[Nail Art] Let's Be Hipster with MoYou London Hipster Stamping Plates

Hey guys! Today I have a quick stamped mani I did a while back. This was done with MoYou London plates 02 and 08. By the way, have you seen their latest Enchanted collection? They're really killing it with their newest designs!

Polishes Used

China Glaze Kinetic Candy

China Glaze Lemon Fizz

China Glaze Thistle Do Nicely

Milani Black Swift

I've improved my stamping technique since this mani, so I might do an info post with my favorite stampers soon. :)

Until next time!
Liz

[Nail Art] MoYou London Origami 05

I Bought This

Hi everyone! It's been a long while! I feel really bad for leaving without notice. This blog has always been at the back of my mind, so I felt like I would be returning soon. Eventually the days became months, and the return post became more and more intimidating.

If there's anyone who still reads my blog, I hope you'll forgive me. ◕︵◕ I can't post as much as I'd like, but I am devising a schedule so that my posts are more consistent. There's so much I want to do between this blog and my indie brand Pretty Jelly - I got a little overwhelmed and had to focus on just one for a while. Well, enough blabber! If you're here, you probably just came to see the nail art. :P

I did this mani a while ago and actually got to wear it for a few days! I really love the cute origami designs MoYou London has come out with. I used Origami Plate 05 for this look. :)

Sorry about the grainy quality of these photos! I forgot to change my camera settings and didn't notice the quality until later.

Polishes Used

China Glaze For Audrey
China Glaze Kinetic Candy

China Glaze In A Lily Bit

Milani Doll Face

Milani Spotlight White

Milani Black Swift

Color Club Harp On It

I used a mix of the saran wrap techinique and the sponging method for the base color. Then I did reverse stamping for the origami characters. Isn't it adorable? I can't wait to use this plate again. :)

Until next time (there will be one!),
Liz

[Nail Art] Bananas with MoYou London Tropical 08

I Bought This Press Sample

Quick post today! I've been testing out the new OPI Infinite Shine lacquers, so I decided to spice it up for my wear test. It's true I've been consuming a lot of bananas lately, but I think this out-of-place "winter" mani is my plea for warmer weather. (Yay, Chiberia...) Anyways, I hope you guys are staying warm. Unless you're already somewhere warm - then I hate you. I'm just kidding. :P

What I Used

OPI To The Finish Lime!

OPI Pretty Pink

Urban Outfitters UV

Milani Black Swift

MoYou London Tropical 08

[Review+Swatch] Zoya Naturel Satins Collection for 2015

Press Sample

Hi, everyone! Can you believe it's already February? Today I have the rest of the Zoya Naturel Satins collection for you. If you missed my first post, head on over here for more info on the satin finish and my in depth review of Ana. The rest is all below, and the swatches are all shown without top coat to show the semi-matte finish.

[Review+Swatch] Zoya Naturel Satins Ana

Press Sample

Quick and simple swatch today! :) This is Ana from Zoya's new satin finish collection for Spring 2015. The collection features soft, muted colors to flawlessly transition you from winter to spring. The satin finish is described as a "hybrid between matte and glossy polishes and is not intended to be worn with a top coat." I believe the finish is similar to those labeled vinyl or rubber from other brands.

Ana, 4 coats: a "light toasted almond cream" satin. Mine applied a little unevenly, but was passable at 3 coats. I did an additional coat for pictures. I've seen reviews stating opacity at two coats however, so maybe mine was a dud? With that said, I found dry time to be perfect: slow enough to take your time applying, but fast enough to move onto the next coat. The polish levels nicely as it dries, and I think it's best applied in medium coats.

I was in the mood for something Valentine's Day inspired that wasn't too obvious, so I grabbed my MoYou London Fashionista 08 plate and stamped the same design across all my nails using Barielle Barefoot In Bermuda. I skipped top coat to maintain the satin finish. I think it kind of reminds me of scrapbook paper. ^^

Verdict: Overall, I'm a fan of the satin finish and can't wait to try the others from this collection.

Availability: The Zoya Naturel Satins collection is currently available at Zoya.com for $9 each.

[Nail Art] Chevron Floral

I Bought This Affiliate Links

Hi everyone! :) Today I have a short nail art post for you. I started this mani with something much simpler and sweeter in mind, but I went a little crazy with the water decals. Now it's a bit more flamboyant. LOL. Hope you still like it. :)

What I Used

China Glaze In A Lily Bit

Milani Black Swift

MoYou London Fashionista 05

Born Pretty Store Floral Water Decals*

[Nail Art] MoYou London Tropical 05

I Bought This

Hi everyone! Today I have some bright and colorful nail art to share with you. I'm clearly not ready to let summer go - I want it to be warm again!

Polishes I Used

OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (green)

OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth (pink)

OPI Can't Afjord Not To (orange)

OPI OPI With A Nice Finnish (gold)

Urban Outfitters UV (yellow)

Milani Digital (pink holo)

Milani 3D (gold holo)

Milani White On The Spot 

Milani Black Swift

I'll admit it's not my best stamping/coloring job, but the bright colors make me happy. I'll do a better job next time! :)

If you like this mani, you can recreate it using the MoYou London Tropical 05 plate. It's available on moyou.co.uk for £4.99 (~8.50 USD).

Liz

[Nail Art] MoYou London Kaleidoscope 09

Press Sample

Hi everyone - happy friday! Today's mani features images from MoYou London's Kaleidoscope 09 plate. I wanted to do something simpler this time with pink as the accent color, so this is what I came up with. I added a few rhinestones to give it some flair as well.

Look at how detailed the images are! I love the floral aspect of this plate. Like Kaleidoscope 08, there's a lot of negative space in the designs that you can color. Depending on your choice of colors, your mani can look elegant or colorful and playful. All of the images picked up very cleanly without giving me any trouble.

For my ring finger, I should note that that's not the exact design on the stamping plate. I had an incomplete transfer (my fault), so I ended up free-handing the black outline around the "petals". I added gold glitter over the outline to tie it in with the other nails.

Polishes Used

Sally Hansen Greyfitti

Milani Hot Pink Rage

Milani Bombshell (light pink)

Milani Black Swift 

China Glaze GR8

Nicole by OPI Lips Are Dripping Honey (glitter)

What do you think? I feel a little unsure of the color combination in this one. The gold and grey together kind of bugs me, but I can't hate it because the designs are so pretty. ^__^ Now I want the rest of the Kaleidoscope collection! MoYou London's new Kitty plates (12-14) looks pretty fabulous as well.

Availability: MoYou London plates are available on moyou.co.uk for £4.99 each. About $8.50 each as of 8/22/14 (my last purchase). The exchange rate then was 1 U.S. Dollar = 0.587361 British Pounds. Shipping is free to the UK. Shipping to everywhere else is free with £15+ orders. If you make an account with them, you can also receive a 15% off discount code.

[Nail Art] MoYou London Kaleidoscope 08

Press Sample

Hi everyone! I'm so excited to share with you two plates from MoYou London's new Kaleidoscope collection. MoYou London graciously allowed me to pick two plates for review, and I immediately picked out Kaleidoscope 08 and 09. Several more plates were released in the collection since then. If you're curious, you can view the whole collection here. They all look amazing.♥

I'll be showing you the 08 plate first in today's post. All the plates come covered in blue film, which you remove before stamping. I'm in love with the sleeve art for this collection. My sister told me the packaging reminds her of chocolate bars. So now I always think of MoYou plates as beautifully decorated chocolates. :)

Ta-da! Can I pat myself on the back? Okay, I'll be more humble since the plate did all the work. ^^ This looks like I spent about 10 times more time on it then I actually did. I'm still an amateur at stamping, so if you're advanced, I'm sure you could create some really astounding nail art.

I found this plate easy to use, and the designs were all etched deeply. All the images picked up easily with my large marshmallow stamper. I own a knock-off, but MoYou sells a double-end marshmallow stamper here. The red stamper shown above is also very squishy and slightly sticky. It picks up images cleanly and can fit an XL design on it (although I recommend using it with smaller images). I usually associate red stampers with rubber, so I was pleasantly surprised by it being silicone.

One thing to note with this plate is the broader etchings. A lot of the designs have large spaces, so it's recommended that you use thicker polishes for stamping. Thin polishes will scrape right out of the design. Medium polishes will work, but may not pick up as cleanly. So it's best to stick with your tried and true polishes for stamping. You can use your other colors for filling in the design. :)

Polishes I Used

OPI Going My Way or Norway? (tan base)

OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid (green)

OPI Suzi Has A Swede Tooth (pink)

OPI Can't Afjörd Not To (orange)

OPI Do You Have This Color in Stock-holm? (purple)

Milani Black Swift

Milani Blue Zoom

Color Club Harp On It (silver)

Doesn't this design feel kind of bohemian? I think the great thing about this plate is that you can make it whatever theme you want. The possibilities are truly endless - just like a real kaleidoscope.

Overall, I really enjoyed using this plate! It's definitely one of my most favorite plates now. I think there are 11 plates total in the Kaleidoscope collection, and I pretty much want every single one. x) Tomorrow, I'll show you the 09 plate so you can look forward to that! :)

Availability: MoYou London plates are available on moyou.co.uk for £4.99 each. About $8.50 each as of 8/22/14 (my last purchase). The exchange rate then was 1 U.S. Dollar = 0.587361 British Pounds. Shipping is free to the UK. Shipping to everywhere else is free with £15+ orders. If you make an account with them, you can also receive a 15% off discount code.

Have you tried any of the plates from MoYou London's Kaleidoscope collection? Feel free to link blog posts to your art in the comments below. I'd love to see them!

Liz

[Nail Art] Gold Shells and Gemstones

I Bought This Affiliate Links

Summer's coming to an end, so I've been clinging to the last few days with summery manis like this one. The nail art is beach inspired with subtle stamping and pretty charms. I was totally smitten with this one! Hope you like it as much as I do. :)

[Haul] MoYou London + Born Pretty Store

I Bought This Affiliate Links

Hi guys! I just wanted to share with you all the nail art stuff I recently purchased. Particularly my new stamping plates. I've collected a few since my renewed interest in stamping. The only one not pictured is my DRK Nails plate, which you can read about here. Also not shown are my Cheeky plates, but I'll review that in a separate post. Now, onto the good stuff!

First up is my BPS haul! I bought these myself, so they weren't sent to me for review. I got the following in my order (all affiliate links): Rose water decals 70-72, Cartoon decals 88-90, Cat and Dog decals, Horse and Bird decals 262, Badtz Maru decals, Pony stamping plate, 3mm & 5mm gold sea shell charms, silver bow charms #2.

A close-up at the stamping plate and nail charms. Do you remember the gold bow charms I reviewed in this post? I loved them so much that I also got them in silver. I already did some nail art with the gold shells, so you'll be seeing them again soon. :)

Next is MoYou London!

[Nail Art] Watercolor Koi with MoYou Suki 09

I Bought This

Hi everyone! Here's another stamped mani I did with Moyou's plates. I used Suki 09 for this one. I also gave advanced stamping another shot, and this one turned out not too badly. 

What I Used

Nicole by OPI Yoga-Then-Yogurt (white base)

Milani Mint Crush, Peri-Wink, Blue Print, Water Front (watercolor effect)

Milani Black Swift (stamping)

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu!

OPI Orange You Going To The Game? (koi coloring)

MoYou London Suki 09 stamping plate

Detail brush + clean up brush

Pure Acetone

I think I'm finally getting the hang of stamping. It helps that the MoYou plates are really well etched. I've also tried some different stampers as well, and found a favorite. I'll show you some other plates and stampers I got in another post. This stamping stuff is dangerous though! There are way too many pretty plates to buy. x)

♥Liz

[Nail Art] Oh, Deer!: Stamped with MoYou London Hipster Plates

I Bought This

Hi guys! I've eyeing MoYou London stamping plates for some time now, and I finally bought a few! I'll do a more comprehensive brand review once I've played with all the plates I got, but for now here's a fun neutral mani I did with two of their Hipster plates.

What I Used

OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons

Zoya Marney

Milani White On The Spot

MoYou London Hipster Plate 02 + 08

I haven't tried all my MoYou plates yet, but Hipster 02 and 08 are so far the easiest plates I've worked with. I was able to pick up the designs about 95% of the time, which is amazing for me. Like I said before, I've never had much luck with stamping. These are actually so much fun to use!

MoYou has a ton of other plates, and I'm planning on placing a second order once I've tried everything I got. Processing and shipping time was excellent as well. I got mine within a week from my order date, and they ship from London. Plus, free shipping over £15! You also get a 15% off discount code when you register an account on their site: moyou.co.uk I bought 5 plates, and each plate cost me about $8.70 without the discount code. Not bad at all!

Do you own any MoYou plates? Which are your favorites?

♥ Liz