China Glaze Summer 2013 Neon Jellies - The Stampwiches!

Greetings All!

And so we finally made it to the most exciting part (to me anyway!), the reason I bought these jellies, because I am becoming obsessed with this technique. You can catch up with the other installments of this saga (and it is a saga!) HERE, HERE and HERE. Things have been pretty jelly heavy this week, so my apologies for that. No mre this week I promise!

For anyone who may not know, a jelly stampwich is pretty much what it sounds like - stamping sandwiched between layers of jelly polish. And it's awesome.

Unlike the glittery sandwiches earlier, I have used different stamps and colours for these swatches - I just tried to use what seemed most fitting. Unless otherwise stated, this is 1 coat of polish over the stamping. Underneath the stamping are the same swatches as the plain swatches, recycled! They average about 4 coats. So, are you ready for the final installment? Here we go!

Are You Jelly? Stamped with Barry M Silver Foil and BM221.

Even though this is a bit streaky and patchy, I don't think that matters much. It gives the stamping a fun, distressed look, with slightly more silver poking through in places. I can definitely see me doing this over an opaque purple. And I think the silvery purple flowers look really cute!

Heat index, stamped with Konad White and BM205

I don't think I picked the right stamp for this one. I like the pink effect, and that was brighter in real life, but I'm just not crazy about these butterflies for some reason. Still it's OK - you could probably even get away with another coat, to soften it a bit more.

Isle See You Later, stamped with Barry M Silver Foil, and plate #2 from the new Cheeky jumbo plates.

I think this is 3 coats, but to be honest I can't remember - there were so many coats of this polish used, in the end I think I used about half a bottle! Again the effect is really nice,  but I can't imagine going through all the hassle to get to this stage again. Like AYJ, I might use it over a similar opaque blue.

Keepin' It Teal, stamped with Barry M Gold Foil and CH38

OK so by this point I am totally biased, but, erm, phwoar! Gorgeous combination. It would maybe benefit from a slightly thicker stamp design, as this does get slightly lost, but it's still pretty perfect in my eyes. And summery? You bet!

Shell-O, stamped with Konad Black an BM314

In hindsight, this is probably a bit 'springy', as I believe these are daffodils, but I knew I wanted a flowery stamp and this just sort of caught my eye. I'm 50/50 on this one - I don't love the stamp or the black, but the principle worked pretty well. Note to self: more experimentation needed! It also just occurred to me - why the heck didn't I use a shell stamp?!

Finally You Drive Me Coconuts, sort of stamped with Konad Black and BM221

As this totally isn't a jelly, I knew I had to use black to stand any chance of it being visible. Animal print seemed the logical way to go, but either my stamp, my stamping polish, or the universe conspired against me, and I could not get this to stamp properly at all. In the end I just made do with the rubbish stamping, filled in a few gaps with my Barry M Black nail art pen, then gave up. A more mature person would have come back to it at a later date, but a) I'm not mature, and b) I had had enough of this pink polish, and I wanted to be done with it!

We started a couple of days ago with me telling you how horribly these applied. While this is still true, I have come around to them over a white base, and for sandwiching stuff. I can see myself using these on a fairly regular basis, apart from ISYL and YDMC, which are too sheer and too opaque respectively. 99% of those times will involve glitter or stamping (or possibly a freehandwich!), but that's the same with all of my jellies!

I can't really recommend them as plain polishes, but if you like the colours, you have the patience for 3 or 4 coats (albeit fast-drying coats) and you're adding a bit of glitter or whatever, I say go for it! Especially Keepin' It Teal, Heat Index and (surprisingly) Are You Jelly? which is a huge pain to apply, but ultimately worth it I feel. They are bright and summery, nice, slightly unusual shades, and they seem to get on pretty well with glitter!

I promise if you see these polishes on this blog again, it will only be one at a time!