Orly Royal Navy and Bundle Monster!

First up in this special double post today is my NOTD (nails of the day, in polish maniac speak), Orly Royal Navy. This is a new polish from Orly, part of a small July 4th themed collection which features repromotes Star Spangled (a bright red jelly with red glitter) and White Tip (a white creme). This polish is really special, in my opinion. I took the above picture in the one minute of blinding sunlight we had in Pittsburgh today so you could see how cool this polish is. Inside, it looks like a navy blue jelly that leans on the bright side, but in the sun, you see that it is jam packed with light blue glitter that can even look a little green in some lights. For a glitter maniac like me, this is fantastic. The application was fairly good, if a little gloopy. Because it applied sort of thickly, my fast dry topcoat gave me tip pull like no one's business (there are things you can do to avoid this that I was really too lazy to do when I applied this), which is why it looks like I have tip wear. This was good in three coats - since it's a jelly, it misses the point to pile too many coats on, and as such you could get away with two coats. Definitely a winner.

Now, on to the awesomeness I got in the mail today, the famous Bundle Monster plates!

Those of you out there who are fanatics may be familiar with Bundle Monster, but may be more familiar with their inspiration, Konad. For the people, you poor, unwashed nail masses, Konad is a nail art product that allows you to apply little polish "stamps" onto your nail. I'll show this process in more detail in a future post, but basically you apply polish to one of the designs on these metal plates which are engraved in, scrape off the excess so that the polish is only inside the pattern, roll a rounded rubber stamper over the design so that the polish transfers to the stamp, and then stamp your nail with the design.

Anyway, on to why Bundle Monster is awesome. Konad plates are $6.99 each. A set of 21 knock off Bundle Monster plates cost a shocking $17.99 with free shipping! And they have so many rad designs!

If you were ever thinking to yourself, man, I wish I could have a picture of a pot leaf on my manicure, you are in luck! Bundle Monster has images for every taste. I cannot imagine any situation in which I would use the pot leaf image, actually, but hey, it's there if I get the urge.

I haven't really looked all of the plates over too closely yet, but from other pics I've seen online, this is already looking to be a fave with the stars definitely in the lead for first pattern I will try.

A couple notes about these plates. First is that, unlike Konad plates, they are not backed with any material to mitigate how razor sharp they are. You could give yourself a mighty cut with these if you were careless with them, which is why I am using oven mitts and tweezers to pull off the protective cover. Seriously, oven mitts and tweezers. Second is that the full nail designs, like the ones shown above, are not as wide as regular Konad plates. Fortunately, I have slender nail beds, but even for me, I know the patterns will not be wide enough to cover my thumbs. Still, unless you are very picky about these things, I think the coolness of the patterns outweighs the size deficiencies.

That's all for today! Polish to the People!