Sunday, December 28, 2014

AliExpress Jelly Soft/Extra Soft XL Replacement Stamping Pad Review (UPDATED)

Hey stamp champs,

This little review today is for the AliExpress Jelly Soft XL replacement pads that have been garnering some attention recently in a few of my nail art groups and for my good friend Yvette.  I think these pads are what I've decided to dub the 2nd Generation marshmallow stamper and I'll tell you more about why I feel that way later. Never heard of a marshmallow stamper before? No problem read all about em and the original version here.   This is my first time doing a stamper review, but apparently lots of ladies are as obsessed about their stampers as I am so I will try to include more reviews of these items in the future.  As I always ask please leave comments, questions, and feedback on my reviews.  They are a lot of work and every little bit of response helps me out as a blogger.  Also if you read nothing else at least read the Final Impression because info there may affect your decision to purchase. Now let's get started!

Lacquer Lockdown - AliExpress stampers, AliExpress Jelly Soft stampers, nail art stamping blog, jelly soft stampers, marshmallow stampers, marshmallow 2.0, nail art, product review


Jelly Soft Stamping Pads

This set was purchased from Yiwu Oshine Beauty E-Commerce Firm, sheez what a mouthful,on AliExpress.  Each set comes with a double ended gray colored squishy firm stamper which may look familiar to my coveted and much loved FabUrNails one.  It also comes with a scraper and 5 XL replacement pads composed of silicone that have a jelly like appearance.

Lacquer Lockdown - AliExpress stampers, AliExpress Jelly Soft stampers, nail art stamping blog, jelly soft stampers, marshmallow stampers, marshmallow 2.0, nail art, product review

Straight out of the wrapper all of these pads have a slightly sticky feeling to them.  Some more than others depending on the color.

Material & Composition

So as I said these stampers are composed of silicone however they are so unlike any stamper I have ever come across except the Creative Shop stamper, namely because it is composed of the same material as these stampers.  I know you are wondering "Are they marshmallow stampers Tamira?" The answer is yes-ish.  I decided most of these stampers are sticky and squishy except the purple which is basically a squishy firm.  However they are nothing like the old marshmallow stampers both in the kind of stickiness or the material they are manufactured from.  They do in fact feel and jiggle like jelly! In fact they have a consistency that in more on par with gelatin than silcone hence I have dubbed these type of stampers the Marshmallow 2.0.  Maybe these are the manufacturers' way of responding to our requests for marshmallow stampers while building a product that is a bit more durable and travel friendly than the standard marshmallow stampers

Measurements & Comparisons

Each of the replacement pads measures 2.5 x 2.5 cm length by width.  In case you are wondering that's pretty much standard size to what all XL pads measure so they will fit into your black XL holders etc as any would.

So here's something that may put a bit of a thrill into your life and make you want to squeal with glee. I created another one of my massive comparison charts again.  This time instead of doing it for the sizes of image plates instead I did it for yup you guessed it - stampers!  Not only that I took the liberty of comparing every stamper to another and trying to give you their equivalent measure across another brand.  Not to shabby eh?  After this post the chart will also be located on it's own page as a resource :)

Lacquer Lockdown Stamper Comparison Chart
Brand
Shape
Color
Material
Grade
Similar To
Availability
Konad
Round
Red/Green
Rubber
Firm
None
Widespread
Generic Rectangular Green/Red Stampers
Rectangular
Red/Green
Rubber
Firm
Konad
Widespread
Messy Mansion  XL Replacement
Round or Rectangle
Dark Purple
Silicone
Firm
None
messymansion.com.au
Generic Rectangular Stampers
Domed Rectangle
White
Silicone
Squishy Firm
Winstonia Store XL Replacements (current)
Widespread
Messy Mansion XL Replacement (current)
Round
Off White
Silicone
Squishy Firm
Winstonia Store XL Replacements (current)
messymansion.com.au
Winstonia Store Replacement Heads (current)
Round
White
Silicone
Squishy Firm
Messy Mansion XL White Replacements (current)
winstoniastore.com
FabUrNails Double Ended Gray
Round
White
Silicone
Squishy Firm
Messy Mansion Replacement XL (current)
faburnails.com
FabUrNails XL Replacement Pads (current)
Round
WHITE
Silicone
Squishy Firm
Most generic XL stampers including WInstonia
faburnails.com
Messy Mansion Medium Firm
Round
Pastel Blue/Navy
Silicone
Squishy Firm
None
messymansion.com.au
AliExpress Pinkish Purple
Round
Pinkish Purple
Jelly Silicone
Squishy Firm
Messy Mansion Medium Firm
www.aliexpress.com
Cici and Sisi Jumbo Set Stampers*
Round
Grey
Silicone
Marshmallow*
Messy Mansion Medium Firm
amazon.com (sold as sets only)
Bunny Nails XL Stamper (3 years old)
Round
White/Red
Silicone
Marshmallow
Messy Mansion Medium
Extinct
Messy Mansion Medium
Round
Pastel Green/Olive
Silicone
Marshmallow
Bunny Nails Stamper (old)
messymansion.com.au
Magno Nails Stamper & Replacement Pads*
Round
White/Red
Silicone
Marshmallow*
Messy Mansion Medium
magnonails.com or dashicabeauty.com
AliExpress Black XL Replacement
Round
Black
Jelly Silicone
Marshmallow 2.0
AliExpress Opaque/White / FabUrNails XL Replacement (old)
www.aliexpress.com
Messy Mansion Medium Soft
Round
Pastel Yellow/Brown
Silicone
Marshmallow
MagnoNails XL Stamper
messymansion.com.au
FabUrNails XL Replacement (old)
Round
White
Silicone
Marshmallow
Messy Mansion Medium Soft
Extinct
Messy Mansion Soft
Round
Pink/Maroon
Silicone
Marshmallow
FabUrNails XL Replacement (old)
messymansion.com.au
AliExpress Red XL Replacement
Round
Bright red
Jelly Silicone
Marshmallow 2.0
Bunny Nails XL Stamper (old)
www.aliexpress.com
AliExpress Light Opaque XL Replacement
Round
Opaque/White
Jelly Silicone
Marshmallow 2.0
AliExpress Light Pink/ FabUrNails XL Replacement (old)
www.aliexpress.com
AliExpress Light Pink XL Replacement
Round
Light pink
Jelly Silicone
Marshmallow 2.0
AliExpress Opaque/White / FabUrNails XL Replacement (old)
www.aliexpress.com
Winstonia Store XL Replacement (old)
Round
White
Silicone
Ultimate Marshmallow
None
Extinct
MyOnline Shop XL Replacement
Round
White
Silicone
Ultimate Marshmallow
None
Extinct
This table is in order of the most firm to the most marshmallow i.e. squishy/sticky in a descending list.  *Indicates stamper becomes somewhat marshmallow grade AFTER priming





I also have a 15 minute video that I prepared with all the stampers and visual comparison of different competitors to this set of five.




Swatches 

These stamper swatches were done with Mundo de Unas Black (2) and FabUrNails FUN 13. As you know Mundo de Unas has long been one of my gold standards and my FUN plate have excellent etching.  I used the FUN plate here to emphasize the pick up with thick lines.  I also swatched these plates using DRK Nails Designer Series 1 plate to emphasize pick up with thin lines.  As you can see some heads for the thin lines didn't pick up quite as well, but they all did well with thick lines.


These are the thin line swatches using the DRK plate below.


So the swatches are okay.  I'm a bit disappointed by the pick up for thinner lines, but that's not the case for all of the heads.  Also I found that while the heads fit into the stamper they came with they often didn't stay in when I went to stamp.  Because of this I switched the stampers to one of my old silver XL cap holders from FabUrNails and then I got much better results with the swatches. Unfortunately, I had a little snafu with my camera and wasn't able to capture great images with my camera of how the heads stamped unprimed but you will have to trust me when I say the results were pretty horrible.  You have to prime these stampers for best results.  Not a big deal but you will be very frustrated with these if you don't.

Note:  Only the PINK STAMPER worked well when unprimed! ALL OTHER PADS REQUIRED VIGOROUS PRIMING AND APPLICATION OF ACETONE.

Final Impression

So I'll be honest these replacement pads are nice, but I still don't believe they are as reliable in terms of pickup as compared to my old marshmallow stampers except the pink head as cross all kinds of plates and I question if I would have gotten such great pick up if I used anything but stamping polish i.e. like a regular polish.  If I had to rank them now though I'd say compared to the Creative Shop stamper they are much better.  No gimmicks or tricks like rolling are necessary you can just press straight down and get your image. So since many of you do not have access to the old marshmallows and the Messy Mansion ones are often sold out I think these could serve as a potential good alternative to other options on the market.  However they are not a necessity in any sense of the word if you already have marshmallow stamper available.

I also don't think these stampers, other than semi unique color, will offer the well stocked stamper anything truly different from what you already own.  Here's what I mean by that - essentially you will get 2 squishy firm stamper (purple and gray squishy firm), some mid level marshmallow 2.0's with moderately good pickup.  Again I'll disinclude the pink pad from this since it was the most exemplary performer. On top of this I already own the Messy Mansion pro set so these colors aside from the black aren't terribly unique for me.

Also one important point that I think you should know is apparently the quality of these pads depends on the batch in which they were made.   The formula from which the pads are made changes slightly from batch to batch such that you have no way of knowing whether you are going to get stampers consistent with my results. Worth knowing right? My own are from the 2nd batch I believe. I know another stamping fanatic and friend of mine said the red stamper she received was harder than mine and her purple one was also harder meaning she got fewer marshmallow stampers than I did despite ordering from the same seller.  We must have had different batches so fair warning.

Now if you are interested in purchasing these items you can find the set here.  It retails for $9.43 USD.  Again as I said in my video shipping is free and AE ships worldwide.  I don't know anything about bank charges in international countries such as the UK since I'm based in the US.  Anyhoo there we have it.  I hope this review was helpful and please don't forget to leave feedback! Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post....