Have you ever wondered how some people paint their nails with amazing patterns that look close to impossible to do without being a professional nail artist? Many people jump through hoops using tips and tricks trying to get patterns to appear perfect, but nail stamping skips all the pain and agony. Using just a few steps, you can achieve the look you want without spending 6 hours on your nails. Nail stamping is the technique of transferring designs from a metal plate to a stamper, then onto your nail. I have read other nail stamping tutorials while I was learning how to nail stamp, so I thought I would compile all of the resources into one post.
Quick Links: Store list for nail stamping products
Last Updated: 11/14/15
Before I begin talking about nail stamping, you’re going to need to buy or locate the following items:
- 100% Acetone. This is used to clean your stamping plates between transfers.
- A stamping polish. If you don’t have any stamping polish, you can attempt stamping using a high quality, thick, and highly pigmented nail polish. Pictured: Konad Black.
- Nail stamping plates. When you first buy your plates, they may have a film attached to the metal like the plate on the left. Before use, make sure to remove the film. After removed, your plates will look like the one on the right. Pictured: CiCi&SiSi nail stamping plates.
- Stampers. You should have at least 1 nail stamper. Pictured: Konad double ended and Pueen Double ended.
- A sticky lint roller. This is the only way you should be cleaning your stampers. A stinky lint roller is really important if you want clean, crisp images and if you want to care for your stampers.
- At least one scraper. Pictured: Old hotel keycards.
- A way to apply acetone. I personally use a towel because I don’t like using cotton pads, but cotton pads will work. Use this to clean your image plates.
After you locate or purchase the above items, follow these steps to begin nail stamping:
- Apply stamping polish to a design on your stamping plate
- Slide the scraper on the metal plate to remove excess nail polish from the design etching
- Use the stamper to pick up the nail polish remaining on the stamping plate’s design etching
- Push or roll the stamper onto your nail. Make sure that your base color is 100% dry.
- After you have transferred the design onto your nail, clean your stamper using your sticky lint roller.
- Clean the plate with 100% acetone using your preferred method of removing nail polish.
- Repeat until done.
- Before you stamp your image onto your nails, make sure your nails are completely dry. After I add my base color, I apply Sally Hansen’s “Top Coat Dries Instantly” when my nails become tacky to speed up the drying process.
- Stamp designs are applied with a thinner coat of nailpolish and therefore are easier to remove from your nail. If you mess up your design, you can use nail polish remover (Not 100% acetone) in attempt to remove the flawed design.
- After you transfer your design, applying a final top coat is important to keeping your nail design long lasting. I use Seche Vite as my final top coat.
- Learn how to “Float” your top coats. “Floating” refers to applying polish to your nail without the brush tip touching the polish. Floating your top coat prevents your design from smearing or smudging from the brush tip rubbing against your designs. To float, apply a big drop of polish and manipulate the “top” of the polish bubble to cover the rest of your nail.
- Clean your nails, stamper, and plates, before you stamp. Stamp in a well-lit room and make sure your stamp and plate is free of dust or other tiny particles to ensure a crisp image will be stamped.
- If your stamper is not working, make sure you primed it. Also, make sure to check that any thin film is removed from your stamping plate.
- Never ever clean your stamper with acetone. Always use a sticky lint roller.
- Don’t use metal scrapers on your stamping plates or they will eventually scratch your plates.
Stamping Polish – You can use certain brands of thick high-quality nail polish to try stamping. These are polishes that can cover your nail on the first coat. I tried this to begin with and I got really frustrated because the images wouldn’t transfer properly. I prefer to use a good stamping polish because there is a lower chance of failure. The brand that I began using is Konad because I heard a lot of great things about it. I purchased it trough Amazon and waited a week to get it. I bought the black and white Konad and so far, both of them have worked perfectly for stamping. There are a lot of other brands out there that I plan on trying soon as well but I recommend Konad for beginners because it is easy to work with. The price ranges from 6-8 dollars a bottle depending on shipping method and if it is on sale. I have had a great experience with Konad’s white and black stamping polishes, but I have heard mixed results about their metallic colors. Another great brand I’ve heard about besides Konad is Mundos de Unas, which I’m looking forward to trying myself!
Do you NEED special stamping polish? No. You can try the polishes you have already, as long as they’re thick. I can’t guarantee they will work as well, but some stampers use other polishes because of the color variety. If you’re first starting out, I think it’s best to start out with a stamping polish until you get more comfortable with the process, then try experimenting. Stamping can be very frustrating when it just doesn’t work. I felt that frustration myself when I was first beginning. Sometimes it’s best to have success so you can dabble in failure without feeling like quitting all together.
Buy Konad on Amazon: [Link]
Stamping Plates – Stamping plates are metal plates that have designs etched into them. Different brands have different quality plates. The first set of plates I bought were Cici and Sisi Plates I bought off of Amazon. They worked great for me when I was starting out and the set came with a lot of designs. I paid 30 dollars for my plate set and it came with a stamper, which was the first stamper I used. When selecting a plate set that will work good for you, measuring your nail bed and nail length is important. Some stamping plates have designs that are too large and won’t show up well if your nails are smaller. The opposite is also true. Most stores selling plates have dimension information on each design so you can be sure the design will look great on your nails.
A very popular and loved brand is MoYou London. Some plates pop up on Amazon that include prime shipping, so it’s best to be on the lookout for those! MoYou’s plates are more expensive, at around 15 dollars each. The link at the top of the post includes other great shops for unique plates that have fun designs. Not all plates are as expensive. You can find many 1-5 dollar plates at Bundle Monster that work just fine.
Here is a link to the CiCi&SiSi plates I purchased on Amazon: [Link]
Scrapers – Nail scrapers will sometimes come with nail stamping kits or with a stamper. I advise against using scrapers that are metal because they will eventually create scratches on your stamping plates. The plastic ones are alright, but many of these scrapers are small in size and flimsy. I use cards for scrapers. You can use old gift cards, old credit/debit cards, old store cards, old school IDs, hotel room keys, ect.
After putting your polish on your plate, you should scrape with the scraper in a diagonal motion that mimics the design you’re trying to stamp. Stamping designs that are geometric, solid, or lots of lines is difficult because you need the right amount of polish, applied to the right areas, with the right applied motion in order to fill all the spaces correctly. Alternatively, you can put gobs of stamping polish and then scrape, but that’s just a waste of money. Let’s say you’re trying to use an image that has lines that start at the top left and go to the bottom right. You want to think about the direction you’re planning to scrape. I usually scrape top left to bottom right. I would put the polish on the top left corner, a little on the sides and a little in the middle.
Stampers – Here is where things get tricky. There are many different kinds of stampers and some stampers work better for different people. For example, my nails are wide and grow very long. They have a prominent C-curve so I prefer to use a marshmallow stamper. A marshmallow stamper is super squishy and soft so you press down on the plate to pick up, then press on your nail to apply. A marshmallow will cover all angels of your nails, including the sides. If you have short nails that are flat, you may prefer to get a hard flat stamper that you roll to apply your image. It’s best to start with one stamper you think you might like, then branch off to others if you begin to want something better.
Owning more than one stamper is not a waste. For example, I ordered Konad’s stamper not knowing it was hard. However, I use it for my toenails because my toenails are flat compared to my finger nails. I also use the small side of it to pick up smaller single image designs because it’s a lot smaller than my marshmallow and won’t pick up any extra patterns. Having more than one stamper also allows you to complete advanced stamping techniques easier, like mirror stamping, color stamping, and decal stamping. I’ll talk about that later.
When you first buy your stamper, you need to prime it. To prime a stamper, you need to buff the top using an abrasive tool. I use a nail file on harder stampers and a Mr.Clean magic eraser on soft squishy ones and lightly file on top with a nail file. You should only have to prime your stamper once so it’s important to go slow and keep testing to see if your stamper is primed to your liking. You can always prime more, but you can’t undo any damage you may have done by over-priming. A good indication of when you are done priming is when your stamper loses its “top shine” and begins to look matte.
Do you have to spend a lot of money on a quality stamper? No. I bought my marshmallow stamper off of Amazon for 7 dollars. The stamper I bought had a few horrible reviews, but I believe the bad reviews are because those buyers didn’t have the proper information on how to care for/prime the stamper. Stampers, in general, are not that expensive. The PUEEN stamper I bought had removable stamp heads and the Konad stamper had its stamp heads built in. The benefit of the removable heads is that you can replace them and you can take out one side to keep the stamper standing erect.
Buy Konad hard double ended stamper on Amazon: [Link]
Buy PUEEN double ended stamper on Amazon: [Link]
Sticky Lint Roller – You may think this is a weird thing to use when you’re doing nail art, but it is vital to the care of your stamper. When cleaning your stamper, do not use anything besides a sticky lint roller. Cleaning or dipping your stamper in acetone will destroy it over time and make picking up images more difficult. After you pick up an image and transfer it onto your nail, you push your stamper against the sticky roller. Viola! In one motion, the rest of the design is transferred to the sticky roller and you’re done cleaning it.
100% Acetone – You need a strong polish remover to clean your plates or you’ll be at it scrubbing for DAYS. I recommend getting a large bottle of 100% Acetone to clean your plates so you don’t have to keep going to the store to buy it. Most people use cotton swabs to remove nail polish but I hate the way it sticks to my fingers so I actually use a hand towel. I ick a flat surface that is protected from any spilled acetone. I put the towel underneath the plate and begin. The process for my cleaning is putting a little acetone into the cap. I pour some out of the cap and onto the spot where the stamping polish got all over. I let it sit for awhile and then when I see the polish breaking down, I lift a part of the towel from underneath and then use it to wipe/dab the polish off. Alternatively, I get the acetone on a brush, dab some with the brush, then wipe with the towel. Keep in mind that if you use a towel, don’t use a towel that you like. The nail polish will ruin it and will probably create stains that won’t fade.
Advanced nail stamping – Advanced nail stamping is where you can really let your creativity shine. There are a lot of possibilities when it comes to advanced stamping. The most common advanced nail stamping trick is color stamping. Color stamping is when you pick up the image from your plate like you usually would, but you paint colors for your design right onto your stamper. A lot of patience is needed for advanced stamping because there is a lot of dry time involved. For color stamping, you need to wait for the polish on the stamper to dry and then apply a thin top coat to your nails. When your nails become tacky, you can attempt to transfer the design onto your nails.
Alternatively, you can do decal stamping. I have done a lot of decal stamping because it’s easier for me to get the timing right. Still, each design can take up to 30 minutes to be ready to transfer onto your nail. When you decal stamp, you pick the design up with your stamper and color it with polish as if you were going to color stamp. However, when you finish, you paint over the entire design and your painted colors with either a solid color or a top coat. After that, you wait for the design to dry, peel the dried decal off of the stamper head, and pat it on your nail. Mistakes I have made with my decals included using too much polish underneath my decals. When I used seche vite, the decals were pretty heavy by themselves and became even heavier on top of other nail polish. Using nail polish behind your design instead of top coat when you already have your base color on is the best way to keep the build-up down on your nails. Decal stamping also works great with single designs because you have more control over where the design will land, as opposed to using a stamper. I recommend using a soft stamper for decal stamping because it’s easier to peel off a design from a soft stamper as opposed to a hard one. A stamper that can stand on its own is crucial.
Mirror stamping is another technique I’ve recently seen. This technique involves picking up a stamped image and transferring it to another stamper in order to mirror the design.
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