Mundo de Uñas Stamping Polishes

I received my order from Mundo de Uñas on Friday and given the feedback on Instagram today, I don't really have to introduce these, do I? :) I read about these Mexican stamping polishes a while back and they seem to be highly pigmented, even when stamped over a black base. Since they're also quite cheap, I decided to make an order of six colors to decide for myself. 

Am Freitag habe ich meine Mundo de Uñas Bestellung erhalten und ich glaube, ich muss die gar nicht wirklich vorstellen, oder? Sehr gut pigmentierte und beliebte Stampinglacke, die ich nun auch selber testen wollte. Sie kommen aus Mexiko, sind jedoch recht billig, darum habe ich mir mal sechs davon bestellt.

Today I tried Green and Blue, and I'm not disappointed. For my base I used one coat of KIKO - 347 Dark Green. Then I applied some liquid nail tape to protect the skin from the polish (a post on that will follow soon). I think that was a very good idea, since they're so highly pigmented and can stain your skin. I used two images of the MoYou London Hipster plate for the plaid pattern. Karine also gave me the tip to wait a few seconds after picking up the pattern with the stamp. I did that and it worked, but I didn't feel like redoing my nails, so I didn't try it without the waiting time. They only bad thing about these is their smell, which is terrible. Apart from that I'm very happy with my new polishes and I can't wait to stamp the complete rainbow on my nails! <3 

Zuerst habe ich Green und Blue ausprobiert und ich bin sehr begeistert. Als Grundfarbe habe ich eine Schicht KIKO - 347 Dark Green lackiert und dann rund um den Nagel Liquid Nail Tape aufgetragen (dazu folgt dann noch ein separater Post). Da die Lacke sehr stark pigmentiert sind, war das auch eine gute Idee, das sie die Haut verfärben können. Für das Plaid Muster habe ich zwei  Bilder von der MoYou London Hipster Platte benutzt. Karine hat mir ausserdem den Tipp gegeben, den Lack ein paar Sekunden auf dem Stempel antrocknen zu lassen und erst dann auf den Nagel zu drücken. Das hat gut funktioniert, ich habe aber auch nicht die Geduld gehabt, es noch andersherum auszuprobieren. Leider stinken die Lacke sehr, ich finde sie aber trotzdem toll.

I messed up my index finger nail with my top coat, in case you're wondering.

Den Zeigefingernagel habe ich mir übrigens mit dem Top Coat ruiniert.

MoYou London Explorer Plate 26 feat. Zoya - Dree & Essie - Penny Talk

MoYou London had a free shipping offer a few days ago and I decided to take the opportunity to get one of the plates that I've been wanting to buy for a while now. It's number 26 from the Explorer collection with XL images. I combined it with two of my favorite colors at the moment: Zoya - Dree as my base with two coats and Essie - Penny Talk as my stamping color. I used some top coat after Dree but none after Penny Talk to keep the chrome effect, but obviously after a few days of wearing these without top coat, they don't look perfect anymore. 

Vor ein paar Tagen hat MoYou London gratis versendet und ich habe gleich mal die Gelegenheit ergriffen, um mir eine der Schablonen zu kaufen, auf die ich schon länger ein Auge geworfen habe: Nummer 26 aus der Explorer Kollektion mit XL-Motiven. Ausprobiert habe ich sie jetzt mit zwei meiner momentanen Lieblingsfarben: Zoya - Dree als Grundfarbe mit zwei Schichten, dann eine Schicht Top Coat drüber und für das Stamping Essie - Penny Talk. Penny Talk sieht halt generell besser aus ohne Top Coat, aber so nach ein paar Tagen sehen die Nägel leider nicht mehr ganz so perfekt aus. 

Textured Stamping feat. Layla Cosmetics Mirror Effect

I hope you're not tired of textured stamping? Because I still love it! This one was a bit of a different approach, even though it's still the MoYou London Christmas plate #04 that I used for the stamping image. I think it's more of a NYE design than one for Christmas, because there's a lot of silver going on here! As my textured base I used two coats of Manhattan - Give me Sparkle (Visions of Me LE) and as my stamping color I used Layla Cosmetics Mirror Effect - Metal Chrome. So for now I'm off to the usual Christmas trip but I have prepared two more posts to keep you entertained. Also I will obviously be on Instagram where I might show off my nails and cats under the Christmas tree. :) 

Textured Christmas Stamping feat. Dance Legend - Amethyst / Essie - Penny Talk

After my latest Textured Snowflake Stamping I really wanted to do a similar design, but this time using different colors. I chose one of my favorite textured polishes Dance Legend - Amethyst* as my base color for the stamping. Then I used two images of the MoYou London Christmas Collection #04 and Essie - Penny Talk for the Christmas stamping.

*PR Sample

Snowflake Nails - Textured Stamping feat. MoYou London Christmas Collection & KIKO Cosmetics

So while slobbering over the KB Shimmer Christmas collection on Google images a few days ago, I stumbled upon this beautiful Christmas stamping by Marta from ChitChatNails. A bit earlier that week Sarah from Chalkboard Nails did her awesome Rough and Spotted design. I don't think I've ever done a stamping over a textured polish before, but I absolutely love the look and somehow the season seems perfect for that purpose. It seemed like a nice opportunity to finally try the KIKO Cupcake Lacquer that I got last summer. #655 Mint is one of the limited textured polishes from KIKO and what I love about it are those colorful sprinkles mixed into the rough mint formula. I used two coats as my base color for the next step, which is a stamping with the MoYou London Christmas Collection #02. For the blue snowflakes I used KIKO #523 Royal Blue and obviously there is no top coat involved. I also found this textured snowflake stamping by Natalie from Nailz Craze and I love it! Definitely my new favorite way of stamping nail art! 

MoYou London Kaleidoscope #04 feat. Essie - Fiji

I found the perfect color match: Essie - Fiji and H&M - Get A Rose 4 Me. I'm pretty sure the last one isn't available in stores anymore, but they might have a new one these days. I combined those two with my new MoYou London Kaleidoscope plate #04 which I think is really adorable. I used three coats of Fiji and then stamped with Get A Rose 4 Me. On top is one coat of Sally Hansen - Insta-Dri. 

MoYou London: Christmas Collection 04

I tried my festive stamping plate from the MoYou London Christmas Collection with the number 04 and I'm really happy with this plate! So many possibilities! But I started with a very simple color combination: first two coats of Flormar - 400 and then the stamping with Sally Hansen - So-nata Problem, which is not the greatest stamping color but it works for me. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss. You can find plates and other nail art stuff from MoYou London here.

Vivid Lacquer VL006: Snowflakes

A simple stamping design to start the Christmas countdown, using the Vivid Lacquer stamping plate VL006. I did this design a few days ago and forgot to write down the colors, sorry about that! It's either Essie - Marshmallow or Essie - Waltz and the white stamping color is Flormar - 400. On top I used one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss and one coat of Essie - Matte About You. 

MoYou London: Pro Plate Collection 03 (XL)

I had some time for nail art, yay! Even if it is just for stamping, but I was so excited about my new MoYou London plates that I just had to try one of them right away. In case you didn't hear about it already, MoYou London is THE new stamping plate seller, they have the most amazing images, including full image plates and they have great prices compared to other sellers. I bought four plates, two of them from their festive collection which I intend to save for December (haha, as if...). Then I got two from their Pro Plate collection and sadly I didn't realize that one of them doesn't have XL images. So the images on this one are too small, especially for my thumb nails. Keep this in mind when you're ordering from them: it is always written which size the images are, you just have to read it ;) Alright, so the plate that I used first is 03 XL Images from their Pro Plate Collection and I think this one is a lovely pattern! I used two coats of Zoya - Dree as my base color and then stamped the images with Sally Hansen - Night Watch. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN High Gloss Top Coat, which I'm testing at the moment. The plate has a great quality from what I can tell, the smudged parts on some of my nails are due to my scraper which needs to be replaced. Did you order something from MoYou London yet? 

Autumn Leaves - Stamping Sandwich

Today I'm copycatting a design that I fell in love with last week! I saw this beautiful stamping sandwich manicure on the Facebook page of Vivid Lacquer and Angela (the artist) just started a blog this week because of this specifique design! Her blog is called SaltyStyle Nails and she is planning to do a tutorial on these nails soon. This is my first ever stamping sandwich and although I've seen and liked them, I have never done one myself. I wasn't really aware of the awesomeness of jelly nail polish up until now, but I feel like this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship :) Since the only kind of orange jelly nail polish that I own is Essie - Clambake, this one had to serve as my jelly sandwich color. For the stamping I used the Bundlemonster plate BM05 and Essence - Bienvenido a Miami, Essie - Fishnet Stockings and Essie - Lady Godiva. Clambake wasn't really sheer enough, so my yellow leaves aren't showing very clear. But I feel like it still works, it is just a bit more gentle. On top is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer and I'm probably going to try a matte top coat before I take it off, I'm curious about the result! 

Original design: SaltyStyle Nails

Also, if you're in the mood for some beautiful sadness:
Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves

Guest Post for Nail Wish

The lovely Helena from Nail Wish asked me to do a guest post for her blog, while she is settling in for her year in Sweden. We had a great time doing the Seven Deadly Sins Challenge, so obviously I was very excited to do a guest post for her! If you haven't heard of Helena's blog yet, be sure to check it out now, she does the most amazing nail art! 

Head over to Nail Wish & find out more about this design:

Guest Post for Nail Wish

Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 - Viva Mexico!

It's been a while! The last few days I was wearing plain black nails on a camping site here in Switzerland and I really started to miss nail art or changing my nail polish for that matter. Good thing something awesome arrived in the mail today! I ordered the Cheeky Jumbo Plate 1 Viva Mexico three weeks ago and I love it so much! I haven't done stamping designs for a while now and I'm actually not that big of a fan of this technique (because I suck at it, ha!), but I just had to have this particular plate. If you are a longtime reader, you might know why ;) Of course I couldn't decide which design to use first, because basically all of the full designs are gorgeous! So I chose four colors and five different full designs. The colors used are: Essie - Maximillian Strasse Her & p2 - Night Out and Anny - Latina & Anny - Soul Sister. On top as always is one coat of Essence - BTGN Top Sealer.

Snakeskin Nails

I've tried snakeskin nails a few times and I've never been happy with the result. I tried it with net lace and sponges and freehand but nothing was really satisfying. Recently I ordered two stamping plates from Vivid Lacquer including VL 002 which has a honeycomb pattern (and is not available right now). I figured I could use it as snakeskin as well. So I used one coat of Essence - Walk On The Wild Side as my base color and dabbed on Catrice - After Eight with a sponge. Then I decided to use Catrice - I'm A Star... as my stamping color which didn't work too well. On top of the stamping I used Essie - Matte About You which is either the worst matte top coat ever or I didn't know how to use it properly. 

My all time favorite snakeskin nails are these by Candy Glaze. She calls them Dragon's Egg Manicure though, but either way I really love them! My attempt on recreating them a few months ago failed big time, but one can dream, right? :) 

Stargazer Chrome Stamping with Pearls

From time to time I go through the digital edition of Nails Magazine to see what the pros are doing. On the cover of the February issue I've seen some really awesome white-silver nails with pearls on top and I tried to recreate them on my own nails. They used exclusive nail foils to create the chrome pattern (p. 63), but I don't have any similar foils at the moment, so I decided to use Stargazer Chrome and my Dashica Big SdP D stamping plate. I started with two coats of Essie - Blanc and one coat of BTGN Top Sealer. Then I added the stamping and wasn't sure about the pearls anymore. My stamping was not as detailed as the nail foil and in addition my nails are shorter which made the pearls look a bit too much. I decided to add them just on top of the nail and in a straight line to avoid a busy design. On top I added another coat of BTGN Top Sealer. 

No pearls and no top coat:

Pearls and top coat:

Chrome looks better in real, I love the mirror effect! It looks best with stamping because there are no brush strokes, but on its own Chrome is still very beautiful. If you're looking for a mirror effect nail polish, you might wanna check this one out! 

Born Pretty Store Stamping Plate QA10 - Love & Hearts

Another item that I've received to review from Born Pretty Store is this cute stamping plate with the number QA10. It's sold for 2.99 $ and shows various hearts and other cute symbols. I've neglected stamping for a while now, but when I saw this plate I felt like trying it again. There are 14 images altogether and they are of good quality, I didn't have any problems with getting them onto the stamp. What I have to criticize though are the sharp edges of the plate, which seem quite unsafe to me. The other stamping plates in my collection all have rounded down edges. For my design I used two coats of Essie - Blanc and then one coat of BTGN Top Sealer to be safe. Then I used Essie - Exotic Liras, Essie - Status Symbol and Essie - Need A Vacation to stamp the hearts onto my base color. On top is another coat of BTGN Top Sealer. I really love the heart images on this plate, they're all different and with nice details. I'm not too sure about some of the other images, like the big heart which has a weird shape and the "Play" writing (why would I want that on my nails?). Really cute are the two lovebirds, but the movement of my stamp made them come out a bit imprecise. I'm definitely gonna try again with these, because I would love to have them on my nails! 

As always, if you want to place an order on Born Pretty Store, you can use my coupon code for 10% off:

Halloween Stamping: Scream

This is one of my favorite stamping designs on my Dashica Big Sdp D plate and it fits perfectly for Halloween. I wasn't sure about my color choice first and I tried a few with orange and purple, pink and black etc. but then I decided that a simple black and white would fit best for this design. I started with three coats of Essie - Blanc to get a very opaque base for my stamping. Then I added one coat of Essie - Good To Go to let it dry completely and to protect my base in case something went wrong with the stamping. After that I used Wet 'n' Wild - Black Creme and the above-mentioned design to create the scary faces on my base. On top is one coat of Essence BTGN Top Sealer. 

I'm planning on doing two more Halloween designs this year, one tomorrow and one on Wednesday. I can tell you that Pusheen will be involved once again and hopefully some pretty water decals I ordered on Ebay. I really hope they will be here in time! After that I'm done with Halloween and will move on to snowflakes, reindeers and Co! Since we already had our first snowfall here I think that moving on to winter will be fine ;)