Bundle Monster H18 Stamping

I used a plate from Bundle Monster's Holiday Collection for this manicure, H18 which is a love / Valentine's sort of theme, I just used it because I liked the pretty pattern.

 

 

I use Barry M Gelly Hi Shine in Blueberry, a dark blue colour, for the stamping over yesterday's Coloured Speckled manicure and I'm really pleased with how it turned out, the glittery base adds a little extra to the overall look I think.

 

I really like the Holiday Collection from Bundle Monster, despite being themed around certain holidays or events there are tonnes of designs which can be used whenever and aren't just tied into a holiday or event making it a useful set even if you aren't big on tying your manicures to life events.



Double Stamping

This manicure didn't quite turn out how I was hoping, and I've cleverly forgotten to take a note of which stamping plates I used so it's not going to be the most useful of blog posts ever. :)

 

They're both from the Bundle Monster Create Your Own collection and the polish I used to stamp is a pink to purple Chameleon polish from Barry M and Gold Foil, also Barry M.

 

 

Unfortunately these pictures have highlighted the tip wear quite badly, it wasn't noticeable in person but it certainly is in the pictures so apologies for that.

More Snowflakes

First of all, apologies for the lack of posts recently.  I have been doing daily posts for over a year now but I'm struggling to keep up with that at the moment and trying to is rather sucking the joy out of the whole experience. 

 

I don't make any profit from blogging and I'm not one of those bloggers lucky enough to be sent loads of goodies to compensate for the hours it takes to post daily, so for the foreseeable future I am going to be dropping down to posting every second day that way I should easily be able to keep on top of the posts and still enjoy doing it rather than it seeming like a chore.

 

Anyway, on to the nails!

 

 

I used a base of Kiko, a light blue shade I can't currently remember the number of, and then over the top I added a holographic glitter top coat and a layer of Nubar Polka Dots in white to give a sparkly snow sort effect to the base.

 

Then I added snowflake stamps using a variety of stamping plates and Barry M Silver Foil nail polish, some of them single snowflakes and others a full nail design to give a bit of variety.

 

Here's a quick picture of the plates:

 

 

Candy Canes - Take 2!

I did Candy Cane nails last year and was pretty pleased with how they turned out so I decided to try again this year, I used a slightly different stamp for the stripes and a different base red colour and I think they turned out even better than last year's.  Which is why I have had them on for three days!

 

 

I used Bundles Monster plate BM-423 which is part of the Create Your Own collection for the stripes and then HD10 for the candy cane stamp, the base is Kiko 238.  As usual I used a nail art pen for the white stamping polish as it's a bit thicker than regular polish and I like the effect it gives.

 

 

I really like the stripes, I think they look more candy cane than last years larger solid stripes, they also give a great effect in real life, loads of people have commented on them and asked if they were nail wraps.

 

Last year I had a sparkly glitter base colour but I actually think this manicure works better with just a flat cream under the white as it gives better contrast.

 

I really loved these nails, so much so I didn't want to take them off so they survived a whole weekend and I still have them on today!

 

Christmas Tree Stamps

I decided to stamp over yesterday's glitter nails and chose a little Christmas tree design (unfortunately I can't currently remember the plate number, I think it's Cheeky, so I'll need to come back and update that later when I've looked at it again).

 

 

I used a white over the green and black over the gold, both nail art pens which stamped really nicely.  I have to say though I don't think the stamping really adds to the glittery polish, if anything the glitter and stamp seem to sort of detract from each other so neither is showcased particularly well.

 

A good example of how more isn't always more, I think I preferred this manicure when it was just plain, in your face, Christmas glitter.

Snowflakes

Nothing says winter themed manicure like some snowflakes, last year I did two snowflake manicures this one, which was OK, and this one on Christmas day, which I absolutely loved.

I was hoping to sort of recreate the one I loved but I could not for the life of me find which plate I used (I've since worked it out and added a note to the blog post from last year) so I ended up using a combination of two other plates, BM-H02 from their recent holiday collection and HB23 a Bunny Nails Plate which you can see HERE.

I don't mind how it's turned out, I love the colours but would prefer different snowflake positioning, I'd say it's better than my initial attempt but not as good as last year's Christmas day version which I loved.  Still quite pretty though.

I used a white nail art pen to stamp the snowflakes, here's a quick shot of the plates:

Create Your Own Textured Stamping

Another stamping manicure using the Bundle Monster Create Your Own set today.

 

I used Barry M Silver Foil Effects to stamp over Kiko Starry Black textured polish.

 

I'm not sure this was the best choice of image for over a textured polish as the trees lose a bit of their clarity, something more abstract might work better.  Nonetheless I quite like the effect, from a distance it looks a bit like crackle polish.

 

I used plate 407.

Textured Stamping

I was a bit sceptical about stamping over textured polishes at first but it actually works really well, for today's manicure I used BM-422 from the Create Your Own Collection.

 

 

I used Barry M Gold Foil for the stamping and I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

 

 

The simple hexagon design compliments to base colour and the textured adds an extra element to the stamping which makes it a bit different.

 

I'm also really pleased with the wear time on the Barry M textured polish, I'm on day three now and there is only the smallest amount of tip wear which for a textured polish and no topcoat I think is great.



Kiko 342 Stamped

A simple stamp today using one of the Create Your Own set from Bundle Monster.  You may be able to tell this is also a manicure from a few days back, I didn't have a chance to post it before my Halloween themed nails so I'm sneaking it in now instead. :)

 

 

I used plate BM-406 and the knotted heart pattern on the left hand side.

 

 

Aside from the rather messy clean up I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out, it's nice and subtle but adds a bit of extra interest.

 

I used Barry M Blue Plum to stamp, the original dark blue / navy polish from the collection which I think might now be called Blueberry?

 

 

 

Halloween Zombie Hands Manicure

As I mentioned yesterday, I decided to stamp over my grungy gradient for a full on Halloween look.  I had to go with something vaguely zombie themed, so I used a Halloween design from the new Bundle Monster Holidays collection and added some grabbing zombie arms over my gradient.

 

I'm pretty delighted with how they turned out, they're just the right amount of spooky for Halloween.

 

I was also pretty chuffed because 4 separate people asked me if I'd had them done professionally or if they were stick on nails which I always think is a bit of a compliment when they aren't. :D

 

What spooky themes have you got planned for the Halloween weekend?

Bundle Monster 419

Another Bundle Monster plate today, this time BM419 from the Create Your Own collection.  I chose the delicate flower pattern from the bottom of the plate to stamp over yesterday's polish.

 

 

I used Barry M Gelly Hi Shine polish for the stamping, Watermelon the dark green colour, these are definitely my go to shades when it comes to stamping as they work so well.

 

I like how this stamping turned out, it's fairly subtle but adds a bit of interest to the plain cream polish and the colours go really well.



Bundle Monster BM-402

I decided to use another plate from Bundle Monsters Create Your Own collection today, this time I chose the design on the left of plate BM-402.

 

 

I stamped over Barry M Lychee with a Bourjois black, it's not the best black stamping polish as it does come out rather washed out but it works well enough, I think.

 

These were sort of meant to have an Indian or Henna type feel to them but I'm not sure I quite achieved that. :)  I always struggle to get these sort of designs lined up evenly so they are not as neat as I'd like them to be but I think they still look alright.



Octonails!

This manicure is shamelessly copied from a picture I saw on FB, which I now can't find to give credit to, so sorry!  If it was you or you know who did the original design then let me know in the comments.

 

I decided to stamp over yesterday's Amethyst Velvet Goth polish and I was keen to try out a plate from the new Bundle Monster collection so having seen this cute design elsewhere I decided to copy.

 

 

Octopus nails!  I used two images from Bundle Monster plate BM 401.  A full octopus design and another tentacle design to give the impression the octopus was all over my nails.

 

It's just as well that there was a separate tentacle design because the full octopus was WAY too big to fit on my nails, despite that I'm pretty pleased with how this turned out

 

I think the tentacles would also be great for a Halloween style manicure too so I might try that out soon since we're getting to that time of year.

 

 

 

Bundle Monster - Create Your Own - Stamping Plate Collection

Today I have a post about Bundle Monster's New Create Your Own Collection which I have just received in the post.  The collection is the result of Bundle Monster asking fans what sort of images they wanted to see on stamping plates. 

 

If you click on the picture you'll be able to see the images larger in another window.

 

I have to say I'm not blow away by these plates, they're ok and there are definitely a few good designs but considering these are meant to be created by nail stamping fans I'm not that impressed.  I saw loads of suggestions and comments on Facebook and blogs relating to this collection and there were some great ideas so I was expecting them to be super amazing plates, and they're not, they're good but not mind blowing.

 

Saying that the plates are only $16.50 for 25 so they aren't expensive and there are a decent selection of images, there are lots of nice full nail designs which is great as they're my favourite kind.  Bundle Monster charge an extra $8.50 to ship to the UK which I thought was pretty steep, however, my order arrived after just 6 days so it's hard to be annoyed at shipping costs when things get halfway across the world in less than a week.

They don't come in a little box like the other newer BM collections, instead they come in a plastic bag, mine was already beginning to burst before I opened it so not great for storing them in.

 

Here are a few of my favourite images from this set, I love the words on plate 405 and the little origami crane is cute too.

 

I like the tree sort of design at the top of plate 407 and the delicate patterned hand.

 

The skyline and fingerprint full nail designs on 414 are great too.

 

Overall I'm happy with this set, the designs aren't amazing but there are some good ones and for under £16 (incl the P&P) I think I should get a good deal of use out of them.

 

 

 

Barry M & Bundle Monster - Stamping Stars!

I decided to use Barry M Blue Plum to stamp over yesterday's Sally Hansen polish, I'm not hugely impressed with how this turned out because I don't think the colours go that well but I do love how well the Barry M Gelly polishes stamp, look at the colour pay off!

 

 

I used another plate from the Bundle Monster Holiday Collection, this time the roses came from plate BM-H16, I think this image could look really delicate and pretty just not in blue. :)

 

The blue shades just don't quite work for me so I didn't have this manicure on for too long, it was however further proof of what an excellent stamping combination Bundle Monster and Barry M are!