Fab Ur Nails FUN Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Hey stampaeristas,

Press Sample

I believe I told you tis the season to review! Lol actually it's not that it's the season to review it's that I finally have time to sit down and review all these plates after what feels like eons being away from my home base.  Today I have the latest release of stamping plates from Johanne of Fab Ur Nails i.e. FUN 13, 14, and 15 for your reviewing pleasure.  I've never reviewed this brand of plates before and its for a few reasons.  One I have purchased every single plate ever released by Fab Ur Nails over the years so it felt strange to suddenly review them and two the plates always have been absolutely flawless from etching to design.  Has anything changed? I'll let you be the judge.  As usual the review will be sectioned into different components relating to swatches, image size, etc so if you want to scroll through feel free.  Please leave comments, questions, and feedback I cannot emphasize this enough it's actually a huge help for me as a blogger! Now let's get started...

Fab Ur Nails

A indie nail art stamping plate company based in the Philippines run but the generous, professional, and uber talented Johanne.  This company has released so many amazing plates over the last several years, 15 in fact with more on the way, I would frankly be shocked if you didn't know of this brand by now.  On top of this what initially make me fall in love with this company was the stampers, gone are the days of my favorite marshmallow ever in the silver caps, boy were they fantastic!  FUN also used to sell stamping polishes, some of which I still own, and has managed to successfully create a small niche for supplying some of my favorite nail art brushes and accessories! In short this company rocks all the socks.  And in case you're sweating the fact that it's international these plates can also be purchased right from Llarowe who is the US based distributor for these plates.  Go check her out at any of the links below and give her a follow if you are't already!

Facebook * Instagram * Store *

The Plates

Dimensions & Measurements

*Number of images does vary.  For instance landscape style plate i.e. FUN 14 contain less full size images while prior FUN plates contain more smaller images/accents.

Image Size Comparisons

The image size for the FUN plates vary a lot especially in the design of FUN 14 which features the landscape/infinity style images that have been so popular of late.  However most FUN plates as with these also include full size nail images.  These measure 2.2 x 1.7 cm length by width and up.  As such these designs will fit most ladies nails with easy from short to long.

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 -  2.5  x 2.2 cm
MJ Plate VIII - 2.2 x 1.7 cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 4 - 2.2 x 1.7 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 2..0 x 1.5 cm
Bundle Monster CYO - 1.9 x 1.7 cm
Cici & Sisi - 2.0 x 1.5 cm
If you want a more extensive list of stamping plates to compare these image sizes too don't forget to check out my Full Nail Image chart here.

Swatches

As with all my reviews  I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme and my gold standard XL marshmallow stamper from Bunny Nails (4 years old) or my marshmallow stamper from Magno Nails to swatch out my images.  I only switch to Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas in the event I am unable to pick up an image.  However, I didn't have to do that once during the swatching of these plates as the quality of etching is excellent which you can see below.

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 to support stamping with a polish that is not meant for that purpose.

Stamping Polish Comparison

So this is getting to be a bit of a habit for the reviews I post now, but so far I've gotten good feedback about including this section.  If you think it's redundant let me know and I can do away with it.  In this section I demonstrate how well or poorly a plate will stamp depending on the type of stamping polish used.  The truth is I own a lot of different brands of polishes across a host of color ranges. You don't have to, but this section is mostly for those who don't have such a wide access to different polishes as I do.  You will also find regular polishes used here that IMO also stamp very well.  I think you will be able to see from the swatches that the FUN plates stamp excellently across all brands of polishes.

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
Moon Nails = Moon Nails Supply (color name? came in the metallics mini set)
MdU = Mundo de Unas in Black (#2)
Handy = Handy Nails in Wine
Color Club = Color Club Foiled in

Final Impression

So let me say this clearly - Johanne doesn't need me to post reviews of her plates.  I told her this explicitly myself.  She is a fantastic nail artist and the fact that her plates have year after year after year turned out excellent quality and imaginative images isn't lost on me or her regular consumers. Still I have a reputation around these parts for stating the truth like it is no frills.  These plates are pun intended fabulous!  It's obvious that Johanne is strict with her tester plates because the etching is so perfect.  Here's a little secret that I'll share with you.  The mark of truly good etching when it comes to plates is how well a company executes 2 types of designs - fine lines and silhouettes.  Both are hard to master.  Fine lines because if they aren't etched with precision pick up regardless of stamper type will become a real PITA.  Silhouettes because they are prone to flooding or smearing quickly loosing all details in short another PITA.  These last three plates released have so many of both designs and within the same plate that it's astounding that not a single detail was lost!  I'm not joking.  The quality is THAT good!

So has anything changed? No if anything it's gotten better the designs are still novel and fresh and I still want to buy every plate she makes.  However I never ever have to worry that the plates won't be perfect.  I call that winning.  Are these plates an investment at $18 per plate?  Sure however don't forget how many images you get per plate plus that fact that they can be used over and over to create many different kinds of nail art!  That's why I've always been willing to shell out the dough to purchase these plates.  They are worth it!  PS there were some rumors floating around that these last plates were limited edition.  I want to put that rumor to rest - Joahnne doesn't make plates in limited edition runs i.e. if you want it you can buy it ;)

So what do you think? Have these plates already and if so what's your experiences been? You can purchase FUN plates here at FabUrNails and while you are there stop by and pick up some nail art brushes and Hello Kitty nail polish remover pump! Oh and my favorite squishy firm double sided XL stamper.  Stateside FUN plates can also be purchased at Lllarowe.  Again don't forget to leave comments and feedback and I'll see you next post! Happy hunting stamp champs...