Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Bundle Monster Around the World BM-XL151 and XL152 and Scraper Review

Press  Sample
Hey there!  Today I have a couple mani's from a fun new stamping plate collection from Bundle Monster, the Around the World collection.  I remember, back in the day when I first started stamping, Bundle Monster was the first set of plates I bought.  I loved them them then and I love them even more now.  The quality of the etching on their plates has improved immensely and is now right up there with the best and they've managed to still keep them affordable (which I definitely appreciate).    

The Around the World collection is (currently) a set of 5 plates themed with different countries from, you guessed it, around the world.  The two I'm showing today are BM-XL151 and 152, inspired by China and Egypt, respectively.  



BM-XL151 is named Shanghai Summer, with lots of China-inspired images.  Below is a scan of the plate I received.  Each Around The World plate is 4.75 x 2.4 inches and has a mix of individual, buffet-style and full nail images. 


Even though this plate is inspired by Chinese imagery, I wanted to show that you don't need to do a cultural mani when you use these plates.  I opted to instead just use the circles that are part of the tree image on this plate.  I used 1 coat of Lacquistry Chinese New Year (I had to keep it at least a bit Chinese) and stamped with Essie No Place Like Chrome and finished with HK Girl top coat.  



BM-XL152 is the Egypt-inspired plate, called Pharoah-est of All.  I really like the geometric patterns that this plate has.  


To use this plate, I wanted to stay with the Egypt theme closer than I did with the China plate.  I used a coat of Dance Legend The Knight over black and stamped with Mundo de Unas Black.  On my accent nail I made a decal and filled in one part of the tribal-like image with white acrylic paint.  To finish I used HK Girl top coat.  



Bundle Monster is also now offering scrapers along with many other stamping accessories.  I was sent two from the Fabulous Florals sets, of different thicknesses, to review.


The first scraper is very similar to what I usually use (old gift cards).  It is 1 mm thick, very sturdy and difficult to bend (in the photo I'm trying to bend it).  Personally this is exactly the type of scraper I like.  I find it removes the excess polish off the plates without having to be too concerned about angle and speed of scraping.


The second scraper is thinner, at just 0.5 mm.  You can see here that it's very flexible.  Though I normally do use a thicker scraper, I have found myself going to this one now that I have it for more difficult plates, like those with etching that isn't very deep.


Overall, I have to say I'm very impressed with the quality of both the plates and the scrapers I received.  There are still 3 other plates in this collection, inspired by France, India and Japan that you'll see soon here.  

Price: $4.99/plate and $4.99/set of 6 scrapers
Available on Bundle Monster's website

'Til next time...

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