Mundo de Uñas stamping polishes

A couple months ago I joined the Facebook group Adventures in Stamping, where other nail stamping enthusiasts post pictures, tutorials, and stamping tips on a daily basis.  This is where I was introduced to the amazing stamping polishes by Mundo de Uñas.  Made in Mexico, these polishes are specifically made for nail stamping, and the polishes are extra thick and pigmented for best results.  These polishes are not to be used as regular nail polish, however, as the consistency is too thick.

After seeing hundreds of photos from women who use this product, I knew I had to give it a try.  If you stamp on a regular basis, then you know that only a fraction of nail polishes out there are suitable for stamping, and this creates limitations in color selection.  And most polishes (except for whites, metallics, and some bright cremes) do not stamp well over dark colors like black or navy.  Luckily, Mundo de Uñas has created a brilliant and affordable solution.  Her specialty stamping polishes are far superior to other stamping polishes, and there are tons of swatches out there to prove it.  Plus, with Mundo de Uñas you get a huge variety of color options and very reasonable shipping rates.  I ordered the following 8 polishes, and with the shipping it cost about 35 dollars.

For what these polishes accomplish, it is truly an amazing deal and I will be ordering more very soon!  To see the full color chart, visit the Mundo de Uñas Facebook page (linked above), and if you want to place an order you will need to do so through the Facebook page as well.

To test out my new polishes, I wanted to do something very bright, where the contrast would be difficult to achieve with regular polish.  And these are my very satisfying results:

Can you believe how bright this is??  I feel like my stamping options are limitless now!

For this look I used OPI's Toucan Do It If You Try and Mundo de Uñas stamping polishes in #39 (Avocado) and #27 (Neon Yellow)

So what do you think of my "flower power" mani?  Have you used Mundo de Uñas stamping polishes before?  You should!

2013 Holiday Nails #1

For this Holiday look, I used Santa Red My List by China Glaze as the base color and Essie's No Place Like Chrome for the stamp color:

Shot of the Day: 2013 Halloween Nails #4

This is one of my favorite looks I've done so far this season:

For this look, I used 'Where Art Renoir?' by Finger Paints, which is a really smooth, creamy formula with fine silver glitter.  I stamped with a Sally Hansen white.

Pretty witchy, right?

Shot of the Day: 2013 Halloween Nails #3

Ok so technically this is more of an El Dia de los Muertos look, but it definitely works for the season!

By the way, this base color is 'Iconic Orange' by Finger Paints.  See more swatches here.

Shot of the Day: 2013 Halloween Nails #2

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, I've been incorporating a lot of Halloween-themed nail art lately, so for the next couple of day I'll be posting pictures of those.  Here's from a day where I went a little stamp crazy...

If you can't see the designs clearly enough (sorry for the poor photo quality...I was having camera and lighting issues) the images include: A haunted house, a spider, a cloud of bats, "boo!," and two tombstones.  I added America Apparel's Glow in the Dark top coat, and it really enhanced the green and gave the polish more of a matte finish.

The kids at the library loved these when I went to work, by the way!  Of course, they didn't get to see the glow-in-the-dark effect, but still...I am loving getting to do all these Halloween manis.

Shot of the Day: 2013 Halloween Nails #1

Here are my first Halloween nails of the season!

For this look, I used two of the images from Cheeky's Happy Holidays Jumbo Plate.  They stamped perfectly and I got a lot of compliments at work!  What do you think?

Shot of the Day: Sinful Colors "High Strung" + Stamping

For this look  I used "High Strung" from Sinful Colors and stamped with China Glaze's "Liquid Leather," which is my favorite black stamping polish.

For the accent nails, I used "Clearly Spotted" from the Maybelline Color Show Polka Dots collection

Shot of the Day: Green and White Bubbles Mani

For this look, I used Zoya "Hunter" and stamped the bubbles with a Sally Hansen white.

Coral and Gold Stamped Mani with Glitter

Shot of the Day: Teal and Roses Stamped Mani

Here's the teal base I used for this look (by Finger Paints).  The second one is in brighter lighting:

And here's the look with the roses stamped in black by Forever 21:

The stamp really darkened the color, but I really enjoyed this mani and got a lot of compliments on it!

Shot of the Day: Metallic "Chevron" Nails

We all know the chevron look has been really popular this summer, so I decided to try out one of my chevron stamps a little while ago to keep up with the trend.  Unfortunately, I did not evenly line up the stamp on my first couple of tries so I just decided the stamp the chevron pattern from a bunch of different angles instead.  I think it still looks pretty cool:

Sorry it's a little blurry...guess I just did not have a steady hand that night.  Anyway, here's a swatch of the base color without the stamp.  I used Sally Hansen's Gilty Party for this look:

And let me just say, I absolutely love this polish.  Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure polishes are some of my favorites, and this one is a perfect cross-seasonal shade.  It has a tiny bit of bronze that makes it perfect for summer, but the overall shimmer and color could be great for a Christmas/wintery look, too.  See how the color shifts somewhere between silver/bronze/gold with the two different lighting settings in the photos?  It's basically a must have polish.

Shot of the Day: Giraffe Print Nails

It seems like China Glaze's Lemon Fizz has been a huge hit with nail enthusiasts this summer.  And as soon as I got a bottle of my own, I knew it would be the perfect base color for a giraffe print mani.  Here's 2 coats of Lemon Fizz:

And I was right!  It is the perfect base color for a Giraffe print:

Please excuse my bad cuticle day...But other than that, pretty nice, huh?

Shot of the Day: Magic Carpet Nails

Base color is by Urban Outfitters, and I believe the stamping polish is from the China Glaze Romantique collection:

After I did this design, one of my friends commented that it looked like a magic carpet or something from Aladdin.  What do you think?

Shot of the Day: Tiger Stripes

So I've kinda gone a little stamp crazy this summer, and to be honest, I've stamped my nails so frequently that I couldn't keep up with all the products I was using.  So for the next few weeks, I'm basically just going to dump a bunch of stamping photos here.  It would take me forever to go back and figure out exactly which polish and product I used in all of my pictures, but if you really want to know a polish color name or stamping plate ID, just say so in the comments and I'll do my best to track it down.  Enjoy!

China Glaze base color:

And now for the tiger stripes:

So what do you think of my mani?  Pretty wild, huh?  :)

Happy 4th of July

So, I couldn't decide what to do for my patriotic manicure (there are sooo many options), so I just decided to do a little bit of everything.  Here's my left hand:

 And here's my right hand:

I've got glitter gradients, polka dots, stamps, and rhinestones...I feel like Uncle Sam would be proud!  It's too much product to catalog here, and I honestly can't even remember everything I used for this look, but it's pretty great, huh?!

Anyway, I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday! Happy 4th of July!

Shot of the Day: Gatsby Inspired Nails

Have you all seen the new Gatsby movie yet?  I haven't had a chance so far, but I'm a big fan of the book!  Anyway, I am loving all the Gatsby nail trends I'm seeing these days, so I thought I'd do a Great Gatsby manicure of my own! I wanted something very deco but also super sparkly, so I used Urban Outfitters Smokin as my base color:

This picture doesn't do it justice.  This polish is so glittery and sparkly, and it keeps that wet look, which really makes it shimmer in certain lights.  It usually looks like this champagne-gold color, but in certain fluorescent lights it looks more silver.  This polish also had one of the best applications of any glitter I've ever used, so guess what I did!  I went back to Urban Outfitters and bought a bunch more of their glitter polishes.

For my Deco stamp, I used Winstonia plate W111, which applied really well!  This black is probably my favorite black stamping color and it's from the Forever 21 Red Carpet Kit.

This photo was taken under fluorescent lights, and it definitely looks more silver here than gold.  I got so many compliments on this manicure, and it really popped with the black and gold accent jewelry I wore.

For this look, I used OPI Nail Envy as a base coat and Seche Vite as a top coat.  So what do you think?  Pretty fancy, huh?

Shot of the Day: Cinco de Mayo Nails and Margaritas!

I hope you all had a wonderful Cinco de Mayo!  Here in Tennessee, it was rainy and cold, but that didn't stop me from bringing the fiesta to my mani!

For this look, I used Essie's Blanc over a base coat of OPI Nail Envy.  I have to say, once again I am disappointed with an Essie polish.  Less than 24 hours later I had some major chips, even with a Seche Vite top coat.  For the dots and stamping I used the red from my Forever 21 Red Carpet Kit and NYC's High Line Green.

Here's an upside down shot so you can see the stamp better.  This stamp is from Gals plate GA9. I didn't have time to do any of the complicated Aztec designs, so I just decided to go with Mexico's national colors and some "Margarita" glasses.  They might actually be martini glasses but let's use our imaginations.

And look how good they look with a drink in my hand! Ok well yes, everything looks better when there's a drink in your hand...My husband made these margaritas for us this weekend to celebrate the holiday and boy were they strong!  Here's the recipe if you dare:


2 oz tequila
2 oz triple sec
Key Lime juice to taste
Salt rim (if desired)

Shot of the Day: Forever 21 Neon Polish and Stamping

I recently went on a shipping trip and came home with two nail polish sets from Forever 21: The Red Carpet Kit and the Summer Lovin' Kit.  I love them both so much! I was really surprised by the quality, especially considering that these kits are only $6.80 apiece!!  Here's a couple of swatches of the Highlighter Yellow color from the Summer Lovin' Kit:

My friend Cameron is a local artist here in Knoxville, and he was quite interested in my new stamping plates, so he decided to decorate my nails for me.  Some of the designs are from stamps, others are free-hand.  Here are a few pics from our epic nail art session:

Pretty awesome, huh? We used all kinds of stamps so I couldn't keep track of the plates we used, but I believe they all came from my MASH 26-50 Stamps and my Winstonia Plates.

Stamping Success with MASH 26-50 Plates

If you follow Polish off the Bottle on Facebook and Twitter, then you know that I have been super pumped about getting started with nail stamping.  Well, my MASH 26-50 Plates arrived last week along with my Konad double ended stamper, and I have been having a ball!  It's a much easier process than I thought it would be, and there is so much variety you can do with your manicure.  I feel like I'm an all-star nail artist now thanks to nail stamping.

So my first attempt wasn't perfect, but I wanted to try a small design instead of a full pattern first just to get used to the application process.  Here's a pic from my first nail stamp manicure attempt: