Saturday, February 15, 2014

NPQ Tips - Stamping Guide






The Kit & Tools

Stamping kits consist of plates, a stamper and a scraper.
The most famous brand and the first one to make those is KONAD. There is now, however, a multitude of other brands of different quality:
Bundle Monsters
Cheeky
GALS
Pueen

Winstonia
Moyou
Mash
...etc

SCRAPER: it's a flat little plastic piece to scrap the excess polish off the plate. It has a metallic bar at the end usually. Some scrapers are better than others, you want one that is hard and not too soft or scraping is going to be tricky. A plastic scraper also exist, preventing you to scratch the plate after several uses. (the plastic scraper doesn't have that metallic bar) You can also use an old credit card.

STAMPER: It's a tool that has a soft rubber end made to pick up the image. They exist in different shape and size. They even make a XL stamper for the ladies with long nails or wide nail beds.



PLATES: When you get your plates they are protected with a usually blue plastic wrap, take it off before using. Make sure your plate is clean of any residue before applying your polish on it.
Plates are metallic and contain several designs each. They make usually small round plates but you can also find big rectangle plates.




Polishes

Special polishes exist to stamp. Those polishes can not be used to paint your nails, they would never dry. Again the most famous brand is KONAD but other brands are launching their own stamping polishes as well.
While owning those kind of polishes isn't necessary to stamp, some colors will look better while stamped if they are from a special stamping polish. Mostly black and white.
Any other polish can be used, but the one that will work best (meaning have better color depth) are the 1 coaters, or thick polishes. 





The technique
Stamping is a matter of speed. Apply polish on the plate, scrap it instantly holding your scraper at an angle (not straight), pick up the image with your stamper and apply the stamper on your nail. (you can use a rolling motion or not whatever works better for you)

Like everything in nail art, stamping requires practice but it's easy to pick up and once you are mastering this technique your nails will look amazing on both hands. No more fear of failing your dominant hand!


Here is a 30 min long video but very informative and will teach you everything you want to know about stamping:

All About Stamping / Konad FAQ / How To

EXTRA TIPS

- Clean your plate and stamper after each use with a non oily polish remover.


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