Day 7: Black & White - Holiday Music Stamped Design

What's black and white and red all over? Day 7's manicure! Mwahahahahaa!

Day 7's theme is black and white, but since I did this manicure just days before Christmas, I wanted to do something fun and festive. I also haven't used my nail art stamping stuff in a while, so I looked through my plates and found Konad m73. This plate has an intricate sheet music design that I haven't used before.

I used L.A. Colors Color Craze "Energy Source" as a white base coat, then added a layer of OPI's "She's Golden" to give my nails a bit of shimmer. I then stamped the design using Konad Special Nail Polish in Black and added a few Christmas stickers I got from an eBay seller from Hong Kong to cover up the stamping mistakes. Here's the finished design:

I knew there would be no way for me to keep the staffs straight on all my nails, so I angled the design so my crooked lines would look like I meant them to end up that way. And the crappy top coat I tried for my pinky nail (Wet n Wild Fast Dry) smeared like a bitch, so I switched to Sally Hansen Double Duty for the rest of my nails.

Here are some pictures of the progression of this manicure:

I can always find a wide variety of L.A. Colors nail polishes at my Dollar Tree. They're not the most opaque shades, but for $1, they're all right. What I don't like, though, is how the actual name of the polish is only printed on the packaging and not on the bottle. The bottle shows the number only, so after buying several L.A. Colors polishes on various occasions, I finally thought to tape the name information to the brush handle. Duh.

Aaah! Much better. I'm a sucker for a shimmery polish. "She's Golden" is way too thin to wear on its own, and it really gives "Energy Source" an extra kick.

Konad's bottles are so pretty. This is one of the black polishes from a kit, I think. Or I may have ordered it off eBay. It's been over a year since I first started nail stamping, so I can't remember where this polish came from. I've used regular black polish in the past, but this one has a nice shimmer. (Are you sensing a theme, here?)

Here's a look at the stamping plate itself. I have very short nails, so I never have a problem with the length of the images on Konad or other brand plates. However, I have fat fingers and a wide nail, so that's where I usually have the most trouble. 

Finally, here are two images of the tools I used to stamp this design. The double-ended stamper, scraper, and plate holder are from an "As Seen on TV!" product called Salon Express. I bought this at Sally Beauty on Black Friday this year for $9.99, but I saw the kits for sale at CVS this week for the same price. G. over at Nouveau Cheap has a great review of this product, and I can add to her positive comments. A double-ended stamper, whether it's a real Konad or fauxnad one, will cost you almost as much as the entire Salon Express kit -- which comes with the stamper, scraper, plate holder, and 5 random plates! That is a serious bargain!

I bought the kit primarily for the stamper. Here you can see how the small end compares to the size of a Konad design. The rubber end has a nice feel to it when stamping, and I didn't need to roughen up the end of it to make the design adhere better. And even though the tapered shape of the stamper looks a bit like a small dildo, it is easy to hold while stamping. ;)

I also found the plate holder to come in handy. I used double-stick tape to secure the base of the holder to a piece of cardboard then plopped my Konad plate in the center. Worked like a charm since the tape wouldn't stick to the back of the Konad plate.

Have you tried nail art stamping before? If not, the Salon Express kit is a great way to get started. It's MUCH cheaper than Konad and fauxnad (fake Konad) products you'll find online.