DIY: Superlarge Transparent Stamper

Charming Nails just posted and excellent review of the MagnoNails XL stamper. She has good side-by-side comparison images of the Konad large stamper and MagnoNails XL stamper. After reading the review I was tearing my hair again - Why, oh why did I not order XL stamper for myselft?!? After having enough, I decided to cut my nails and go with shorter ones for a while. Now I can again stamp whatever I want. Plah.

But that reminded me of the funny thing I did last summer while being desperate that there would be no way to stamp our big images.

I did myself a superlarge flexible floppy stamper. I apologise the quality of these photos, these were not originally taken for publishing.

It is so soft that you can do even the largest and longest nails with it, plus it is transparent. No more missplaced images. So, how do you use this thing?

Well, much like a regular stamper, but you have to take care yourself that it comes into contact with the plate neatly. I used to keep other side of it in between my fingers and then use my index finger to slide it over the image.

And when taking it off the plate, you have to be careful not to stretch it much, but otherwise it is quite easy. And the easiest part is the stamping, you just flop the thing over your nail.

Here you can see the final result. The floppy is sticky and it keeps part of the stamping polish, so the image has a little thinner layer of polish than when stamping with Konad. You need to clean it up by stamping the rest to a magazine cover or some other paper surface. That is what I do with regular stamper too, it is much easier and faster than cleaning it up with nail polish remover.

I guess you must be jumping up and down by now, and I am sorry to disappoint you but there is a catch here: This did-it-yourself floppy stamper is made of gelatin! Mix some berries and you can eat it after you have done your nails. (Just joking, do NOT eat your stamper!)

There is really not much wrong with this self-made version, except that it basically is "food", so it gets bad quite fast, even if stored in a fridge. Also, you cannot clean it up with polish remover, it would melt. And the last, but not least, you have to be fast or it becomes really sticky and starts melting in your hands. Nice, huh?

Making it is easy, just mix the water and gelatin powder and warm a little in the microwave oven. Then let it thicken in the fridge.

I had some great laughs and fun time with this floppy stamper, but eventually I felt that it was not really worth the trouble. It would have been, if I would have been able to do it out of silicone or some lasting material.

I really wish that eventually some manufacturer will publish a stamper like this.

Konad Sponge Nail Art Set and Shirley's plates

Shirley published her nail art stamping plates yesterday. Way to go Shirley! The plates can be found in her blog, Shirley's Beauty & Nails. Sally, thanks for telling me about these plates!

Shirley seems to have same problems than Chez Delaney had. Only 21 of Shirley's 40 plates are stampable. Even though Shirley's images are nice, I am not going to get these until I see how others succeed in stamping them.

Other thing that I want to tell you about is the Konad sponge nail art set, which I finally bought for myself. I could have tried with a regular sponge, but it would have kept bugging me if the set would be better.

This was my very first try. As always, I started with Nubar Foundation. Then I sponged the tips with Konad Special White Pearl. Super easy and super fast! Almost too fast, so I continued to stamp with a flowery image from Konad m31. I have some yellow stains in my nails that show through, but overall I love this look.

Here is the second try. To hide the yellow stains, I started with Essie BBF Best Boyfriend. I sponged the tips with Konad Special White Pearl and continued to stamp with Bundle Monster BM20. This is one of my favorite BM images and I stamped it using both Konad Special White Pearl and China Glaze Millennium. The stamps came out anything but perfect, but it kind of suits this runny-paint-looking style. Love this one too!

And here is the third try. I wanted to try something non-french that would suit the wintery weather outside. I started with two layers of China Glaze millennium. Then I sponged the tips heavily with Konad Special Pastel Blue and immediately continued to stamp with flowers from Bundle Monster BM12. Then I just redid the same with Konad Special White, sponge tips and stamp. I think this came out great and hope to keep it for a long time. While cleaning the sponges I dropped some nail polish remover on my ring finger nail, but it's not that bad in real life.

I just love these manicures. So as you may guess, I really like the Konad sponge set. It is very easy to use, much easier than Konad stamping set is. It is fast too, and even though the finish is not of airbrush quality, it is really nice. But you need to use a top coat that blends the colors a bit and makes the transitions smoother. I use Nubar Diamont. It does not smudge the Konad special polishes and dries in three minutes.

One of the best things in this set is that now I finally have some use for the stamping plates that contain little images. It is much easier to combine them with this sponge set than alone. At least for me, that is.

Also, as Konad Special White Pearl does not have as good coverage as Special White, this is a perfect way to use it up. With Special White, you get a really clean look. And with Special White Pearl, the look is more natural, which often suits me better.

What I did not like about this set, were the tiny polish bottles and tweezers bundled with the set. The tweezers are probably in the package since the sponge holder keeps detaching from the sponge. But they are too small to be really useful in holding the sponge.

I did like that there is some system for holding the sponge and a reusable plate where to pick the color from. But you could easily substitute with a similar kitchen sponge and any plastic plate. Taken that into concern I think this set is a bit overprice. But I am not regretting for a minute for buying it!