Sunday Spotlight - OpalStar84

Sunday Spotlight is finally kicking off with the very first post coming from my best friend!  Although, she doesn't currently blog she will probably be a regular feature on here b/c I love the work she does with her nails!  Here's her guest post and go follow her on twitter @opalstar84!

Hi! My name is Tina! I’m so excited to be a part of Sunday Spotlight on Nicole’s Revolution! I have been friends with Nicole for probably 22 years, since we have been in kindergarten! Wow, I have never put it into perspective before – that’s a pretty long time! I am an only child so Nicole has been more like a sister to me than a friend over the years!

I found the beauty community on YouTube in 2010 and realized that I had a passion for hair, make-up and nails! I eventually started making my own beauty videos on my own channel which I don’t do anymore. I also kept a blog which I have neglected for far to long! Recently I have had an itch to get back into the swing of things so when Nicole asked me if I would be interested in being a part of Sunday Spotlight I got really excited!

If I had to pick hair, make-up or nails I would definitely pick NAILS! I have loved painting my nails since I was a little girl so I have had a lot of practice! It has turned into my hobby or I might call it an addiction! lol I love experimenting with new nail techniques and tools and I especially love shopping for new and unique nail polish colors!

Okay, enough blabbing! Today I thought I would share one of my favorite nail art techniques with you! It’s hard for me to pick just one but the winner is nail stamping! I first learned about nail stamping where else but on YouTube (another addition)! It is so easy yet it looks like you spent a ton of time tediously slaving away at your nails!

I bought my Konad stamping kit on Amazon. It was pretty cheap – I think I paid around $4 for it but for some reason it’s $7 on there now.  The kit comes with a scraper tool and a stamper.

 

  

There are a lot of stamping plates to choose from  that are sold by different companies such as Bundle Monster and  Shany to name a couple! It’s nice because you aren’t limited to just a few designs. I bought a 24 pack of Shany plates on Amazon for $12.00. I really want to buy plates from other brands to compare the quality! Here are some of mine, I put hearts next to my favorites! As you can see I gravitate towards the full nail designs because I feel like they give a more complete look.

There are also specific nail polishes for stamping which are good if you want a really opaque design but I have found that regular nail polishes can work well as long as they aren’t sheer.

Now, onto how to stamp your own nails! You start off with a base color on your nails. For the leopard print below you can see I started off with a base color of gold. Next, you choose a color that you want to use to stamp with. Paint one layer of that polish over your selected design and swipe it off in one motion with your scraper tool. Take your stamper and firmly press straight down onto your design and lift straight up. No not rock the stamper back and forth because this will not give you a crisp design. Next, roll the stamper over your nail and wa-la! You have a fun design on your nails that looks impressive yet only took you minutes to create! J

These are a few pictures of some designs that I have done! It’s so much fun!