I don’t know about you, but for me, the Uberchic silicone mat has been a godsend. It has reduced the amount of paper and kitchen roll I use during stamping and it is so easy to have loads of stamp decals on the go and colour swatches and smooshes. I bought the Uberchic when it first came out and there were no others on the market (that I know of) but now everyone is not only making them, but trying to improve on them.
Today I tried out one of the Born Pretty Store silicone mats. This one has lots of different shapes and sizes of nail templates, in both black and white, it even has nail tip shapes. At the top it has, what I like to call ‘swatch circles’ and along the bottom it has lots of cute little images. Everything to make nail art a breeze.
The images along the bottom are great for making a decal over, here I have drawn over the outline of the heart balloon shape and then filled it in and covered with a clear polish to make a decal. This was easy to peel off, except of course, the bit that hadn’t dried yet because I’m too impatient and didn’t wait long enough.
The best thing about this mat in my opinion, is that you can stamp directly onto the mat, without having to put down a layer of polish first. I tried this with Moyou White Knight and with Born Pretty Store Gold stamping polish and they both stamped nicely. You do have to be quick with it or you may get sections that don’t stamp, like my hearts on the left, so it’s not quite perfection but I do love that it is heading in the right direction.
The Uberchic mat is just a smidge bigger but they are about the same thickness and have exactly the same texture. If you are looking for your first mat, I would definitely recommend one of these. It measures approximately 40cm x 30cm and is a good size for a standard desk or workspace, it’s easy to clean, just use sellotape or a lint roller and you can roll it up fairly small to put out of the way if you need the space for something else.
You can find it here for £8.95/$12.65, this one is option 5 and is a little bit more expensive than some of the other designs, there are 5 other designs/layouts to choose from.
Don’t forget to use code CBAQ10 for 10% off all non sale items.
Do you have a nail art mat? Which one do you have or have you decided to get one now?
:)x
