Topatopa Summer Tribal Nail Art

Hey lacqueristas,

It's been nothing but stamping plate after stamping plate release over here these days!  They are certainly fun, but what I love more is actually taking my nail art plates out for a spin ;)  And if you are a long time reader or even a new one you know nothing floats my boat more than some tribal nail art. Today I have some tribals using my new stamping plates from Topatopa.  You might recall these plates from the review I did here or the geometric nail art I did here.  So let's take a look with the summery look I came up with....

 Mani-louge

Basecoat/Topcoat: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Base color: Bonita Pear Me Up

Accent colors: Bonita Team Pink, Orange You Happy, and Blue Steel

Stamping polish: Mundo de Unas #2

Stamping plate: Topatopa TP03

I love these plates!  Because the designs are so clean it's easy to pull together nail art without a lot of muss and fuss.  This look feel together very easily for me which is great because I have really been swamped these days with lots of things so quick and easy is the way to go.  I also took my new Bonita nail polishes for a spin.

I found these polishes at Rite Aid and one reason I like them is that they only cost me about $2 USD for each and they are extremely pigmented and pretty high quality.  They do lean a bit toward the thick side but this can be easily fixed with a drop or two of nail polish thinner.  Not bad eh?  I also wanted to see how these nails would look matte.  Which do you like better?



What do you think? You can find Topatopa stamping plates here if you're interested.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Topatopa Summer Geometric Gradient Nail Art

Hey lacquer ladies,

Happy Saturday! I've got a super simple look today using the Topatopa plates I reviewed earlier.  You can read that review here.  I wanted to do something easy for running around and taking care of errands.  I created an easy gradient and decided to take one of my new plates out for a spin.  The gradient actually ended up being the most complicated part of this mani.  For some reason I could not get Royal Highness to the opacity I wanted toward the end of my nails so it took a while to build up the colors enough for me to be satisfied once I did that the rest was easy peasy.  I will say again because my nails are long I did have to use a marshmallow stamper to get the X's to stretch to the end of my nails.

Mani-louge

Base: Duri Rejuvacote / Poshe Fast Drying Topcoat

Gradient: Bonita Team Pink, Royal Highness, and Orange You Happy

Stamping polish: Rica Blackout

Stamping plate: Topatopa TP02

This ended up being so easy and simple after all the complicated mani's I've done recently that it was a nice break.  However, don't worry I will still continue to post my MoYou London challenge mani's since I did complete the 31 days.  It's just pleasant to take it easy every now and again with the nail art. In any case I'm really happy with how this turned out both with the new plates and new stamping polish.  I'll have a review up on the Rica stamping polish shortly so stay tuned.



Do you think it's better to go toward quick and easy mani's as the summer approaches? I'd love to hear what other ladies try as the seasons change.  For those that are interested you can purchase Topatopa plates here and Rica Blackout is available here.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Topatopa Nail Art Stamping Plates Review

Hey stamparellas,

I have another review for you today! This one is for the Topatopa nail art stamping plates that I introduced here a few weeks ago.  I have all 6 plates, along with swatches and relevant information regarding sizing etc as usual for my reviews.  So for a quick re-introduction Topatopa is a indie brand based in France and run by the incredibly sweet Samantha.  The brand is that it was named after a game Samantha and her little sister made up and played as children, but otherwise it has no French meaning.  However I find the name and the meaning behind it extremely cute.  As with all my reviews of a new to me brand or series I have divided up the review into relevant sections so feel free to scan through if you are looking for information on a particular subject.

The Plates

Again these plates hail from France. There are 6 plates that have been released thus far.  Each plate comes wrapped in the plastic blue film that most of us are familiar with, and is backed with paper vinyl depicting the Topatopa logo.  These plates feature a variety of popular themes including tribal prints, nautical themes, and chevrons.

 

Dimensions
Each plate measures 6cm x 6cm and contains between 6-7 images with 4-5 of those being full sized nail images and 2-3 accent images.

Image Size + Comparisons
Full sized images measure roughly 2.0cm x 1.5cm so as you can see they are a bit on the smaller side of things image wise.  For those with longer nails this will require either double stamping or the use of a marshmallow stamper to stretch the image.  Below I have the measurement of other popular brand stamping plates to which you can compare the Topatopa image size.

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 - 2.5 x 2 cm
MJ Plate VIII - 2.2 x 1.7cm
Fab Ur Nails Fun 2 - 2.2 x 1.7 cm
Vivid Lacquer 007 - 2.0 x 2.0 cm 
Cheeky Jumbo 2013 - 2.0 x 1.5 cm
Bundle Monster CYO - 1.7 x 1.9 cm

The Images

If you are familiar with the way I review plates then you know that I always swatch out my images with regular Wet N' Wild Black Creme nail polish and my gold standard XL stamper from Bunny Nails.  I will only switch to Mundo de Unas or Konad (my gold standard stamping polishes) if I have difficulty picking up and image likewise I will only switch to a marshmallow grade stamper for the same reasons.  For these swatches I had no difficulty at all with image pickup and ended up using the forementioned Wet N' Wild and Bunny Nails stamper.  Any place were you saw me repeat an image was either due to mistamping on my part or because I didn't entirely pick up the image with polish.

As you can see the images came out extremely crisp and transferred quite easily often on the first attempt unless I made some personal mistake.

Final Impression

It has been a very long time since I have purchased a new to me brand without having difficulty with at least one image or plate or without requiring me to switch to a true stamping polish rather than Wet N' Wild.  Frankly the last time this happened was when I purchased Messy Mansion plates for the first time.  Insane right?  That goes to show you that the quality of these plates is very very good.  The images and cute and versatile allowing for a variety of different kinds of nail art.  My only qualm with these plates is the full nail images are a little on the small side for me.  I have long nails as you well know and I prefer my nails to stay that way for a variety of reasons.  As I mentioned earlier if you have longer nails you will have to use a marshmallow stamper to stretch the images to fit your nails or use the decal method.  Not a big deal, but it's only fair that I mention it.  That aside, I'm quite pleased with this purchase.  I say that while currently sporting an adorable manicure using plate TP02!  When reasonable cost combines with exquisite quality and desirable images you're going to win every time with me.  I think for any stamping fan these plates would make an excellent addition to your collection.

Topatopa plates retail for 2.75 Euro or $3.77 USD + shipping of roughly 4 Euros to the US.  You can purchase Topatopa plates here.  Thanks for reading and see you next post...

Hot Off The Stamping Press: Topatopa Nail Art Stamping Plates!

Hey nail art addicts,

Aren't you happy that you follow my blog? Because every time I discover a brand of plates and nail art products that make me squeal I come right here to share it with you! Lol.  Ahem now speaking of squealing I have another new brand for you today hot off the stamping press.  Topatopa is a France based stamping plate maker that has created plates that are too adorable for words! The company is run by Samantha who is exceedingly sweet and kind.  Yup you know I already contacted her to get the deets.  Can I pause for a second to say how astonished and in awe I am of all these ladies all across the world that can speak so many languages and we are all united by our love of nail art! I have "met" so many wonderful people!  Now let's see these plates shall we?

 All photo credits courtesy of Topatopa

 Tally me banana lol! This one is perfect for the upcoming summer and all those tropical vacations. 

The back of the image plates in case you wanted to see it :)

Tribal beats and chevrons. Yes now we are talking people! You know I love me some chevron nail art and patterns.  Oh so many plans already...

Ah ah stop stop everything!  I need all the tribals all the tribal nails ever!!! I will never ever ever get tired of this trend.  I don't even a consider it a trend because tribes have been around as long as mankind was a social animal.  In short forever thus all the tribal patterns are necessary ;) Wait am I the only one still in love with tribal nail art? I hope not!

Another summer perfect pattern.  Nautical themes can never be wrong in the heat of the summer on a hot beach or boat, even a cookout.  I love  it!  This is also a perfect plate for doing a little preppy style nail art a la J Crew ;)

Are you getting the feeling mustaches are in? Lol they are everywhere.  Love the birds and the sugar skulls!

More abstracts.  Love it!  That pattern directly in the middle is one of the toughest to create using stripping tape or nail vinyls believe me I have tried. I also give bonus points for any brand that has lightening bolts.  They are rarer than you think... 

So what do you ladies think? Aren't these plates adorbs! Topatopa plates retail for 2.75 Euro (roughly $3.77USD) so they are quite affordable.  Another pleasant surprise is that the shipping was also super affordable at 4.55 Euro for all 6 plates.  You can find the plates along with stampers and striping tape  at the Topatopa boutique.  Since I am an addict and all the nails must be stamped these plates are on the way to me and I'll keep you posted on a review and some nail art.  Happy hunting and thanks for reading!  See you next post...