New to stamping

Im sure I've seen a thread on this ages ago, but couldn't find it. So I went into town this morning for nothing related to nail polish at all and now have a stamping set... :p What nail varnishes, brands or specifics, work well with stamping? And what plates do I now want to buy? :p Thank you! I'll post horrible messy pictures when I attempt it later :p

Well there's obviously the "official" Konad polishes, I have a few of those, you can pick them up fairly cheaply on eBay. As for general polishes I normally always use Barry M foils, any metallic polishes will do the job and look great! I heard yesterday that GOSH holo is good for stamping so I need to try that out. I'm not sure about other polishes it's a bit trial and error

Stamping is great, you'll love it once you've got the hang of it.

I don't think there's any one brand or type of polish that stamps well, it's trial and error really. The Barry M foil effect polishes work really well. I would just try it out with the polishes you've got already and see which ones work best. I try them out on a piece of paper. If I was organised I'd write next to each stamp which polish I used, so I could refer to it another time. But I'm not. Organised that is.

Are the plates you've bought full nail designs or small images? If you're going to do full nail designs you might want to buy a squishy stamper. They work much better than the regular stampers for full nails. I still use my regular konad stamper for smaller designs though.

There are tons of plates available now. Born Pretty have some which are pretty cheap.

Look forward to seeing your pics xx

Laura wrote:Well there's obviously the "official" Konad polishes, I have a few of those, you can pick them up fairly cheaply on eBay. As for general polishes I normally always use Barry M foils, any metallic polishes will do the job and look great! I heard yesterday that GOSH holo is good for stamping so I need to try that out. I'm not sure about other polishes it's a bit trial and error

I've got an official Konad white, which I must say is excellent. Really good coverage, even over black. It might be worth investing in a white Konad but I wouldn't bother buying the whole range of Konads.

I've yet to find a really good black polish for stamping. At the moment I'm using a Cutex one but it's not quite opaque enough for my liking.

I use Konad black and white Starry.

I think I'll have to invest in a Konad black. None of the others seem black enough for stamping.

Thank you! I've just ordered the Konad White. I've attempted stamping on paper, and I seem to be having issues... I used barry M silver foil, and there just doesnt always seem to take the whole design - any ideas what im doing wrong? Also, what do i clean the plate and the scraper with?

ive read that if a polish is opaque in one coat, it will definite work for stamping ... hope that helps

star_struck wrote:Thank you! I've just ordered the Konad White. I've attempted stamping on paper, and I seem to be having issues... I used barry M silver foil, and there just doesnt always seem to take the whole design - any ideas what im doing wrong? Also, what do i clean the plate and the scraper with?

It might help if you rough up the surface of the stamper. I roughed mine up with an emery board. Don't be too rough, just enough to take the shine off it.

You need to be fairly quick once you've scraped. If you leave it too long it will dry.

I clean the plate and stamper with nail polish remover on cotton wool. Oh and I use an old credit card rather than a metal scraper.

What make are the plates?

Thanks, I will try this - I totally have an old card somewhere! I only have one plate :p As i know it's cheaper to buy online, but it's a konad one. Does that make a difference? Also, which make are best?

It has taken lots of practice and frustration for me to get the hang of stamping. Plus I changed stamper recently and it's much better at picking up the full image. I splashed out on Konad black and white stamping polishes, but my Barry Ms and Sally Hansen one coats work too. I find you just need to get the hang of matching your stamping colour to your base coat.

I've got a mix of stamping plates - Konads from my start pack, Bundle Monster set when on sale, Cheeky jumbo plate and a set hubby bought me for Christmas 2012- and I can't say I really notice a difference. I'm thinking of going for one of the Mo You Sci Fi plates which might change my mind. I clean them using cotton buds and remover when the image gets clogged (usually after 3 stamps).

I prefer kitchen roll and acetone for cleaning the plates with. I found cotton wool tended to leave little fibres and normal remover just didn't clean them as well.

The darker Barry M Gellys are good for stamping, as are a couple of the Sally Hansen Complete Manicure ones, but its really just trial and error to see what works its worth buying Konad black and white though, you can normally get them fairly cheap on Amazon.

I agree, Barry M foils are amazing for stamping. I use a cheap 99p Tesco 'All about nails' white and W7 black regularly too that both work fine. As already stated, most polish that is opaque in one coat is great for stamping, but so are some holos. My color club Cherubic is another favourite, especially over dark polish.

I prefer my squishy XL stamper to my Konad one. I use round cotton pads in preference to cotton wool as they aren't quite so 'hairy' lol. Pure acetone too. Don't use a moisturising remover to clean your plate as it leaves a film and ruins the stamping.

Just keep practising! xx

carter0268 wrote:Don't use a moisturising remover to clean your plate as it leaves a film and ruins the stamping.

Thanks, that's a really handy tip. I would have just used my usual Cutex moisturising polish remover without thinking otherwise.   

I use little lin free cloth thingies o clean with - pushed around with a qtip so I don't get acetone on my nails! I bought a pack I think on ebay from HK that will probably last the rest of my life!

Thank you for all your advice! This is the photo of my first attempt, which I gave up on as i couldnt get any more to stamp the whole design. Im now thinking it might be because I used the wrong kind of remover... So will try again with acetone and my white konad polish.

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I've just tried again, using Barry M silver foil and cleaning the plate with acetone, and it worked!!! i will post pictures tomorrow. Thank you ladies

It definitely gets easier with practice. Look forward to seeing the pics x

Yay! Well done xx

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This was my first successful attempt And my MoYou London plates have just arrived, so I will experiment more later

Cool! Have fun with the new plates.   

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This was my first successful attempt :)And my MoYou London plates have just arrived, so I will experiment more later

Pretty! Love the dots. I tried some but the plate was too small for my weirdly huge thumbnails:(

Well done Masses of fun to be had now lol xx

Just ordered my first MoYou plates - so excited!   I still feel "new" to stamping as although I've had plates for a while now they mostly sit in my helmer untouched.

Star_Struck, your stamping is much better than mine, I still struggle to pick up all the dots in a polka dot design and end up with accidental hollow designs.

My favourite method now is using my squishy stamper (without the handle). I find it works great to hold the stamper in one hand and press a nail from the other hand into the stamper, as opposed to rolling the stamper across the nail. Its much easier to get the design where you want it and to cover the whole nail xx

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] todays nails, complete with poor broken nail lol
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