Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Indie and Messy Mansion Product Review

I just got my first order of Messy Mansion plates. They are my first "indie" plates, plates designed and sold by an independent manufacturer. Commercial plates like Bundle Monster and MoYou are awesome, but ever once in a while I like to support those people that go at it alone. It is like the difference between a grocery store and a farmer's market. Indie plate makers are having a hard time of it lately. Some commercial makers have been trying to copyright the act of nail stamping and are attacking indie makers with lawsuits and cease and desist orders. You won't see me buying plates from people who do that anytime soon. And there there is the opposite side of the scale, the cut rate dealers. I don't mind super cheap plates of suspicious quality, but when they steal the designs from other makers it becomes not cool. So independent plate makers have the big commercial companies trying to force them out of business, and cheap companies stealing their designs.

Anyway, here is my first indie purchase. The 3 plates come in resealable baggies with a holographic sticker on the bag sporting Messy Mansion's logo "MM". I bought MM04 the Irish plate, MM25 the Science plate, and MM28 Crime.

The logo sticker really caught the light in this photo :)

Well first lets take a look at the size of the plates. They come with the standard blue film to protect from scratches. And they are larger than many of the plates I've gotten in the past. Here I compare it to BundleMonster's BM221. BundleMonster is a standard sized plates. Most plates you buy come in this size.

The area within the full nail image is also larger than BundleMonster's.

Much longer and a tad bit wider than BundleMonster. The size for full nail images do vary quite a bit. I'm just using BundleMonster because it is a very common plate company. And the plate happened to be sitting on my desk when my MM shipment came in.

And on to the stamping. The images are etched evenly and deeply. I think they are deeper than any plate I've gotten before. The edges are crisp and clean. I am in love! I've ordered 5 more plates and can't wait till they come in!

I am totally in love. By the way, what do you think of my new camera. I'm still working on the best way to use it, but I think the results are stunning. The shape of the photo is different and I'm trying to come up with a way to fix that without having to crop each and every photo, but other than that, I am super pleased.

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Lemming

I have no idea where the term originated, but a Lemming polish is simply a polish you very desperately want to get your hands on. It's one at the top of your wishlist and you will probably spend more money that you should to get it. I have a handful of lemmings myself, one of which I just got a dupe of and am thrilled even if it's not exactly the same thing.

I've never bough Salon Perfect before, but when they released this polish I spazzed out a little bit. It is nearly an exact copy of Ninja Polish "Floam", one of my lemmings.

China Glaze "Whirled Away" was another attempt at fulfilling a lemming desire. Again I so want Ninja Polish "Sticks and Stones" but it is usually sold out so I got this to try and replace it. It is not nearly as close a dupe but it will do till I find something better.

Some of my other lemmings:
Nuf-Oh 61
Color Club Halo Hues
China Glaze OMG Collection
Finger Paints Special Effects Collection
Almost anything by Nerd Lacquer but especially "Don't Blink", "I Think You Call Me...Sexy", "Don't Panic" and "Gorramit".

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Crackle Polish

OPI "Gold Shatter", Avon Mosaic Effects in Black, Sally Hansen "Distressed Denim" and "Cherry Smash",
L.A. Girls Cracked in White, China Glaze "Haute Metal", "Cracked Medallion" and "Oxidized Aqua".

I love crackle polish. Yeah, I know, the fad is pretty much over, but that doesn't change the fact that I still like it. Last year it was all over the place and each brand was coming out with different colors all the time, but now? You can find it on clearance some places, but I can't think of any brand that carries one in its everyday line. I could be wrong tho. Any way, what is a crackle polish? A Crackle polish is special effect topcoat that when it dries cracks, allowing you to see any color polish you put on before it. Confused? Ok, well here is a close up of a finished nail with crackle on it.

I painted this nail with 2 coats of Orly "Liquid Vinyl" and let it dry. That's important. You have to let it dry or the crackle will mix with the under coat and either not crack right or the base coat will crack with the crackle and you won't see it below. The crackle I used with this nail is OPI "Gold Shatter". There is something about the glittery crackles that I adore, but don't freak out, they go on pretty sheer but as they dry and crack the color gets stronger. The solid colors are good in black and white, but the colored ones you have to be careful about what color you pair with it. Like this one...

This is Mystery Polish "Hot Rod" with Sally Hansen "Cherry Smash" Crackle coat over it. I thought it would make a neat Christmas polish, all green and red, but the dark green made the red look muddy and gross. So from now on I'll only use this red over lighter colors.

One other note on crackles, when they get old they get chunky and thick. I'm not sure how well nail polish thinner works on them or if it affects the crackle, but I don't think it hurts it much. When my white gets a bit thicker I'll give it a shot and let you guys know if it hurts it. Hmm, I didn't start out with the intention of making this a Lexicon post but it kinda turned into one :)

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Undies

There are polishes out there that are glorious in one coat. Easy to apply and stunning. Then there are other polishes, that while just as pretty, need some help to achieve a knock out manicure. Neons, pastels, and some dense glitter or holographic polishes come to mind as needing a base color to make them stand out wonderfully. Neon and pastel polishes usually look their best over a white color while glitters and holos are best over a black. The color you put down, in these examples black and white, are what are known as underwear or undies polish. The idea is it is a polish you won't see, but make the polish you do see better.

Here is an example of white making neon look better.

Sally Hansen "White On"

Here I painted half the nail white and left the other half bare so you can see the difference.

Sinful Colors "Pink", "Summer Peach","Neon Melon",
"Irish Green", and "Love Nails"

See how much more the neon pops over the white? Especially the yellow.

Wet n Wild "Black Creme"

And here is 2 polishes that benefit from being painted over black

Wet n Wild "Born Into Privilege" and Hard Candy "Beetle"

Alot of dense glitters look better over black and most duochromes as well. There you go, now you know what undies polish means!

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Franken Polish

A Franken Polish, like Frankenstein's Monster, is a polish made up from other polishes. A drop of this and a drop of that to make a whole new creation. I have just started making up my own starting with a hideous topcoat that has been sitting around in my stash for years. It became thick and yellow and I was NEVER gonna use it. I probably should have thrown it away, but now I'm glad I didn't. A couple drops of thinner, some color from other polishes, and a pinch of glitter and I have my first Franken.

Here I really wanted a St. Patrick's polish, a nice Emerald or Kelly green with gold hex glitter floating in it like gold coins. While I'm proud of it it does have a major issue that I still need to research. The glitter falls to the bottom fast and needs to be shaken constantly to get it on the brush. I've heard that to add glitter to polish you need a suspension liquid to add to the polish so the glitter stays spread out, but I don't have any and don't know what could work in its place. Here is a close up of the jelly like green.

And of course I can't stop at one Franken Polish!

Now, how exactly do we make a Franken? Find out more after the jump!

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Jelly Sandwich

For quite a while I was stumped by the term "jelly" and "jelly sandwich". I kept getting it confused with Gel nail polishes and tips. The main trait of a jelly is it is very translucent with a weak or watery color. To make it opaque would take a crazy amount of coats if you could get it opaque at all. I used to hate the few jelly bottles I had thinking they were lame polishes and the color too weak to do anything with. I've since apologized to them :) Now that I'm using them correctly I think of the colors and squishy (no idea why) or like Jolly Ranchers or some other hard candy.

The most popular use of jelly polishes are layering them with other polishes, usually glitter. Layering them is what is known as a jelly sandwich. This gives depth and dimension to a manicure. Check out a few samples after the jump.

Nail Polish Lexicon ~ Dupes

When I got into the nail world, I ran into a lot of words I had never heard before. No matter how hard I looked I couldn't find a dictionary of these terms. So I'm gonna write one. First up is an easy one, almost self explanatory. Dupe, short for duplicate,  is used to refer to polishes that are so close as to be identical and usually from different brands. Here is a good example from my stash. Orly "Star Spangled", China Glaze "Ruby Pumps" and Fight Night Claw Polish "Voodoo". All are micro red glitter in a watery red base. There are minor differences, one is slightly more berry red and another more scarlet red, or the density of the glitter is higher in some than it is in others, but in all honesty? They are pretty much the same polish.

Orly, China Glaze, and Fright Night Claw Polish.

Orly "Star Spangled"

China Glaze "Ruby Pumps"

Fright Night Claw Polish "Voodoo"