Stamping was one of my first (and favorite) techniques when it came to nail art. I did a lot of stamping, and my second ever blog post showed 2 manicures where I was still getting the hang of things. For July’s NCC theme of recreating your first few manicures, I decided to stay pretty close to my original stamped manicure.

After doing many stamped manis, I certainly don’t always get it right. But I think I’ve learned many valuable lessons. One of which is finding the right type of polish for stamping. If you want to use the polishes already found in your personal stash, look for ones that are nice and opaque – this will allow the thin layer from the stamp to really show up. Also, quick dry polishes are both great and a curse. They are usually good formula-wise and opaque, but you have to work quickly in order to get the full image on your stamper and then transferring to your nail.

My first blog post showing a stamped manicure had a few issues. I used Zoya Valerie, which is gorgeous but not a great polish for stamping. It’s a bit too sheer to really show up well. I also was a bit slower in stamping, so I ended up with some patches. I tried to fix this by brushing on more polish, but this just resulted in really dark spots.

This time around, I used a different stamping color that was tried and true. But I used the same base color and stamp. Oh and obviously I got nubbinized again. I went canoeing and camping for the July 4th weekend, and it wreaked havoc on my nails. I came home with breaks all over. But I don’t mind nubbins 🙂

Base color: Essie Tart Deco

Stamping color: Zoya Charisma

Stamp: GALS plate GA19

I think there’s a big improvement! Better stamping polish, a prettier color combination (in my opinion), better cleanup, etc. And geez does lighting make a difference! The recreation pic really shows the true color of Tart Deco.

Check out the other ladies’ recreations: