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..

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.

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

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!

The kind ladies from piCture pOlish have sent me another beautiful polish called Bordeaux and it is the perfect vampy red for me (I can't get enough of red polishes)! Bordeaux is a 2015 collaboration shade by Nil Nails and it features the signature bijou finish.

Bordeaux is a dark vampy red with a hint of berry undertones and bijou effect. The bijou effect has a mixture of shimmer and holo particles that make any polish look amazing! The formula was really good and I have nothing bad to say about it. It applied well, no clumps, streaks nor patching. Two coats were nicely opaque and I've used top coat in the pictures as well. The finish is glossy and smooth without topcoat but it is not optional, right? ;) It's a beautiful polish and I loved wearing it!

You can purchase your bottle of piCture pOlish Bordeaux directly at www.picturepolish.com.au or at one of the international stockists: http://picturepolish.com.au/network. For the UK customers, there is Rainbow Connection and Sally Magpies.

Have a lovely day! Lucie x

*PR sample