Stamping Success with MASH 26-50 Plates

If you follow Polish off the Bottle on Facebook and Twitter, then you know that I have been super pumped about getting started with nail stamping.  Well, my MASH 26-50 Plates arrived last week along with my Konad double ended stamper, and I have been having a ball!  It's a much easier process than I thought it would be, and there is so much variety you can do with your manicure.  I feel like I'm an all-star nail artist now thanks to nail stamping.

So my first attempt wasn't perfect, but I wanted to try a small design instead of a full pattern first just to get used to the application process.  Here's a pic from my first nail stamp manicure attempt:

Pretty cute, huh?  This little guy can be found on plate MASH-35.  So...the next day I decided that I wanted to try a bigger pattern, but still something that would be kind of abstract and more forgiving.  So I chose this one:

This design is from plate MASH-47, and while you can tell I don't quite have the rolling technique down like a pro, it still looks pretty cool.  At least I think so.  By the way, this design is stamped over China Glaze's Keep Calm, Paint On.  Swatch below:

I love this color after three coats, but I have to say, the application was pretty horrible.  It bubbled all over the place and the first two coats looked really streaky.  I have NEVER experienced this with a China Glaze polish before, so I'm wondering if maybe I got a bottle from a bad batch or something.  But the good news is that, when I put on the Seche Vite (after applying the stamp design), the polish smoothed over really well.  And now back to stamping...

So my husband defended his dissertation this week and now has his PhD!  We had a lot of family in from out of town, and I decided that I would do a sophisticated metallic stamped mani for all the presentations, parties, and events we have been attending this week.  I chose Essie's Devil's Advocate for my base color:

Devil's Advocate is a beautiful deep reddish-plum, but under most lighting it looks black.  I kind of wish the red tones were a bit more prominent, but still, I really like the color and had no problems with the application.

 This polish has a very creamy texture and was very durable.  I did experience a bit of staining when I removed it, but that is to be expected with colors this dark.  But I whipped out the bottle of 100% acetone and the rest came off pretty easily.  So I was originally going to do a full pattern gold stamp over this color, but I was still a little shaky with the technique so I ended up stamping the same image three times over each nail in a different direction:

This image is from MASH plate 40, and it's a large swirl pattern (stamped with China Glaze's Poetic).  It looks more like interlinked circles with three stamp coats, but I think it's pretty cool!  Plus, it was very forgiving with my little mistakes along the way.

Now keep in mind, this is only my third attempt at a stamped manicure.  I cannot believe how doable this is.  I have always loved painting my nails, but I've only gotten into the more detailed nail art designs in the last 6 months, so I'm pretty much a newbie here.  But look at this!! It looks awesome!  Plus, I got a lot of compliments on this manicure from friends and family.

So at this point, I've had my stamping kit for about 5 days, and last night, I think I finally mastered the technique.  First, I used China Glaze's Def Defying as a base color:

I LOVE this color.  It's so bright and springy, and in the sunlight it looks kind of neon.  This is two coats of Def Defying.  As you probably already know, I'm a huge fan of animal prints, so I decided that I was going to attempt the zebra pattern from plate MASH-41.  And I could not believe how freaking amazing it looked:

I feel like such a professional now!  So I'm here to officially tell the world: You, too, can accomplish a stamp mani!  If I can do it after 5 days of practice, pretty much anyone over the age of 10 can do this.


So yeah, that's what I've been doing with my nails for the past few days.  Sorry for neglecting to post for so many days, but I've been saving up for this big one.  And just so you know, I will be featuring a lot of stamp manis in the near future, because I just ordered a bunch of new plates. Hooray!!