Stamping Nail Art

Stamping nail art was hot the last few year and still is today. It's an easy, fast and creative way to make your own unique nail art. Now let me share my experience of stamping nail art with you.

How does stamping nail art work?

Well, the name actually gave it away; stamping nail art! It's a technique where you simply stamp an image onto the nails.

The things you need to have before you start; imageplate, stamper, scraper and some pigmented special nail polish. First you have to paint your nails in the desired color. Then when your nails are completely dry, choose an image on an imageplate. Put some nail polish on the image. Take you scraper and scrape the excess nailpolish away, make sure you remove the polish well and the right way. Get you stamper and roll the stamper over the image. Now, the image is on you stamper. Press or roll the image onto your nail. If you want all nails to be exactly the same you might need some practise first at stamping the image the right, and same, way.

If this information wasn't concrete enough, I've got a video to show you which explains it a lot better!

FAQ on stamping nail art:

Do you really need to use the special polishes with imageplates?

No. You can just use regular nail polish, but make sure the polish you are using is high pigmented.

The reason why a lot of brands talk about their special polishes is because they are thicker and more pigmented than regular nail polish. Regular polishes are mostly too thin or not as pigmented. So if you want an image on your nails and you've stamped it with regular polish, it may turn out to be almost clear. I prefer working with special polishes, but that is just my opinion.

My stamper doesn't pick up any image!

How do you pick up an image with you stamper? Do you roll or press down? If you press down I recommend you to try to roll the stamper over the image to pick up the image. If you do roll over the image but nothing comes on the stamper you may work a little slow. If the polish is already dry in it's image it's very hard to pick that up with a stamper. If you know you work quickly I have one last tip, and that tip is; file the top/rubber of your stamper. The surface can be too smooth and with a file you can make it more rough.

Where can I get stamping nail art supplies?

There are many brands that sell stamping nail art these days. I don't exactly know where you can buy these in stores. But I do know some links;

The most popular is Konad Stamping Nail Art. Konad doesn't only sell the products individually, they also sell kits for beginners. One kit will include a scraper, stamper, imageplate and one or more special polishes. Everything you need to start!
Then there also is Bundle Monster which only sells imageplates. Nail Art Diva is another site where you can get stamping nail art supplies. Essence Cosmetics has a website (not a webshop), the brand is expanding all over the world so don't look surprised if you see the brand one day in your local drugstore.

8 Tips for the best results!

#1. Only use the special polishes for stamping nail art. The polishes are too thick to work as an regular polish. Because the polish is thick, it wouldn't even dry!

#2. You don't have to use only one color for your imag, you can use two or maybe even three colors of nail polish!

#3. To scrape off the excess polish of a plate, place the scraper diagonal, press lightly and scrape all excess nail polish off!

#4. Don't worry if the imageplate has scratches, this doesn't damage the images.

#5. Remove polish from the imageplate, stamper and scraper after each, two or three application(s).

#6. If you use special polish, let it dry completly before you put on some topcoat. If you don't, the design will smear.

#7. When you used special polish, use abundant amount of topcoat. Glide the topcoat onto the nail, don't let the brush of the topcoat touch the design.

#8. Practice, practice and practice!

Now, just for fun, some picture from me where I used stamping nail art. You might have seen these pictures before on my blog:

I hope this was helpful to some if you! If you still have questions, please let me know by commenting down below or by emailing me.