Wednesday, November 23, 2016

UberChic Beauty Christmas 02, Wild West 02, Mermaid Life, Collection 12 and UberSwatcher Review

Press  Sample

Hey there!  Let me start by apologizing because this post is going to be HUGE!  I have the latest Christmas, Wild West plates, the first Mermaid Life plate AND the whole of Collection 12!  Normally I split up my UberChic products into separate posts but I have quite a few plates and I wanted to share them before Black Friday sales started.  I don't know the details of UberChic Beauty's sale yet but one is coming and I'd jump on it if I were you.  And I wanted to tell you about how I'm using the new UberSwatcher product.  I'll try not to yap too much since there's a lot going on in this post.

Christmas 02

Wild West 02

Mermaid Life

Collection 12

UberSwatcher

First, the logistics of UberChic Beauty's plates for the uninitiated.  Each plate I'm reviewing today measures 9.5 x 14.5 cm.  UberChic's full nails images are large enough for most folks at 17 x 21 mm. That being said, most images work for nails of all sizes.  Brittany works to make images that don't lose too much when stamped onto shorter nails.  My nails are never longer than 1.5 cm and I'm always happy with the images.  For the sake of brevity, I'll say that I didn't have any issues with any of the images I used which isn't surprising.  The thing I love about UberChic is the quality - it's always great.  That and Brittany is truly a lovely human being (I've met her so I know that to be true).    If you'd like further details of the plates I'm sharing today, there's always fun descriptions on the product pages.



First up is a gradient of OPI Rich Girls & Po Boys and Zoya Blue, stamped with Mundo de Unas White and Black.  The advanced stamping penguin (the cutest image ever) is done with Mundo de Unas Black, White and Sunflower.  


Inspired by a tree I drove past in my neighbourhood last week that was covered in golden Christmas lights.  Stamping was done with Mundo de Unas Black and filled with ILNP Empire over ILNP Evergreen.  




This was a stamping decal made on the black Mini Uber Mat.  I've been doing more "advanced stamping" lately and applying directly off the stamper but sometimes you need a good decal.  The stamping was done with Mundo de Unas Bones and filled with Zoya Clare, Cecilia and Ziv.  


This was Butter London Earl Grey stamped with Mundo de Unas Pinon.  I had never used this stamping polish and I think it had separated since the stamping is super awesome.  I really need to start using some of those unloved stamping colors more often so this doesn't happen again.  This one was mattified with Essie Matte About You.  




A lot of folks were calling out for a mermaid plate and UberChic delivered.  I love the layered stamping option so I jumped on that one.  I used base colors of Femme Fatale Jewels From The Deep or Girly Bits Mint To Be.  The layered scale stamping was done with Mundo de Unas Fantasy and Black.  The mermaid nail was first stamped with the waves in white and then with advanced stamping on the UberChic XL Clear Stamper with Mundo de Unas Black, Fantasy, Brick and, of course the tail in Jewels from the Deep.


I wanted a pirate map so I used Essie Sand Tropez and used watered down acrylic paint to age it.  The stamping is mainly M Polish Elizabethan but there's a bit of MDU Brick, Black and Bones.  Again, Essie Matte About You was used for the final look.  




12-01 double stamped in Mundo de Unas Gold then Black over a pseudo-radial gradient of KBShimmer Eyes White Open, Hugs & Wishes and Pansy-monium.  The only issue I had at all was this image using a thinner polish for the stamping (Essie Good As Gold) and the clear stamper so the issue could've been the stamper.  


More advanced stamping, this time with Essie No Place Like Chrome (which did pick up on the clear stamper, unlike Good As Gold) and Picture Polish Allure and Shocking over Ocean (my favourite of them all).  



This spring-like smooshy marble was done with Pretty Serious Forbidden Fruit, Doodle Bug and Peachie Poo and stamped with 12-02 and Mundo de Unas White.  


This one is gradient stamping done with 12-02 and Mundo de Unas Yellow, Avocado and Turquoise over FUN Lacquer Black Holo Witch which was sponged on to make it opaque.  This one needed 2 coats of top coat to smooth out that glitter.  



12-03 has quite a few layered stamping images (the entire bottom half of the plate)...hooray!  I used the circles and stars with Mundo de Unas Black and Blue with the XL Clear Stamper.  Someone in the Color4Nails fan group had shared Cupcake Polish Whimsy matte'd and I thought it was gorgeous so that's what I used as my base.  


My final mani of the night was inspired by a photo my sister had taken while she was out fabric shopping (she can sew...unlike me who can't even sew on a button).  I used China Glaze Platinum Pearl and did some offset 12-03 stamping with Mundo de Unas Silver and Bronze.  I just wish the silver didn't get lost in the base.  



The UberSwatcher is UberChic Beauty's brand new product meant to help us all organize our nail polish lives by letting us see our pretties colors on the top of the bottle.  Brittany put together a wonderful video explaining what it is and how to use it.  Briefly, it's a 2-piece product: a white piece to paint and a grey sleeve to hold the swatch and attach it to the bottle.  The grey sleeve is around 19 mm wide unstretched and approximately 13 mm of the swatch piece will show after the UberSwatcher is assembled.  They do fit most bottles (eg. China Glaze, OPI, KBShimmer, Picture Polish, A England, Cirque, Powder Perfect, Essie. etc) but don't fit ones with larger lids (Orly, Zoya, Essence, Dance Legend).


They come in packs ranging from 2550 or 100 pieces.  While it would be awesome to swatch all ~2000 of the polishes I have, financially that wouldn't be super responsible of me.  But my stamping polishes are always in desperate need of organization, especially since my Mundos separate so bad so I really can't find the color I'm looking for when looking in the Helmer drawer.  So what I did was paint half of the UberSwatcher black and stamp them with an image from UC 4-03.  So much better!



Phew, thanks for sticking around!  Like I said, I don't yet know what UberChic Beauty's Black Friday sale plans are but I'm sure they'll be worth checking out.  It's a brand that doesn't go on sale often so if you're interested in something, now is the time.  You can follow them on their social media (linked down below) to get all the details as they're released.

$14.99/single plate
$24.99/collection
$29.99-$98.99/UberSwatcher pack
Available at UberChic Beauty

'Til next time...



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