Wild Birds...

I recently had the pleasure of doing an impromptu nail polish swap with the lovely Mari of muxe.net. A few of the El Corazon Eggs of Wild Birds polishes were on my lemming/wish list and I had mentioned this to her. They are not readily available in her area so I didn't expect her to ever find them, but she happened to come across them and snatched them up for me. A huge thanks to Mari for squashing one of my big lemmings. If you have not visited Mari's her blog yet, you are missing out on gorgeous swatches and nail art, so go check her out!

For today's manicure, I thought these pretty little birds would feel right at home on a polish inspired by bird eggs...

To create this manicure, I started out with the base of El Corazon N423/95. I then stamped the birdcages using Messy Mansion plate MM14 and Essence Stamp Me! Black stampy polish. To complete the look I added bird decals which I made a day ahead using the same MM14 plate, Stamp Me! Black and acrylic paint....

I just love how soft and delicate this manicure turned out. I had envisioned these two pretty birds escaping their cages and flying to be together. You can't cage love...

Messy Mansion plates have incredible detail in every image and they pick up and stamp so well! Please pardon the tear in my stamper, it is my favorite one despite the tear. I've tried buying many other stampers and have not found one that works as well, so I use this torn one that is long overdue for retirement...

El Corazon N423/95 is a milky lilac base with black hex and micro glitter. It is part of the Eggs of Wild Birds collection. The application is good, although I did have to chase a few of the hex glitters around to keep them from following the brush right off the nail. It is fully opaque in three coats. The only thing that I'm sad about is that it contains formaldehyde which I personally try to avoid. I hadn't realized that until sitting down to write this post and trying to read the teeny print on the back of the bottle. I am so bummed because I absolutely love this color!...

Swatch Details
	Brand: El Corazon Collection: Eggs of Wild Birds Color Name/Number: N423/95 Number of coats: 3 Top Coat: Yes Contains Formaldehyde; Free from Camphor, Toluene, DBP

I'd love to know what you think of this mani!

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

Messy Mansion Feathers...

Today I'm excited to show you a manicure that I created with the new birds plate from Messy Mansion. I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to review three Messy Mansion stamping plates and I plan to show each of them separately, one manicure at a time. Starting out with the bird plate, I was immediately drawn to the feather pattern and knew that I had to pair it with a real feather...

For this manicure I started out with a base of Zoya Flynn from the Cashmere collection for this Fall. I stamped using Messy Mansion plate MM14 with Zoya Louise from the same Cashmere collection. For the accent nail I used a real feather from one of my mom's hens. Have no fear, no hens were harmed in the process. To complete the look, I matted the manicure with Essie Matte About You...

The beauty of the real feather didn't come across well in the photos. It doesn't even look real in these photos, but I'll try to get over it and stop pouting. It wasn't quite so dark in real life...

A better look at the feather...

And a closer look at the plate. Messy Mansion plates come with a protective blue cover that needs to be removed prior to stamping. The back of the plate does not have any backing so the edges are a bit sharp to the touch. It measures 7cm in diameter which is much larger than a standard plate size and this allows for much larger full size images as well. The metal is sturdy and does not easily bend. They are very well made and etched...

As you can see, the theme of this plate is birds. Everything from bird feathers to cute bird cages. Beautiful crisp images that stamp very well.

The full size images are a whoping 22.5mm by 17mm. Perfect for longer nails and no need to double stamp the thumbs! I think that deserves a thumbs up. And, I'm not even going to point out that the width of the full size image is more than the length of some other brands...

You can find this and other Messy Mansion plates at http://www.messymansion.com.au/
Shipping for plate only order is just $2.50

P.S. Check out Messy Mansion on Facebook... they just might be having a giveaway for this plate ;)

I've already got a few more manis planned with this plate so stay tuned...

Thanks for looking!
Anutka :)

** Polishes & plate were provided to me for review by the manufacturer or their PR. **

** For more information please see the disclosure policy **