Adventures in Finding Good Stamping Polishes

The other day I found myself in Walgreen's noticing that all of their Sinful Colors were 99 cents! So of course, me being the cheap-o that I am, purchased several colors and loved them all. However, the other day as I was about to do my nails, I thought I would test one shade in general, Nirvana, to see how it stood the stamping test. It seemed like a nice solid taupe type color that might transfer quite well. So off, I went to get my BM 208 plate and this is what resulted:

I would say it turned out quite nicely! The trick turned out to be letting the polish sit on the plate for a few extra seconds than normal and then scraping it off. Since it's a relatively new polish I guess that kind of makes sense. And since I did alternating designs, all I did was paint on one design and leave it on the plate, while I scraped the other off and applied it, and vice a versa. It gave me about enough time. Otherwise the design would look slightly smudgy. The background color is NYC in Bryant Park I want to say. Don't quote me on it though. :p This got me thinking, there's GOT to be a list of polishes that people know of and have tested that work for stamping. Everyone that I've asked says either use an old polish or the more expensive ones (like China Glaze or OPI). $32 later at the Beauty Supply, I can tell you that the latter statement is FALSE. Lol. So, of scavenging I went through the page of the Internet until I found this wonderful LIST! Bless their hearts! This is going to sure going to come in handy, and I hope it does for you, too!

Nail Polishhhhhh

Hey guys, so the other day I saw these polishes and they caught my attention for different reasons.

My favorite color is teal, so pretty much anything resembling it will make me want to buy it. Its a sheer baby blue polish with tiny pixie dust glitter reflecting pink, lilac, green, and indigo. Next I pretty much bought the gray polish because I realized I didn't really have many solid colored polishes--most of mine have a sheen, shimmer, or glitter to them. Plus I saw my friend wearing it the other day and I had to have it. Next, we have Whimsical. I had seen it in the store once before but had held off on buying it. It seemed different enough to me, but I've never really cared for pink, and plus the polish itself looked like a milky, murky almost dirty dishwater blue, so I decided to pass.
However, maybe this time it was because I suffered from "It's the last bottle in stock, so maybe if I change my mind later and decide to buy it, it won't be here anymore and I'll hear about how awesome it is and I won't find it and I'll kick myself in the head for not getting it" syndrome that I finally bought it. You know what I'm talking about >:D.
Lastly, we have Glass Slipper. I don't really purchase much Sally Hansen, but ever since I heard the "Hidden Treasure" rumors, I've always at least lightly skimmed their selection just in case I should find something exceptional. See, "Hidden Treasure" is a flakie polish. If ya don't know what that is, google it. It's not glitter, and I would say it resembles a gold/silver/blue/pink/whatever color you find it in/ leaf polish. It's pretty rad, but it's also pretty rare to find a really good one for cheap.
I heard Essie's "Shine of the Times" was a good dupe for Hidden Treasure, so I bought it and am happy with it.

Here I used it in a VDay mani over a red to violet gradient. It's a clear polish with flakies shining from orange to green iridescence. Pretty.

It's kinda blurry but you can see especially on the index finger the flakies shining away!

So, anyways, to return to the point, I noticed Sally Hansen had a flakie polish. It didn't have a holo effect, duochrome or anything--it literally just looked like crystal shards of glass that were cut off and put in the bottle. I ended up liking it--I think it would look better over black or purple. And it was a b**** to photograph! But... interesting texture nonetheless.

I really liked "Whimsical" over the gray color. I had seen something similar on Lynderella's website (before I wanted EVERYTHING and then discovered she is no longer in business) wherein the colors resembled a brain somewhat. I really enjoyed the pink and baby blue hex glitter along with its corresponding micro glitter! Here I had painted three coats of all the polish, so I def wish there was more glitter power in this nail polish specifically. :) Hope you enjoyed!

Randomaniavilletonshire

Heyyy there! So anyone that knows me knows that my life just never stops moving! Sometimes I wonder how much more packed this blog would be if I actually kept a steady residence for more than a year... sigh. Well, in any case, I've taken my Konad and my stripers out of storage (at my new place there is ZERO. room. for. crafts.), and I've been reunited with my old longer, less bitten nails--due to the fact that I no longer work for Starbucks. So stoked! I've got a couple of designs so far.

So I've come to the conclusion that LA Colors works great with the plates, however, they are pretty sheer as you can see in my pictures, especially in the silver one. I had to try a few times before I got a good picture! In the future, when I'm crazy, I might actually shell out six or seven bucks for a bottle of China Glaze :p but until then, I'll just stick to what I got! Also this is about a month and a half old, but I knitted up a couple of weather wear items as well!

Yayyyyyyy thanks for looking! :D