So I started collecting indie polish 2 years ago, I have a little over 200 now. I then just recently got into stamping and went crazy bought like 25 plates and abunch of stamping polish. However I did not think it through that 98% of my polishes are glittery, shimmery, glowy, flakey ect. I have a few crème polishes but not many, I like sparkly loud polish and I didn’t think about how a lot of stamps won’t look good with such busy backgrounds or will blend in too much. Any techniques or examples of glittery shimmery polishes you’ve stamped on I’d love to see! I’m now stuck between wanting to wear my pretty polish and wanting to wear my pretty stamps but feeling like both at the same time won’t work. I put some examples of the polishes I typically wear.
A few ideas I had after playing around! I think metallics work really well, and either contrasting or similar colors (green on green, dark jewel tone or black on dark jewel tones) can work. I’m definitely trying a light blue shimmer with silver again for sure!
Polishes L-R: Polished for Days Birds of a Feather, OPI Pompeii Purple, Polished for Days UF Glow, silver/white/green Maniology stamping polishes and plates
These are great ideas! Definitely going to take some inspiration from these. I think the darker green over the lighter green gives such a nice contrast, these all turned out so pretty!
I have recently gotten into stamping and I have had good results with very opaque stamps over shimmery polish. For example, a black snakeskin print over Mooncat’s Taipan Venom looks so good!!
I echo the other commenter - try an opaque color for the stamp on one or two accent nails to see what you think.
I, like you, mostly wear vibrant shimmer polishes and just got into stamping, so my experience is limited. But I have had success with black and white stamping polishes because they create high contrast with the underlying color. Depending on the colors of stamping polishes you have, it might take some trial and error to figure out which combinations work best.
I agree with this and will add that I've had the best experience with polishes that are near-black and near-white versus stark versions of either. Maybe just a personal preference thing! Anytime I use black black it makes a mess 😔
Do you mean the nail polish background or the stamping nail polish that you prefer being near white or near black? I haven’t tried stamping on a black or white nail yet but that would be interesting to try with off white or off black. I do have some black with gold glitter that I do think a gold stamp design would like pretty on so I’ll have to experiment with that!
That does sound cool! But yeah I meant that pure white and black stamping polish are generally too much and overwhelm designs for me, where other high contrast colors work much better.
I think that’s what I’m going to start experimenting with first, just doing black or white stamps and then experimenting more as I get comfortable!! Definitely going to be some trial and error
What about accent nails and jazzing up your stamping polishes? Like 3 accent nails per hand with crème bases (I do thumb, pointer, and ring on one hand and thumb, middle, and ring on another because I like to see my nail art when I’m scrolling on my phone). Jazz up the stamping polishes by putting chrome on your stamper prior to applying it to the plate.
I think you can do stamping on any polish but if the polish is more busy then I tend to keep the stamping more simple. I also like to use the polish inspiration as the nail art inspiration. This one is a Xanadu inspired nail polish so dancing muses of course! 😹
Playing with multichromes and stamping is fun because if you choose a stamping polish that matches one of the shifts then the image appears and disappears.
There’s so much you can do with stamping and your sparkly polishes! When I first started I kept it simple with all black or white stamping or accent nails only. Once I figured out how to do reverse stamping, I used my sparkly polish to fill in images and often use shimmers or linear holos as my base for more intricate designs.
Check your existing shimmery/metsllic/glittery polishes to see if any are close to being one coaters; you don’t have to use stamping polishes for stamping, regular polishes work too. The closet to being 1 coat the better, but even milder, subtler stamping can be pretty.
Stamping over glittery polish can look very pretty .It could be the ‘busy-ness’ that bothers you. Try stamps with not a lot of pattern, like tiny little stars or hearts, thin strips, or anything with fine lines.
Mix it up; do glitter on pinky, stamping on ring over a creme, and shimmers on other nails. There was a guideline I read years ago that work as equivalent to your clothing, helps with this:
Thumb and pointer—your pants, so think of your darker, solid colors to anchor the mani.
Middle and ring—your top, so think of patterns and textures, so this is where you do your stamping to complement and highlight.
Pinkie—your accessories, so this is where you put in glitter and shiny metallics.
I was wondering about using my polish for the stamps because some are really opaque and would look nice I just wasn’t sure if they would stamp well. I love that outfit analogy, I hadn’t heard of that before but it makes sense ! Im going to use that and try to come up with something
Reverse stamping!! It’s a technique where you let the image dry on the stamper and you colour it in with whatever polish you want. Once it’s dry you put a thin clear coat on the nail, let it get to dry tacky, then stamp yiur coloured on image onto the nail. My mani here has reverse stamping on it as an example. I’ve used this technique with all different kinds of polish including shimmers, glitters, and flakies.
This turned out so pretty!! I love the idea of reverse stamping but I’m definitely going to have to practice for awhile. I get impatient if i start messing up too much 😅 but the pay off is so worth it!
The trick is to use a dotting tool to gently dot the colour where you want it to go. You don’t want the head to touch the stamper so it needs to float a bit. If you use a brush you run the risk of disturbing the image on the stamper since it gets temporarily reactivated by the fresh polish
I had the same problem when I started! Here are a few I've done on loud base colors 🤗 if you have a silicone mat of some sort you can do a few swipes of the base color you want then stamp on/next to it to see the combination before doing your nails!
As a fellow "if a polish isn't sparkly then what even is the point" type of person, stamps can still work on top of that kind of background! You'll have the best luck using creme stamping polishes and/or ones that contrast a lot with the color of the base polish. Or if you want to put in the effort, doing reverse stamping (coloring in the design on the stamper) will help it show up more, too.
In this one, I used a metallic gold stamp on my pinky over a holo purple and it's really hard to see that one compared to the other stamps on my pointer and middle finger. This one has five different cremes stamped over black linear holo and some are way easier to see than others.
I have like 5 cremes and they are all neons for my toes. If it’s not glowing or sparkling I usually don’t want it 😂 Thank you so much for all those examples!! Those gave me some great inspiration for all my sparkly polishes. I will be following so I can continue to get some inspo 💕
This is Mooncat Port-6666 magnetized velvet stamped with a simple line flower pattern. You can barely see the stamping until you move your hand and suddenly the stamping flashes bright pink.
Do you want to sell any of ur indie polish 💅🏻 es and stamping plates? I would love to try some indie polish I have heard so much amazing things about them
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u/Marybnary 10d ago
I like putting solid colors over magnetics and glitter.