I am going to talk about how to choose Konad special polishes, also known as stamping varnishes!
I own the basic ones before: black, white, gold, silver, red, green and pink pearl. However, it is still too few lol. Of the 7 polishes listed above, I actually found red, gold, silver and green are waste of money (for me). I think that I only use them for maybe one or two times, but I own 11 ml big bottles. Gold and Silver are HUGE disappointment, I don't recommend to get them at all. Most of Konad special polishes work really well except those two, please watch out for those laggers.
When comes to research colors online, I don't find many posts and bloggers talk about how to choose them or good post for comparison. PassionForPolish's Konad Special Polish Swatches is a very useful reference, as well as Polished Reverie's Konad Polish Swatches & XL Stamper Review worths check out. Although a bit hard to cross reference, Polish and Powder's Konad Polish Swatches is also a good post to check out. Lastly, this post by Nirida provided some nice works with good reference of Konad polishes used, but not all of them.
Let's talk about the varieties of Konad special polish available. Konad special polishes have 3 sizes, 5ml, 11ml and 12ml. 12ml version is also known as Princess Special Polish, and it has more design-look bottle. Check below:
Konad Special Princess Polish (picture from Konad official site)
So what's the difference between Princess Series and the regular (5ml/11ml) ones? I don't own any from Princess line, so it's hard for me to tell exactly. From web-surfing from other blogs, I really think that there's no difference besides the bottle look is different. However, Princess line has some special colors that are not available in regular special polishes such as gold black, chic blue, apple green, orange pearl (just name few here, check out the official site for the complete list) and it seems that Konad is expanding this line. Princess line used to be more expensive than the regular 11 ml bottle, but they are making it the same price now. I guess that Konad will eventually discontinue 11 ml ones and replaced them by Princess.
Let's talk about the regular (5m/11ml) bottles:
Left-Princess 12ml , Middle-Regular 11ml, Right-5ml (Picture source from here)
For price-wise, 5ml one is slightly more expensive as our buck rule, the more you buy, the cheaper it goes. I would recommend to get at least black and white in either 12ml/11ml version. Unless you are surely going to use a lot from a color, I think 5ml is good enough to last for a long time. For usage, there's actually no difference because it's polish for stamping. The brush and handle are no big issues and won't run into the trouble because of that. Actually, I find small 5ml bottle is more controllable, hence less waste for stamping. Again, it's just my opinion through.
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Let's talk about how to choose colors then, shall we? Besides Princess line (which I don't have access to in Taiwan), Regular 11ml/5ml line have about 45 colors. Ideally I will say one for each, but it will make everyone bankrupt including me lol. So try to invest the colors that will be used the most is deifnitely important. Remember that choosing stamping polish is different from choosing regular ones. It is intended to be USE ON THE TOP of the regular polishes, so color DOES CHANGE or NOT-SHOWN. For example, the pastel pink one probably won't show the pink-ness on a dark base at all. I sort the colors into the groups to help making the choice.
Pastel Series:
This link as the name suggested, all pastel = very very light pale colors. For example, pastel pink, pastel purple, pastel yellow pastel blue... I saw some lovely nail arts by this group. However, it's the reminder that unless the base is white or close to white color, they won't show up well. There's a very minimal difference between pastel pink and violent when stamping onto other colors.
What I Own: Pastel Violet, Pastel Pink, Pastel Orange
Pearl Series:
Everything have pearl is less intensified and more subtle. For example, orange is much brighter than orange pearl, and blue is much stronger than sky pearl (it's blue version of pearl). I don't like this series very much because I like color to be bright and clear. However, if the fans of more subtle look and lovers of pearl reflection would love this series.
What I Own: Violet Pearl, Black Pearl
Regular Series:
Red, blue, yellow, orange names are the original true colors. I like them because that they are all cremes and usually show up more on a base. There's only one note here that light gray is very similar to pastel violet, I really think that they are kinda sisters, or a dupe. Before the Psyche lines, those are most vivd lines available.
What I Own: Red, Green, Blue, Chocolate, Dark Purple, Black, Royal Purple(Blue)
Psyche Series:
Unfortunately that 11ml regular line only has Psyche Pink available. Rest of Psyche series such as psyche orange, psyche green, psyche blue are only available in Princess line now. This series are usually much brighter than regular series and they show up more on the base. It's so far my favorite line of Konad polishes and I really think that they should make them GROW.
What I Own: Psyche Pink
New Sparkly Series:
This series have no regular naming rules. Moss green, vivid pink, light bronze, indigo pink, hepburn blue are part of this group. This is a newer Konad line and they tried to add some sparkles to give a nice touch of their special polishes. This series is a bit tricky to work with due to it's sparkle-ness. It's less intensive in color, so the stamping images are harder to transfer. My experience is that they don't work well on the very detailed design. They look amazing on the dark bases and give nice finish to the look.
What I Own: Vivid Pink, Moss Green
Gold/Silver Polishes:
Please don't get them, they are huge disappointment. The color intensity is bad, and it doesn't show up properly on nails. Any other brand chrome polishes work better than these two. Although that I haven't tried their newer version Powdery Silver and Powdery Gold yet. Maybe that those two will be better.
What I Own: sadly both
I will have another separate post of my recently purchase Konad special polishes soon!
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