Elevation Polish Forest Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Press Sample

Today I have my monthly installment of Elevation Polish awesomeness.  This month's collection is called the Forest Collection and it features a host of soothing deep rich colored polishes that are sure to spike any polish lovers' desires.  As usual Lulu has done an outstanding job of creating a collection that has a little something for everyone.  The Forest Collection is packed full of neutral shimmers, devastating crellies jammed with iridescent glitter and of course holographics.  Coming hard on the hills of the Summit 2 Collection the Forest Collection feels like a twist in the usual offerings we see over the summer i.e. neons, neons, and more neons with a little matte glitter thrown in for flair.  I have to say I throughly enjoyed the change of pace.  Now let's get started...

Pointless Forest 2

Described as a teal glitter polish by Lulu which vastly understates the deliciousness and the rich depth of this polish.  What we have here is a scrumptious deep green crelly finish that leans teal.  It is also packed with gold, blue, purple, and more square shaped iridescent glitter.  

It's hard to look at it directly because the polish feels like it shifts with the light.  It is by far my absolute favorite of this entire collection and is the very definition of complex perfection. I regretted taking this mani off the minute it left my fingers.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Nail Pattern Boldness Glitter-A-Peel / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1

Leadlight polishes: Homemade blends ;)

Stamping plate: MyOnline Shope Jr 16

I tried to capture the subtle hints of glitter glimmering through the polish along with the pastel beauty of a garden.  

Avenue of the Baobabs 

A gorgeous taupe polish packed full of deep raspberry pink shimmer that subtlety shifts depending on the lighting.  Oh my! I cannot tell you how I love polishes like this!  And of course because the base is taupe and essentially a neutral it's immensely flexible as a base for nail art.

 However, because I was so in love with this color I decided to play it nice and soft for the nail art here. If you look closely at the enlarged swatches you can see the shimmer including these intense blue flecks that I didn't notice until after I started editing my photos!

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: China Glaze L8G8, Sally Hansen Color Foil in Titanium Flash

Stamping plate: Konad M63 and M64

In the end I think I still overwhelmed the base color a bit despite keeping the art relatively spare.

Shilin Stone Forest

A dusty grey black flecked shimmer mixed with holo pigment. I love grey polishes! I think they work well as neutrals to high contrast color nail art.  In this case Shilin was so soft it seemed at times to be easily overwhelmed by any change.  The holo pigment itself was difficult to capture lurking even in the sunlight, and as you can see from my photos I got the best depiction indoors in my lightbox.  I choose to keep the nail art for this one exceedingly simple as once again I fought not to overwhelm the delicacy of the polish with too much art. 

Indoors

Outdoors

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1 

Stamping plate: MoYou London Pro 04 XL and Pro 07 XL

Hinglajgarh Forest

Described as a bright green I think this polish actually leans toward sage green with a strong linear holo.  In my opinion the richest representative the Forest Collection.  I love this one as well! Then again what's not to love? It also happens to be a very near one coater which is always winning in my book. 

Indoors

Because this is the Forest Collection I tried to capture that same feel in my nail art.  I'm not sure of my success, but I love how this one turned out.  It was jungle themed.

Well jungle themed and tribal. I love how this came out!

Outdoors

Mani-louge

Basecoat/ Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote /Sally Hansen Diamond Flash

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #1 and #7

Accent polishes: Elevation Polish Aconcagua, Streetside NYC, and Puncak Jaya

Stamping plate: Winstonia W02

So what do you think?  A rather different collection than we are used to seeing in the summer right? I'm glad to see some pretty neutrals for the summer as well!  The Forest Collection will be available for purchase on the Elevation Polish Big Cartel site on July 7th at 10PM EST and July 22 at 10AM EST. Pricings typically ranges from $8.50-14 USD.  Don't miss out on another great Elevation Polish collection!  I hope you enjoyed the swatches and art and I'll see you next post...

These polishes were sent for my honest review which I honestly would have purchased anyway.  For more information please see my Disclosures Policy.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Marianne Nails Nail Art Stamping Plate Expansion!

Hey lacqueristas,

As usual I'm stalking for my sake as well as yours so of course I'm bringing you more plates releasing this week from the stamping press.  Marianne Nails is a new French brand on the indie scene.  Since last week they have taking the stamping world by storm! My posts regarding these plates created so much interest and buzz even I was surprised.  What's great about this brand is that they will be releasing 5 new plates every Friday for the foreseeable future so today we are going to take a look at the five released this Friday.

Splatters, tribals, abstract, and typography.  This is  strong plate because it has so many different kinds of designs on a single plate.  These kinds of plates I call investment plates because we all know when we travel we can't bring a freaking suitcase of stamping plates, scrapers etc.  You can pick 5-6 and some polishes and keep it moving. A plate like this offers the savvy traveller a lot of options build into one.  Yes despite appearances I am actually quite logical when it comes to stamping plate purchases ;)

Oh now this is too cute! I'm so in love with that little image in the upper left hand corned and all the anchors and beach items.  This one is adorable!

Mmm this one feels a bit empty.  I like the geisha girls and the man in the hat with the braid, but I wish there was a bit more on the plate...it's a little hard to explain.  I like what's there but I want more. Is this greed? lol

Another adorable plate! Perfect for destination traveling.  Again I'm loving all the typography one these plates.  I think the falling Eiffel Towers are particularly sweet.

Strong finish! This plate is what I thought the MoYou London Scholar Collection plates were going to look like.  Script handwriting, ink splatters, books etc.  It even has an owl thrown in for good measure! I'd love to play around with the images on this one.

What do you think? We have the next 5 plates in the Marianne Nails series with a few definite must buys in the bunch.  These plates retail for 6.50 euro plus shipping and will be available for purchase on the Mariannes Nails website.  International customers must message the shop to place an order.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: MoYou London Punk Collection Expansion!

Hey stamp champs,

It's time for the weekly MoYou London release.  This week I'm not sure if I should be grateful or resentful.  Lol. I will phrase it like this.  Obviously you are reading my blog and you know I post lots and lots of new stamping plate brands all the time so you know there are lots coming out.  However, I don't really like this Punk Collection.  Not because the concept isn't interesting or the designs aren't cool it just doesn't really flow with my "personal vibe".  I need some more of those Explorer plates or something lol.  You can take a peek at the original release of the Punk Collection here. Anyway let's take a peek at the latest release...

Here we go!

This plate I actually like quite a bit, but I feel the patterns are similar to several I have on other MoYou London plates.  For instance the stripes I have on one of the Christmas Festive Collection plates, the squares are similar to those on one of the Artist plates, animal print is from on of my Pro plates, houndstooth from the Hipster collection and so on...what I find amusing about this is that I could name these all off without going to look at my plates.  Lord pray for my stamping addicted soul...

I love the animal print everything else for me is kinda blah except the little hearts.  I am not a safety pin girl :/  These images are the XL version of those released on the smaller plates that released last week.

The feet are anatomically incorrect ;)  Lol I'm such a weird freak.  I love the typography! I really wish this was more my scene.  I do think the guys in the upper left hand corner are beyond cool.

This version I think will probably be better than the XL version.  I have a suspicion the punk girl knuckles will only fit well on a nail at around this size.

Even though I'm not into the punk scene this plate is really cute and imaginative.  Again I really adore the typography here in the upper left hand corner

What do you think? Any ladies out there dying for the punk expansion?  I'm actually a little relieved my wishlist of plates keeps growing so it's nice to not actually want ALL the plates for a change :)  These plates will retail for 4.99 GBP and will be available Friday on the MoYou London website.  Don't forget to take 10% off using the code "Tamira10".

Winstonia Store Wedding Bliss Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

Press Sample

Today I have some nail art using my new Wedding Bliss plate from Winstonia Store.  I reviewed that plate along with the On the Road plate a few days ago which you can read about here.  These plates are lovely so of course I couldn't wait to take them out for a spin. First up is the bridal plate since I couldn't resist the roses and flowers everywhere.

Mani-louge

Basecoat / Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Essie Matte About You

Basecolor: Orly Satin Hues Satin Eloquence

Stamping polishes: Mundo de Unas # 8, #22, Konad Special Polish in Dark Red and Light Blue, and Sally Hansen InstaDri in Fast Fuschia

Stamping plate: Winstonia Store Wedding Bliss

I had a very hard time putting this nail art together mainly because I really am not the "romantic type" I was looking at this and thinking black roses and lace with a pink base, but somehow that didn't seem very wedding blissful too me lol. I do have a friend though who had an all black wedding, and it was spectacular and very elegant, but I wanted to be a little more mainstream.  So I decided to go with a cult bridal favorite - french tips and then just intersperse elements of delicacy to that.



What do you think? The final result is pretty and romantic I think and soft enough to wear to a wedding with pride.  You can purchase the Wedding Bliss plate here for $495 USD or buy two or more of the new plates and get 10% off your purchase using the code "SAYIDO'! Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New Loja BBF Nail Art Stamping Plates

Hey stamp champs,

I have so much win for you today!  I've been sitting on these plates quietly for the last several weeks wanting so badly to break the news of their impending release.  It's been all I could do to remain calm and not shout it from the rooftops like a mad woman - "New Loja BBF plates are coming!" And boy when you see the plates you will understand why I was so hard pressed not to share.  For those that aren't familiar Loja BBF is a Brazilian brand of indie nail art stamping plates.  This brand won over my heart months ago and has consistently kept winning with novel designs and exemplary customer service.  Not to mention the owner Cris is such a sweetheart she could give cavities! You can read the two reviews I wrote for this brand here and here.  Now enough hype let me show you what I've been hiding...

 Here we go again - Asian inspired nail art! I will never ever tire of plates like these especially ones that depict traditional scenery and motifs.  That dragon, tiger, and I have some plans if you know what I mean.  Shoot who am I kidding this entire plate and I have plans

Oh Frozen!  This plate initially set off so much frenzy in one of my nail art stamping groups and Instagram.  I wonder if it's because this movie has become such a recent cult classic? I have to report that I haven't seen this movie yet, but I'm so inspired by this plate I'm gonna rent it out from Amazon tonight and finally see what all the fuss is about.  Btw I adore adore these snowflakes and yes I am aware it's the middle of summer.

Hello evil stepmother!  As a child let me just say there has never ever been a time when I didn't love me some Disney villianess's.  Lord I was twisted even then, but I still get tingles today when I watch Ursula belt out Poor Unfortunate Souls.  What a diva lol.  This plate is so adorable even though snow white isn't my favorite Disney Princess.  By the by can you guess who is?

Will I ever tire of lace and floral motifs? The answer of course is NO. Not ever in 1 million years. Keep presenting it to me and I will keep finding ways to make it come alive.  This plate has leadlight technique written all over it right?

Having recently taken one of the prior abstract BBF plates out for a spin when I was playing with my Rica polishes I'm very happy to see another so soon!  That Fleur de Lis manicure I did ended up being so popular and I got a ton of compliments IRL as well.

Wild things you make everything groovy.   I actually really love big cats.  When I was about 5 or so I started obsessing endlessly about Tigers and Ligers.  I wanted to know everything about their biology, ecology, etc.  Fun fact did you know the papillae on the tongue of an adult big cat has enough grit that one lick can remove the superficial dermis from your skin? Crazy right! Yup I love this plate ;)

This plate is for every dog lover out there.  Look at all the different breeds she packed into one plate.  I think this is so adorable!

We have established that I love abstracts! The image on the upper left hand corner reminds me of a kaleidoscope, and the one right beneath it just makes my heart pound.  Lol.

What do you think? There was a lot of novelty and heart-stopping beauty packed into this release huh? These plates will be available from Loja BBF this coming Sunday.  The plates retail for $7.50 USD + $10 shipping to the US.  Cris has plans to open a store envy site for here US based customers and I'll update you on when that will be ready to go.  For now you can shoot her a message via Facebook or email her at lojabbf at gmail dot com with enquiries about purchase outside of Brazil. I should have a review of these plates and the last 5 or 6 in the series coming shortly. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post...

Winstonia Store Wedding Bliss and On The Road Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Hiya nail art fanatics,

Press Sample

You may recall when I posted about Winstonia Store's release of 2 new unexpected nail art plates from their square series - Wedding Bliss and On The Road.  You can read about that here.  Today I have a review with swatches of these plates for you to take a look at.  I actually own the first 4 plates in the square series as you know and I've spent a lot of time playing with the floral plate in particular.  That's why I was so pleased when I saw these plates releasing.  So let's take a look...

The Plates

Each comes in the standard outer clear plastic wrapping (which has been removed here) and with a blue protective film.  The plates themselves measure 7 cm wide x 8 cm tall, and feature roughly 10 smaller sized images along with 6 full sized images.

Size Comparison

The images to vary a bit as you can but the full sized images for these plates measure 1.5cm x 2.0cm. I think a lot of the longer nail ladies can breathe a sigh of relief since these are about the equivalent of the most jumbo nail sets. Certainly I had no difficulties with the sizing of these images, but you can take a look at the list I compiled below for ease of comparison to some other general brands.

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 2.5cm
MJ Plate VIII - 1.7 x 2.2cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 - 1.7x 2.2 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 1.5 x 2.0 cm
Bundle Monster CYO - 1.7 x 1.9 cm
Cici & Sisi - 1.5 x 2.0 cm
The Images

As with all my reviews when swatching out the images I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme and my gold standard XL marshmallow stamper from Bunny Nails (3 years prior).  I only switch to Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas in the event I am unable to pick up an image.  For these plates there was no need to switch to stamping polishes.  The etching for these was near flawless with the exception of some of the smaller font related images, i.e. the I DO and travel book.  For these I think the etching was fine, but because the font was so small on these images it was somewhat difficult to get a stamp that clearly showed the words in the image.  Otherwise everything else transferred very cleanly.



You can click on the swatches to take a closer look at each image on the paper.

Final Impression

Overall I am very pleased with these plates.  The etching was perfect the images were cute and unique especially for the travel themed plate.  Both the size and the variety of images per plate makes each a worthwhile addition to a collection especially if you want a wedding/bridal themed plate that can double up as a Valentine's Day themed plate as well.  These plates are both available on the Winstonia Store website here and retail for $4.95 USD + shipping.  I also want to point out if you purchase 2 or more of these plates including the Soccer Mania plate and use the code "SAYIDO" you can get 10% off your total purchase.  Take advantage of their 20% off sale to wrack up even more savings and earn yourself some free shipping.  Not to bad eh?  I hope you enjoyed reading this review and stay tuned for some Wedding Bliss nail art up next...

These products were sent for my honest review and opinion which has no bearing on my final thoughts of these plates. For more information please see my Disclosures policy.

Sally Hansen Color Foil Abstract Nail Art

Happy Saturday lacqueristas,

I have some pretty yummy nail art for you today!  I was so excited when the Color Foils from Sally Hansen came out.  I knew they were going to be perfect for stamping and I couldn't wait to get them.  I hunted high and low and I found 6 of them.  I thought that was all of the colors until I discovered apparently there are a few more out there waiting to be snatched up.  Alas, but while I'm stalking I thought it might be nice to take a few of the ones I do have out for a spin.  Come along for the ride ;)

Mani-louge

Basecoat / Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote and NYC Matte Me Crazy

Base color:  Orly Satin Hues Majestic Satin

Stamping polishes:  Sally Hansen Color Foil in Titanium Rush, Purple Alloy, and Minted Metal

Stamping plate: Dashica SdP 69

Accent: various 2mm studs and beads

One thing I always worry about when stamping with foils/chromes is that they will dry up very quickly when I scrape them over the plate.  This is definitely true for the Sally Hansen Insta Dri's - you have to move very fast with those.  However I have seen the Color Foils used in water marbling, generally you need a slow drying polish to make watermarbles work well the one exception being some holographic polishes, so I knew these would work well for stamping.  Not only did they leave time for placement but they were very opaque.  In short, I'm pretty happy with my stalker like pursuit and purchase of these polishes.  One thing I forgot to mention is there is no topcoat over these foils.  I didn't want to ruin the matte nature of the Satin Hue polish so the shine you see is totally from the polishes alone.

So what do you think? Anyone else using the Color Foils for stamping or nail art?  I have to admit I do not like foil finishes on my nails.  I feel like foils will show every flaw when used as a base, but I love to use them for stamping. And there we have it!  Btw I have added a new signature to the bottom of my posts now.  What do you think?  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Pet'la Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Hey lacquer ladies,

I'm thrilled to share my latest discovery with you today!  I think you are going to need a handkerchief to wipe up all the drool after you see these plates.   Pet'la is the first Hungarian based indie plate creator, and let me say the first couldn't have come one minute sooner!  The creator and owner of Pet'la is Petra and to date she has created 8 gorgeous plates one of which was a limited edition plate and no longer available.  The owner is extremely sweet and also speaks English so don't get intimidated by the Hungarian on her page.  I also highly recommend using Google Translate or some other translating service to view her webpage or going to the English website (the link is below).  Now let's take a look at the plates.

 Geomatrix

 Texty Text

 Wishes 2 (Wishes 1 was limited edition and retired)

 Basic 1

 Dandelion 2 (Dandelion 1 was reformulated to current plate)

 Feathers

Peacock 2

So holy smokes right?!?  What do you think? Favorites? Did you see that cat face image? Ladies around the world are going to go mad!  I'm also in love with the peacock feathers and the abstract in the left lower corner as well.  I also see more lace print on the Feather's plate that we all adore!  Even the basic plate has images I love and haven't seen on other plates i.e. the gradient chevrons.  The faces on the plate are actually the creators significant other which I find both cute and hilarious. I clearly have all these plates en route to me + the limited edition plate and one bonus from an upcoming release.

These plates are made of brass and have a brushed finish that makes the plates look gorgeous!  How cool is that!   Each plate has a style very similar to another indie brand I love (Loja BBF anyone?).  Ive been told that the plates measure roughly 15 cm x 30 cm while the images range between 2.5 cm x 1.8 cm to 2.5 cm x 2.2 cm  These plates retail for 10.80 USD per plate plus shipping which is around $9 USD to the US.  Pet'la plates can be purchased here, (Hungarian webstore) or here (English webstore). As an international customer I would encourage PMing Petra on Facebook or emailing at petra at petla dot com to make certain everything is correct with your order.  Well another to die for brand has been discovered! I will update you with a review and nail art when my plates arrive.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...