polish please | nail stamping

I have posted before that I have a little bit of an obsession with nail polish, and that I change it a little too much all the time. Lately I have been so inspired by what I see on pinterest, and some nail art blogs that I follow, that I cannot be satisfied with JUST polish. I have started dabbling in nail art, and stamping is my new favorite thing to do. 

I had admired manicures that I have seen on The Nailasaurus, Nailed It, and Chloe's Nail, and wanted to create some of the awesome looks that they have made. The problem is that I don't have the experience or that talent {yet} to make anything as remotely good as the real nail bloggers make. This is when I decide that I needed a little help by the way of nail image stamping plates. So I took to the web and started searching for tools to add to my nail arsenal. After searching and researching I opted to order the MASH plates from amazon. Their over all rating was pretty high, and I wasn't willing to shell out the cash for the Konad plates {these are the real deal and real pricey}.

Here is my second attempt at stamping, and I was really happy with the outcome for a first-timer. I stamped the bow on my ring finger and used dotting tools {also an amazon find} to create polka dots. The first attempted wasn't horrible, but was added to a mani that was on it's way out that had seen better days.

The third try I used stamps on every nail. I went back to the trusty bow, and added a full design to my ring finger with pink hearts. It is recommended to use a fast drying polish for the stamping. The first time I used Sally Hansen's Extreme Wear in White Out, the next time I stamped with Sally's Insta-Dry, which worked much better. I did have some problems with centering the design the way that I truly wanted it, but with a bit more practice I should get the hang of it. 

Nail stamping is super easy, and takes much less time then some of the other techniques that I had been using. You are also left with such a clean finished product. Trust me, there will be many more stamping mani's in the future {and I will try really hard not to use the bow too much}.