Playing around with Bundle Monster Plates from NPC

When this goes up, I will most likely be panicking in a stairwell at school, freaking out over my last exam. If everything goes the way I thought it will, Friday’s exam will have destroyed my confidence to do well today. BUT the positive side is that this is only worth 20% of my overall grade, rather than the 45% that I tackled yesterday.

Yeah…That doesn’t really motivate me much lol.

Alright, so let us move on.

Int he middle of October, I got an email from Nail Polish Canada asking if I would like to try out their Bundle Monster plates. Specifically the 2012 collection of 25 plates. You can check it out HERE on their website.

Of course I said yes.

These are my first BM plates, though I am not new to the stamping world. I have Konad, and have reviewed a plate I received from NPC HERE.

Of course I had to Instagram it as soon as I got it…

Ooh got #bundlemonster in the mail from #nailpolishcanada to play w xD (thank you @polishcanada)

Bundle Monster plates
– Slightly smaller circumference in comparison to Konads. Like tiny difference, of 1mm
– All come covered in blue film (which is a PAIN to pull off…not therapeutic for me at all)
but at least you know that your plates are not scratched when you get them. Well for the most part, though BM 321 did come scratched up for me. The way you see it in the picture below is how I received it…and that was WITH the film on it.
– Stamped BM with a number
– Slight thinner than Konad.
I was counting my plates, and came up to 24 plates. I was surprised and was looking for the last plate. Was about to email NPC, when I realized that 301 and 302 had stuck together, and I didn’t notice! Hence they are on the thin side.

BM 301 & 302

BM 303 & 304

BM 305 & 306

BM 307 & 308

BM 309 & 310

BM 311 & 312

BM 313 & 314

BM 315 & 316

BM 317 & 318

BM 319 & 320

BM 321 & 322

BM 323 & 324

BM 325

Now here is where I ran into a little trouble with the plates…


These two pictures are before scraping the plate, and after scraping the plate. You can see that the colour of the Orly polish is FAR thinner in colour after the scrape.

 

On the first two fingers, thats what it looked stamped. On the pinky I swiped a coat of the polish to show you how it actually looked as a polish.

 

That leads me to think that these guys have a shallower engraving them the Konads. This makes it a little more difficult to pick up the polish on the stamp. I tried with American Apparel Polish, Sally Hansen Insta-Dri, and a few others, and still could not get them to show up properly. I got pretty discouraged.

 

Until I remembered that nothing could escape the awesomeness that is Chrome polish.

 

And I was right.

It worked. It FINALLY worked! After all those trials, and huffing of the polish remover fumes…it finally worked. So I got busy!

 

BM 317

 

BM 311

 

BM 306

 

Of course it didn’t work for everything…which was expected really. I can’t get all my Konad stamps to work 100% every time I use them.

The bear on BM 312 was a nightmare for me. I could not get it to show. I was always missing something on the bear, and it would just freak me out.

 

I thought BM 304 was pretty cool, as it is a split design, until I realized I couldn’t really get it to work for me. Might be cool for some…

 

So what did I like about my Bundle Monster experience?

First off the designs. As you can see in the pictures of the plates, there are just so many freaking designs! I think this set would cover you for any occasion in the year. I loved that about it. We have skulls (halloween-y), Hearts, Lace, French nail tips, Full nail, Paw print, snowflake, snowman, BM316 and BM310 have reverse patterns, BM304 has a split pattern.

Second the price is awesome. I mean even if there are a few dud patterns, the price you are getting each plate at is amazing.

Third, but the full nail patterns, I found them larger than some of the Konad ones that I have, and thus made stamping my thumb better.

Contrasting pattern.
Gives you an extra kick to the designs on your nails.

 

On snow…how I wish you would fall and stick to the ground soon…White Christmas…I’m still trying to be hopeful!

 

What I wasn’t too fond of with my experience…
First off, my biggest issue was the edges of the plates. They are noticeably sharper than Konads. Not to the point where I am going to slice my finger, but it was…uncomfortable.

Second, I had to ensure that every time I stamped, I erased it with polish remover before stamping the next stamp. Otherwise I would get an incomplete stamp, and that is just not fun to deal with.

Third, it was a bit of a pain trying to find a polish that would work on the BM plates. I need to do a bit more research on  finding polish that I already have, that will work with some ease on them.

 

So…

In short, I think that the collection plates are a great price. I mean 25 for $23.99 is an awesome price!

In terms of the plates in general, I liked the wide variety of different patterns that come with the kit. You should be able to find something that appeals to you. Plus it covers a lot of the festive days of the year, from Halloween, Christmas, Valentines, Easter, and even ribbons so that you can do your nails in the type of cancer you want to pay tribute to. The plates do take a bit of time to get used to, but once you do, it is fun.

If you aren’t interested in this collection, they also have single plates on their site, which you can check out HERE.

*Product provide by Nail Polish Canada for review consideration*