Konad: What? And How?

What is Konad?
Konad is a brand/company that has created a unique process for producing nail art. It consists of a stamper, metal image plates, and special polish. Much like t-shirt printing, Konad works by "inking" your image plate, scarping off the excess, lifting the polish up from the grooves with your stamper, and transferring it onto your nails.

What You Need:

Top Coat, Special Polish, Scraper and Stamper, Image Plate

You Also Need:

Cotton Balls/Pads, Q-Tips, Nail Polish Remover

How it Works:

This process needs to be done as quick as possible, as the "special" polish dries very fast.

Step 1} Clean off your image with nail polish remover. It gets all of the oils, and lint out of the design, which makes for smoother, and prettier stamping! Let this dry, completely. **The pink plate holder is not necessary, but I think it makes stamping easier. Just be sure to clean out the disk-shaped area from time to time.

Step 2} Paint a small dot of the "special" polish onto the design of your choice. You don't need a lot, just enough to cover the design entirely.

Step 3} With your scraper at a 45 degree angle, lightly scrape the design, to remove excess polish. You should now see the polish-filled design on the plate.

Step 4} Take your rubber stamper, and quickly roll it ONCE over the design, to pull up the polish. Roll from one side of the stamper to the other. 

Step 5} Time to stamp your nail! Hold the stamper eye level, so you can see what you are doing, then just like you did to pick up the design, roll it over your nail. Do NOT roll back and forth. Don't press too hard, and don't forget, this is fun!

 Step 6} Wait a couple of minutes, then use your topcoat to seal your design. You could use the Konad topcat, but any regular one will work. Try to cover in as little strokes as possible, and be quick.

Try to remember, this takes practice! My first attempt (August 28th, 2010) was not pretty! But I've gotten better with time. Also, if it's your first time, try this over an old mani, you aren't ruining perfect nails!

I purchased all of my konading supplies from Amazon. The image shown here is from Bundle Monster plate, BM15-also available from Amazon.

Thanks for reading!

~Emily