Hey There Polished People!

I recently was perusing the nail polishes at Fred Meyer and picked up an Essence nail stamping plate. It only cost $2.49 and the Essence Stampy Polish (stamping polish) cost the same so for under 5 bucks I thought hey! What a bargain! 🙂 Here are some nails I did with the Essence stamping plate and then below I’ll review it.

Here is the plate itself. The plates are sold singly and don’t seem to have any identification other than “Essence”

Essence Stamping Plate Review

Designs:

You can see the designs on this plate are a checkers, diagonal stripes, dots with holes, an abstract geometric design and plaid.

Size:

Unlike other inexpensive, drugstore-type stamping plates’ full nail designs (like Salon Essentials) these are just wide enough for my nails. They’re a little narrow for my thumbs, but for the rest of my fingernails they work perfectly. Essence stamping plate designs are 12mm wide compared to the only 10mm width of the Salon Essentials kit. The 2011 Bundle Monster full nail designs are a little wider than the Essence plate at 13mm and the 2012 Bundle Monster designs are even better at 14mm wide. You may think hm, what difference can a millimeter make?? But actually one millimeter’s difference is quite noticeable. If you nails are similar to mine width-wise these plates should work fine for you. You wont have a lot of overlap, but with a careful application they fit like a glove. 😉

Etching Depth/ Clean Stamping Ability:

This Essence stamping plate works great!! It holds the right amount of polish in the recess and the polish comes out cleanly. I didn’t have any problem getting a clean, full stamp from these plates. Just FYI I used my Konad scraper and dual-ended stamper.

Yes, Please! or No, Thank You:

I give this a Yes, Please!! I like the designs on this plate, it worked well for me and it being a little too narrow for my thumb didn’t bother me, because most stamping plates are a little too narrow for them. I am most excited that now nail stamping is getting more accessible! Pretty soon EVERYONE will have these fabulous stamped nails and I wont even be special when I’m out and about with my crazy nails! 😀

Essence Stampy Polish Review

Color:

The two colors I saw of the Essence Stampy Polish were black and white. At my particular Fred Meyer I didn’t see any other colors. I chose to try white because I find that most black polishes can be used for stamping and white is the real test of quality and opacity.

Opacity:

Unfortunately I was not impressed with the opacity of this Essence Stampy Polish. It applied very smoothly and stayed perfectly within the recesses of the plate, but when I stamped it on my nails it just wasn’t opaque enough for my liking. This would be fine to practice your stamping skills with (practice applying, scraping, picking up the design and stamping it on your nail quickly) because it can waste some polish, but as far as using it for nice, final-product stamped nails it’s just not opaque enough.

Yes, Please! or No, Thank You:

I have to sadly give this a no, thank you. The polish isn’t opaque enough, and until the formula is changed it just doesn’t provide a result I can endorse. If you want to stamp white onto your nails, invest in some Konad special white. 🙂

Well, I hope this is helpful as more of you see these popping up in store! Essence can be found at Fred Meyer and Ulta in the US. Keep your eye out and let me know what you think when you see them in person! Thanks for reading and till next time- Happy Polishing!! 😀