First Time Stamping!

Hello Everyone!

I had thought ahead for once and had today's manicure completely planned. And then I checked the mail and discovered my stamper had arrived! (The image plates arrived a week ago, but were useless without a stamper and scraper, LOL.) So I changed up my plans and decided to do my first stamping manicure :-)

These are the polishes I used. Sally Hansen Insta-Dri 'Grease Lightening', Konad Special Polish in White, and Sally Hansen Big Matte Topcoat. This isn't my best manicure since it is my first time stamping, but also because I am still adjusting to the short, flat, wide brush on the Insta-Dri polishes.

Since my original plan had included a monochromatic look with white and shades of grey, I decided to keep that part of the design. I started with basecoat and then did 1 coat of Grease Lightening on every nail. The Insta-Dri formula is great and the color is very pigmented, so 1 coat gives good opacity. Once that drys you can stamp! In my case, I used 1 coat of Seche Vite quick drying topcoat to help it along. I did that mostly because I am impatient, but also because I wanted to have a layer of protection if I made a mistake while stamping.

I picked 10 images I liked, all from the same set since that is the only set I have right now, LOL. I used the original Bundle Monster set from 2010, but revised edition with 23 plates instead of 21. From what I can tell, it's the same images, but they changed the shape of the plate to circle, instead of hexagonal, and put on a paper backing. The new plate shape meant few images per plate, which is why there are 23 instead of 21. The plates I used were 010, 008, 013, 014, 002, 005, 009, 003, and 001. I did all my stamping with the Konad Special Polish is white.

Left hand

Right hand

 I need some practice with my technique (obviously), but I was really happy with how well the stamper picked up and transferred the images. The only problems I encountered were user not product related :-) When I was finished, I used my Big Matte Topcoat from Sally Hansen. I thought this would be a cool color combo in matte and I'm happy to report that I was right, LOL. Seriously though, the matte does really make this pop in my opinion.

Thanks for reading and I promise that my next post will be Christmas related! See you then!