negative overstamp gives--like a cool background, but in the foreground. And I love how these colors play together, like a buffet of fall awesome. :)
You can find all of these colors, and a ton others, in the Girly Bits store. And don't forget to follow them on Instagram and Facebook for information and updates!
When I reviewed It Girl Nail Art's new plates, I mentioned that they also just came out with some new stamping polishes. I showed them to you in my video reviews of the plates, which you can see here:
But I also want to give you a closer look and show you a couple of manicures so you can see the polishes in action!
I received It Girl Nail Art Ruby and Sapphire to review:
It Girl Nail Art stamping polish in Ruby and Sapphire
The polishes come in rectangular bottles, and contain 10.5 ml of polish. They're big 5-free, and they smell just like normal polish, no icky odor.
Ruby is a berry-leaning red metallic with tons of sparkle. It stamps easily and crisply:
And shows up over both white and black, although it does show up better over white:
And, very important for us stampers, it doesn't smudge when you add topcoat:
Sapphire is a deep royal blue metallic that performs just as beautifully as Ruby does:
So let's take a look at a couple of manicures! For my first manicure I used Zoya Alicia as my base, and then stamped using It Girl Nail Art fashion plate IG103:
It Girl Nail Art Sapphire stamping polish + IG103 over Zoya Alicia
It Girl Nail Art Sapphire stamping polish + IG103 over Zoya Alicia
It Girl Nail Art Sapphire stamping polish + IG103 over Zoya Alicia
It Girl Nail Art Sapphire stamping polish + IG103 over Zoya Alicia
Take a look at how crisp and clean the stamping is, and how rich the color is! Just gorgeous!
But I know what you're saying--let's see some stamping over a darker color. Okay then--I stamped Ruby over Shinespark Polish Pretty Unicorn, a similar deep burgundy holo multichrome, to see how it would show up:
It Girl Nail Art Ruby + IG105 over Shinespark Polish Pretty Unicorn
It Girl Nail Art Ruby + IG105 over Shinespark Polish Pretty Unicorn
It Girl Nail Art Ruby + IG105 over Shinespark Polish Pretty Unicorn
For this I used It Girl Nail Art fashion plate IG105. Even though this color is dark and similar, Ruby stands out and shines with no problem at all.
So what do I think of these polishes? These are excellent quality metallic stamping polishes that give top-notch images, don't smear with topcoat, and show up well over a variety of polishes. I definitely recommend them, and I hope she keeps coming out with more colors!
You can find these polishes in the It Girl Nail Art Etsy store; if you've visited the Storenvy site previously, don't be confused, she's using the Etsy site exclusively now. You can also follow It Girl Nail Art on Facebook and Instagram for updates and information.
