Messy Mansion Leadlight Lacquer Nail Art Stamping Plate Review

Hey stamperistas,

Press Sample

Happy Saturday everyone! It's raining proverbial icy cats and dogs outside right now.  I hope everyone is staying inside where it's warm and dry where ever you may be.  Today I have yet another epic review for you all!  Lol I have a lot of them don't I?  However I figure the more of these posts I create the larger the database will exist upon which you can choose to make your purchases.  Today I'm going to reviewing the Leadlight Lacquer plates from Messy Mansion.  These released late in December of 2014 thought if you recall from my sneak peek 8 months ago I've been anticipating them for a very long time so now I'm super excited and ready to show that they were and are entirely worth the wait! Now let's get started and don't forget to leave me some love and feedback in the comments below ;)

Messy Mansion

Yup regardless of the new plate line name the company running the show is still Messy Mansion. And in case you didn't know it already this is a company that is worth investing your dollars in.  This Australian indie is nun by the creative and hardworking Julia McGowan. This company has released so many products and ideas that have changed the way we view nail art stamping it's literally shocking.  In fact the whole technique of leadlight stamping was invented by Julia!  Crazy right? Thus far this company has released their own company named MM series which continues to expand and is up to about 45 plates now along with the Leadlight Lacquer, Bridal Nails, and Lily Anna lines. They also reintroduced the once discounted marshmallow stamper after a long and vicious absence.  They continue to expand their line to include Basic nail art stamping kits and more.  The point is you should never look away or you might regret it.  Also currently for those of us residing stateside we are able to get local shipping from their North Carolina based warehouse.  Wanna find out more? Start following them at any of the links below

*  Store  *  Facebook  *  Instagram  *  Twitter  *  Youtube  *  Pinterest  *

The Plates

These plates along with the Bridal Nails plates from Messy Mansion are the first rectangular plates offered by the company of their kind.  They measure roughly 7.0 x 13 cm length by width.  Each plates is backed by white plastic similar to that of MoYou London except with the Lead Light Lacquer logo on it and comes covered in a blue shrink wrap film.  

Image Size Comparison

The image size on these Leadlight plates can vary generally they are 2.5 x  3.5cm length by width for the smaller rectangular images such as those on A06 but these can and did get larger.  Square images such as those on A02 measure 5.5 x 5.5 cm in length by width.  In short regardless of your nail size these plates will have you covered with ease.   For now I'll mention my common brands as a point of comparison, but if you are interested in a broader comparison across many brands you can click here to view a comprehensive chart I created with measurements from most brands of stamping plates.  

MoYou London Plate Pro 08 (non-XL) - 1.5 x 1.3 cm
MoYou London Plates Explorer 10 (XL) - 2.2 x 1.6 cm
Bunny Nails HD B -  2.0  x 2.5 cm
MJ Plate VIII - 2.2 x 1.7 cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 - 1.7 x 2.2 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 2.0 x 1.5 cm
Bundle Monster CYO 2013 - 1.9 x 1.7 cm
Cici & Sisi - 2.0 x 1.5 cm

Swatches

As with all my reviews when swatching out the images I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme. However on this ocassion because the images were so large I used my marshmallow stamper from Magno Nails.  I only switch to Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas in the event I am unable to pick up an image.   However there was no such necessity with these plates since the etching was sublime. What is worth noting is that precise angle of scraping was needed for plates with thicker lines as well as a light even pressure when scraping.  Any other arrangement resulted in "gouging out" polish from within the pattern.  You may see some swatches where I did just that and then had to adjust my angle which when done resulted in perfect pickup.  Not a big deal at all but something worth noting to ease your process. 

Again for those that don't know the reason I choose to stamp with Wet N' Wild Black Creme for my swatches is because it's cheap and readily available. Furthermore, it is the lowest quality polish I can use for stamping.  What does that mean? It means I don't expect images generated by WnW to have near the clarity of those generated using a polish designated for stamping.  Stamping polishes allow an image to stamp with even more clarity and crispness than regular polish.  Period.  In short if I have a plate that stamps well with WnW polish this is my assurance that indeed the etching on these plates is excellent enough that it can support stamping with a polish that is not meant for that purpose.

Stamping Polish Comparison

Here's where I show you how this polish stamps across several brands of polish.  Some of these polishes are exclusively for stamping while others are regular polishes that double pretty well at the task.  I'm pretty lucky in the sense I have a lot of different polishes of both varieties so if there is ever a particular brand that you'd like to see live please let me know and I'll put it up in the next review! You don't have to own even half as many brands as I do to to get results.  What's really needed is polish that is opaque and works well with your plates which is why you will also find regular polishes used here that IMO also stamp very well.  I found in general regardless of brand or type of polish the Leadlight Lacquer plates stamped pretty well.

Stamping Polish Key:
WnW = Wet N' Wild Black Creme
WnW FM = Wet N' Wild Fantasy Makers
Konad = Konad Special Stamping Polish in Black Gold
Rica = Rica in Blackout
FabUrNails = FabUrNails in Black
SH InstaDri = Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Rapid Red
MdU = Mundo de Unas in Black (#2)
Handy = Handy Nails in Wine
Color Club = Color Club Foiled in Hot Like Lava

Final Impression


If I had to describe Messy Mansion as a company here's a phrase that comes to mind - "Everything that they touch turns to gold."  I own pretty much every Messy Mansion product you can get your hands on - the Pro Set, smaller 2 stamper head tins, the old purple stampers, every single MM series plate that exists, etc.  You get the point I'm making right? As soon as I see they are coming out with something I want it.  I want it badly - like a fat kid wants cake and ice cream every day for dinner. Yup!  I believe in the ingenuity behind this company and the rare and boundless talent for creating items that the nail art community wants.  And one more thing, I respect Julia as a woman - she's a wonderful person, a mom, a wife, and a businesswoman.  These plates are no exception either when it comes to the continuous production of high quality goods released by this company.

They are flawless which I knew they would be.  What shocked me more are images I felt a little uncertain about ended up winning me over when I saw how they played out on paper.  In short you cannot really judge these images by what they flatly look like on the plates.  They are very two dimensional and because of the size you can create almost any kind of design on your nails using these plates if you are even moderately flexible in your thinking.  This means the designs become semi infinite in layout if you just adjust the layout slightly.  A plate like that will sell me every time because it means I really don't have to over think how to reuse the plate.  I can just keep randomly stamping as often as I want.  How about that? Pretty awesome right!

What do you ladies think now that you are seeing the images laid out a bit on a surface as opposed to the plates? Do you think they are cooler?  In any case I'm probably going to get married to plates 3-6. Like a serious commitment of nail and soul ;)  LeadLight Lacquer plates are available on the Messy Mansion website.  They retail for $10 USD per plate or you can do yourself a favor and get the entire bundle which retails for $55 USD resulting in a little savings ;)  Btw did you know you can also get the Leadlight polishes right there on the website now too?  No well now you do lol! I hope you enjoyed this review and please don't forget to leave feedback, questions, comments, and experiences if any that you've had with these plates.  Thanks for reading and happy hunting!  I'll see you next post...

These plates were sent to me for the purposes of my honest opinion and review.  For more information please see my Disclosures Policy.