Stamping 101: Down The Rabbit Hole

I'm fairly new to stamping but I'm completely already hooked. It's an easy way to create simple and not so simple nail art without being a pro at drawing teeny tiny intricate designs on your nails. I've been stamping for a couple of months now and although I don't consider myself a professional by any stretch of the imagination, I know a little bit enough to pass on some tricks and tips to those new to the stamping game.

One of my first stamping adventures along with a literal miracle worker

Nail stamping has been around for years. The first big company I remember to really focus on nail stamping is Konad. I remember those infomercials and then seeing those pink little kits at Sally's and I can say they never really appealed to me.

This past summer, I went to the Premiere Beauty Show and though I was still wholeheartedly indifferent about nail stamping, I bought a kit from MoYou USA. I remembered seeing some plates from MoYou London floating around some nail polish communities I am a member of and thought, why not? Wrong move. I over payed for a crappy starter kit that was nothing like MoYou London.

This was fun and though not my best, still one of my faves

That experience sucked, but it gave me the desire to start researching different plates and different stampers and polishes and that's when I got hooked. I bought some good plates from Amazon and the Creative Shop stamper and haven't looked back since. It's a fun way to jazz up my manicure and really bump up the creativity even though my art school skills are pretty pre-kinder.

Now that I'm back in the blogging swing of things, I've decided to pass on my little tricks to those who are a little newer to the stamping game. When you first get into nail stamping there are a couple of obvious things you need, like a good stamping plate and stamper. We'll get into that later but for now, here are some little things you might want to pick up to make your stamping adventures a little less aggravating.

1) Lint Roller: When you stamp an image from the plate to your nail, the first thing you think to do is to go ahead and wipe the stamper down with nail polish remover. And though some stampers do require priming (we'll get to that later) the best way to clean off your stamper is to roll the stamper onto a lint roller to pick up the rest of the image without harming the stamper. Remember, acetone or nail polish remover break down material and you really don't want to over manipulate your stamper.

2) Cotton Pads & Paper Towels: Once you scrape your polish off of the plate using your scraper, you're going to need to wipe the remaining polish from the scraper. Laying down a paper towel or two underneath the stamping plate really helps with the mess. Also, you're going to need tons of cotton pads to clean up your plate and scraper when you're finished using them. They're also useful for cleaning up around your cuticle when you finish stamping.

3) Brushes: Speaking of cleaning up, using brushes around your cuticle area really help with cleaning up. Dip the tip in a little nail polish remover to help with the mess. I use inexpensive ELF concealer brushes which retail for $1 at Target. These are the perfect size for really going around your nail bed without causing a huge mess and ruining your manicure.

4) Tape: And finally some regular tape. Before you even go into cleaning up with nail polish remover, use a little bit of tape to remove some of the residue from the stamping image that is now on your finger. Once you get as much as you can off, go ahead and clean up with the brush and nail polish remover.

Thank you for reading and hopefully this will give you a basics as to the little extras you need to make your stamping endeavors a little bit easier.

Love you guys!
-Cristina