I have read many negative or only semi-posiive reviews of the Color Club plates and less than 5 positive ones, so I was very excited to try them myself – let’s see what my conclusion was…
The plates come in cardboard sleeves - open in the front and with instructions on the back.
The plates have a plastic backing with print on the back, unfortunately not acetone resistant .
The plates are golden with steel colored etching.
The plates come with a clear protective film, so make sure to remove that.
The plate size: 6 x 12 cm
The pattern size is 2.5 x 1.8 cm
The price is $10
The etching is simply too uneven and that makes the plates very temperamental. The strange thing is that the etching doesn’t feel shallow.
Where to buy: Color Club and more. I bought mine from Color4nails.com, but Rainbow Connection in the UK also soon get them.
In my book I should be able to use a squishy stamper and stamping polishes for any stamping plate – with a few changes with more temperamental plates and polishes.
At first I randomly tested the Color Club plates with a normal (non stamping) polish, and I got rather nice pick ups, and I thought: “what’s all the fuss about”?
But THENI tried random stamping polishes, and I too had problems with very poor pick ups on many patterns.
Then and there I decided to do my test with two different stampers and two different stamping polishes – and do some stamping on swatch sticks painted with a white polish.
The test stampers are Fab Ur Nails Jumbo Stamper (very soft/squishy and sticky) and my old Konad (hard rubber).
The stamping polishes are Moyra SP04 Purple (cream) and El Corazon 308 Midnight Tango (metallic = usually works better than creams), so I didn’t go for a black (most temperamental among stamping polishes).
I scraped with a LIGHT hand!
OK let’s get on with the tests…
Remember to click on the photos to see a larger version!
Africa:
Africa: I tried four different patterns, only one of the four worked well – there might have been more, but I gave up. Arrrgggh - it's such a gorgeous plate...
Left to right Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes.
The pick up with the Konad (above) was much better (used the Moyra stamping polish) - but it's difficult to stamp a swatch stick using the hard Konad - so it's my fault it smudged.
This pattern war fairly OK - and it's stamped with my soft Fab Ur Nails.
Again a better result with the Konad - on the right.
China:
China: the patterns I tried all worked fairly well, but the result isn’t super crisp. It's a really beautiful plate, isn't it...!
The fine print in the Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes.
Tree patterns that ll worked fairly well using my Fab Ur Nails stamper.
Puzzle:
Puzzle: I pretty quickly gave up, I only could make it work with the Konad stamper. I had looked so much forward to this fun plate...
Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes. On the right it's stamped with the Konad stamper.
Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes.
Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes.
Hawaii:
Hawaii: most I tried worked fairly well, but again no super crisp. Unfortunately this plate comes with a deep etching scratch – clearly a faulty plate.
This pattern didn't work so well, left to right: Moyra creme - and the El Corazon metallic stamping polishes. On the right it's stamped with the Konad stamper.
These all were fairly OK...
Roses:
Roses: At this point I was giving up, and became more and more sad, so I'll let the photos speak for themselves...
Really sad - this also is a gorgeous plate.
So what do I think? (if you haven't guessed ;)
Pros: I really love the big selection of patterns and that they are grouped by theme, 48 (I think) different plates to choose from at the moment.
Cons: Where to begin – I’ll just say that I feel these were a waste of money!
Would I like to buy more? Nope, no way!
Final conclusion: All though the patterns are gorgeous, way too many of the designs are too temperamental UNLESS you chose to stamp with non-stamping polishes and/or use your hard Konad rubber stamper - or simply is way more skilled than I am.
In this case only two out of three plates worked - but not super well.
At $10 each, I can buy many other gorgeous and non-temperamental plates from many, many other brands.
I hope you found this NON SPONSORED review useful - even if it is rather negative. But I have to be objective - as I always am.
To see other stamping plate and stamping gear reviews, just click the "stamping nail art and gear" link below...
1.500+ indie polishes and 100+ indie brands: Indies & swatches. 
Take 161: The base is Picture Polish Hot Lips stamped with Pueen 100 White in White (Color Intense), plate Cici & Sisi Jumbo Series 5 plate 30, stamper Fab Ur Nails Jumbo Stamper.
Take 162: The base is Picture Polish Tingle stamped with Hit The Bottle Purple Reign, plate Messy Mansion Spring from the Tristaenia collection, stamper Fab Ur Nails Jumbo Stamper.
Take 163: The base is Emily de Molly Spell Check stamped with Pueen 813 Mermaid Green (Super Intense), plate MoYou Nails 414, stamper Fab Ur Nails Jumbo Stamper.
Did you see anything you like..?
