Wednesday, February 10, 2016

Born Pretty Store: "Aztec" and Serengeti Stamping Plate

Press Sample

Happy hump day, dear readers! In my previous post, I shared a beautiful orange to red thermal polish from Born Pretty Store. I had also received one of their stamping plates to test out, and the images from it were perfect to go over the thermal background! Let's look at the plate first before I share my experience with you.

According to the Born Pretty Store website, this is called the "Aztec" stamping plate. Other than a few Southwestern type designs, I feel like this plate as more of an African Serengeti feel to it. I especially loved the giraffes on this plate, and that was the image I wanted to try out the most.

Well, there are giraffes on my nails, but as you can see, this did not go very well for me. First of all, I used Onyx from the Celestial Cosmetics and Color4Nails Stamping Line, and I have had great success with this polish with other plates. Now for some details:

Index finger/top nail
Stamper used: Cheeky Beauty square stamper
I could not get the full image to pick up with this stamper, and believe me, I tried a DOZEN times.

Middle nail
Stamper used: Creative Shop nail stamper
I had the same experience with the Creative Shop stamper as I did with my Cheeky stamper: the image just would not pick up completely.

Ring and pinky nails
Stamper used: Salon Perfect stamper
I decided to try a firmer stamper, so I pulled out my Salon Perfect one. This was my very first stamper, and to be frank, I hate it. It works ok for me for very small images, but it does not transfer images to my full nail due to the curvature of my nails. Wouldn't you know it, this stamper picked up the giraffe image beautifully from this stamping plate, but in true firm stamper fashion, it wouldn't transfer the full image to my nails. Cue a lot of cursing from me.
I guess the next question is where does this leave me. I have such mixed feelings about this situation. While I did find a stamper that worked perfectly with this plate, the stamper does not work perfectly for my nails. While I *can* use a stamping mat to create the look and transfer onto my nails, I don't really have the time for that. I much prefer to stamp directly onto my nails with minimal cleanup and call it a day. The giraffe and elephant images on this plate are so darn cute that I'll do it, but I'm not thrilled about it. I have another stamper currently in transit to me, and I'm crossing my fingers it will work with that one!

This stamping plate is available for purchase at the Born Pretty site here. As always, you can save 10% off your order with discount code QWL91.



What do you think of this plate? What images would you want to stamp? I'm also happy to take suggestions on firmer stampers that work with curved nails!

Until next time, dear readers, have a wonderful day!
XO!

20 comments

  1. I hope your next stamper ends up working out better than these did :( Finding the right stamper is such a pain.

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    1. No kidding! I used to think it was silly to have more than 2 stampers, and yet here I am accruing more!

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  2. What a fun mani! I have always loved that silhouette style of safari animals on nails and you've done a fab job capturing that!

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    1. Thank you! It's a style I've liked on other nails but have never done myself. It was time! Ha!

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  3. Too bad this plate was hard to pick up. And definitely, I would not have pegged this as "Aztec"

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    1. I'm glad to hear you say that and it isn't just me! I'm hoping to have more luck with other images on it or just finding the perfect polish and stamper combination that works with it.

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  4. I love Aztec plates but I find that I rarely use them, a bit out of my comfort zone I guess. I hate it when stampers/plates have issues, so frustrating!

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  5. This plate looks great, I think my favorite image is the one with the elephants. I really like your mani though. I usually struggle with polishes that don't like to cooperate. Lol.

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  6. Beautiful plate, I've been looking at this one x

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  7. It's finding the right match of everything - plate, stamper, polish - and having them all work together that keeps me from stamping! It's definitely a pretty plate though.

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    1. So much time wasted if you don't get the right combination right away. It's definitely frustrating!

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  8. I definitely need more stamping things.

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  9. I want this plate! Sorry you had issues using it.

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    1. I'll have to play around with other polishes and hopefully the new stamper gets here soon.

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