A Transformation...

Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Last week I showed you a sheer little El Corazon Poly-Chrome beauty. As a rule of thumb I like to try the sheer shimmery shades over a black base and this was no exception. The beautiful brassy color that resulted did not disappoint. Accented with a bit of stamping, it was transformed from a delicate beauty last week to something much more bold today...


Shown here are two thin coats of El Corazon Poly-Chrome 322 layered over Sinful Colors Black on Black. The first coat was a bit streaky, but it evened out by the second coat...



I stamped with Black on Black using MoYou Pro Collection 06 stamping plate. This is such a gorgeous pattern that for me lies somewhere between stained glass and animal print depending on how I look at it. It also reminds me a bit of that stone man from comic books/movies. I've only seen pictures so I don't know what he is called. Anyone know what I'm talking about?..



The manicure was missing something and I debated adding black tips vs a black raffian. As you can see I went the raffian route and I love it. It just gave the manicure a more finished look while giving it a bit of pop and definition...




This is definitely one of those manicures that I don't want to take off...


Let me know what you think of this manicure!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)


** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **
** For more information please see the disclosure policy **

MoYou Stamping Plates

Saturday, December 7, 2013
Today I would like to show you the MoYou London stamping plates that I recently added to my stamping plate collection. MoYou London (not to be confused with MoYou Nails) has taken the stamping world by storm. They feature some of the most unique designs I have seen and have quite an extensive assortment of themes and patterns. If that wasn't enough, new plates are released weekly to keep tempting us even more. If you follow me on Instagram than you may have already seen my excited post about this epic nail mail from MoYou London. Although only about 1/3 of these plates are mine (I purchased together with a couple of friends), I just had to show this awesomeness to you. Keep reading for a closer view of the 13 plates that I got...


Before I show you the designs, let me tell you a little about the plates themselves. As seen above, newer plates come packaged in a cardboard sleeve featuring the collection logo. Older plates are packaged in plastic baggies, but I believe eventually they will all be transitioned to the cardboard sleeves.

Unlike most common round stamping plates which measure 5.5cm in diameter, these rectangular plates are and impressive 6x12cm (edge to edge, not including the plastic backing). They have a protective blue plastic cover which needs to be removed prior to stamping...


Each plate is mounted on a white plastic backing. The back features the MoYou London logo. These plates feel very solid and sturdy. The plastic backing ensures that you will not be cutting yourself on any sharp metal edges....


Overall they look very impressive and are truly gorgeous plates. I'm tempted to get some of them simply because they are a work of art in themselves. Please note that the plates below are just the plates that I purchased and not complete collections. There are A LOT of other plates available.

For each of the plates below, I'm showing both a photo and a scan of the plate. I personally prefer the scans because they show off the details much better, but I think some people prefer the photos so I decided to include both. Let me know which you prefer for my next review...

You can click on any of the images to see a larger version...

Mother Nature Collection - 01


Mother Nature Collection - 02


Pro Collection - 05


Pro Collection - 06


Pro Collection - 10


Pro Collection - 13


Pro Collection - 14


Sailor Collection - 01


Sailor Collection - 02


Suki Collection - 01


Suki Collection - 02


Suki Collection - 06


Suki Collection - 07


I truly can't stop staring at some of these plates! How gorgeous is that Suki Collection plate above?

The 'stampable' area of the full plates such as the Suki Collection 07 is 4.7 x 10.4 cm. With these images you can stamp any portion of the plate. Unlike the usual small images or full nail patterns which essentially predetermine what the stamped image will be, with these plates there are no limits. That can be quite an intimidating thing especially when it can be difficult to imagine how much will fit the nail, how it will look, or which portion we should be trying to pick up with the stamper. If that sounds about right, check out this amazing post by Marta on Chit Chat Nails for how to create a nail cutout which you can slide around on the stamping plate and get a better idea of what the image will look like.

The plates that I purchased which have full nail rectangular patterns are XL plates. The XL plates feature full nail designs which are 15 x 21mm in size. They are quite large. In comparison, the newest Bundle Monster Holiday plate set features full nail designs which are 14 x 17mm in size.


If you have smaller, shorter nails than take a look at the regular (instead of XL) plates. They feature 18 different designs per plate (compared to 12 on the XL plates) and each pattern is 12 x 15 mm in size. I unfortunately do not have any such plates to show you because they would be too short for my nails and I chose not to purchase any.

Here are a few of my 1st manicures with the MoYou London stamping plates. They all stamp beautifully! I have tried other plates as well although I have not created full manicures with them. They are very well etched and easy to stamp with. Even the thinnest lines and smallest details get picked up as you can see in the third manicure here. Because the patterns are so thin they do seem to get clogged with polish more than other plates and I found it necessary to clean the plate between each stamping to get crisp images...

You can click on any of the manicure to go directly to the original post...




You can find this and many, many, many (did I say that enough?) other MoYou London plates at: http://www.moyou.co.uk

Please let me know what you think of this review! Also, do you prefer to see photos or scans of the plates?

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

El Corazon Floral...

Thursday, December 5, 2013
Today I would like to show you a manicure with one of the El Corazon beauties that I received for review. It made the perfect base for some delicate stamped flowers. I love how this looks as though someone just doodled on my nails...


For this manicure, I started out with a base of El Corazon Poly-Chrome 322. I stamped using Kaleidoscope № f-14, the same polish that I used for my previous stamped manicure, but as you can see the manicures are completely different. The gorgeous floral image is from MoYou London Pro Collection 14. The Pro Collection is one of my favorites from MoYou so you will be seeing a lot more of it...


Kaleidoscope № f-14 is absolutely fantastic for stamping. I have been told that the whole mirror polish (зеркальный лак) line works just as well. I only have two beauties from this line to play around with, but I know I will make good use of them since they have easily won me over.





El Corazon Poly-Chrome 322
I am not entirely sure how to describe this shade. It is a sheer nude with a strong gold shimmer. In some light and at the more extreme angles it looks a bit gray with tiny black specks. It is part of the Poly-Chrome line. This is quite sheer and at four coats the nail line is still visible, although not as much as I had anticipated at first. It can look wonderful layered over another polish for a beautiful golden shine. I will show you one such version soon.


Although some of the newer El Corazon lacquers have a Big5Free formula, the Poly-Chrome line is not one of them. These lacquers contains Toluene and Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), both of which I personally usually try to avoid. It also contains Camphor, but is free from Formaldehyde. I know a lot of people don't worry about the contents, but for those of you who are worrywarts like me, there you have it...



You can see some of the black specs here along the side of the nail. It is so beautiful...


Swatch Details
Brand: El Corazon
Collection: Poly-Chrome
Color Name/Number: 322
Number of coats: 4
Top Coat: No

Free of Formaldehyde; Contains Toluene, Dibutyl Phthalate (DBP), Camphor

I've gotten a quite a few questions regarding purchasing El Corazon lacquers so here are a few websites to check out.

For a full catalog of lacquers visit:
http://www.scarlet21vek.ru/ or http://elcorazon.ru/

Internet shops that ship internationally:
(from Russia) http://charme-beauty.ru/ishop/brand/236_0
(from Russia) http://www.krasotkapro.ru/catalog/el_corazon_/
(from Ukraine) http://elcorazon.com.ua/
You will need to contact them directly regarding shipping costs. I suggest using the translate feature of your browsers to navigate the pages (unless of course you are able to read and understand Russian :)). Also if there is something that you are interested in that is not listed in the shops, contact the shop in Ukraine and they should be able to order it for you from the manufacturer.

Let me know if you have any questions about El Corazon lacquers and I would be more than happy to clarify for you...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)


** Polishes were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **
** For more information please see the disclosure policy **