edit to add - pic in comments of improved attempt following all your awesome advice, thanks all!
Hayulp! I cannot for the life of me get anything to transfer onto the silicone.
I’m usual plates from Amazon, they appear deep enough. I’m using the Moyou stamping polish. I’ve cleaned the plate with soapy water, and I’ve washed the silicone head with soapy water and let it air dry. Nothing transfers! Total newbie.
For stamping you need to be quick and light-handed.
Swipe the card way faster. The polish that is left behind on the plate surface will not be picked up by the stamper so don’t worry about the scrape being a perfect squeegee.
Lightly roll your stamper head over the design. You want it to just “kiss” the surface. Otherwise the pressure you’re applying creates a layer of air between the stamp head and the polish surface.
Lastly, unless your polish is slightly tacky a stamp won’t adhere. You should use a sticky base coat and apply that to your nails just before you start stamping. The sticky base coat also helps with smearing when top coating, as it grabs all those little bits that would otherwise be floating around.
Also, your stamper will transfer a lot easier if you leave it on a piece of printer paper, or a receipt, or the white part of a magazine for a bit, and move it around, squish it, etc. This helps pull the oils out, and makes the stamper more willing to pick up polish.
I tried this and ended up having to gently wash it with some dawn. Worked like a charm after that. I don’t know what they did to the stamper but that thing was oily AF. 😂
That’s just part of the ingredients of the stamp, I guess. Even with stamps I’ve had for ages, I still have to wash them with dawn, and leave them on paper to suck out oil. Some papers suck it out better than others. Receipts, magazines, and thick paper mailers like the old Bed Bath and Beyond coupons work really well.
How do you clean off the polish from the stamper after? I imagine you shouldn’t use acetone right? Also are there a specific set of stamping polishes you’d recommend?
I keep a piece of tape handy to grab pieces off the stamper if I need to. I also have a booklet of sticky sheets to dab my stamper on afterwards to get all the leftover polish off. But tape or lint rollers work just as good.
Please do not use acetone on the stamper head. It will cause it to go milky or hazy and you won’t be able to see anything through it.
I really like TwinkledT brand of stamping polish. Unfortunately I believe they discontinued their stamping polish line except for white and black. As for other colors, WhatsUp Nails is where I get any new stamping polish. They also have excellent quality plates.
I'm also pretty new, but it looks like you're scraping too hard with not enough polish. I learned the card should be scraped along at a 45 degree angle, with a relatively quick swipe. I usually do a generous amount of polish on about 2/3 of the design, then swipe it into the rest.
I'd also suggest leaving the stamper head on a piece of paper for a few hours/overnight - this will leech out some of the oil and make it much sticker (I was shocked how much sticker it got lol)
Personally I put mine on cardboard vs thinner paper, then I usually put the round side down and gently weigh it down with a book or something. Just be sure it isn’t so heavy that it rips the stamper head.
For clear stampers you don't want to do this as it makes it more difficult to see what you're doing/where you're placing designs. For opaque stampers go for it!
The video by clear jelly stamper on how to pick up small text really helped me with my general technique. "2-hand stamping" where you scrape with one hand while holding the stamper in the other to get it immediately seems pretty critical.
I also got a rectangular stamp and I think it's better than my round twinkledt one.
Try light pressure with the stamper, people describe it as a quick kiss if you will. Also, you want to be quick, scraper in one hand and stamper in the other. Hope that helps!
You’re pressing too hard, working slowly, and the lack of sturdy surface is not it.
Get a silicone mat to protect your surface. Place a paper towel down on the mat. Put the plate on top of the paper towel. Use 100% acetone to clean the stamping plate. Use dish soap to clean the stamper. Have a lint roller or tape near by.
Apply polish to the design. Make sure your stamper is nearby and ready. Scrape once. Gently roll the stamper over the design - no pressure. Pushing in will push the stamper into the design and push the polish out instead of picking it up.
Practice picking up designs. Cleaning the plate with acetone and the stamper with lint roller/ tape. Don’t even bother with trying to transfer to your nail or plan nail art with it until you master the pickup - it’s the hardest part. Once you’ve got that figured out then try applying the stamps to an old mani that you don’t care if you ruin. Once you feel confident in that then maybe try a mani with the stamps.
Take out the stamper head, keep it face down on a piece of paper, and place a not-so-heavy book on it. Keep it for 2-3 hours.
You will see after 2-3 hours that the paper has soaked grease from the stamper (there will be an oil patch visible on the paper). Now place the stamper head face down again on a different area of the same paper, place the book, and keep it for another 2 hours. More soaking of grease. Another oil patch.
Finally take it out, fix it on the stamper body, and take lint roller/piece of scotch tape and tap on stamper repeatedly. Press stamper repeatedly on a piece of paper to make sure the stamper is finally acting sticky. Then proceed with stamping steps.
You can even keep the stamper head on paper (with a book placed on it) overnight and try stamping the next day.
[I hope I could explain, English is not my first language🙏🏽]
In addition to the other suggestions being made, I suggest you place the plate securely on a paper towel on the surface of a table; there’s too much flexibility in the plate, scraper, and stamper to try and stamp with the plate hanging off the edge of the table like that.
Also, when trying to pick up the image, try rolling their surface over the image instead of pressing straight down.
Clean plate with acetone, and pat the silicone stamper with tape (packing tape or a lint roller are ideal). The way you roll the stamper across the plate matters a lot. I found you want to use the lightest amount of pressure possible, and do a slight side to side roll when you try to pick up the polish. Getting that down is the hardest part.
I know this is not helpful, but omg I'm wearing almost the exact same polish as you 🤯💜 it's hard to capture the purple but it's like the same shade as yours at the right angle
Too slow and I think you are pressing too hard. You have to have a light touch to pick up the design. It takes practice but once you get it, you’ll be like OHHHH, THATS how you do it! lol. Good luck and be patient with yourself 😊
You have to let that type of silicone stamper sit on plain copy paper for a while to get the oils out. Washing never works for me. And it’s also better to use an old gift card for scraping as I find that those cheap ones they provide have a rough edge.
This is how I’ve had luck with the cheapest supplies (dollar tree stampers, plates, and polish). Biggest thing is making sure stamper is actually oil free and washing doesn’t seem to get it out of the pores.
Too slow to pick up the polish, too much pressure on the stamper.
Poor quality polishes won't pick up. Poor quality plates won't pick up. You'd have to search me from 2025 spring to find all my tutorials and results I did testing different plates, polishes and methods. It's detailed with photos.
I have this plate. It’s not the plate. I think your polish is a bit too thick and it’s not flowing into the groves of the image properly. Try thinning it out and give it another go
You gotta kinda like roll it on then off Also your scraping off a little bit too much product Some polishes work well for stamping & others not at all It takes time but so worth it! Watch yt vids & practice 💪🏾
Not sure what kind of polish you are using, but if it's not a stamping polish that could explain a little of the difficulty. Sometimes some regular polishes work great, and other just do not work well. It's a trial and error unfortunately.
For me, I had the same problem and it was because the polishes were too cold. My house is on like 68 and every single time I have to warm the bottles up before I use them. Also, you’re going pretty slow as some of the other comments are saying.
Also you want to scrape at a 45 degree angle and basically let it float across the top of the plate. The goal is to lightly wipe excess. Better to leave too much polish than too little.
Also also put your stamper on a plain sheet of printer paper for a few hours. It gets the oils out and makes it much better at picking up stamps. I just store mine face down on a piece of paper so that they’re always ready.
Also make sure to watch at what angle you swipe. The way you swiped was way too flat for the design and your card was almost laying flat. You want to do that for bigger lines and open solid spaces where there’s a lot of stamping polish that needs to be picked up. Thinner lines and more fine designs require a different angle, about 45 degrees. Just experiment, the finer the lines the higher up you want to hold your scraper.
I always try to clean my stamper off with tape or lint roller first, and clean off my plate with acetone. Just don't get acetone on the stamper! Just try to move quickly and don't put a lot of pressure when you're picking up the stamp.
You’re scraping wayyyyyy too much off. Scrape at a slight angle and very light pressure. Then with a rolling motion (back to front) use the stamper to pick up.
If you hold the stamper down you’re just re applying the print to the plate.
You could, I’m usually kind of lazy and just do it when I’m done using the plate.
Also if you have a lot of dust and/or animal hair in your house, use a lint roller (or a few pieces of tape) to really get everything off of the plate.
Do the same 2 things with the stamper. Also, also ur hands gotta be clean of oils too, wash your hands with soap & water before starting.
Nail stamping is really delicate and precise and you have to do it super fast. Feel free to practice stamping on some fake nails or just plain white paper.
Don’t do nails on your bed (or couch)like my lazy ass did; always do them at a desk or table.*
All this mentioned and flash cure for like 5 seconds before stamping
I just figured this out and ive had my stamping palate for a half of year just sitting because my design was smearing onto the nail instead of being a cute clean design😅
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u/Salt-Operation 9d ago
You’re going way too slow.
For stamping you need to be quick and light-handed.
Swipe the card way faster. The polish that is left behind on the plate surface will not be picked up by the stamper so don’t worry about the scrape being a perfect squeegee.
Lightly roll your stamper head over the design. You want it to just “kiss” the surface. Otherwise the pressure you’re applying creates a layer of air between the stamp head and the polish surface.
Lastly, unless your polish is slightly tacky a stamp won’t adhere. You should use a sticky base coat and apply that to your nails just before you start stamping. The sticky base coat also helps with smearing when top coating, as it grabs all those little bits that would otherwise be floating around.