The latest trend in nail art is nail stamping and I'm a HUGE fan of this trend and hope it stays for awhile! It's so fun! If you're not familiar with nail stamping then you're probably thinking, Ashley what the heck is it and why are you so excited about it?? Nail stamping is taking a design that's engraved into a metal plate, scraping polish over top and picking up the design with a silicone stamper to then transfer onto your nails, leaving an endless variety of designs and themes you can choose from. From flowers to animals, ghosts to even santa claus, you can find a nail plate design for just about anything! They even have a Harry Potter themed one, which I must get my hands on! You can purchase great nail plates and stampers all over Amazon, for a variety of different prices and packages.
For todays post I am stamping with the MoYou London Nail Plates. I purchased mine at Trade Secrets, but you can also pick them up on their website (www.moyoulondon.ca) or on Amazon for really good deals. I really love the quality of these ones. I have had no issues with it, and it picks up the full image every time. They also offer soooo many plate designs! With each plate engraved with 18 different designs, there is so much you can do. I currently only have Sailor and Flower Power, but can't wait to get more, especially around the holidays.
I couldn't wait to blog about this so keep reading to see step by step instructions on how to start nail stamping and everything you'll need to achieve the perfect nail art!
A nail file, and buffer to shape and buff your nails ready for nail polish application.
Nail polish remover and cotton rounds to wipe off the nail plate between stamping applications.
Nail polish prep bases, and a top coat.
A solid nail colour - I went for coral.
One accent colour to be the stamping print colour, I went for rose gold.
Nail Stamping plates, scraper and stamper.
Any additional nail crystals or accents that you want to add.
A nail brush to clean up any stamping polish that transfers onto the skin.
Step 1: File and shape your nails to desired length and shape.
Step 2: Prime your nails with your favourite base coat. I have been a big fan of OPI's for as long as I can remember.
Step 3: Paint your nails with a base colour. This will be the background colour to your stamping design.
Step 4: Apply your stamping colour onto the stamping plate design. Try to just line the edge of it. You won't need to cover the entire thing because we will be scraping up the colour to cover the full design in the next step. At this point, you are going to need to work fast so I suggest having all of your tools ready to go for the next few steps.
Step 5: Using the stamping scraper, scrape the line of nail polish across the design at a 45 degree angle. This will get the nail polish into all of the fine details and get rid of any excess nail polish so that your stamper can pick up a crisp design and not a clump of polish.
Step 6: Working fast, press your stamper onto the design to pick up the polish before it dries.
Step 7: When you lift your stamper back up, you should have your design perfectly on it. You may find that depending on how much polish you have on the plate or how big the stamper design is, sometimes the stamper will pick up extra polish/design and you won't have a crisp rectangle design shown like above. Thats an easy fix, just take some tape, lay it on the silicone stamper and pick up those extra pieces of polish around the design to remove it. This is also how you would clean the stamper, re-setting it to start the next nail/next design.
Step 8: Making sure that your base colour is dry, press or roll the stamper onto your nails to transfer the design.
Step 9: Because the stamping design is bigger than most nails, some of it will transfer onto your skin. Take a brush with some polish remover and clean up your skin around the nails. They also make a latex peel you can apply to the skin around the nail, to catch any of the excess, and then once dried peel it off easily.
Step 10: Once your stamping design is dried, finish your nails off with a top coat and get ready to show off your stamping manicure! Have fun playing around with different designs on 1 nail, adding accessories like gems and beads. I would recommend following MoYou on Instagram. They upload amazing design applications and how to's to get some inspiration!
x Ashley
