Stamping and transfer foil (cheaper alternative)

It's no secret that every one of us had used transfer foil in the past. We used it with its tacky glue, or even gel. Some of us used eye lash glue to embellish our designs with foil details.
Lately it has become a trend among nail technicians and you tubers, even  Instagram is full of stamping and foil combinations. It is really beautiful but it has its cons.

For a start stamping polishes are quite expensive, and it takes a bit of skill to work it fast enough that the polish doesn't dry before you can apply the transfer foil to your nail, but you have to be slow enough not to smear your design. This makes the transfer foil and stamping combination a headache for beginers.

I live in the tropics, and I do not have an air conditioner at home. This makes all my nail art vulnerable to weather and temperature conditions. Most of the time my stamping polish dries before I can get the foil onto the nail. So I decided to look for an alternative. Here come the decals! God bless the person that first came with the idea of making decals.

I used my unbranded stamping mat and a printable mat underneath it ( I do love my own stamping space sizes). First I tried with my born pretty white stamping polish and applied transfer foil over it) and I have to say I got pretty nice results. But I still had the problem of "wasting" my stamping polish just because it was under the foil.  So...I kept thinking. I have quite a few white polishes from different brands, which gave me an idea and the testing started.

First I tried my Sinful Colors Snow Me White, my to go regular polish in substitution of a stamping polish. I applied a coat of clear polish (Glass Kote is the one that works better for me), then stamped with Snow Me White. I was amazed with the results. I made a full and clean transfer. So this one goes on my alternative list.

The second polish I tried was Bettina Marshmallow.  Again using a coat of glass coat I stamped with this polish, then applied the tranfer foil, rubbing it evenly, and I got a nice result too. it was missing some little spots on the sides, but that mostly gets cut when I apply the decal to my nails. Bettina is a nice and economic local nail polish found in most beauty supplies and drug stores in Puerto Rico. I think you can find them if you are in Miami too.

As I was in the testing mood I took out a few of my white polishes. I tried Orly French Tip Pointe Blanche. This one has a very runny formula. so I did not have any expectations. It stamped nicely, and I got a nice transfer with the foil too. A nice alternative if you have it in your collection but a bit expensive compared to SC.

Next I tried my Butter London Cotton Buds polish. I got a nice stamping transfer with it. But it dried faster than the other polishes. And the transfer foil didn't stick to it completely. It's nice if you are looking for a partial transfer. Not on my alternatives though.

The last polish just for comparisson purposes was again my Born Pretty White Stamping polish. Obviously the stamping with this one was crisp and bright. I got a pretty nice transfer, but the thinner lines dried too soon. Again, I don't think I will be using my stamping polishes for transfer foil designs, since I have cheaper alternatives.

Feel free to try your cheaper polishes for this technique. Decals are easy to make and easier to apply on your own nails than transfer foil. This will assure you an even application every time! Share your results with me on my Facebook Page Licy Pibernus Nail Artist

Moyra Stamping Plates~ Ornaments Plate Review

I used my Ornaments plate for the first time for a challenge design. I know these plates are really good. Love the designs themselves, their size and the etching. these plates are designed to use on any type of nails from natural shorties to commercial acrylic or gel long nails.

It is important to say that Ornaments plate is designed for a company that specializes on the artificial nails market. Although Moyra sells products for natural nails, its principal market is the professional nail industry. This makes Moyra stamping plates a must have for us, professional and qualified nail technicians. That having been said, I'll share now my opinion on the plate itself and the individual designs.

The plate is comparable to an UC stamping plate in size. But its quality on etching goes over most stamping plates brands I've used until now.  Every design measures approximately 2.5 cm x 1.8 cm. The stamped design has a size big enough to cover a 3 to 31/2 sculpted nail depending on the nail plate size. This plate has 20 beautiful designs, mostly composed of scrolls and vines.

For this review I used Sinful Colors Black on Black, as I like to use my stamping polishes just for nails. This might have affected the designs with thinner and more intricate details.

One thing I liked about this plate is that some of the designs have an inner design. The lines, scrolls, and vines form figures that might be subject to individual interpretation, but I did like the figures I kind of found on this plate.

I love the classic scroll work on this design. It was really easy to pick up and transfer.

This is the second design to the right on the Ornaments plate. It combines scrolls, vines, leaves and even a flower silhouette. It was easy to pick up, but you might want to transfer it as fast as possible because the thinner details will dry really fast.

This design is one of the reasons I say Moyra plates resemble handmade drawings, it took me a few fails to pick it up completely. As you  can see on the stamper the details are hard to pick up with a regular polish. It will be easier to pick up with stamping polish, and if you scrape in a 27 degree angle, with a flexible scraper and make sure you scrape only once. As soon as you pick up, transfer and you will get the best results.

This design was easy to pick up and transfer. Its a nice and detailed design.

This design has thinner lines and details. Scrape in an angle and only once, then pick up 

and transfer as fast as possible.

This skull is quite large to stamp on a nail. It's shape is made , out of tiny flowers and leaves, you might need to shrink it with a marshmallow stamper head in order to make it fit onto a nail. But you might also stamp a partial design from it. It was really easy to pick up and transfer.

This beautiful design has a combination on thick and really thin scrolls. It was a really easy one to pick up and transfer.

As most of the designs that make this plate a unique one this design, has rich and delicate details. It is easy to pick up and transfer, and will do with regular nail polish and a regular scraping technique. 

This four designs are really nice, but the etching on them isn't as deep as the other designs on the plate. The combination of thin lines, not so deep etching and regular polish in the weather and temperature conditions I live in is a huge NO. It might work better with a stamping polish. Using SC I got a lot of missing spots on these designs. Some of them did not pick up well, some of them dried too fast on the stamper.

These are open space images. Easy to scrape, pick up and transfer. 

Talking about beautiful and stylish scrolls. Most strokes on this design are thick enough to pick up without any trouble, but watch out for the thinner details, you might miss them.

Depending on your perception and imagination you might find hidden images on these 5 designs. I have a very creative brain, so I see little cute friends on them and I like it that each scroll and shape can get your work to a whole different new level.

Over all this is a beautiful plate that can turn your nail art designs into authentic works of art. Feel free to try it, and let your imagination do the rest. We nail technicians and artists are 1% skill and 99% the expression of our imagination.

I did this design with Moyra Ornaments stamping plate!

Disclaimer