Hello Loves! You know how sometimes you find yourself stuck in a rut? Unable to think of anything creative and everything you do just turns out blah? Yeah, well I've been in that rut for a while now. Don't get me wrong, I'm surrounded by bottle after bottle of gorgeous color, but my inspiration has been zapped. Then something comes along that just gets your creative mind rolling again. That something for me was the Bundle Monster Mosaic Glass Gel Polishes! As soon as I saw these, the wheels started turning in my wee little brain and ideas started popping out left and right. lol
So what are the Mosaic Glass Gel Polishes? The collection consists of two sets of crystal clear gel polishes. In other words, perfect jellies. Yeah, I know...I'm not a fan of jellies. But these are different. They open up a world of layering and art possibilities. Think about the sheer tints rnp from OPI. Yeah, these are similar to those but in gel polish! I received both sets to play with, and boy did I play! But first, lets take a look at the colors.
Set 1 consists of Smoke + Mirrors (sheer black), Sea You Clearly (sheer blue) and Locked in Secrets (sheer purple). Set 2 consists of Sunny Disposition (sheer yellow), Apricot Beauty (sheer orange) and Peony Blush (sheer Pink). I have shown them below as two coats over both white and black backgrounds. Excuse the clarity of the set over the black background - it is a little blurred due to the required shutter speed.
I also did full swatches to show you how they build in three coats. But let's save that for last, shall we? First, let's take a look at some of the nail art pieces I put together using the Mosaic Glass gel polishes.
The first look was a no brainer. I've wanted to do a sheer black look for a while but never got around to it. I don't know...mixing black with clear to make the perfect sheer can get messy so I put it off. Smoke + Mirrors takes away the guess work, so here we go! I started with a black gel polish tip and freehanded a few dots and roses. Then I topped it with two thin coats of Smoke + Mirrors. Sheer black couldn't be easier!
The next look also uses colors from Set 1. This time, I started with a champagne gold glitter base. I added a thin layer of Sea You Clearly and Locked in Secrets to the respective nails. I then removed the tacky layer and stamped each nail in white with the bubble and shell images from BM505 from the Sun Kissed Stamping Plate Collection. I finished the design by applying another thin coat of Sea You Clearly and Locked in Secrets. I adore the final result! The sheer layers really turn this simple beachy mani into a fun masterpiece with tons of depth. :)
For this next look, I used the three shades in Set 2 of the Mosaic Glass gel polish set. I started with a shimmery white gel polish base. I then added random blobs of Apricot Beauty, Peony Blush and Sunny Disposition over the base and marbled them together with a dotting tool. After curing, it looked like this.
I'm kind of in love with that base! But I decided it needed something more. I've actually been avoiding this image for a while now...the butterfly wing thing has been done so many times by so many people...but I couldn't imagine a better image for this shimmery marbled base. So it just had to happen. I stamped over the base in black with the butterfly wing image from BM424 from the 2013 Create Your Own stamping collection. Here's the final result. Yep, I love it. I hated to take it off! I think I might have to recreate this one at some point.
The final look I have to show you is my absolute favorite of the four. I mean, come on...if you give a girl two sets of sheer gel polishes, you KNOW she's going to use them for the leadlight stamping technique, right? I started with a black gel polish base and then stamped in white with the BM 318 from the 2012 Stamping Plate Collection. I then mixed a dot of Sea You Clearly with Sunny Disposition to create a green. Using a fine detail brush, I layered this green over the stems and leaves of the image. I filled in the flowers with Locked in Secrets, Sunny Disposition, Apricot Beauty and Peony Blush. Love, love, love how it turned out! Whoo Hoo! I finally have the perfect gel polishes for the leadlight technique! (Ok, technically this is reverse leadlighting - leadlight was originally a white base stamped in black with sheer colors to fill in the negative spaces...but you know what I mean.)
Now that you've seen my creative side go wild, how about those pure swatches I promised? As I mentioned above, I wanted to see how well these sheer glass gel polishes build. So I swatched three coats of each to show you.
First up is Smoke + Mirrors. This one is definitely the most opaque of the six after three coats.
Sea You Clearly remains fairly sheer even after three coats, but it builds to a beautiful jelly finish if that's your thing. It also shows the staining on my nails a little more than I'm comfortable with. lol
Locked in Secrets also builds to a nice, but sheer jelly.
The colors in Set 2 are a bit more sheer than those in Set 1. Here's Peony Blush. As you can see, this one is very sheer even after three coats. I suspect she would make a very pretty base for an American style french manicure in one coat. ;)
Sunny Disposition is also quite sheer after three coats. It reminds me of when I used to color my nails with a highlighter in grade school. lol
Finally, Apricot Beauty offers a little more coverage in three coats than Peony Blush and Sunny Disposition, but is still very jelly.
There you have it - the Bundle Monster Mosaic Glass gel polish collection - sets 1 and 2. What do you think? I'm not a fan of them on their own, but they are amazing for art. Seriously, the possibilities are endless! Layer them, mix them, use them for leadlighting...whatever your heart desires!
You can pick up some of these beauties for your own collection on Bundle Monster's website here or on Amazon here. If you do, be sure to share your creations with me on my facebook page! I would love to see what you create with them. :)
~Michelle
*The Mosaic Glass Gel Polishes featured in this post were provided by Bundle Monster for my honest review. This post includes Amazon Affiliate links. Purchases through those links generate commissions that help fund this site. All other links are courtesy links and do not benefit ManicTalons.com.
Do they remove well?
ReplyDeleteBeautiful designs!!!! I also did a review of these polishes on Youtube and I absolutely love them!!
ReplyDeleteWow, loving all of your designs!!
ReplyDeleteWow. You are the best!! These are a must-have to cure my rut. Perfect timing!! Thank you! Lynette
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ReplyDeleteLoving what you came up with!
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