Nail Stamping- Getting Started

The Basics

So, you want to start nail stamping for the first time, but not sure where to start?

Here's what you'll need as a bare minimum:

• Some kitchen roll to protect your work surface and to wipe your scraper off in between stamping
• A pretty stamping plate :)
• A stamper
• A scraper/old store card
• Stamping polish or regular polish with high opacity
• Nail polish remover/acetone to clean your plate and scraper
• Cotton pads for the above
• Sticky tape or a lint roller to clean off your stamper and cuticles 
• Some paper 
• A good topcoat

 It's not much, right.

A couple of tips you'll need to take into consideration when stamping for the first time:

The nail surface you're stamping on:

Make sure the polish you are about to stamp on is DRY.  Not 'I've left it a couple of minutes, it should be okay' dry, but 'I am confident if I stab it with my finger nail it will be fine' dry.  The best thing to ensure this is a thin coat of Seche Vite left for a few minutes.  It also helps you if you mess up your stamping and you don't get it perfect first time, you can run tape or acetone free remover over it to remove it without risking damaging your polish!

Your stamper

If it's a marshmallow or squishy stamper, a light roll over the image will pick it up.  If it's a hard Konad type one, you'll need to press down firmly.  It's all trial and error, which is why I always suggest having a sheet of paper on standby so you can try things out before you take the plunge.

Your scraper 

When I think back to years ago when I used to use Konad scrapers, I shudder.  They had a small, long, thin blade running across them, so they would scratch your plate every single time.  I often see people using them now and think NOOOOOOOOOO!!!  Using a thin, flexible piece of plastic such as a store card or even an old credit card will enable you to vary the angle you scrape at and help you to develop good technique when scraping.

The stamping polish

Pictured clockwise from left:Barry M Foil Effects 320/442, Models Own Chrome Cerise,Avon Metallic Effects Icy Purple, Colour Club Harp-On-It, Mundo de Unas Black and Konad Blue.

There's a lot to choose from here.  The Konad ones work well, but you may have heard a buzz around the Mundo de Unas ones.  WOW.  I mean, WOW.  They are the only ones I will ever use now- yes they smell strong, but I've never found anything else so opaque and crisp for stamping or if you mess up, you can use tape to remove the stamping polish from your nail!  It's perfect!  But shipping is expensive and it sells out on European sites :(

Other great stamping polishes tend to be chrome or foil ones- for example, the ones from Barry M are great (as do some of their regular polishes), and the Models Own Chrome collection are amazing.  The Avon Metallics range also stamps really well, as do the Holographics from Color Club - I ended up collecting all of these in the end although they cost me waaaaay too much here in the UK, but hey, you can use them as a regular polish AND a stamping polish (that's how I justified it anyway!  :P)

Think of a one coater polish that's mega opaque, and you've probably got a good stamping polish.
Beware that regular polish dries faster than stamping polish, so you will need to work fast or it will dry before you even get to pick it up.

Nail Polish Remover/ Acetone

Now, this is down to personal choice.  Personally, I don't use acetone for anything apart from removing glitter (damn you, glitter!) or gel polish (damn you even more, gel polish!).  Why?  Because I don't feel it's needed.

I use acetone free polish remover to clean my plates and scraper (using acetone may also wear away at your scraper) and I use the same for clean up.
I don't use acetone or polish remover to clean my stamper- I run some sticky tape over it.  If you're priming your stamper (there will be a separate blog post which will contain tons of info on stampers) then maybe you will need to use a little acetone.  I am just overly cautious about acetone ruining my stamper and making it dry out and crack.

Technique

Everyone has a different way of stamping, and it's about finding what works best for you, but here are your basic steps:

1. Make sure your surfaces are clean - your nail surface, stamper and plates - free of any marks or hairs or bits of dust and use the tape on your stamper and nail polish remover on your plates to ensure they are ready.
2. Plop some stamping polish down onto your image in a line over the first 1/3 - 1/2 of your chosen image.
3. Scrape that bad boy.  One or two good ones should do it- try scraping at an angle of about 45 degrees so you can see the polish settle in your pretty image.
4. Roll your stamper over the image as soon as you can- like I said, vary the pressure to find out what gets you the best results.
5. And stamp!  If your stamper is squisy, you can just press your nail into it or roll, if it's hard Konad styleee, then don't press too hard or your nail will feel it!  (If you've stamped with Mundo de Unas and you're not happy with your results, get some sticky tape and run it over the nail and pull off- the stamping polish will come with it.  Repeat until you have got rid of it and start again).
6. Give it a few minutes and then float some top coat over each of your nails to seal in your design et voila!   

Practice makes perfect! 

I know you're really excited and want to stamp perfectly first time, but as I found, it rarely happens as there are variables involved, including your mood!  Try to be patient (I know it's hard) and use different techniques to improve the quality and crispness of your image, such as scraping at different angles and varying pressure when you pick up your images on your stamper.  

Use that bit of paper and swatch to your heart's content!  Then when you're confident you've got it down, go for it!  :D