Stamping for nails: what is it and how to use it correctly?

Stamping is a method of decorating nails, which today has become quite a popular direction in creating a stylish manicure and pedicure. With the help of simple devices, it is possible to create truly stylish drawings and creative patterns on the nails of absolutely any length without any difficulty and for a minimum amount of time.

Stamping (“stamping” in English - “embossing” or “stamping”) is, in its own way, an interesting technology for quite quickly applying catchy images or patterns of a certain theme to specially prepared nail surfaces using special devices. This technique will allow you to create a unique nail design without a visit to the salon at home, which will not visually differ very much from professional art painting.

Huge desire to work with stamping and make yourself just awesome nails usually appears due to the following positive characteristics of this method.

• You get a very neat pattern or pattern with as sharp lines as possible. The image itself on the nails comes out exactly the same.
• From now on, you will no longer need to contact the master in the salon to get a beautiful manicure, which means that you can save on trips to the nail salon.
• You can choose the color of the picture itself.
• The whole “stamping” procedure will take not so much time, with special skill - about 2-3 minutes.
• In addition to covering the nails of hands and feet, the stamping technique can also be used for painting on any other surface.For example, you can easily leave stamped certain drawings on your phone to complement your inimitable image.

• You will have the opportunity to apply the most unusual images to your nails. Each new plate with original images will give you the opportunity to apply a new decor. And if you take into account that the original design can be created in various colors, then there may be innumerable options for the design of your nails.
• The versatility of technology. Stamping is perfect for short marigolds, and for rather long ones. The shape of the plate itself is not important. A large selection of images and patterns will present the opportunity to adapt your new manicure to any unexpected situation or special occasion.
• You can transfer images of any difficulty level to your nails - with the help of stamping you can draw the smallest details of any pattern, which is very difficult to usually do by hand.

However, it is worth mentioning certain negative features of this popular technology.

• It will be very difficult to create a beautiful and even design of nails with the help of a stamp from the very first time, for this reason the ideally obtained patterns will come out from under your hands gradually, and not immediately.
• Not all original plates from different manufacturers are equally suitable for use, although many of them cost decent money.
• Having finished transferring the image to the nail, you have to wait a bit with the top coating - until the varnish is completely dry, you can accidentally rub it on the surface of the nail and spoil the whole thing.
• Do not be surprised that you didn’t get a beautiful ornament, if the paint that you applied to the print plate dried out too quickly. In this case, it is extremely difficult to transfer the selected pattern to the stamp, and already from it to the fingernail. To solve this problem, it is best to keep a special solvent for varnish with you, who will need to wipe the plate before each new application.

In order for stamping in your performance to be as beautiful as possible, you will need to purchase a separate set for its implementation and learn how to apply a pre-selected image on a prepared surface of nails step by step.

A list of special tools that may come in handy for you to work with.

• First you will need certain tools: these are scissors, small nippers, nail files made of glass or ceramic with different spraying levels to give your nails a certain shape, buff to polish the surface of the nails. For the background for an image or pattern, you will need a base, top varnish and paint for a drawing of a certain color. If you decide to create an inimitable manicure using gel polish, then you will also need to prepare a basic one with a finish coat, gel polish itself and a good UV lamp.

• A plate or a small disk with prints in the form of an engraving. Prints must be very high quality, otherwise a fashionable picture will not work out in the end. Usually 3-4 discs with simple patterns will already be included in the set for "beginners" (they are offered by Konad, MoYou London). To quickly complete the desired nail design, purchase a small-sized plate of the theme that suits you best. It is extremely convenient to store all the discs for stamping in a special holder.

• Stamp made of special rubber or clear silicone. Particularly popular today are stamps with a transparent pillow, because through it the image will be well visible at the very moment when you begin to retype it from the disk onto the prepared nail.With this device, it is convenient to stamp a series of elements of the same composition on the nail in stages, while superimposing them on top of each other as accurately as possible.

• Scraper (often called just a scraper). It is needed in order to remove its excess from the plate or disk as quickly as possible, until the varnish has completely dried. In special sets you can find a metal scraper, but it can scratch the plate very much. Therefore, it is better to adapt a plastic scraper for this purpose, and even better, an old bank card will do.
• Varnish with a very viscous base and high pigmentation. To carry out the stamping procedure, varnishes from eminent companies are selected. But sometimes you can choose completely familiar varnishes, only having a certain thickness and dullness. Gel polish for working with a stamp will not work (only as a background).
• Means for erasing traces of varnish and special wipes without lint. Stamping devices will have to be wiped with them every time after you transfer the print to your fingernail.

Step-by-step procedure for transferring the desired print.

• With the help of your favorite type of manicure, you need to prepare the nails for the next procedure. You should give the free edge of all nails a certain shape (for example, oval, almond-shaped, square) with special nail files and use a buff to polish the surface of the nails, removing the hardened cuticle.
• Next, a base layer is applied, and then a thin layer of background.
• After that, you will need to take the plate with the extruded prints (it is best to fix it in a special holder) and apply a special stamping varnish to the print you selected in advance with a small brush.
• A plastic scraper or card is taken and a sharp movement (applying a slight pressure) removes excess paint from the plate. The device must be kept at an angle of 45 degrees.

• Next, the print is transferred from the plate to the nail. The rolling movement of the stamp from the print “removes” the lacquer trace. Too much should not be reaped, while the movement must be performed only 1 time.
• Be sure to pay attention to the stamp pad. If on the resulting print there are uneven points and lines, then it is best to adjust them with a regular toothpick.
• With the rolling movement of the stamp, the resulting imprint of the image or the exact pattern is reprinted onto the nail. If the image turned out to be ugly, then it can easily be removed using ordinary tape or a special sticky roller for cleaning items of clothing.
• To protect the decorative pattern on the nail, it is covered with a finish layer, while the brush should only move in one direction. It is worth making sure that the imprint on the marigold is 100% dry before you carefully apply a top on top of it.

To switch to a new nail, do not forget to remove excess paint from all tools with a special napkin. If you want to learn how to properly design your nails using the stamping method, you first need to practice well in transferring prints of existing prints to suitable templates. All your actions should be as quick as possible and at the same time you need to work carefully. Imprint varnish dries extremely quickly, so all operations with it must be completed on time.

Before using a new disc or plate, carefully remove the protective film from them and wipe them well with a cloth that is wetted with a dehydrator. The cushion of a new stamp is usually characterized by increased smoothness, which prevents the picture from being properly printed when it is transferred to the fingernail. For this reason, before working with the die, slightly treat it with a buff or a special file with a fine spray.

A protective coating on the nails is applied with a thin layer only once and only after the image has completely dried. The varnish smeared on a print can be used only once. Particularly well wipe off the varnish remover with all accessories after any use.The stamp must be pressed to the engraving for just a couple of seconds, after which the resulting print should be immediately applied to the fingernail with a light rolling. Superfluous or damaged elements can be easily removed with a standard toothpick, and separate or change individual lines of a pattern with an ordinary thin needle.

The pressure of the stamp on the nail should not be excessively serious, otherwise the print will come out blurry. If the pressure is not very strong, then the print may come out pale or fuzzy. A special cream can be applied to the cuticle and the skin next to it so that the varnish does not absorb during work. The best option is to choose a tool that can easily be removed from the skin at the end of the procedure. Regular varnish may be completely unsuitable for this technology, as it is too liquid for this purpose. A careful drawing of the small details of the pattern can be carried out only with the help of the most thick varnish. For stamping you need a coating with a high content of pigment particles. Liquid ordinary varnishes can leave stains or blurry patterns on the surface of the marigold.

Also note that the stamping coating must be applied to the base. And therefore, experienced craftsmen most often choose a matte top, as the drawings and patterns on it look clearer. True, many women manage to use for this purpose a completely ordinary varnish - it is applied with a completely opaque layer. It is best to purchase the most pigmented, thick and even viscous varnishes. Only using such a coating will your chosen pattern not be smeared on the surface of the nail.

In order for the future print of the image to be as clear as possible, the paint on the plate should completely fill only the recesses of the engraving. All movements are performed at an accelerated pace, clearly, since the colorful stamping varnish hardens in 10-15 seconds. If you purchased a metal scraper, then you can not press them on the plate with the extruded prints very much, otherwise you will scratch the plate and ruin not so much a creative stamping manicure as the device itself.

If you do not have a special varnish, then it is quite possible to use a regular product, but only if it is very thick. To make sure that the varnish is suitable for decorating patterns, you must first apply it in 2 layers on any nail. A suitable stamping varnish is perfectly aligned on the nail, forming an opaque coating on it. If you want to use traditional varnish without problems, and not paint from the Konad brand, as well as Moyou and Enas, then choose the most thick, and even better - viscous, pigment-filled varnish.

The technique of proper design of the picture with ordinary varnish will require you to follow certain rules.

• First you need to wash your hands well, dry them, apply a special antiseptic.
• The nails are treated first with a soft, and then with a stiff nail file. This is an important step to remove the gloss from the nail plate.
• The surface of the nails must be degreased.
• Coat your nails with varnish for the background and give it time to dry thoroughly. Only on a dried background will you get beautiful and neat drawings. If the varnish base clings to the stamp, then wrinkles and clots will appear on the base.
• We print a stamp. Each time it is necessary to make sure that the image is completely transferred to the surface of this device. If you notice extra fingerprints on the stamp or if the drawing is not very clear, it is better to carefully remove it from the surface of the stamp with a napkin and repeat all 3 steps from the very beginning.
• Let the varnish dry well.

When choosing a color, make sure that your chosen color drawings give a contrast with the desired base. The created nail design should ideally suit your style and color of items of clothing. To cover the whole look as modern and trendy as possible, you can use the trendy colors of the current year.

Reverse stamping is extremely popular today. This method is considered more difficult to perform than regular stamping, but it will look amazing on the nails. In the classic variation of stamping, only 1 shade of varnish is usually selected, and using the reverse method, you can create whole color compositions that are carefully transferred to the nails.

Today in stores you can find a huge assortment of different stamping stencils, and any girl can choose the most suitable option for herself. And they can become:

• all kinds of geometric patterns of varying degrees of complexity;
• hearts, butterflies, flowers, stars of different sizes;
• abstract mosaic, which is especially popular today;
• a manicure with charming snowflakes in the winter season will look very stylish;
• letters and words with which you can write on your nails everything that only you want, without spending a lot of time creating a picture.

See how to make nail stamping with your own hands in the next video.