Showing posts with label blue

Hello lovelies,

 

There seem to be new and exciting releases all the time and even though I can't keep up with all of them, I can at least show you some. Today I'll be looking at Polish (yes, the nation, not lacquer ;) indie brand B. Loves Plates. I've made an order in their last sale and Anna has also sent me some new releases so I've been testing them all.

 

First up is their Crystal Clear stamper. There seem to be tonnes of them out right now and naturally I was curious to try them too. The stampers come with 3 cm transparent stamping head and handle in different colours. I got the milky white one..

 

What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art

 

The clear head is meant to make the image positioning on the nail much easier and it does. But the head is also quite small and firm so it's not ideal for my curved and long nails. It's great for partial images, French tip stamping or double-stamped images.

 

I've had some trouble with picking up images in the beginning so I followed an advice from fellow bloggers to wash the stamping head with washing up liquid. That helped quite a bit and I could finally pick up whole images. It still didn't work every single time but it was an improvement. I'd just like to point out that these clear stamper heads are fragile so don't squish them, drop them, prime them with files and don't use acetone or nail polish remover to clean them. I use wide cellotape or lint roller.

 

This stamper is available HERE in their Etsy shop.

 

Next I'd like to show you three new-ish stamping polishes and a snowflake stamping plate B.05 Let It Snow that I purchased in their pre-order last year.

 

What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art

 

 

The polishes that I was playing with were the new metallic shimmer trio in:

B. an Aurora (bright turquoise metallic with silver shimmer)

B. a Holy Night (denim blue metallic with silver shimmer)

B. a Rudolph (dark red metallic with silver shimmer)

 

Each bottle holds 8ml / 0,28 fl.oz. and has a the standard brush (not that the brush matters very much in stamping polishes). They are available HERE.

 

Let me start by saying - these polishes are crazy good! They are super pigmented and stamp beautifully, especially with the B. Loves Jumbo stamper! Actually the whole metallic shimmer range is great (I've tried many others) and they stamp amazingly, better than the creme colours range.

 

Then there is the B.05 Let It Snow stamping plate. It has a mixture of full-nail snowflake patterns and large and small single snowflakes. I like that there are some large single snowflakes that could be used over whole nail or perhaps as a half-moon partial design. The images stamped nicely with the polishes above but I've had a bit of a trouble picking them up with the clear stamper for a while. When I tried it with the B. Loves Jumbo stamper it was perfect so the problem was clearly with the clear stamper. After a while it started to pick up images better (and after a wash with dish soap). Other than that, it's a great plate!

 

Dimensions:

Plate size: 9,5cm x 14,5cm
Number of patterns: 32
Pattern size: 1,6cm / 1,7cm x 2,0cm / 2,1cm

 

What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
What's new at B. Loves Plates? Stampers, plates, polishes! Review & Nail Art
THE AFTERMATH

THE AFTERMATH

 

On the manicure above I've tested the stamping polishes, the snowflake plate and the Crystal Clear stamper. I've used a coat of B. a Blue Ocean as a base. I wanted to see if I could use a stamping polish as a regular polish and it worked quite well but I wouldn't use it again as it's a bit trickier to work with.

 

After many failed attempts I've managed to stamp all the fingers and I just had to capture the wonderfully colourful mess. The colours blend nicely into each other, creating different hues of purple where they meet. It's not as visible on the nails but in real life it looked beautiful. In hindsight I should have used black or white base for the colour blends to show better.

 

So that's all I wanted to show you today, quite a few very good products there to try :) If I had to pick just one though, then B. an Aurora stamping polish would be the winner! You can purchase B. Loves Plates products in their Etsy store or their website.

 

Have a lovely day! Lucie x

 

*Post contains PR samples

Hello lovelies,

 

Today I'd like to share with you another stunning polish from HJ Manicure - Midnight Sky! I've previously shown you a gorgeous dark red called Red Wine (reviewed here) which I loved wearing and today I'm switching to a bold electric blue!

 

Right now it's winter time in the UK and most of Europe so it's the perfect time to wear blues, greens and dark rich colours. I love wearing jewel tones and that's probably why I love this shade of blue a lot.

 

HJ Manicure is a luxurious boutique nail polish range, created by Helen J. These 5-free, cruelty free and vegan friendly 14.8ml polishes come in a core range of 20 vivid colours.

 

NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches
NOTD: HJ Manicure Midnight Sky - Review & Swatches

 

Midnight Sky is described as navy blue but to me it looks like a bright shade of electric blue. It's rich, bold and sooo beautiful! It has a subtle shimmer that brightens the colours. I was pleasantly surprised that the polish wasn't streaky as many with shimmer finish are. The formula was nice to work with and fully opaque in two coats. I've applied topcoat as well but the polish dried smooth and quite glossy. I'd also like to point out that I didn't get any staining and I've just a regular thin base coat (OPI Natural Nail). So for me it's both thumbs up for this polish :)

 

Midnight Sky and other HJ Manicure polishes are available at http://hjmanicure.com/

Each bottle holds 14.8ml of product ad retails for £9.50 PLUS they offer free UK shipping over £20! What do you think of this colour? Have you tried HJ Manicure polishes yet?

 

In case you're wondering, I purchased the ring from So Nailicious Boutique, they have awesome jewellery ad other nail products.

 

Have a lovely day! Lucie x

*PR sample