This is a week-old gel polish manicure that I spiced up with some stamping. The base color is a super dark blue called Cuccio Colour Veneer London Underground (see the original swatch here), and I stamped over it with two different patterns and colors. The patterns are both from the UberChic Love & Marriage-01 plate, and the colored polishes that I used to stamp with are Mundo de Unas Velvet & Lime.
I receive a lot of questions about stamping and recommendations on stamping polishes and plates. First, I can’t say enough good things about the UberChic Beauty stamping plates. The company was developed by a fellow stamping fanatic that was in search of the highest quality plates. Brittany designed the plates and images to work for the majority. The patterns offer full coverage on most nail shapes and sizes from large to small. There’s enough detail packed into them that even if you have tiny nails, the patterns will still be recognizable.
As for stamping polishes, I’m in love with the Mundo de Unas polishes. Of all of the polishes I’ve tested with stamping, these are by far the best quality and most consistent. They’re super thick and fast-drying and stamp perfectly every time whether you stamp light over dark, or dark over light. The company is based in Mexico and international shipping can take some time, but I promise it’s well worth the wait!
I also want to show you another awesome product from UberChic Beauty… the Uber Mat. The mat was designed to be used for stamping and nail art. It’s made of a material that’s acetone and polish remover resistant so you can easily clean it off. It protects the surfaces beneath from polish and acetone as well. If you’re doing nail art you can put some blobs of polish onto the mat for easy access. You can also practice stamping on the mat or create decals.
Below is a photo of the mat on my glass table. It’s translucent so you can see some of the pattern from my glass table top showing through. The mat is made of a super soft material and can be folded up and packed away when not in use and it doesn’t wrinkle or crease. Also seen in the photo are the Love & Marriage-01 plate, a couple MdU stamping polishes, my squishy stamper, Creative Shop stamper (available through Creative Shop and UberChic), and the UberChic scraper.
I used my Uber Mat to practice stamping to see what patterns and colors would layer well. I put a little bit of RNP base coat on the mat and then stamped over that. Below you can see how the design picked right up off of the surface. This is how decals are often created, though I prefer to stamp directly onto my nails.
Check out my stamping basics video for a quick overview of how stamping over gel polish works. I have since mastered the squishy stamper since making the video. ;) Let me know if you have any other stamping questions that aren’t covered here or in the video.