This lesson is designed for beginner nail artists who learn different nail design techniques at home. The topic of the master class is how to do nail stamping correctly. I will tell you a few nuances that will help you print a quality design on gel polish. Let's look at two techniques at once: stamping with a special varnish and stamping with gel paint. Let's start with the classic technique.
How to do classic stamping on gel polish: step by step photos
Traditional stamping requires a special varnish that dries in air, as well as a plate and stamp for transferring the image. Before work, you need to thoroughly degrease the plate and stamp surface using Nail Cleanser.
Step 1 – Nails need to be prepared and gel polish applied. Prepare everything you need right away so that all the tools and materials are at hand. You need to work quickly. Next, using step-by-step photos, I will try to show how to use stamping varnish.
Step 2 – So, how to stamp your nails. Apply stamping varnish to the plate. It is enough to paint over part of the drawing.
In this MK I used budget KONAD varnish. In winter they can work comfortably if everything is done quickly. In summer this varnish dries very quickly. This is his peculiarity. There is a strong smell, similar to acetone, so I do not recommend it for allergy sufferers.
Next, use a scraper or plastic card to very quickly run across the plate to remove excess varnish and fill in the empty part of the image.
Step 3 – Take the stamp, place it on the plate and apply light pressure to imprint the ink onto it. Quickly check the quality of the print.
Step 4 – Using the fingers of your left hand, pinch and push away the side ridges on the client’s finger, transfer the image onto the nail with light pressure. If the image is small, then the print can be made in one downward-upward motion. If the image is large, then the impression should be made by rolling from one side of the nail to the other.
The main answer to the question: “How to do stamping correctly”? Fast! If your ink prints poorly, it means:
- you do not do all the manipulations quickly enough;
- you have not sufficiently degreased the plate and have not completely removed any remaining varnish from the previous work;
- the room is too hot or windy;
- your varnish is not of high enough quality.
Stamping is good for making designs both in salons and at home. It greatly facilitates the work of a master who does not know painting techniques. Also, the use of stamping speeds up the work of the master many times over. There are so many different plates on sale now that you can choose designs to suit any design style or season.
Drawings in the form of prints can be made not only with the help of special varnishes. Masters who do not yet have sufficient speed and confident hand placement can try stamping with paint. It is thick and does not dry out in seconds, unlike varnish. Next, I will show you step-by-step execution of stamping with gel paint.
Stencils
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When choosing a stencil plate, pay attention to the material from which it is made. It is more advisable to choose a metal product - it lasts longer, is much stronger and less susceptible to the density of the dye.
How to choose a stencil for stamping:
- Buy a stove only with a protective film on the work surface . During transportation, the instrument will be covered with small scratches that are not visible at first glance, but this damage will certainly affect the final result;
- Try not to order slabs from China from unknown manufacturers . Yes, there are examples when plates of decent quality came from Aliexpress, but most often Chinese products have surface embossing;
- Based on the size of your nail . Buy a stencil plate, the designs of which will completely cover the nail. It will not be possible to correct a design flaw without compromising the quality of the design;
- Make sure that the depth of the pattern lines is the same over the entire area of a particular fragment.
Now let's look at the best stencils for stamping.
MoYouLondon
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The brand produces products for stamping and occupies a leading position in the rating of masters. The plates from this manufacturer are distinguished by deep embossing and the overall strength of the product.
The company offers more than 200 slabs with various patterns - floral, abstract, text.
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Konad
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Stainless steel plates from a South Korean manufacturer cannot be considered budget - the price per stencil ranges from 600 to 800 rubles. The brand offers a large selection of designs for any occasion and for every taste - Japanese characters, single designs, romantic designs.
Konad's range includes about 100 stencils in two formats - rectangular and disc-shaped.
BOHEME
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BOHEME stamping plates have recently appeared on the market, but are already receiving rave reviews. The reason for such a warm welcome is the variety of drawings on each plate, which, although united by one theme, leave room for imagination and creativity.
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Each plate has about 50 different designs, and there are a total of 24 plates in the assortment - 4 in each collection. The themes of the plates are varied - gothic with slightly dark but stylish designs, street art with daring, youthful and bold options, as well as abstraction, modernism, renaissance and impressionism.
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All plates have good embossing, which allows even the smallest details to be accurately transferred to the nails. The size of the plates is 6*12 cm.
TNL
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Posted by TNL Professional (@tnlprofessional)
TNL stencils are made of high-quality metal. The engraving is moderately deep, with the correct stamp and adherence to the technology of applying paint and printing, it is transferred without errors. In total, there are about 150 plates with a different set of designs.
Slab size – 10*15 cm.
Cost - about 150 rubles.
TNL also offers stenciled metal disks, the price of which ranges from 50 to 150 rubles.
Irisk
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Publication from FREEDOM TO YOUR FINGERTIPS (@irisk_pro)
Irisk offers metal stencils measuring 6 by 12 centimeters, as well as square ones - 6.2 * 6.2 and curly ones in the shape of a heart. In total, the assortment includes more than 100 plate options with a different set of designs - from thematic to abstract and patterned.
Stamping techniques
How to do color stamping at home using thick gel paint
As a rule, stamping paints indicate their purpose, but for design you can also use paint for Chinese painting, as well as regular very thick gel paint for applying designs on nails. Below, using an example, I will show how to make a print in two colors. It is also called ombre or gradient stamping. In my opinion, this technique only vaguely resembles a gradient, but it looks quite interesting. The main thing is to choose shades that are similar in tone and not too contrasting.
Step 1 – Manicure all your nails in advance, cover them with top coat, except those that will be stamped. I think gradient stamping looks best on a white background.
Advice for beginners
To work with gel paints, it is more convenient to use a transparent stamp with a silicone pad. In order for the paint to transfer better to the stamp, it must be prepared as follows: remove the gloss from the new stamp with a soft buff, give the surface a slight roughness, use a napkin soaked in Nail Prep and remove dust.
When you have prepared the stamp, degrease the design on the stamping plate that you want to transfer and let it dry for a couple of seconds.
Step 2 – Apply two colors of gel paint at once to the selected design.
Step 3 – Take a scraper and run it over the plate 1-2 times to remove any excess paint.
Step 4 – Since my silicone stamp is small, and I want to cover the surface of the tip as much as possible with the design, I took a rubber stamp from Konad. There is no need to buff it, since the surface is quite sticky and picks up paint well. But due to its opacity, it is difficult for beginners to work with it. It is not clear how and where the drawing will be transferred. But it is moderately elastic and the gel paint blurs less when transferred.
The big advantage of stamping with gel paint is that you can aim and hold the stamp for as long as you like before transferring the design. Gel paint does not dry in air, but dries in a lamp. But there is also a significant disadvantage. If your gel ink is not very thick and you press harder on the stamp, the print will blur.
Step 5 – There is one difference between how to stamp nails with polish and gel paint. When you transfer the “varnish” design, you need to press lightly on the stamp. When you transfer gel paint, the pressure should be minimal, otherwise the material will be smeared over the surface. We transfer it in one easy movement without pressure, not forgetting to pinch and slightly pull the side rollers.
My tip is quite large and the stamp did not allow me to print the image on the very edge. But the essence of working with gradient stamping should be clear.
Other stamping design options
In addition to special varnish and thick gel paint, when working with stamping, some artists manage to use ordinary varnish, standard colored gel polish and a thick rubber base. Also, foil and rubbing are used as additional decoration. Similar stamping can be done at home. The step-by-step photos below show simple examples of a simple design, the creation of which uses stamping.
Preparing the stamp for work
These tips for preparing stamps before work apply primarily to silicone materials.
- Before using them, it is necessary to make the surface of the silicone less smooth (more rough for better adhesion to the varnish). To do this, just run a file or buff over its surface.
- Next, you need to wipe the stamp and tile with nail polish remover and remove all excess fluff (and they stick to silicone very quickly).
In principle, these actions are enough for the stamp to cope well with its purpose.
How to make shiny stamping with your own hands using foil
For this technique you need to use a material with good residual tack. Usually this is a gel paint or rubber base. The substrate, on the contrary, should not have a sticky layer so that the foil is printed only on the design. For this stamping technique, it is better to use casting foil. To ensure everything works out for you, check on the tip how the foil is printed on the material you are going to use for stamping.
Before working with regular gel polish, gel paint or base, you need to prepare a stamp. Namely, go over it with a buff, give it a slight roughness, remove dust and clean it with a cleaner. The photo below shows what a prepared stamp should look like if you want to stamp with other materials rather than special varnishes.
For testing, I took paint from Patrisa Nail, which is intended for stamping and Chinese painting. It is thick and very pigmented. You don't need to apply a lot of it to the plate.
I had in stock a ready-made tip coated with gray gel polish and a thin layer of non-sticky topcoat.
For the design, I used old Born Pretty plates, which I ordered from Aliexpress a few years ago. I can't say they are very good, but overall they are workable. The main thing is to clean them thoroughly after each use.
Step 1 – Apply a small amount of paint to the edge of the selected design.
Step 2 – Next, I ran the scraper across the plate a couple of times. Both times you need to move in the same direction so that the paint does not smear on the plate.
Step 3 – Next I transferred the drawing.
Step 4 – This is the print I got. The paint hasn't run, but there are some small gaps. If there are only a few of them, you can retouch them with a thin brush. If there is a lot, then it is better to redo it. Possible causes of bald spots when stamping with gel paint: a poorly cleaned plate, poor-quality varnish, insufficient pressure on the stamp while removing paint from the plate, too deep engraving on the plate. In another MK I will show you stamping with Vogue Nail gel paint and compare these two products.
Step 5 – Before applying the foil, I dried the gel paint in a lamp. Next, I degreased a piece of transfer foil, waited for the clinser to evaporate, and printed the foil onto the design. Then I covered it with a final layer of glossy topcoat.
The result is a brilliant print.
How to dilute varnish
How to do stamping correctly
Having received information about stamping varnish and what it is, it is equally important to know how to handle it.
You can easily find stamping remover liquid on sale.
Under certain circumstances (for example, when exposed to the sun or in close proximity to a UV lamp), the varnish or stamping paint may thicken. This does not mean that the product will have to be thrown away. If you properly dilute the varnish, it can serve for some time.
Acetone will not work in this case. It makes sense to use it only with ordinary varnishes.
In the case of stamping paint, it is recommended to use one of the following products for dilution:
- Alcohol. Ordinary ethyl alcohol will be a good thinner for varnish compositions based on acrylic or gel. Its main disadvantage is that the pigment of the varnish under its influence will also dilute somewhat and become duller. But, despite this, a bottle of varnish can still be used to create certain effects that involve the use of somewhat muted tones using stamping.
- Top or transparent gel polish. Using a topcoat or transparent gel polish to revive a thickened coloring composition for stamping is also acceptable. To obtain the result, it will be enough to mix the compositions together to the desired consistency. There will be a loss of color intensity, although less significant than in the case of alcohol, but the quality characteristics of the coating obtained after further use of the varnish will not be affected in any way.
- Special liquid. The best option for thinning thick varnish is to use a special liquid. It can be purchased without any problems at any specialized store. The advantages of such liquids are that when used, the color characteristics of the composition do not change in any way; no more than three drops are enough for a full bottle of varnish.
How to do stamping using rubbing
Another technique that allows you to quickly create shiny designs on your nails. You can use any rub. I tried the rose gold color from Patrisa Nail. I did the stamping itself with gel paint, which I used in the previous MK.
Step 1 – I applied a dark burgundy shade to the tip and covered it with a thin layer of top coat. Since the area of the tip is large and not comparable to a natural nail, I applied gel polish only to part of it.
Step 2 – To ensure that the rub only imprints on the design, I lightly buffed the entire surface.
Step 3 – Next, I removed the dust from the sawdust.
Step 4 – I applied a small amount of rub onto the clear stamp.
Step 5 – Selected a design and filled it with gel paint.
Step 6 – I stamped the gel ink onto the stamp on top of the rub.
Step 7 – Made an impression on the nail.
Step 8 – With a light movement of the brush, I shook off the excess rubbing.
Step 9 – Covered the entire tips with topcoat.
Now you know how to use stepping yourself and how to correctly and quickly create beautiful designs on your nails with any prints and designs. If you have any questions about stamping, please leave them in the comments below. Share your experience and what stamping materials you like best. Your feedback will be very useful for beginners.
Consumables and accessories
Replacement stamp pads
The stamps of some brands imply replacing the pad after it wears out. Stamps from El Corazon, Born Pretty have this “function”.
The price of a replacement pad for these brands does not exceed 100 rubles, which is more economical than buying a new stamp for 400 rubles.
Organizer for stencils
Born Pretty suggests using a special organizer that looks like a business card holder. Inside the faux leather case there are 24 plastic tags for storing stencils no larger than 7.5*8.5 cm in size.
Such an accessory, of course, is not necessary, but if available, it will help maintain order.
Price – about 200 rub.
The same one released offers an organizer in a different design with the ability to place rectangular plates measuring 13.5*7 cm and square ones – 6*6. The price of a wallet for stencils is 450 rubles.
Silicone mat
You can order a mat from China in the online stores Pandao and Joom or purchase it from manufacturers of manicure and pedicure products. The silicone product is intended for practicing design skills, assessing pigment saturation and training the hands of a novice craftsman.
A comfortable rug is presented by the El Corazon brand. There is a black and white panel on the surface for testing colors, imitating different nail shapes and plenty of space for free creativity. Mat size – 30*40 cm. Background colors – white or pink. Price – 680 rub.
Tell us in the comments, do you have any favorite manufacturers of stamping products?
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