I'll be using Konad plates in some upcoming nail art designs, so I thought I'd write a bit about what Konad is, so you know what I'm talking about when I use it in blog posts and so you know where to get it and how to use it yourself!
Konad is a nail art stamping system where you can get hundreds of intricate designs on your nails. You can actually use it to decorate things like your phone too if you wanted.
It's basically metal plates with pictures on them, you put nail polish over the image, scrape it away with the scraper, pick it up with the stamper and then aim and roll and it'll transfer it onto your nails. It might sound a bit complicated but I'll include a video I found about it at the end of this blog post.
Here's what a Konad plate looks like. This is m59
I get my Konad stuff from http://www.konad.co.uk/
What you need:
You'll need a Konad plate, you can get as many as you want, I'd suggest just getting one to begin with so you can practice a bit.
You need the scraper, I've seen people use a razor blade but it's more likely to scratch your image plate so I'd just stick with the scraper you can buy from them.
The stamper, you can either get a single stamper or a double sided stamper which has a small side and a large side. I recommend the double sided stamper because you can use the small side for small designs and the big side for larger designs.
They also sell special nail polish, it's a lot thicker than normal nail polish and you can't paint your nails with it, otherwise it would take ages to dry, so you can only really use it for Konad. To be honest I use regular polish with my Konad, I do have a few Konad polishes but there's not much difference, it just depends what nail polish you use. For example, I've found creamy nail polishes aren't bad, and chrome, metallic or holographic polishes work well. Glitters or shimmery polishes don't work, or at least I can't get them to work.
You don't need the image plate holder, just make sure you put something down on the surface you're working on, like newspaper or something, you don't want the nail polish getting everywhere.
What you do:
To start, paint your nails any colour and any brand you like and let them dry. Take your Konad plate and apply nail polish to the image you want. Then scrape it away from the image at a 45 degree angle. Take your stamper and firmly roll it on top of your image from one side to the other. Check the image has lifted properly and then aim it next to your nail and roll firmly from one side to the other. Try to do these steps as quickly as possible (without rushing it and making a mess) you don't want to leave it long enough that the polish will dry either on the plate or the stamper or it won't transfer and you'll need to start again. Clean up any excess with a cotton bud and nail polish remover. Use a topcoat because the image will just scratch off after a while.
Don't worry if you don't get it right first time. It took A LOT of practice for me to do it properly and even now I've seen myself do one nail 10 times over because it just won't work properly. It's frustrating but you'll get there in the end.
If you find you have problems with your image transferring onto your stamper, try filing your stamper with a nail file. When you get it, it'll be really smooth, but file it just enough so that smooth surface is a tiny bit rougher, that should help pick up the image.
Here's what an image looks like on the stamper
Konad is amazing, I definately recommend it, you can get so many different designs and it's much easier than freehanding designs, especially if you're doing it yourself.
Here are some designs I did
I hope you enjoyed, well done if you read this far!
Have a look at this video, it shows how to do pretty much everything I've explained :)
If there's something I haven't answered you'd like to know leave your questions in the comments below and I'll add them to this blog post!
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