The press is getting hotter and hotter as the year gets its groove! Now all of a sudden we are getting slammed with plate releases or eminent releases. It's a blessing and a curse, and it means we as shoppers need to become a great deal more selective in our purchases than we have been historically. Today's newly released plates are coming from one of my favorite companies DRK Nails! They have released two of new XL plates for our stamping pleasure and I for one am excited! So lets take a look....
This plate is gorgeous! If you pay attention to DRK on Facebook or Instagram you might have seen the 4 corners in sneak peeks :) When I posted one of the corners on my Facebook I'd gotten a comment about how the upper left hand corner had too many repeating patterns and that they wished DRK had done more with this plate. I responded that I still had to see the whole plate to give my opinion on it as a whole, but generally the probably repeated the patterns for the sake of symmetry. Now that I've seen the whole plate and not just the 4 corners I can say this plate is undoubtedly beautiful! However, I didn't rush to buy it.
If you're wondering why it's because while this plate contain many unique and interesting elements it also contains too many basic ones to make me gobble it up. What I mean by that is the chevrons, the interlocking swerves in the lower left hand corner, the very basic looking flowers in the middle left and right, the geometric expanded dots and swirl pattern, and the birds on trees with vines. Unfortunately I've seen a bit too much of these elements lately and I own a lot of plates with these patterns so I felt like at the moment I could wait a bit before purchasing. As some of you may have guessed by now my collection is extensive and what most excites me is novelty. This plate has plenty of novel elements the left upper hand corner in particular the dragons, cranes, and cherubs, but not quite enough for me to pull the trigger just yet ;) Still I won't hesitate to say its a fabulous plate for sure!
Now this is the plate that killed me. I had a lot of friends that preferred the designer series plate over this one and it's probably because of all the characters rather than the patterns, but as you know I'm a sucker for patterns especially abstract ones like this which btw are largely unique. Even that stylized dolphin is a unique pattern I haven't seen before! This plate for me is the obvious winner. On a side note the mermaids actual face leaves a lot to be desired in the um beauty department. Her philtrum is huge! Lol. Ok let me stop, but man I love this plate!
So what do you all think? Love em, hate em, or just feeling neutral? Do you have a favorite like me? I like them both but I love the Mystic Ocean plate in particular! Now as usual these plates retail for $22 + shipping which is always very reasonable. They are already up on the DRK website for purchase. If you want one I wouldn't hesitate to order since the quantiles have decreased by 2/3 since they released already. Happy hunting and Friday stamp champs! I'll see you next post....
I don't have very many stamping plates, so I've been thinking about the first one. There are so many out there to choose from, I almost get anxiety trying to choose the right one lol
ReplyDeleteThese are nice, even just to look at!
ReplyDeleteIf you have a beginner collection, which it sounds like, I don't really recommend too many XL plates like this. Why? Because sets are a bigger bang for your buck. You get more variety in terms of images from a set of 22 or 25 plates than even the best designed XL plate can offer and DRK has some of the best. If you go and search my Beginner's Series for Nail Art Stamping you'll find a host of sets that I recommend there. One set in particular that is great for Beginners are the Pueen sets or the Cici & Sisi jumbo sets. You get hundreds of images at the same price as this single plate. That these plates are gorgeous ;)
ReplyDeleteLol yes they are pretty :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your reply! You've been a big help! I keep getting drawn to the xl plates, but what your saying makes sense And you're right I have a bare minimum collection that I bought 3 or 4 years ago. I only have some Red Angel plates, a few konad, and a bundle monster set (I have a hard time getting these to pick up and I'm starting to think they arent etched deep enough since I do well with the others I have.) I think i'll start with a pueen set and go back for a cici&sisi later. Thanks again for your input!
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome :). It's fine to buy a few XLs too but when I started I wanted more of a variety of images first to work with and then slowly purchased a few of the more unique and inventive XL plates. Definitely take a look at that Beginners Series too I think it has a lot of useful information ;)
ReplyDeleteTamira, did you ever review DRK's stamping polish? I just bought a couple of their jumbo plates but decided to hold off on the polish because I couldn't find any reviews. I'd love to hear your thoughts on it and/or your favorite brands of stamping polishes!
ReplyDeleteI have superficial swatches of it here and there on plate reviews where I do the polish comparisons. I own the a few of colors they are ok as far as I can tell though I had a friend tell me a few of hers were watery and no good. I thought it was pretty clear because usually they are the only polishes I use these days but Mundo de Unas, Handy Nails, Moon Nails Supply are generally my favorites, but I stamp with several different kinds just depends on the color I'm after. Maybe I'll put together a future post ;)
ReplyDeleteGood day x I have no idea where to buy these plates. I.. I'm using konad at the moment... But I would love to have these ones... Can someone please help me... Is this available in south Africa?
ReplyDelete