Nail Polish Addicts Anonymous

RainbowDreamer

Re the shopping list.. where is the best to buy from? im popping into town this morning. There i have a boots, superdrug and bodyshop.

Toomuchdebt

RainbowDreamer wrote: »

Re the shopping list.. where is the best to buy from? im popping into town this morning. There i have a boots, superdrug and bodyshop.

I think the nail envy is cheaper online-haven't looked at the rest yet really

Lady_S

HanSpan wrote: »

I'm still lurking and enjoying all the pictures, as well as being very naughty and spending on my nails where I really shouldn't.
A combination of the Ideal Home Show and pictures on here make me fancy trying stamping so I've been on a bit of a varied shopping spree and have some questions.

First I bought a small Konad kit which was fun but few of the stamps were very exciting (to me) and the ones I do like are shapes that really need to be exactly centred or they look bad. How on earth do you get patterns centred?

Then I bought a pack of Konig (fake) plates as what I really fancied are the all over patterns. Some lovely patterns and they seem to work pretty well but none of them fit my thumbnail is this normal or do the real Konad's come big enough to do a whole thumb? I did polka dots and had to have second go at the end of my thumbs which rather messed it up.

Last night I received another package - Kand (fake) set from HK with some additional plates and stamps and scrapers. Very good value but the polish seems hard to manage and some of the big shapes seem a bit blobby. I will try again as I was stamping on bits of paper rather than my nails which isn't really a fair trial. Again most of the whole nail stamps are too small for my thumb except for one *huge* spider web on plate A37. this has the reverse problem - its too big for the stamp grabber! Can you get really big rubber grabbers?

I've also tried with some of my normal polishes and find that all of them that work, along with the special polishes to some extent, go stringy so that when I press a stamp on, if it doesn't all get stuck down, when I lift it again I get strings of polish that then stick to the nail and ruin the pattern (not sure if that makes sense)

Sorry for going on and on but I so love the look other people acheve and just haven't quite got to grips with it. Must go - should be getting ready for work

Hiya, I will try and answer some of these questions.

- Getting the image centred
This is difficult and it is only trial and error. I tend to shy away from patterns which are stripes or you will see that it isn't applied straight. Other than this it is trial and error. I just try and line the image as best as I can with the further edge to my nail, then roll towards the near edge.

- plate size.
Different plates are different sizes, Even within a pack some can be different. If possible and necessary I will stamp twice onto one nail to cover it. Although I do have fairly short and thin thumbnails. Other than that I have made a 'feature' our of my thumb when it isn't possible to match the pattern.

- stringly varnish.
I think that you can stamp with almost any varnish as long as it is a thick opaque type of one. However, the most important thing is the actual stamper you use. I have one which when it came was slightly rougher than the other and it is great for picking up the non konad special polishes. However, with the konad polishes it is rubbish. I just use a different one depending on what I am doing.

No idea about really big stamp grabbers, but I have konad, cheeky and bundle monster plates. I am hoping to 'invest' in the DRK-A and DRK-B plate soon. But need to flog some stuff on ebay to justify it.

Toomuchdebt

Quick help please-what's the difference between the original and the matte nail envy?The matte one seems to be cheaper-is it just as good?

RainbowDreamer

Well, I have bought the crystal file youve all recommended. And the nail polish. along with cuticle oil, cubicle cutter, nail and hand cream and a nail brush lol.
My nails look grim with the polish on, but im going to persist so that they will strengthen.

lilly1972

Toomuchdebt wrote: »

Quick help please-what's the difference between the original and the matte nail envy?The matte one seems to be cheaper-is it just as good?

the matte looks like you still have bare nails and the original looks like you have polish on.

Toomuchdebt

lilly1972 wrote: »

the matte looks like you still have bare nails and the original looks like you have polish on.

Thanks I ordered the matte for now as it was cheaper and I'm using polish anyway to stop me biting them

RainbowDreamer

To all those who are currently battling with nail biting.. like it help if i started a seperate thread? To motivate each other?
I love this thread, but feel like I'm a fraud by being here lol.

RainbowDreamer

Would it help* that should of said. Silly phone.

starrystarry

Lady_S wrote: »

I think that you can stamp with almost any varnish as long as it is a thick opaque type of one. However, the most important thing is the actual stamper you use. I have one which when it came was slightly rougher than the other and it is great for picking up the non konad special polishes. However, with the konad polishes it is rubbish. I just use a different one depending on what I am doing .

You can rough up the stamper with a nail file, I find the images pick up better since I did this, particularly when I'm not using the konad polish.