Pages

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Bundle Monster Secret Garden Nail Art Stamping Plate Review

Hey stamperistas,

Happy Saturday!  Apparently this weekend is Easter?  I'm so off of a normal schedule I have no idea what's going on anymore lol.  But today I have another review of recent plates to show you.   This time from Bundle Monster and the new Secret Garden Collection.  Honestly its been a very long time since I posted a Bundle Monster review, years in fact, though I do have all their plates except one collection and some of the new rectangular plates.  Generally speaking since I'm blessed I've had a friend give me the last set and I didn't feel a need to rush to swatch though generally speaking its a good idea to do so when you first purchase these plates so that if there's a problem you can do an exchange within the time limit.  Bundle Monster and Amazon (where I often purchase) both have wonderful exchange and return policies as I've posted about before.  Now let's get started and don't forget to leave feedback or questions if you have them!


Bundle Monster

 The Hawaiian stamping plate powerhouse that needs no introduction if you are at all familiar with the nail art stamping world.  Having produced 7 collection to date not including their latest XL sized plates with images from prior collection Bundle Monster is no slouch when it comes to stamping plate production.  They generally offer a nice blend of affordable plates and nail art products with responsive coverage.  More recently I have fallen in love with their storage option for rectangular plates which you can read about here.  Today I'll be focusing on their first foray into the "buffet style" stamping plate style. 

The Plates


 









Image Size Comparison

There's really no need to compare image sizes since this is a "buffet/infinity" style set any size nails should be able to be accommodated depending on the size of your stamper.  If you are interested in comparing the sizes of other plates you can take a look at my chart for that here.

Swatches

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 Magno Nails.  I used this one because the images here are tough to pick up on with smaller pads i.e. less of the image is picked up due to the smaller diameter of the standard XL pad.  In the case of difficulty with picking up an image switch to Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas as you will see annotated 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 that it can support stamping with a polish that is not meant for that purpose.









Btw I'm watermarking my swatches more consistently now because I have found my swatches posted on various sites with my watermarks removed as if they were someone else's :/  I put a lot of hard work into these reviews and having someone else take credit for that work isn't really something that appeals to me :/







For the most part these plates were excellent though there were a few that I struggled with even using the best stamper I owned for pick up and Mundo de Unas, which in my opinion, is one of the best polishes a person can stamp with.  This is why ultimately its really very important to swatch out your plates when you get them so that if you have a problem you can get the faulty plates replaced.








Stamping Polish Comparison

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 quality of the stamp does vary quite a bit with these plates depending on what polish you use.  The more opaque polishes tended to produce the best image.  The plates used here are BM 708 and BM712.


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
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 overall I think the bargain of getting these sets from Bundle Monster is first class!  You get a lot of images when you consider the price point of other individual plates on the market and they are priced more competitively than other buffet style sets.  For me this collection was a dance between loving some images and finding others a bit stale and repetitive.  Lately I have seen so many plates on the market with flowers, flowers, vines, and more flowers.  What's great is if you don't own them then they can be a wonderful addition to your collection, but if you already have a lot you find yourself kind of wishing for more from a design perspective.  That's a bit how I feel here.  Also for whatever reason a few of the images were so small, some of the flowers as you can see in the swatches, that when stamped did not translate over well.  They just looked a bit jumbled for lack of a better word.

With regard to the quality of the plates I have to say I'm fairly happy.  I only had 1 or 2 plates that gave me some trouble due to the etching.  As I stated before those are easily replaced too by contacting either Bundle Monster or Amazon if you purchased there and letting them know.  One thing I've come to rely on heavily with Bundle Monster is their stellar customer service and quick response.  I can safely say if you have a problem usually they are very good about handling it!  Now if you are interested in purchasing the secret garden collection you can get it here.  It retails for $20.50 USD.  Stay tuned for some nail art and thank for reading.  Please leave some feedback or comments about your experience in the comments below.  Happy hunting and I'll see you next post....


These products were sent for my honest review.  For more information please see my Disclosure Policy.

2 comments:

  1. Hello there, dear friend! Don't get surprised if you see a couple of notifications from me today. I'm trying to catch up with your blog lol


    So, about this collection, I'm surprised it gave you so good results. From my experience with them, they tend to have at least 3 faulty plates per set, so I'm glad you didn't have that problem. I have to admit that I was excited about getting a new set of plates but I ended being dissapointed with this one. This was kinda more of the same, as you said. And honestly, I'd prefer to buy "more of the same" from a company that I'm sure won't give me faulty plates than taking a risk with BM. But aaaah. I like some of those plates! Thank God they sell them individually :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey babe welcome back! I'm sure you've been busy :) Lol I know you told me before you had a lot of problems with their plates before. I only had one in the entire set yet I have to say I don't think I've ever had too many sets that have faulty plates. In the earlier runs I did but the last 2 sets have worked out great for me. But yeah these plates are getting very common now. Take for instance that WInstonia Store came out with a set of buffet style plates that look almost exactly like these and the Pueen ones. The makers have gotten into a bit of a rut I think :/

    ReplyDelete

I love hearing your thoughts so please leave comments! However please be respectful and do not leave blog links or other links to products. If you'd like me to check out your blog or product please email me.