How To Make A Nail Stamper

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Using a nail stamper is an easy way to transform simple polished nails into fun pieces of fingernail art! To get the stamps to apply smoothly and evenly, though, good preparation is disquisitional. Take the time to clean and prep your stamper head and stamping plate the right way and so you tin get the nail stamp results you're looking for.

1
Pull your new gel stamper's head from its cylinder with your fingers. The soft, clear gel stamper head should popular right out of the clear plastic cylinder with minimal effort. Use your fingernail to become under the edge of the stamper head if necessary, but be careful not to piece into information technology with your nail.^[1]
- Clear gel stampers are increasingly popular because they let you look straight downwards through the cylinder and meet where you're stamping on your fingernail!
2
Wash off oily residue on the stamper head with soap and water. Identify the stamper head in a basin of clean water mixed with a squirt of dish soap. Gently but thoroughly rub all surfaces of the stamper head with your fingers.^[2]
- New stamper heads usually have an oily residue on them due to the manufacturing process. If y'all don't clean off this rest, your stamps won't transfer to your nails properly.
- Do not clean clear gel stamper heads with pure acetone. The clear gel will get cloudy and start to break down. Soapy water is fine for the start cleaning, while alcohol and acetone-free nail polish remover work well to clean off polish residue later utilize.
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Rinse off all the soap and residue with make clean h2o. 1 option is to douse the stamper head in a split bowl of clean h2o and rub it with your fingers. The other alternative is to hold it nether running water for 5-x seconds.^[3]
four
Pat the stamper head completely dry with a lint-gratis towel. Use a cloth or paper towel to lightly dab the stamper caput and remove all surface moisture. Once information technology'due south fully dry, the stamper caput is ready for use—just pop it back into the cylinder!^[4]
- If you chose the wrong drying cloth and got lint stuck all over the stamper caput, rinse the lint away under clean water and dry the stamper head with a different cloth.
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one
Rub the "squishy" head of your new stamper lightly with a boom buffer. Hold the stamper's cylinder and continue the stamper head in place. Buff the stamper head gently with your nail buffer, using back-and-along strokes. If you're creating more than a very small amount of powdery rest, you're buffing too hard!^[5]
- Lightly buffing the rubbery stamper surface removes oils left behind during the manufacturing process.
- Traditional, "squishy" stamper heads are not see-through like the newer clear gel heads. They tin can be a footling tougher to get the hang of using at outset, merely they're just equally effective and more durable than articulate gel stampers.
two
Saturate a cotton ball with pure acetone. Cascade about a capful of 100% acetone into a modest bowl—brand your best estimate of the amount it will take to fully saturate a single cotton ball. Drop in the cotton fiber brawl and let information technology soak up as much of the acetone as it tin can concord.^[half-dozen]
- Use 100% acetone here, not smash smooth remover that contains some amount (and perhaps no amount) of acetone. Wait for pure acetone for auction alongside nail smooth removers.
- Acetone is very flammable, so keep it well abroad from any open up flames. Do not inhale more than of the acetone fumes than is necessary to complete your job.
3

Make clean off the oil and residue on the stamper head with the cotton fiber ball. Pick up the acetone-soaked cotton ball and employ it to wipe abroad whatsoever powdery residue and excess oil on the stamper head. The stamper is ready for use as soon equally the acetone dries, which doesn't take long at all.^[7]

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Wipe downwardly the metallic stamper plate with pure acetone. Add together about a capful of 100% acetone to a small bowl and soak information technology up with a cotton fiber ball. Use the saturated cotton brawl to clean the plate, focusing especially on the "nooks and crannies" where dried polish may have collected. Let the stamper plate dry out for 30-60 seconds before using it.^[8]
- Practice this before each use, including the offset time you use the plate.
- Nail stamper plates have 4 or more than stamp patterns (things similar stripes, balloons, hearts, and so on) etched into their surface. To get a clean stamp on your fingernail, you need to remove any stale shine from these etchings.
- Good-quality nail stamper plates are made of metal and tin can stand up up to regular cleanings with pure acetone. Yet, check your smash stamper kit's product guide for specific cleaning instructions, particularly if yous have a not-metal stamper plate.
two
Brush a generous amount of stamping smooth onto your chosen pattern. Add together enough stamping polish to the plate so that it completely fills in the etching of the stamp blueprint yous want to use, and too covers the flat surface of the plate surrounding your called etching. You don't need to encompass the entire plate and all the etchings, though—simply the ane you're going to apply correct now!^[nine]
- Stamping polish, which (as the proper name indicates) is specifically designed for nail stamping, offers the best results here. Alternatively, you can utilize a trial-and-error approach with other polishes, including gel polishes. By and large speaking, thicker polishes that provide unmarried-coat coverage work best. In fact, old polish that has started to thicken can work hither!
3
Scrape off excess smoothen from the plate with a scraper or credit menu. Use the scraper that comes with the kit or an old gift/credit card (which some nail stamping enthusiasts really adopt). Agree it at a 45-degree angle to the plate surface and scrape information technology firmly across the plate with a single swipe. The goal is to leave backside all the polish in the carving and wipe abroad all the polish on the flat surface of the plate.^[10]
- Wipe off the edge of your scraper with a cotton ball and make some other scraping laissez passer if there'due south still some smoothen on the plate's surface.
- Motility on to loading the stamper caput and applying the stamp to your fingernail correct away. Don't permit the smoothen to start drying in the etching, or it will be really tough to clean out when yous're done!
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one
Roll the stamper caput over the polish-filled design on the plate. Hold the stamper by the cylinder and so that the stamper caput is at well-nigh a 45-degree angle to the surface of the plate. Touch the border of the stamper head to the plate simply to the side of the etched, polish-filled postage stamp pattern. Press the stamper head downwards onto the design and lift it off with a single rolling motion—picture the feet of a rocking chair making contact with the flooring while you stone forward.^[11]
- Don't press straight down and pull directly upwardly—the postage stamp pattern will smear on the stamper head.
- You may have to practise this move a few times before y'all get information technology right—and that's okay!
two
Confirm that the postage pattern looks adept on the stamper head. If you're using a clear gel stamper, simply look down through the clear cylinder. With a traditional stamper, flip it over and have a look at the transferred pattern on the head. If it looks correct, you're skillful to go!^[12]
- If the pattern didn't transfer well, skip ahead a few steps to the instructions for cleaning off the stamper caput. Then try over again!
3
Printing the stamp onto your nail, using the same rolling motion as before. Line up the postage over your nail, once again belongings the stamper at a 45-caste angle. Slowly printing and scroll the postage stamp over your nail. Adore your new nail postage later on you lift the stamper abroad!^[13]
- While you tin can use stamps to bare nails, you'll get the best results by first applying a clear base coat and 1-2 coats of shine to your nails. Brand sure to allow each of these coats to dry before proceeding.
- If the stamp doesn't look right, quickly wipe information technology away with a damp cotton wool brawl and try over again.
4

Protect your nail stamp past brushing on a clear height coat layer. Wait a couple of minutes until the postage stamp has fully dried, and so castor on the top coat every bit normal. Once information technology dries, you'll most be ready to show off your stamped nails—later on you do some quick cleanup!^[14]
5
Make clean the stamper head with packing tape or a sticky lint roller. Rip off a strip of packing tape, stick it to a lint-free cloth, and pull it off to reduce its stickiness a chip. Printing the stamper downward firmly onto the tape and pull it abroad. This should remove all the nail smooth from the stamper head.^[xv]
- Instead of packing tape, try a lint roller that uses tear-abroad strips of tape—you don't need to "de-stick" these any beforehand!
- If you can't get all the smoothen off of the stamper head, wipe information technology with a cotton ball dipped in a bit of rubbing alcohol or nail polish remover. Do not utilize 100% acetone on a clear gel stamper head.
6

Wipe the remaining shine from the plate with a cotton ball and acetone. When you're all done stamping, soak a cotton wool ball in pure acetone and employ it to wipe off all the polish balance on the stamping plate. Don't allow the polish to harden in the blueprint etchings, or it will exist really tough to remove!^[sixteen]

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To be extra prophylactic, concord your used, acetone-soaked cotton wool balls under running water for a few seconds. Squeeze them out and throw them in the trash.