FAQ: All about stamping nail art!

Good morning!
I have a long and wordy post for you today to hopefully answer some questions about Konad and other stamping nail art.

I get a lot of emails, Facebook messages and post comments asking about stamping. Where do you get plates? How do you use them? Are they expensive? Do you need to use special polish? How do you get it on your nails? Etc, etc.
I especially got a lot of comments after my Nicki Minaj nails from yesterday!

So, I’m writing this post. I’m going to try to list all the tips and tricks I know and all the information I have. And I hope it helps!

I’ll start with the most popular question. 

What do you need for stamping and where do you get stamping supplies?

To start stamping, you need to get a stamper, scraper, and image plates.
There are many different brands and retailers for stamping supplies.

The most popular (and I believe the pioneers of stamping) is Konad. You can see all their plates and images on their website here. Konad is sold for $6.99 per plate at some professional beauty stores, and also online at WowSoCool.com. WowSoCool ship free in the USA or Canada if your purchase is $20 or more.
You can also find Konad plates on eBay, and you can usually get them for $1 or $2 cheaper than retail. Not always though. 

Konad also sells starter kits which come with a stamper, scraper, and a special polish. However, the special polishes are not necessary.

Another popular brand is Bundle Monster. You can order from their website, or on Amazon. Their first set of plates, seen here, is $17.99 for 21 plates. Their second set, seen here, is $21.99 for 25 plates.

You get a lot more plates for your money but the quality overall is not as good - often some of the plates will be improperly etched. But, that being said, Bundle Monster has awesome customer service and will replace a plate if you receive a faulty one. (This happened to me once and they replaced it, no problem.)

You do need to buy a stamper and scraper separately, the BM plates do not come with them. 

One thing to remember - the full-nail images in the first set are not as big as Konad designs and some people have trouble getting them to fit their full nails. If you have large nails, you might not want to invest in the first set. The full nail images in the second set are the same size as Konad images. (Yet this is still too small for some people's thumbs.)

Born Pretty is another popular stamping plate retailer. Here is their page for plates. They sell their own  brand of plates, some are just generic flowery ones, but they also have a set that are duplicates of Konad plates. I recently received one to review for my blog and I can say that it is good quality but the images might not be exactly the same as Konad. The price is right though - each one is $2.99 or you can get a set of 16 for $18.48. Born Pretty is also where you get the Hello Kitty image plate, and it comes with a stamper and scraper for just $3.88.

You can also buy a stamper/scraper kit here separately.

Born Pretty ships free, worldwide. And you can get a 10% discount from many bloggers but I believe my particular code has expired.

There is another Amazon plate retailler - MASH. They have a set of 25 Konad knock-offs for $10 I believe. They are out of stock right now but I believe that will be restocked. I have heard the quality is good but I don't think they ship outside of the states (at least they didn't when I tried to buy them 2 months ago.) The link to them is here, but like I said, they are not in stock right now.

I know of another brand called Nail Art Diva which is sold at some Lawton's stores here in Canada. I'm not sure where else they are available but they sell individual plates and special polishes.

You can also get lots of plates on eBay. There are many generic brands there, and you can usually get a bunch for a good price. (I got a set of 30 for just $15 once.)

Personally, I like Konad the best. You can always count on the quality, and I find the images to be more pleasing all around. The Bundle Monster sets would be my second choice - with their first set being my personal favorite.

Do you need to use the "special polish" with stamping plates?

No. No no no. I do not own any of the Konad special polishes. (I do own two stamping polishes from Nail Art Diva but I have yet to use them.)

Yes, they do work great, but they add an unneeded expense to your stamping supplies. 

Here is what makes the special polish "special" - the opacity. That means, the polish is much thicker and more pigmented, so that when you are applying the stamp, which is a very thin layer, it will still be visible. 

Who makes special polish? Mostly Konad, but as I mentioned there is Nail Art Diva (available at select drugstores) and Born Pretty also sells some. There is also some generic brands on eBay but I cannot tell you if they are good or not.

What sorts of regular polishes work well for stamping?

The general rule is - if the polish covers your nail in one coat, it will be good for stamping. That just means that the polish is well-pigmented and will act most like the special polishes.

The most readily available polishes that work for stamping are Sally Hansen Insta-Dri. Their polishes are marketed to cover in just one coat, and most of them do, so they are good for stamping. I have noticed that the ones that don't work so well are the old formula. How do you tell the difference in old and new? The new ones will have the name of the polish on a sticker on the top of the cap.

Insta-Dri Whirlwind White is the best white polish I have found so far.

Insta-Dri Silver Sweep is an amazing silver.

Their bright creme colors are also awesome.

The best black polish for stamping that I have tried is Wet N Wild Wild Shine Black Creme. I have four bottles of this in case they are ever discontinued.

A few China Glaze collections work well - Khrome Collection, Romantique Collection, and Sci-Fi Collection. Those are all metallic polishes.

Metallic polishes from most brands will work.

Most holographic polishes will work.

Glitter polishes, in my experience, do not work. The glitter sticks into the plate.

Shimmery polishes can work, so long as they are opaque in one coat.

Trial and error is the best way to figure it out. Experiment with what you have!

On my stash/swatch page, I have marked my good stamping polishes with a diamond.

How does nail art stamping work?

This is another popular question that is pretty hard to explain. I watched several YouTube videos to find the most informative one for you guys, and the best one is actually from Konad! I would do my own, but I don't have a suitable camera yet.

The woman in the beginning of the video is a bit creepy, but this video is really informative.

The only thing wrong about this video is you DO NOT need the IP Holder (Image Plate Holder) and of course you do not need to use the Konad brand polishes.

The IP Holder is used to collect the excess polish, but you can just do it on scrap paper or paper towel.

Other tips and tricks:  

-Make sure your base polish is completely dry before stamping. If necessary, add a quick drying topcoat to your nails before stamping to speed it up. If it isn't dry, you can end up squishing the polish on your nail and ruining it.

-It is best to wait a few minutes before applying topcoat. You can smear the designs if you apply too early.
Also, make sure you have enough topcoat on your brush before applying topcoat. That is the main reason why smearing occurs. Do as the video says, and apply the top coat in as few strokes as possible, which will reduce the chance of streaking. (But you don't need to add two coats like the video says to do. Only do that if you usually prefer 2 coats.)

-Clean your plates with normal nail polish remover and a Q-tip. You can also use cotton pads but I prefer the control you get with a Q-tip.
Pure acetone will leave streaks on your plates, so they look messy but it doesn't affect the stamping.
Make sure you dry off the plates after wiping, or else the polish won't apply right the next time.
Images with lots of detail can require a bit of scrubbing with the Q-tip to get all the polish out.
You do not NEED to clean the plate between each stamp, but I prefer to because it helps you get a perfect image every time.

-Do not press too hard. Many of the popular YouTube tutorials are wrong in this aspect. You do not need to press hard against the image plate to pick up the image. If anything, that makes your image pick up worse.
Like in the video I showed, one gentle roll across the plate will pick up the image.
Do NOT rock the stamper back and forth on the image, that will ruin it.

-Work quickly. Be as fast as you can from the moment you scrape to the moment you roll the image onto your nail. The polish can dry in the plate or on the stamper if you don't move fast enough.

-When using full-nail or tip images, chances are you will get some polish on your skin. Remove this with some polish remover on a Q-tip or on a makeup brush, if you want to be extra neat.

-You can use a plastic card (like an old gift card) as a scraper if you lose yours, or if you got a metal scraper. The metal ones can scratch your plates and I don't recommend them.

-Having trouble with the scraper taking out too much polish from the image? That means you are scraping too hard.
It can also happen with images that have large areas - try scraping in different directions. I explained that in this post.

-Don't try to stamp in a room with a fan or air blowing in from a window. It will make it much harder to get the images to transfer because they will dry too fast.

-Practice makes perfect. At first it is really hard to get images on straight, but really you just need to practice. The hardest images to do are the french tip designs and even I haven't mastered those yet!

-It takes time to get the hang of stamping and it can be frustrating. At first, a stamping manicure may take you more time than you would like, but as you get more accustomed to it, it becomes very fast and easy!

-Most importantly, be creative! Use multiple base colors, multiple stamp colors, multiple images, anything you can think of! Stamping opens up a whole other dimension of nail art that can't be achieved with freehand art. Go nuts!

If you have ANY other questions, please leave them in the comments. I will answer all questions and include them in the post. And if you think I left something out, please leave any suggestions below!