Wednesday, February 3, 2016

Bundle Monster Mochi Stamping Station and Spring Time Occasions Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Today I have an exciting, huge review for a couple of Bundle Monster's latest/upcoming products.  And I do mean HUGE in a couple of different ways - first, because I did 6 whole manis with the new Spring Time Occasions stamping plates (the most I think I've ever done in one post) and second, because I'm reviewing the Mochi Stamping Station, a giant stamper that allows you to stamp an entire hand with one image pick up.  It is perfect for the buffet-style images that allow you to have slightly different images on your nails while still maintaining and cohesive look.  Please do keep reading to hear my thoughts on these new products and to get my tips and tricks.


As you can see above, the Mochi stamper is one heck of a stamper.  It's approximate the size of an old school blackboard eraser (that's how you know I'm not young, I remember blackboards instead of just dry erase boards).  It's 12 cm long x 5 cm wide x 3 cm tall.  The pink stamper is semi-squishy and removes easily from the grey handle (which was nice when it came to priming it).  With it, I also received a couple of scrapers.  These scrapers are approximately 2 mm thick -  slightly thinner and far more flexible than a typical gift card.  

The first thing to know about this stamper is that it definitely needs to be primed.  It is very shiny and when I first tried using it straight from the package, it wouldn't pick up much of the image at all (from BM-S223).  So I primed it by washing it with dish soap and giving it a few good wipes with a cotton pad soaked in acetone.  You can see the difference that this minor bit of priming makes.  I got a bit of feathering out from the images but I believe that it more from using Mundos than the stamper as I see that with a lot of stamping that I do.  I do think this stamper works best for images with thin lines like the one pictured below.  I tried with a heavier pattern and had gaps in the image, even after priming with a magic eraser.  Luckily most buffet-style images have thin lines like this one does.   


Apart from priming, my second tip is to not try to stamp all your fingers at once.  It's true that you can stamp an entire hand with one pick up but as you can see below, when I tried stamping them all at the same time, I had some big gaps on the sides of my nails, because my nails are curved and the stamper couldn't reach the entire surface when my fingers were that close together.  



After the above attempt, I tried again with stamping once nail at a time and got much better results.  This is BM-223 over Picture Polish Bridget.  


For all of the mani's I'm showing today, I used the one of Bundle Monsters newest stamping plate sets - the Spring Time Occasions collection.  This is a set of 10 - 2 inch x 2 inch plates that are perfect for the upcoming holidays including Valentine's Day, Chinese New Year and spring (that must mean spring is coming soon, right??).  



I loved wearing this first mani.  I had read that OPI's Color Paints water marble so I gave it a try over Born Pretty's Silver Mirror polish and they definitely do marble easily.  Then I used the Mochi stamper, BM-S221 and Mundo de Unas white for the multi-lingual "love" stamping.  I thought the different language and the rainbow of colors went together really nice, if I do say so myself.  



Next I did a quick two color mani with white (I didn't write down which white exactly) and Sally Hansen Presto Pink and covered the line with some decals that I made with BM-S222, Mundo de Unas Black and Sally Hansen Rapid Red.



For my next mani, I wanted something inspired by Chinese New Year, with it's characteristic red and gold colors.  I used Nubar Rosso and Oro to make decals with BM-S228 that I applied over black.  



For this one I used my beloved Ozotic 621 and stamped this woven pattern from BM-S230 with Girly Bits Fire Engine Red  (previously reviewed here).  This is the most simple of all the manis I did for today's post but simple is doesn't always get enough credit.  I loved this mani too.  



And finally, even though spring is months away here in my northern city, I wanted to do at least one springtime mani with these plates.  I started with 10.1 Polish Mermaid Scales and stamped leaves with Girly Bits British Racing Green and BM-S226.  


On a clear stamper I then stamped with some spring flowers (also from BM-S226) Mundo de Unas Yellow and filled the centres with Chocolate.  I then used a trick I learned from one of the groups I'm in and put a layer of foil glue on my nail and, when it was tacky, transferred the image to my nail.  I then matte'd it with OPI matte top coat.  


Phew, thanks for sticking around!  Hopefully that gives you a bit of inspiration for things you can do with the new Mochi Stamping Station  that is being released tomorrow (February 4, 2016) and the Spring Time Occasions collection (already available and currently on sale for $12.74 US).  

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'Til next time...


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