Hot Off The Stamping Press: New DRK Designer's Series Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Yo stamp champs,

Let me take a moment to clarify something that has been bugging me for those not familiar with my blog.  Hot Off The Stamping Press posts are not review posts they are press posts informing you of new plate releases.  It feels kind of silly saying this, but since people are asking me about plate sizes and image sizes etc I felt I should tell you directly these posts are not reviews hence they do not contain these types of information.  If you want to see a review for a particular brand of plates, and certainly I've done a lot, you can either put that brand into the search box at the top of the blog or you can scroll down to the labels section and find that brand and what you are looking for there! I hope that made sense lol.  Now let's talk about a Brazilian indie which I've done reviews for in the past and a brand that kinda shook things up in 2014 - DRK Nails.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New DRK XL Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Hey stamperistas,

The press is getting hotter and hotter as the year gets its groove!  Now all of a sudden we are getting slammed with plate releases or eminent releases.  It's a blessing and a curse, and it means we as shoppers need to become a great deal more selective in our purchases than we have been historically. Today's newly released plates are coming from one of my favorite companies DRK Nails!  They have released two of new XL plates for our stamping pleasure and I for one am excited!  So lets take a look....

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New DRK Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates

Hey stamp champs,

The platemakers are at it again! The question in fact, on this blog at least, isn't if new plates are coming out soon but rather when.  Lol.  DRK Nails has been quiet lately.  Too quiet in my opinion which means they are plotting.  In case you didn't know DRK recently announced they were stocking a small selection of Sugar Bubbles plates, the ones I posted here, and apparently more on the way. Meanwhile I've been waiting with baited breath for their next release.  I prayed to the heavens they would release a special Christmas plate, but alas. Segue - btw where are all the Hanukkah plates? No I'm not Jewish, but a lot of my friends are and I'd love to see a bit more cultural diversity out there in holiday themed plates.  Anyway lo and behold! A plate arrived from DRK in time for Christmas - apparently a sultry one ;)

Jade Holografico and KBShimmer Wild Roses Nail Art

Salutations varnished vixens,

Happy hump day.  It's been a while since I've done a Sunday stamping challenge mainly because in case you couldn't tell I stamp pretty much all the time. Lol in any case the challenges lately also haven't really gotten me revved up, but a few weeks ago there was a challenge for stamping over a holographic poli8sh.  Since I  love a good holo I couldn't resist this challenge even though I'm a way late.  So today I have some blazingly holographic nails to share with you! PS my new lighting set up is seriously insane with these holographic polishes :)

Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection Swatches and Nail Art

Happy Saturday lacqueristas,

Press Sample

Today is a pretty special post for me.  I was so shocked and honored when I was contacted by Sally Hansen to create a few manicures with some of their beautiful polishes. As I always say anytime I am asked to swatch or create nail art for a brand it's always a mega honor and I'm always flattered.  And if you've kept an eye on my manicures then you know I've been a long time fan of this brand, but in particular a lot of my nail art features the Insta Dri line!  I use these mainly for stamping since they are opaque and often in brilliant colors that I don't have available elsewhere.  I'll be sharing a few of the new ones later, but today I have select swatches and nail art from the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Rio Collection.  These polishes are matte glitters contained in a clear base, and as with most matte glitters they represent a great way to create instant nail art.

Proud Beauty Bloggers Of Color Present: Orange

Hey lacqueristas,

This is an inaugural post for me! I joined this group about a month ago when it first started called Proud Beauty Bloggers of Color.  The concept is pretty simple -  it's just many women of a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds that blog about beauty.  Now I'm not sure I classify myself as a "beauty" blogger per say, but somehow they invited me along anyway which I thought was really nice.  I missed out on the groups first post so I thought I couldn't miss this months theme which was a manicure devoted to the color orange.  My regular viewers already know that's like a no-brainer for me since I love orange and own a lot more of the shade than is probably common in my polish collection! And of course I could never just choose one. So here's what I came up with....

I am holding a coral bottle because my camera went insane when I tried holding up my nails and the orange bottle simultaneously :/

Hot Off The Stamping Press: New DRK Nails XL Designer Series Plates!

Hey stamp champs,

Happy Saturday!   I'm bringing you a little good cheer this morning as well!  If you follow me on Facebook (which you really should - yes shameless self promotion) you might have seen the the two plates I'm going to talk about a little bit today since I shared them as soon as they went up.  As you know I'm deep into my infatuation with the newly revamped DRK Nails and their Designer Series plates.  Well low and behold when I looked up Friday they released two more plates from the same series in XL configuration and boy do they impress!

You just feel like you died and went to heaven didn't you? I mean how can a plate be so EPIC!!! What's more this is the largest landscape/full image/infinity style plate I have ever laid my eyes on.  Lol sorry Pueen not even the Encore collection can't stand up to this massive beauty.  And what's more the detailing once again looks exquisite.  I can't stop staring at this gorgeous plate! How about you?

I want to talk a little bit more about this plate for a couple of reasons.  First  and foremost, this plate is dedicated to Saint Francis of Assisi, and if you know your patron saints well (or attended enough Catholic institutions like myself) you'd know he's the patron saint of animals.  This plate has been a very close to the hearts of the designer Ana Clara Prado and owner Katia Ferrera. $2 of every purchase of this plate will go toward a Brazilian organization called Sulpa which assists in rescuing abandoned animals.   I also want to urge you to take a look at this plate on the website using the magnifier as the picture does absolutely no justice ins displaying how beautiful and intricate the designs on this plate are. I will be honest even I hesitated when seeing this plate until I did that and after seeing them I was blown away!

Thoughts? Did you look at the Saint Francis plate up close like I advised? What did you think?  Ok now for the finer deets.  If you are Brazilian local you can purchase these plates homeside and if you are like me a US based fanatic you too can purchase these plates stateside (woot!).  They retail for $22 USD per plate + shipping.   You can purchase the plates here and again follow DRK Nails on Facebook for updates.  I was so enamored I ended up getting both.  Happy hunting stamparellas and I'll see you next post....

DRK Nails Cool Tone Abstract Nail Art

Hey varnished vixens,

Press Sample

God I can't stand all this heat! Yesterday it was well into the high nineties here in the District and honestly I wanted to melt.  So today I thought I'd cool down with a little blue tinged neutral nail art and of course as promised I wanted to take my new DRK Nails plates out for a spin.  If you didn't see it I posted a review of the 2 Designer Series plates yesterday (read here).  My impression of these plates is that they are gorgeous and affordable with some of the best etching I've seen to date.  Of course this meant I couldn't wait to play.

Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: Zoya Taylor

Accent colors: Zoya Darcy, Essie Bikini So Teeny, Fashion Playground, and Find Me An Oasis, Color Club Age of Aquarius, Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #3

Stamping plates: DRK Nails Designer Series D1 & D2

Image from lower riight hand corner is the repeating pattern

I love nudes - polish, lipsticks, and shoes! They are so flattering and they work with everything under the sun.  Because I chose Zoya Taylor as the base every other color popped by comparison.  And as I said before the detailing on these Designer plates is truly exquisite.  You can go through a lot of the manicures I've created on this blog and Instagram but you won't find anything like this!  I can't stop staring at my nails.  The pattern that's featured the most is from the DRK DS 2 plate while the accent is from the DRK DS 1 plate.

So what do you think?  I really adore how this turned out as you can tell! I only wished it was as cool outdoors as the color palette is for this mani lol.  If you're interested in purchasing the DRK Nails Designer series you can find them here for $6.50 per plate plus minimal shipping.  You can also follow DRK Nails on Facebook for updates on newly releasing plates.  Yes that's right there are whispers of new XL plates coming out soon and hopefully we'll also see an expansion of this series! I hope you enjoyed the art and I'll see you next post....

These products were sent to me for honest review.  For more information see my Disclosures Policy.

DRK Nails Designer Series Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Hey stamperistas,

Press Sample

Let's just jump right into it.  You may recall my posting about DRK Nails recently reopening their doors and also coming out with a few new stamping plates along with their reopening. If not you can read about it here.  In any event I was thrilled since I missed out on a few of the XL plates with the closure of Ninja Polish and also because the new plates looked unbelievably pretty.  So today I have these two plates for review as well as a little bit of insight into my experiences with the new website. So let's get started...

DRK Nails

For a quick refresher this is a Brazilian based company run by the sweet and super responsive Katia Ferriera.  These hot little tickets of stamping awesomeness were once fairly difficult to obtain due to their location and popularity.  Once upon a time you could get them at the now closed Ninja Polish, but now a-days you can get them right here stateside from the DRK Nails shop.  This brand recently reopened doors bringing us the much coveted XL A-D plates and some new hot tamales called the Designer Series.  These beautiful plates were mainly designed by Adriana Portas and are entirely unique from any plates I've seen today.

The Plates

Each also come with a blue protective film once you remove them from the clear plastic wrap. They are backed by a hard plastic frame, similar to those that we have seen from MoYou London and the Dashica Beauty Infinity series, with a superficial DRK nails logo sticker on the back of the plate.  Let me point out to you now all the DRK Nails plates come with the new plastic hard backing.  The XL A and D plates I purchased also had them.

General Dimensions

The plates themselves measure 13 cm tall x 7 cm wide, and feature 10 full sized nail images.  These images "kiss" for lack of a better word on the plate so when I measured out the size I measured from the extreme outer edge to extreme outer edge of each design.

Full Nail Image Size Comparison

The images do vary a bit as you can see, but the full sized images for these plates measure 3.0 x 2.0 cm (length x width). Most of the images have a little border surrounding them that is the same for every image. I did include that border in the measurement of the length.  Regardless even without the borders these plates are going to work well for anyone with medium to long length nails.  As usual I included a few other full nail image sizes below so that you can compare brands.

MoYou London Plate Pro 08 (non-XL) - 1.5 x 1.3 cm
MoYou London Plates  Explorer 10 (XL) - 2.2 x 1.6 cm
Bunny Nails HD B -  2.0 x 2.5 cm
MJ Plate VIII - 1.7 x 2.2 cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 - 1.7 x 2.2 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 2.0 x 1.5 cm
Bundle Monster CYO - 1.9 x 1.7 cm
Cici & Sisi - 2.0 x 1.5 cm

The Images

As with all my reviews when swatching out the images I used Wet N' Wild Black Creme.  For a change I did not use and my gold standard XL marshmallow stamper from Bunny Nails (3 years prior), but instead used my Magno Nails stamper which is also a marshmallow stamper.  The reason I chose to do this is that I wanted to increase the amount of image I was picking up per swatch and the Magno Nails stamper has a bigger diameter.  I did not require  Konad Special Stamping polish or Mundo de Unas for these plates as the etching was superb.  Don't forget you can click on the images to enlarge them for greater detail and clarity.

Note: I want to say this clearly after engaging in some discussions about stamping and quality of images and plates in general.  The reason I choose to stamp with Wet N' Wild Black Creme for my swatches is because it's cheap and readily available. Furthermore it is the lowest quality polish I can use for stamping.  What does that mean? It means I don't expect images generated by WnW to have near the clarity of those generated using a polish designated for stamping.  Stamping polishes allow an image to stamp with even more clarity and crispness than regular polish.  Period.  In short if I have a plate that stamps well with WnW polish this is my assurance that indeed the etching on these plates is excellent enough to support stamping with a polish that is not meant for that purpose.

Final Impression

This is the second review I've put out in about as many weeks that has plates that are absolute flawless. In fact these plates are etched so fantastically and required so little effort for me to pick up and transfer that it was almost ridiculous!  It's been a while since I've had such effortless stamping in a new to me brand.  Once again I didn't have to use one trick, change polishes, or switch to a even softer marshmallow stamper.  This is another example of an owner that was extremely meticulous when it came to production and their tester plates, and the quality of these plates is truly a testament to that.

I'm not sure how these designs will translate on the smaller nail crowd as they are quite large but they are so beautiful I'd think it'd be worth the undertaking.  One thing that really blew me away with these plates is just how freaking crisp every single image was transferring considering I was using Wet N' Wild!  Another piece of great news for you stamping fanatics?  DRK Nails products are now stateside. Yup that right and the shipping is crazy reasonable.  We are talking $2-3 and the first class option also comes with tracking at no extra cost.  Unbelievably affordable pricing for shipping right?

So basically I just talked a good game.  You might be wondering given these were sent for review whether you can adhere to what I say regarding these plates.  The answer is yes.  The minute the shop opened I rushed to get XL plates A and D which were missing from my collection and yes they are equally superb.  Plus I let my swatches do the talking and as you can see they are on point.

You can find DRK Nails plates here. You can also keep updated on the latest and greatest from the brand via Facebook.  The designer plates retail for $6.50 USD + shipping and the larger XL plates are $22 USD + shipping.  They are all currently available for purchase.  I hope you enjoyed this review and stay tuned for some nail art using these pretty plates. P.S. I also took the liberty of purchasing a few of the new DRK stamping polishes so stay tuned for that review as well. Thanks for reading and happy hunting!  I'll see you next post....

P.P.S.  If you are having issues with your order you can email DRK Nails at contact@drknails.com

These products were sent for my honest review for more information please see my Disclosure Policy.

Hot Off The Stamping Press: DRK Nails Nail Art Stamping Plates Are Back!!!!!

Hey stamparistas,

Yes it is raining plates once again! I feel like we definitely hit surges and waves of plate releases across the seasons and right now we are definitely in a surge.  The plates are releasing so frequently that it's difficult to keep up and even more difficult to decide which plates will be the ones worth your investment and time.  Hopefully I can shed some insight on these matters for you.  I certainly try to keep the reviews and posts coming!  In any case I'm excited to spread the word that DRK plates, a Brazilian indie brand that has been on the stamping scene for a few years, is finally making a comeback and boy oh boy are they doing it in style.

Let me give you a little backstory for those of you that don't know, DRK is a company that produced plates that were initially exceedingly difficult to come by.  Then when Ninja Polish opened their doors, which are now permanently closed, ladies in the US were able to finally snag these plates.  By the time NP closed they had released 4 different XL plates A-D featuring roughly 35-30 large full nail images. As a matter of fact I recently used one of these plates for an upcoming guest post mani and the quality was flawless, but perhaps a more extensive review is in order?  Do let me know in the comments below and I'll whip one up.  In any case now they are back and not only are they launching a new website but they came bearing some new plates that deserve a little attention ;)

 

I'm going to give you a moment to drool.  I know I did when I saw these.  They are unbelievable right! Totally up the alley of anyone who loves leadlighting and totally original.  Kudos DRK for making a comeback like a BOSS!



So what do you think?  Aren't these plates lovely? I want both in addition to DRK A and D - these two sold out at NP before I could purchase them.  The smaller plates will retail for $6.50 USD + shipping. They may be releasing over the next 2 weeks so stay tuned.  You can stalk along with me on the new DRK website here or like their Facebook page here for updates.  Oy after seeing these babies mama needs a cool glass of sweet tea! Let me know if you are interested in seeing a review of the DRK plates I own.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next post...