30 July 2014

Dance Legend WOW Prisms

Argh! WOW! My love affair with Dance Legend begins. My first polishes from DL have blown me away with their sparkle and fab bottles. I love looking at them all lined up on my polish rack....Fancy!  This is 3 of the holo polishes from the WOW Prism collection. The collection is a 2 parter, 18 colours in the first release and then another 6 in the Spring Collection.



For this design I used the polishes on their own with no base colour. However the silver really did need a base so next time its undies first. I sponged the gradient on as normal then also painted another layer of colour on the tips to darken the colours. There is a little bit too much spectra-flair glitter in these polishes which makes them hard to gradient with, the colour sinks into the sponge leaving the flair to sit on top making the gradient too subtle. But I guess that's a trade off to having mountains of amazing sparkle!

Pink: Dance Legend - Hysteria 21 
Silver: Dance Legend - Steel Panther 13
Teal: Danced Legend - Holy Diver 36 


It was overcast all day so the best picture I could get was indoors but you can still get a hint of the amazing sparkle. The glass crystals are from the multi coloured pack which is available  HERE. 

27 July 2014

Pueen Encore Collection

With Pueen's last release they jumped on the theme plate bandwagon and created the 24B Buffet set which strayed from traditional rectangle sized stamping images to full plate designs. There were many pros to this as it allowed more variation with stamping and less restrictions for those with long or wide nails. Their latest set - The Encore Collection - has taken full plate designs to the next level with bigger "areas" of pattern and images on both sides of the plate. The Pueen Encore Collection is available now from www.dramaqueennails.com


1A and 1B are actually the same plate, just the front and back.  The images are great, lots to love, a few repeats of things I already have but I'm impressed with the amount of pattern, definitely much more area to work with. The little dots are a highlight for me.


This is a GREAT plate. If you love flowers you are sure to love this one.


This plate is my fav in the whole set.  The word LOVE is reasonably sized, unlike the Buffet set where word images were just enormous. The B side is great too with the stars and butterflies and paint splatters.


The plates measure 10cm x 10cm


 The peacock feathers on this plate are awesome. The tear drops I quite like too.


So many possibilities! 


Oh yeah, lovin' the fine swirly lines! 


The big whirl pool on this one gets me excited! I can't wait to have some time to play around with these plates, there are lots of patterns that really appeal to me. Can you spot the lady's face in  4B?


There is one major downside to having double sided plates. The edges are flippin sharp! Pueen has considered this in their design so the plates come with a plastic "edge".  When you get your plates they come in a plastic envelope which is inside the sleeve of the storage case. Cut out the clear plastic window on both sides of the plate but do not remove the plastic window frame. 

Above is a picture with the window still intact. Below is with the window cut out.


Work around the frame to remove the blue film. It makes plate clean up a touch annoying but it's definitely much better than slicing up your fingers. Below is a picture of the plate with blue film removed and plastic window frame on.


The Pueen Encore Collection is available now from www.dramaqueennails.com 

12 July 2014

How to choose the perfect stamper - which one is right for you?

*UPDATED* 

Well the answer to that question isn't straightforward because at the end of the day I think each stamper has something that its great for. So how do you possibly choose the right one for you? The sooner you realise that you might in fact need them all, the better off your stamping will be. Read on for a pros and cons look at 7 different stampers and hopefully by the end you can find the one that suits your needs. 

Firmness rating: Out of 5 = 1 is super squishy - 5 is very firm

                Click here to buy - Rectangle Firm (rubber) stamper/Metal scraper


Pros
  • It's rectangle shaped! My nails are kinda rectangle shaped! Where have you been all my life rectangle stamper. 
  • Awesome for lining up the image so you can apply it straightly to your nails
  • Firmness rating: 5/5 - very firm rubber reduces the chances of image distortion and polish smooshing - you know when your image looks fuzzy because the polish has smooshed a bit
  • Perfect for very detailed images with lots of fine lines
  • Length of stamp is 2.8cm so suits long nails - width 1.8cm 
  • Suits all types of plate images, full nail, accent 
  • Most stamping polish colours show up over the green rubber
  • It's pretty tough, the rubber takes a bit of punishment
  • Easy to keep clean - fluff just wipes off - clean with polish remover or acetone 
Cons
  • Because its very firm its best for people with flatish nail beds - if your nail beds are curvy you most likely will end up with missing bits of the image especially on the tip
  • This stamper is not very forgiving due to its firm nature so its sometimes hard to pick up certain images - best for more experienced stampers
  • At first it can be a little awkward to hold and get that continuous rolling motion that you need for stamping but it doesn't take long to adjust to.


Pros
  • It's rectangle shaped! My nails are kinda rectangle shaped! Where have you been all my life rectangle stamper. 
  • Awesome for lining up the image so you can apply it straightly to your nails - this is a great all rounder stamper
  • Firmness rating: 3/5 - semi-firm rubber (similar to Konad mushroom stamper) reduces the chances of image distortion and polish smooshing 
  • Length of stamp is 2.8cm so suits long nails - width 1.8cm 
  • Suits all types of plate images, full nail, accent 
  • Most stamping polish colours show up over the red rubber
  • It's pretty tough, the rubber takes a little bit of punishment
  • Easy to keep clean - fluff just wipes off - clean with polish remover or acetone 
Cons
  • Because its semi-firm its best for people with flatish nail beds - if your nail beds are very curvy you may end up with missing bits of the image especially on the tip
  • At first it can be a little awkward to hold and get that continuous rolling motion that you need for stamping but it doesn't take long to adjust to.
             Click here to buy - Rectangle Squishy (rubber) stamper/Metal scraper


Pros
  • It's rectangle shaped! And it's squishy, my nail sinks into it and 99% of the time there are no missing bits in my image...winning!
  • Awesome for lining up the image so you can apply it straightly to your nails
  • Firmness rating: 1/5
  • Length of stamp is 2.8cm so suits long nails - width 1.8cm 
  • This stamper despite its cons is my all time favourite stamper. Its the one I use the most and I do take care to look after it. There is less crazy nail lady stamping rage because I can easily make sure all of my nail has had the stamper rolled over it. There is however some skill involved in using this stamper to get the best from it.
Cons
  • Best cleaned with pure acetone - keep in a fluff free place - if you were living in the vacuum of space this stamper would still find a piece of fluff to stick to and when I say stick I mean STICK! 
  • It's silicon and it likes to be treated like a princess - it can and will get dings and chunks from sharp edges. The silicon end may pop out of the plastic holder if it gets knocked around or you clean it too vigorously. It's precious alright but show this baby some TLC and it will give you so much stamping happiness.
  • It can stain easily with dark colours which doesn't effect future stamping but is still annoying
  • Polish smooshing - squishy can equal smoosh depending of the stamping polish you are using - use light pressure when applying stamper to nail
  • Better suited for full nail images - delicate and accent images have tended to smoosh for me - sometimes I double scrape the polish off the image before I pick it up on the stamp to combat smooshing.
  • Image can distort or curve when picking up from plate or applying to nail - try stamping straight up and down to combat this and use light pressure.
  • Special stamping polish may smoosh on impact - not suitable for very detailed images with lots of fine lines
  • I like to stamp with white stamping polish and the white on white makes it a bit hard to see but if you line it up right its probably going to work out.
                  Click here to buyKonad double ended stamper/metal scraper


Pros
  • High quality rubber with 2 sizes of stamper - red end diameter 2.4cm, green end diameter 1.2cm
  • Firmness rating: 3/5
  • It's super tough, the rubber ends never fall out, it withstands lots of acetone.
  • Doesn't stain easily - there might be one or two uber dark pigmented polishes that might stain it but I haven't come across any yet
  • I know this isn't technically about the stamper but the scraper that comes with this stamper is awesome, my fav, its really wide and scrapes the polish nicely off the plate so it reduces those lines of polish you sometimes get down the sides of the image. 
  • Great for kids and applying accent images, helps with placement soooooooo much. This is the stamper I use when I want to put just one small image on my nails.
  • Firm rubber reduces the chances of image distortion and polish smooshing 
  • Suits all types of plate images, full nail, accent 
  • Easy to hold in your hand to get the rolling motion you need for stamping
  • Easy to keep clean - fluff just wipes off - clean with polish remover or acetone 
Cons
  • Suits short to medium nails, ladies with long nails this one isn't for you.
  • Stampers are round which can make applying the stamp to your nail difficult to line up and you might have trouble getting the image on straight
  • Because its firm its best for people with flatish nail beds - if your nail beds are curvy you most likely will end up with missing bits of the image especially on the tip
  • The red rubber makes stamping in red, yellow, orange etc a bit tricky, its hard to see the image
Click here to buy - Konad small stamper/metal scraper (mushroom stamper)

Pros
  • High quality rubber - will withstand mountains of acetone. Im still using my original konad stamper, its as good as the day I bought it. 
  • Firmness rating: 3/5
  • It's tough! It's pretty hard to get dings and chunks in the surface, bar stabbing it with scissors it will stand up to being knocked around in your nail draw
  • The rubber end never falls out
  • Firm rubber reduces the chances of image distortion and polish smooshing 
  • Suits all types of plate images, full nail, accent 
  • Easy to hold in your hand to get the rolling motion your need for stamping
  • Easy to keep clean - fluff just wipes off - clean with polish remover or acetone 
Cons
  • Suits short to medium nails, ladies with long nails this one isn't for you, diameter 2.3cm
  • Stamper is round which can make applying the stamp to your nail difficult to line up and you might have trouble getting the image on straight
  • Because its firm its best for people with flatish nail beds - if your nail beds are curvy you most likely will end up with missing bits of the image especially on the tip
  • The red rubber makes it hard to see some colours.
                    Click here to buy XL Grey Squishy Double Ended stamper



Pros
  • It's massive! And it's squishy without being too squishy. My nail sinks into it and 99% of the time there are no missing bits.
  • Because it's not as squishy as other XL stampers, it reduces smooshing significantly.
  • It's really great quality. The squishy end stays in place, the rubber is more durable than the old style XL squishy.
  • Its double ended.
  • Firmness rating: White end -2/5  Red End 3/5
  • Suits XL stamping plates, you can pick up jumbo images and eliminate those sad missing bits of image from the sides of your nails - white end diameter 2.9cm, red end diameter 2.0cm
  • Perfect for ladies with long or curvy nails
  • Great for stamping the thumb or if you have wide nail beds - it helps with placement as you will most likely end up with the design over the entirely of your nail just due to the width of the plate image its capable of picking up.
Cons
  • White end is best cleaned with acetone - keep in a fluff free place
  • Because its silicon its precious - the white end can and will get dings and chunks in it if you aren't careful.
  • It can stain easily but most of the time pure acetone will remove it and it doesn't effect future stamping
  • Polish smooshing - squishy can equal smoosh depending of the stamping polish you are using - use light pressure when applying stamper to nail.
  • Its round so lining up images can be tricky.
  • Better suited for full nail images - delicate and accent images have tended to smoosh for me - sometimes I double scrape the polish off the image before I pick it up on the stamp to combat smooshing.
  • Image can distort or curve when picking up from plate or applying to nail - try stamping straight up and down to combat this and use light pressure.
  • Stamping with white polish is tricky

Pros
  • It's massive! And it's squishy, my nail sinks into it and 99% of the time there are no missing bits in my image...winning!
  • Its double ended
  • Firmness rating: White end -1/5  Red End 3/5
  • Suits XL stamping plates, you can pick up jumbo images and eliminate those sad missing bits of image from the sides of your nails - white end diameter 2.9cm, red end diameter 1.0cm
  • Perfect for ladies with long or curvy nails or Rihanna talons
  • Great for stamping the thumb or if you have wide nail beds - it helps with placement as you will most likely end up with the design over the entirely of your nail just due to the width of the plate image its capable of picking up.
Cons
  • Best cleaned with acetone - keep in a fluff free place - this stamper is THE WORST - it could beat Miley Cyrus is a dust licking competition hands down - everything sticks to it.
  • Because its silicon its precious - it can and will get dings and chunks in it if you aren't careful and the silicon end pops out all the time. I have glued mine into place to stop this from happening but I'm kinda over this stamper for this reason. Our new grey XL stamper is MUCH better!
  • It's round so lining up images can be tricky.
  • It can stain easily but most of the time pure acetone will remove it and it doesn't effect future stamping
  • Polish smooshing - squishy can equal smoosh depending of the stamping polish you are using - use light pressure when applying stamper to nail
  • Better suited for full nail images - delicate and accent images have tended to smoosh for me - sometimes I double scrape the polish off the image before I pick it up on the stamp to combat smooshing.
  • Image can distort or curve when picking up from plate or applying to nail - try stamping straight up and down to combat this and use light pressure.
  • Stamping with white polish is tricky
  • Again not directly about the stamper but I DO NOT like plastic scrapers, they suck and spread polish unevenly. I dont care if my plates have scratches on them it doesn't effect future stamping, but if you need your plates to be all shiny and scratch free you might like this.
Well you hung in there until the end, well done! Hopefully you guys now have a better idea of the benefits of having multiple stampers in your arsenal. I do use all of my stampers for different things but if absolutely pushed to say which one I couldn't live without, I would have to say its...um...ahhhh...eeeee....my squishy rectangle stamper. She is a high maintenance stamper but she makes me so happy when every single little detail of the image ends up on my nail and its straight! If you can think of any more pros or cons for the stampers please comment below and I will add them to the post. xx

Sugar Bubbles

Coming Soon




Stamping decal tutorial - The easiest and quickest decals you'll ever make!

There are multiple ways to create coloured stamping designs and each technique has its pros and cons but I promise you that after trying this version you will be making decals quicker than ever before!


In the past I have done coloured stamping by using either a small paintbrush to add colour over the stamp (colouring in), this technique called Reverse Stamping or the lead lighting technique. A pro to colouring in is that's its quick. A drawback to painting colour is its hard to stay in the lines. A con to reverse stamping is that it takes a really long time between each step, however you can make 10 decals at a time meaning your can do an entire mani. Lead lighting has its drawbacks too in that you need to build a collection of suitable sheer or tinting polishes and you may get "smearing" especially with black stamping polish both when you apply the tints and also when you apply topcoat. However a bonus with lead lighting is that again you can do an entire mani and if you are sneaky you can make your own tinted polishes by thinning them and mixing with clear polish. 


If you want to smash out a punchy opaque accent design quickly and easily using the polishes you already own,  then the stamper decal technique is a beauty. There are a few tutorials floating around the net on how to do this but every one I have seen used a squishy stamper. I wanted to test a theory that I had that you can create these decals with any stamper, meaning that you can make a few at once by using all the different stampers that you have. So lets have a look at the results and how to create the decals. White squishy stamper vs. Konad mushroom stamper vs. firm green stamper - all available here.


STEP 1: Pick an image with parts that you can fill in that also has large amounts of background space for your secondary colour to shine through. Choose your outline colour and stamp the image onto your stamper of choice. I used Konad special stamping polish in white. Now the best part, you really don't need to wait very long before the next step, I left mine about 3 minutes. This heart design is from the Bundle Monster 2012 (300) collection, plate 317. Available here.


STEP 2: Use a small paintbrush and your polish of choice to colour in the parts of the design you want to highlight. I chose Orly - Beach Cruiser. Obviously choosing semi-sheer to opaque polish will give you more of a "pop" of colour but sheers and tints also work well because of the way the background colour becomes "undies" to the sheer polish. It's ok if you go outside the lines a little bit because once you flip the design over you won't really see it.  By the time I had coloured all the hearts in on all 3 stampers, the first one was dry so I moved on to step 3 right away.




STEP 3: Paint a thick layer of your background colour over the whole design. I ussed Barry M - Baby Pink which is a creme that is slightly sheer, it needs 2/3 coats for full opacity but for the decals I just did one coat. You can see the design showing through which highlights the density of the polish.


STEP 4: Now this step seems like it would take ages before you could do it. Not so much. I was tricked because the polish looked shiny, like it was still wet. But after 10 minutes it was completely dry! And shiny! Gently slide your nail under the edge and start to peel your design off.


The squishy rectangle stamper which you can get here was a little hard to get started. I jimmed my thumb around the whole edge to make sure it was lifting away but once I got the whole thing free it came away easily. You could also use a dotting tool to poke under it but I would be worried about dinging my squishy stamper. My nail worked fine. I noticed that the decal from this stamper was the most crisp and the stamping itself the most opaque.


It peeled cleanly away with no holes or tears or sticky spots. It may have left some while stamping polish behind but I couldn't see any spots in the design so I'm assuming it didn't.


With the Konad red mushroom stamper available here - it came away SO easily and seemed to be much stronger than the squishy one, more flexible and less likely to break.


It peeled off very easily, it did leave a few teeny tiny bits of white stamping polish on the stamper though and you can see in the outlines where the polish is spotty.


The super firm green rectangle stamper, available here - This one needed some gentle nudging to get it started and I accidentally made a couple of rips because I was being impatient and jabbed at it with a dotting tool. Whoopsie! It was the most difficult to peel but once I got it started it was fine. No polish left on the stamper but the outline was a little spotty.


Here is the end result with my decals ready to apply to my nail. Pretty! Left is firm green stamper, right is white squishy stamper and bottom is Konad mushroom stamper. The squishy stamper one is definitely the best but the others also came out fine, just a bit muted in comparison.


STEP 4: Trim your decals to your approximate nail size.


STEP 5: Apply a layer of base coat to your naked nail then gently place the decal over it whilst it is still wet. Use your finger tip to GENTLY smooth out any wrinkles and also fold over the tip of the nail for a clean edge. When it is firmly in place and the base coat underneath has dried (no decal movement when touched) use nail scissors to trim off excess. You don't need to go to crazy with trimming as you can remove the excess decal with nail polish remover and your clean up brush.


STEP 6: Now this part has options. You can apply topcoat first, wait for it to dry then clean up OR clean up first then apply topcoat. I did the first option. The topcoat will smooth out any dings or wrinkles, its like magic!

I loved how these decals turned out however I was most impressed by how quick each layer dried on the stamper. There was virtually no smearing when I applied topcoat and the finished product is vibrant. Can you just imagine the possibilities of all the different designs you could make! The white squishy stamper was the clear winner in terms of quality. If you give this technique a go we would love to see and hear how you went xx

11 July 2014

Julep Pile Wand

A little while ago DQN was approached by Julep to help them spread the word about an interesting new product they have just released called the "Pile Wand". Today's blog post will take a closer look at this invention which offers a unique spin on traditional nail polish brushes.

Check out this video from Julep's CEO Jane Park.


So basically the Pile Wand is a brush extender that you can attach to any of your Julep's nail polish brushes. Now before I go into the great things about the wand I have to say this. Until I was approached by Julep I did not actually own any Julep nail polishes. In order to write a fair post I did two things. I researched some other blogs to get an idea of the Julep brand. I also went to a friends house to sample her Julep polishes so I could comment on the original bottle brush.


Ok, so the word on the street (in the land of nail polish crazies) is not so kind towards Julep, mainly due to some technical difficulties around their rewards system regarding their monthly nail polish box (Julep Maven's). However not having experienced this myself or having any first hand knowledge of the situation besides knowing Julep has fixed the issue, I choose to file this information in the "Interesting to know, but moving on" part of my brain.


In regards to the actual polish and the brush. ZOMG! A tall rectangular shaped bottle. Sexy but not at all practical. I had to be extremely conscious and thoughtful so that I didn't knock it over, its quite unstable. I did actually knock it over once! The polish itself "Cody", a bright orange creme was really nice, a fav of my friend who tells me she quite likes the polishes, great formula, reasonable dry time, but shares a similar view on the shape of the bottles. Click here to see the polishes available from Julep.

HOW TO USE THE PILE WAND


Ok so onto my thoughts about the Pile Wand. Not being able to get my grubby hands on one I guess from the outside looking in it appears to be a genius idea, especially for nuggles and those who don't paint their nails everyday. I paint my nails so often that even with my left hand I have practised so much that I'm really pretty good applying the polish. However I can see the benefits of being able to rest the extended brush in the crook on your hand for stability and being able to place it at an angle that works for you. Turning a small brush into a "paintbrush" seems like it would logically enable much greater control, accuracy and more fluid brush strokes, particularly useful for nail art I would think. Also being able to attach it to the Julep polishes you already own is a great design inclusion.


The Pile Wand comes with a options/attachments; a dotting tool, a smaller brush and a striping brush. It's a fab idea and I'm sure there are lots of happy polishers out there using this revolutionary product but honestly because I don't own any Julep polishes I am finding it a little hard to get super excited about it. Julep if you decide to capitalise on your design and include options for being able to attach it to China Glaze, OPI and Zoya bottles, I would be all over that in a second! I really do think its a very clever idea, I just don't have a use for it at the present moment. Maybe Julep will send me some lovely polishes to try *wink wink* and then I can write a proper review. Cheeky!  

If you are interested in reading more about the Pile Wand click here to go to Julep's blog. I would love to hear your thoughts on the wand if you own one yourself.

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