Mani Mania: UberChic Beauty Stamping Plates Review

piCture pOlish Forget Me Not stamped with plate 1-02

Despite not being much of a nail art stamper, I've been playing around with UberChic Beauty stamping plates lately! The manicure above was my biggest success, and maybe one of my best stamping manicures ever. Though I'm not the best stamper, I've been having a blast putting together manicures with these plates. Keep reading to check out more of my results!

Colors by Llarowe Mom Jeans stamped with plate UC 1-03

What really stood out to me about these plates is how beautiful the patterns are. They're modern, well designed, on trend, and just really fun. Many of them have superfine, intricate details, like in the photo above.

I'm not particularly skilled in stamping, but these plates seemed to work well for me! Even the finest of lines picked up each time.

Here's some more info about UberChic plates:
- The plates themselves are pretty large, especially compared to the other ones that I have in my collection.
- The designs are large, and easily covered my nails with room to spare.
- Each plate has a general theme, which includes full nail designs plus coordinated single images.

Gelish I'm Brighter Than You stamped with plate UC 1-01

KBShimmer Summer 2015 neons stamped with plate UC 2-03

Purple rockstar gel manicure stamped with plate UC 1-03

Stop by UberChic Beauty to check out their plate lineup as well as their glitters and pigments! The plates used here can be purchased in plate collections 1 and 2.

I encourage you to go and check out the designs on the plates, because they really are well done. A stamper's dream!

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To Fuzz or Not To Fuzz: A Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat Manicure

If there's one thing that's polarizing in nail polish, it's fuzzy/feathered glitter toppers. When I previewed this manicure on my Instagram, I got comments ranging from "I LOVE how that looks" to "No, just can't get on board with the fuzzy thing" (and that's on the nice end of the "didn't like it" spectrum).

Fuzzy glitter polishes are clear based polishes with short, skinny bar glitters. They are normally pretty high density glitters, which makes it so that you can wear them alone with just a few coats. You can also choose to layer them, like I did here, for a unique, visually textured effect. I personally like the way these polishes look, but can understand the resistance from others.

Polishes used in this manicure:
OPI Hey Baby
Sally Hansen Fuzzy Coat in Peach Fuzz

As I mentioned above, the Fuzzy Coat polish has a high glitter density; I only needed to use one coat for the coverage you see here. When I layered this yellow-orange topper over the pink creme base, it really tricked my eye into making the pink look more coral.

What do you think? Are you a fan of the fuzzy, feathered looking toppers? I know they were trendy last fall, but I really did enjoy breaking this one out for spring.

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Sweet and Stormy Half Moons - Nicole by OPI Carrie Underwood Collection Nail Art

Grey is a favorite color of mine. I especially love pairing it with bright colors... The grey really grounds bright shades and adds a great element of chic-ness. I was really excited to see a gorgeous stormy grey in the Nicole by OPI Carrie Underwood Collection, and had to pair it with a sweet peach shade from the same collection.



For this look I applied Nicole by OPI Sweet Daisy, the peach, as my base. Then, using a small nail art brush, I handpainted the grey half moons in Nicole by OPI Goodbye Shoes.

This is the first time I've freehanded a half moon, I think! Usually I go for the hole punch reinforcement sticker method. I think these turned out well, though, and were much faster for me, so I imagine I will be doing my half moons by hand from now on.

This collection was officially released in January so you should be able to find it pretty easily now in locations like CVS, Ulta, and WalMart.

What do you think? Are you a fan of pairing grey with bright shades?

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Raiding My Drafts: Blushing Peach Gradient

Sometimes I do a manicure and upload it to my drafts, but then something happens and it never gets published. Either I have too many other things to post and then too much time passes, or I fall out of love with the look, or some weird Twilight Zone stuff happens and I basically forget that it's in there. I have been busy with behind the scenes blog stuff lately, so I thought it would be fun to raid my post drafts for a new look to share with you today.

This blushing peach gradient was a reject from the 31 Day Challenge; I ended up posting leather gradient nail art instead. Seeing this look now though, I find it quite pretty, and great for the ever-warming Arizona springtime.

The two polishes used in this look are:
OPI If You Moust, You Moust
Lime Crime Crema de Limon

This is the first horizontal gradient that I've done, I think. It was a little trickier than the typical vertical gradient but not unmanageable.

The weather has been so pleasant here lately... I almost want to recreate this look to celebrate the pleasantness before it gets hotter than the devil's armpit.

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Girly Pinwheel Candy - Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Nail Art

Good morning, today's post is a bit of nail art using three of the polishes from the upcoming Nicole by OPI Selena Gomez Collection! You can find more information on the collection here. There are seven glitters or glitter cousins but for nail art I obviously gravitate towards the cremes.

For this look I began with a base of NOPI Selena, the pinky peach shade. This was the least opaque of the three colors that I used in this manicure, needing three coats for opacity on me. It also has a very very faint microshimmer in it, however, it's mostly undetectable.

Then, using my medium length striper brush I painted on pinwheel stripes using NOPI Love Song. A young and fresh purple shade, this polish gets opaque in two coats, so I did have to go over my stripes again for them to be solid.

The final step in this manicure was to add the hot pink: NOPI Spring Break. This shade could almost be worn alone in one coat, but probably needs two just to be safe. I freehanded on more pinwheel stripes using this polish next to my purple stripes.

The consistency of these polishes was nice across the board. They weren't too thick nor were they watery. They applied well to the nail and I do enjoy the wider-style brush the Nicole polishes use.

I am really enjoying these nails (wearing them as I type this)! They remind me of girly lollipops or springtime peppermints that you'd find in a Katy Perry music video.

I'm not very familiar with Selena Gomez or her music, but I think these shades together look particularly well suited to a young female icon.

Are you guys feeling these shades together?

Selena Gomez lacquers will be available January 2013 for $7.99 each at retailers including select Target, Walmart, CVS, K-mart, Rite Aid, ULTA, Sears, Meijer, Fred Meyer, Kroger and H-E-B locations. In Canada, this line will be available for $10.99 each at Shoppers Drug Mart, Walmart Canada, Jean Coutu, Loblaw, and London Drug.

Products sent for review.

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