Halloween nail art already? Yep! But I have a reason, I promise. Last year during Halloween, I really wanted to do a lot of nail art to celebrate since it's a great time of year for different and fun nail art ideas, but I really wanted to get my hands on some good, affordable stamping plates and by the time I thought of it they just weren't going to get to me in time. So in the spirit of reminding you guys that Halloween is fast approaching - at least from an ordering nail art supplies perspective - I decided it was a great time to review a couple of Halloween stamping plates from BeautyBigBang so that, if you're interested in picking them up, you've got lots of time to get your hands on them before Halloween gets here!

For my review of the BeautyBigBang04 Small Halloween Stamping Plate*, keep reading!

The BeautyBigBang04 Halloween Stamping Plate* is a small square stamping plate that contains 6 large images featuring spiders, skulls, ghosts and ghoulish jack-o-lanterns. One thing that I really like about these small square stamping plates from BeautyBigBang is the size of the images. I know that some people with longer nails can have difficulty finding plates with images that are long enough to fit their nails, but this plate will almost certainly accomodate a lot of different nail lengths.For me, I like being able to really pick and choose which part of an image I'm going to put on my nails and also to have a little bit of leeway if I don't pick it up perfectly, and these bigger images are great for both of those things.

The images selected on this plate initially might feel a little bit disconnected, but I've found that, while they obviously work well using one pattern applied to all of the nails or to an accent nail, they can also thoughtfully be paired together for more intricate nail art looks. The images in this plate that really sold me personally were the skulls in the upper right corner and the negative space ghosts in the lower left, because I felt like both of those images had a lot of potential for interesting nail art, but I'm also really impressed with both of the spider images in the top row and feel like I will get really great looks from them as well. 

When I intially swatched this plate, I wasn't as impressed as I had hoped I would be, but I found that  by playing with it I was able to get more crisp images (see mani below). What I've found is that because the images are so long, this plate works best if you apply a strip of stamping polish along the top of the image and another through the middle so that you can get really even, smooth coverage with one swipe of your scraper. I've found that with multiple swipes, some of these images can get a little bit muddy, so it's best to play around a little bit with the amount of polish you're applying to get the most crisp image in one. With the right amount of polish and one swipe, these images pick up and transfer really beautifully.

For this mani, I started with a coat of this mustard coloured polish that I mixed up myself. (Oh, the struggles of finding the perfect shade!)  Next I used the smoosh technique to mix the mustard shade with a deep bronzey brown shimmer polish to get this sort of grungy base. I used black stamping polish to apply the spider web and scull images to my nails using a clear stamper to get just the right placement. I have to say, I'm kind of in love with this mani! It's a perfect creepy Halloween colour palette and design, in my opinion!

Overall, my initial impression of this plate wasn't necessarily the best, but after playing a little bit and getting a feel for it I really love it - and I really couldn't be happier with the mani I created using this plate. Like I said, it can be a little bit tricky to figure out the right amount of polish and how to get the best swipe, but once you do this palette picks up really crisply and gives a great image on the nails!

As of posting this, BeautyBigBang is having a pretty incredible sale and this particular plate is going for $0.89USD - which is an INSANE price for a stamping plate, so if you're interested in picking it up now would definitely be the time. Click here to head over and pick it up.

If you're interested in picking up anything from BeautyBigBang, they've given me a code to share with my readers for 10% off your purchase. Just use the code TRYSH10 at checkout. This is NOT an affiliate code, so I don't make any money from it.

Thanks for reading!