One of the things I miss when I do tons of swatching is doing freehand designs and stamping. Stamping will always be my first love because when I first started getting obsessed with doing my own nails, it was the first technique I felt that I mastered. In order to push myself to at least do some stamping once in a while, a few friends and I will be trying to post stamping manicures every Saturday. For now I am feeling pretty enthusiastic about this, and I hope I don’t flake out like I always do. Ha! I think that because it’s only a once a week thing, I won’t be such a weirdo about it. For my first Stamping Saturdays mani, I decided to start with a gorgeous base: Illamasqua Superstition.
Seriously. This is such an amazingly gorgeous polish that it made me want to fall in love with Illamasqua all over again. I don’t know about you, but I was pretty annoyed when they raised their prices to $17 a bottle from $14. Uhm, yeah…no mas Illamasqua for me. I know that $3 isn’t that much and yes, I am that person who buys $30 polish, but such a sudden price hike rubbed me the wrong way. Anyway, I still love this. The formula is like buttah and it has a beautiful squishy quality to it. Then I started to stamp it up.
I’m not going to lie: I am way rusty with stamping so this manicure was kind of a nightmare. I really hate how the black konad special polish streaks like crazy when you top coat it. I actually had to redo the stamping because I smudged it up pretty horribly the first time. This particular image comes from Konad plate M64 in case you were wondering. I tried creating one of the inlinkz thing for this but I gotta be honest: I was way too lazy and I got confused easily. I’m sure the alcohol contributed to that but let’s not focus on that, ok? Once I figure out who and when my girls are posting, I will list their entries below. Edit: I think Amy figured out the linky thing.
So what do you think? Do you like stamping? I am definitely looking forward to doing more of these so make sure that you visit us next Saturday. Thanks so much for stopping by and I will talk to you soon.
What a lovely shade of purple! It’s very much like the Pantone colour of the year – apparently this means we’ll be seeing loads of it around. Gorgeous stamping too. 🙂 I’ll have to look out for that stamping plate!
Rachel T recently posted..Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery: Chelsea Queen
You are so right. It does look like the color of the year. 🙂 This is one of my favorite Konad designs for sure.
Your stamping skills are much better than mine! Gorgeous job on this 😉
Lisa N. recently posted..Wishtrend Skincare Haul and First Impressions
Thank you, Lisa! 🙂
Looks great to me, not streaky at all! I’ve been thinking of trying out reverse stamping, seems very time consuming, but the results are astounding!! 😉
Reverse stamping??? I am intrigued! Oh, this is not streaky because I redid it. lol The first attempt was not very pretty.
It looks very pretty. I was a bit disappointed that there was a picture of the process. I have never heard of stamping for nails. Had you not explained I would have thought it was a sticker or something.
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This is a fairly common technique that has gotten very popular in the last couple of years. I had no idea what it was when I first started my blog, but now it’s one of my favorite things to do.
aww.. i’ve been trying to do stamping again, my challenge is to use all plates i haven’t used before.. but i’ve been doing my nails lately like i don’t feel like doing it. LOL.
That is a good challenge. I haven’t used so many of my plates so I don’t even know what I would do with that challenge. haha
Since I now have an entire week to put something together I’m totally motivated to do this lol. Oh and your manicure is “I hate you bitch” gorgeous.
Yeah, you better get something ready! Pfft!
I’m with Frosso above. It is so good “i hate you bitch.” LOL. Totally in fun! I have probably 50 stamping plates, thinking oh yea I got this. WRONG! I suck! Please show us tour technique. I have watch endless youtube videos and I still suck. I know it is because I am not fast enough. Please show us when you have time.
LOL! It took me a lot of practice to get my stamping right. In the beginning I was even practicing on paper just to make sure the images transferred correctly. I think that nowadays, I still struggle sometimes but it has gotten a lot easier. I could do a tutorial sometime. 🙂
Love your base color love your stamping job. It’s much better than mine.
Amy recently posted..Formula X The 22: New Classics
Yours look amazing! I love it. I have to say that this base color is just so beautiful–I didn’t want to take it off.
The base polish is incredible – what a beautiful shade! And the stamping looks great – what an ornate design!
Bailey recently posted..Radiant Orchid Nail Polish – Love & Beauty Orchid
I’m still mad at Illamasqua for the price hike, but yeah…they make some gorgeous polishes.
I love this stamping look! The polish is so squishy looking and I love the black contrast.
I don’t see any streaks in your photos, but you have GOT to get some HK Girl from Glisten & Glow. I swear on my entire polish stash that it does not streak your stamping. I will not use anything else now.
Shelby Lou Nails recently posted..Hare Polish Holiday 2013: Bohemian Holiday
I have been hearing so much about HK Girl that I am tempted to buy it. I’m just such a cheapskate when it comes to top coats. I have two professional sized bottles of Seche Vite that I have to use up before purchasing anything else.
awesome stamping nails … wish I could do that 🙁
Thank you, Jenny! 🙂
I think that once a week is manageable and frequent enough to give you ideas without burning out. Now if I could only stamp…
This also makes me nostalgic for Illamasqua. I was not fond of their sudden steep hike, either. I also realized that I think I incorrectly identified this color on Facebook *cue sad panda.*
I don’t see any messy stamping up in this betch. I think Fross got it right, haha.
Well, this just means that you’re going to have to bust out the stamping stuff so you can practice and join in the fun. This one is not messy but it’s because I had to redo it. You should have seen the first attempt.
I love this combo too, The only one I have similar to this purple is Zoya Charisma I will have to try something like this because I really like the black over it!
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Can’t wait to see it. 🙂