Uberchic Beauty Unicorn Love Stamping Plate and New UberMat - Swatches & Review

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Uberchic Beauty have gone a little release crazy at the moment (not that that is a bad thing at all - I love Uberchic!).  I have been working slowly but surely on some swatches and reviews of all the new things for you guys.  I thought it would be fun to start off with the new Unicorn Love stamping plate and the New UberMat.  Later this week and next week I'll have Collections 16 and Collection 17, and the new Texture-licious mini stamping plate.  

Unicorn Love Stamping Plate

Who doesn't love unicorns?  They are magically and so colourful, what's not to love?  This is a full plate dedicated to everything unicorns.  There is also a good mix better cutesy unicorns and some more "grown up" unicorns which I quite like.

Image from Uberchic Beauty

I recently swatched this new polish from Glam Polish (which I will have my swatches and a review of in a couple of days - and you'll definitely want to check that out because this polish is seriously amazing!) and thought that it was a perfect base for a unicorn mani.  Sadly, when I did this mani there was no sunshine so you'll have to consider this mani as a sneak peek of May The 4th Be With You.  Stamping polish is Powder Perfect's Black.

New UberMat

I am a HUGE fan of the UberMats.  I seriously don't know how I survived without one.  I have two of the large original mats which I used on a daily basis.  One lives on my nail table to help safe the surface from well me being a clumsy idiot.  I also use it to do my smoosh manis, blobs for when I am dotticures or freehand something....really you name it I've done it with this mat.  My second one lives on top of my polish drawers which I use when trying to decide colours for layering, when painting my swatch sticks etc.  Seriously I really don't know what I did without these mats!

Uberchic have upped their game and have updated there mat with a few new things.

Image from Uberchic Beauty

I am a huge fan of the black and white circles on the right of the mat.  I am guilty of painting white and black spots on my mat to test stamping over and now I don't have to to that.  There is plenty of spaces for me to test on with this mat.  I also really like that there is extra nail outlines than on the original mat.  I personally like to use these for decals (FYI I did do with the unicorn plate and this mat but my mani was a fail which is why it's not in this post).  On the left of this plate is some shapes and letters and numbers which you can use to free hand some decals for your nails.  I'm not too sure if this is something I will use but never say never right?

I really love this new UberMat and am so happy to have it.  It's moved straight to my nail table for everyday use.  I also like the Unicorn Love Stamping Plate.  It's a fun stamping plate and it stamps really well.

The Unicorn Love Stamping Plate and the New UberMat are available now from Uberchic Beauty.

 

Nail Stamping Decal Tutorial Featuring Uberchic Beauty Uber Mat

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It's no secret that I am a HUGE fan of Uberchic Beauty.  I have a number of there plates and reach for them constantly.  So you can only imagine my excitement levels when my lovely delivery lady dropped of the most amazing Uberchic package last week.  Not only did I receive some of the new plates (which I will be doing some reviews of over the next week or two) but I also received the Uber Mat!!!!

Image from Uberchic Beauty website

For those of you who may not know what the Uber Mat is let me give you a brief run down.  It's an awesome flexible mat that you can test colours on, stamp on, make decals (which I have a tutorial for in this post), really there is so many different things.  Best part of all, you can clean it all up with pure acetone.  How cool is that?  It's definitely going to save me a lot of mess.

My first use of the Uber Mat without question, had to be a stamping decal (or reverse stamping).  Now I have been trying to make these for what seems like forever and I always struggle.  I end up with cracked decals, images that don't transfer on the nails properly...really it has been a technique that I had nearly given up on.  Until now....

Things you'll need:
*  An Uber Mat
* Stamper and scraper (I used my rectangle squishy stamper from Messy Mansion and an old gift card)
*  A stamping plate (I used Uberchic plate 5-02)
*  Stamping polish (I used Konad Black)
*  A clear top coat (I used OPI Top Coat)
*  Polishes of your choice to fill in your design (I used China Glaze Bottoms Up, Son Of A Peach and That's Shore Bright)
*  A small brush or dotting tool (I used a Winstonia #00 brush)
* Tweezers

Step by step instructions:
1.  Paint a layer of clear top coat on the Uber Mat.  It can be anywhere on the mat.  I chose to do it on the nail shapes as a guide for how big I needed to make my decal.

2.  Stamp you desired image onto the top coated section.  I did this both when the top coat was slightly tacky and when it was dry and didn't find a difference in how the image transferred.

3.  Fill in your image with you choice of colours.

4.  After about 10-20 mins add a layer of top coat and allow to dry fully.  Paint your nails the desired base colour while you are waiting for your decal to dry.  I used OPI Alpine Snow as my base.

5.  After you have allowed you decal to full dry (I have seen people use timeframes from one hour to overnight - I left mine for about four hours) gently lift up your decal from the mat with you tweezers.  They should left quite easily but just make sure you do it gently and slowly to avoid breaking your decal.

6.  Now the next part it up to you.  You can either trim down your decal to fit you nail or you can leave it as in, apply it to the nail and then clean up.  I tried both ways and it didn't effect how the decal applied.  Only the clean up time.

To apply the decal, paint a thin layer of top coat onto your base colour.  Whilst the top coat is still tacky, position the decal on the nail and lightly press down to smooth out the decal and make sure it sticks to the nail.  Clean up any excess parts of the decal, add top coat and you are done.

I know my mani isn't perfect (I put some creases in my decals when I placed them on my nails) but I am so happy with how it turned out.  This is definitely the best stamping decal mani I have ever done and I owe it all to the Uber Mat.  You can bet that I will be practice more stamping decals in the future.

The Uber Mat is currently in stock and is available from Uberchic Beauty.  It has sold out before so definitely grab one (and some plates) while you can.