How to: Konad/Faux-nad stamping for Beginners Part 2 - Technique

In part one of this how-to, I gave a rundown on plate sets and various special supplies you need for Konad/Faux-nad stamping. Now it's time to play!

I just received the Red Angel plates in the mail, and I am so excited to use them!

Stamping is a messy business - there's no way around it. You'll spend most of your time cleaning up the mess from your nails and supplies than you will actually stamping. It took me a while, but I've finally figured out how to minimize the mess for me, and I hope it helps others!

The supplies:

• Pure acetone (available at Sally Beauty Supply, or your local hardware store.)
• A small bowl
• Stamping plates
• Stamper and scraper
• Cotton buds
• Cotton pads/balls
• Paper towel
• Special polish
• Clean up brush

Gather everything in one place, and make sure you have a lot of space to play with. Pour a generous amount of acetone into your small bowl and keep it close at hand - the acetone will evaporate very quickly, so pour more than you think you'll use!

Choose a plate and place it on top of your paper towel. I picked RA-108, and will be using the squareish pattern in the upper right hand corner.



Cover about half of your chosen image with polish - the scraper will push the polish into the rest of the image.




With your scraper at a 45 degree angle, quickly and firmly scrape the excess polish over your image and off your plate. You want to drag the scraper from the center of the plate towards the outside edge, and onto the paper towel. This is the part that's going to save you a lot of clean up later. Once your scraper hits the paper towel, immediately wipe off the excess polish so that your blade stays clean.

Your plate should look something like this. The smears are normal, and will not affect the finished pattern.



This is my scraper after swiping it across the plate and onto the paper towel. There's very little polish left on the blade - it's all on the paper towel! This is where the bulk of the mess came from before I started doing it this way - the polish would end up all over my fingers from the blade, and it would leave smears on the plate if I didn't clean it properly after each nail.



Using a quick, rocking motion, lightly roll your stamper across the design to pick up the polish. It's important to not press too firmly - doing so will cause the polish to not adhere to the stamper at all. It seems counter-intuitive, but this was what caused me the most trouble the first time I tried to stamp my nails!



Here's my stamper after picking up the pattern:



Working quickly, roll the stamper across your finger. Make sure to press somewhat firmly so the rubber molds to your fingernail.



Here's my stamper after transferring the pattern to my nail.



Dip a cotton bud into your acetone bowl, and wipe off any polish residue from your stamper and plate.



I leave mine a little wet from acetone, and wipe off the residue with a clean cotton pad. Afterwards, my image plate is clean and ready to use again.



Use a cotton bud dipped in acetone to do some initial cleanup around your nail, then finish the job with a swipe of your cleaning brush. The Special Polish is thick and will be a bit messy during clean up.



When you're done with all your stamping, apply a top coat to help it last longer. The most important thing here is to use a very light touch so you don't drag your pattern, and go over each nail just once - the more often you drag the brush across your design, the greater your chances of smearing.

I got a little crazy and stamped a different design on each nail today. I particularly like the swirled tip and the fish scale pattern here!



You can clearly see where some patterns did not transfer as well as others - my pinky and middle finger on this hand both smeared rather badly.




The aftermath:



Because I kept wiping off my scraper on the paper towel, my cleanup was minimal.

How to: Konad/Faux-nad stamping for Beginners Part 1 - Supplies and a rundown of what's out there

So you want to get into stamping, but you don't know where to start. Easy enough to understand - there's a LOT of stuff out there, and it's not easy to get it right your first time out!

The basic rundown on Konad & Faux-nad:

Konad - Only sold online. I've seen it on Amazon and a few other sites.

Konad makes the best quality plates. They're more deeply etched and tend to be easier to transfer for beginners. However, they're much more expensive, running $5 - $7 per plate. I have half a dozen Konad plates, and the quality is definitely high! This is one of the most popular ones.

Konad special polishes are very different from regular nail polish, they're extremely thick. You don't need these for stamping, but they are easier for beginners. Any thick, opaque in one coat polish will work, but it will take some practice. I have both the black & white special polishes, and I really recommend getting these two colours, especially as a beginner.

Konad stamper - I have the double ended one. It's cheap and easy to use! Everyone agrees that quality and performance wise, the Konad double stamper is the best. I don't recommend using the scraper that comes with this set - the metal edge will scratch your plates.

Konad scraper - nice, but not necessary. An old gift card will work just as well, and won't scrape your plates like the metal edged konad one. I bought a separate plastic edged one here.

Bundle Monster - Only sold on Amazon as far as I know.

This is a set of 21 or 25 plates, available cheap on Amazon. A lot of people find them a little tougher to use than the Konads. Note that there are two sets available, make sure you order the newer set! Until recently the full nail patterns were smaller and wouldn't cover even regular nails (much less a thumb), and the plates weren't backed by paper so they were quite sharp, leading to cuts.

The newer sets have wider full finger patterns, the same size as the Konad ones, and also have a paper backing. The designs are a bit hit or miss and the quality is more variable, but the overall opinion is that it's good value for your money.

Red Angel - Only sold on Amazon.

This is the new kid on the block. The images on the plate are very different from the Konad and BM ones. Full size prints are the same size as the Konad and new BM prints. Etching is on par with BM (a bit more variable than Konad), but these lack the paper backing, so the edges are quite sharp. Be careful handling them as you may cut yourself - I managed to do it just removing the plastic covers! This is the set I'll be using in part 2.

Sally Beauty - Available at Sally Beauty online, not sure about stores.

This is a cheap kit you can pick up here that contains a stamper, scraper, holder, and a few plates. 

Reports are that this is OK, but the stamper's kinda crappy and hard to use.

If you're a complete beginner and have no supplies yet, this is what I'd recommend buying:

• Konad double ended stamper
• One or two bottles of Konad special polish (white or black, or both if you want to spend more)
• One or two Konad plates
• Either the BM or RA plate set. Style wise I'd lean towards the Red Angel set, but if you're worried about safety, get the Bundle Monster set with the paper backing.

Nice to have:
Scraper. May as well pick this up as it's cheap, but people report that an old credit card edge works just as well.

Unnecessary:
Plate holder. Just more mess to clean up.


You can find Konad starter kits that will contain a stamper, a few plates, and a couple of small bottles of polish fairly cheaply, but it'll only have the single ended stamper. I'd recommend skipping the kits and buying the pieces separately.

The main reason I recommend getting one Konad plate and special polish is because even though it's pricer, it'll help you learn how to use the stamper more easily than trial and error with your own polish. When trying something new for the first time, you want to eliminate as many variables as you can so you can nail down your technique - using the special polish and a Konad plate will eliminate any polish and plate issues right from the start.

Part 2 of Polish stamping coming tomorrow!

My metaphorical middle finger to Ottawa's weather

We had 20 cm of snow yesterday. Ugh! It's been so nice lately, and then BAM, massive snowstorm.

This is my middle finger to Mother Nature manicure.



From left to right: Barielle Grape Escape, Barielle Blossom, China Glaze Gaga for Green, Barielle Swizzle Stix, and China Glaze Wicked Style on my thumb, all topped with various floral Konad stamps using the white special polish.

I like this! I kinda wish I'd used an orange instead of the peachy-pink Blossom for some extra pop, but overall I'm happy with how this turned out.