Crystal Stamping Kit

 

I swear I posted about this before, but I simply can't find the post. I guess I never actually did so here we go!

Back in 2016, I saw a video someone took at CosmoProf. It was s demo for a stamping technique, but instead of applying polish, it applied crystals to your nails in certain patterns. Great for getting perfect lines and super fast! The company was Pave and after that one video I saw once, I never heard about them again. Jump ahead about 4 years and I find these kits at my local Walmart by Salon Perfect. I'm not sure what happened to Pave, they still have a website but most of their stamping templates are sold out as of this writing. I have no idea if Salon Perfect and Pave are related (I really don't think so) but I am LOVING this kit. And at about 10 bucks each I got both the crystal and pearl set. 

The process is the same for both crystals and pearls and decently described on the back of both packages. 

It looks like the crystal and pearl set is identical except for color and the actual crystals and pearls. Both come with a stamper, cotton puff, and template. I'm fairly certain the templates are identical as well.

All the items you get in one kit. 

There are about 144 stones/pearls per kit. I need to measure them to be sure but I think they are about 1.4mm flatback pearls or ss3 flatback rhinestones. I'm not sure if you go up a size (1.6mm pearls or ss4 stones) if they will fit in the template. I have some experimenting to do soon as my Amazon order of stones shows up. Because that's one big drawback I've found, you can buy these starter kits, but I have yet to find REFILL kits ANYWHERE. Granted they are only flatback rhinestones, but you have to get the right size or they won't fit in the template.

And here is  an interesting thing. The stamper looks like any run of the mill rectangle clear stamper, but look! The top is completely flat! I've tried and the regular rounded stampers will work and pick up the crystals too, but the flat one is just a little easier at it. 

Well, let's get a closer look at the template and see just how this thing works.

One tiny nit pick I have is that I wish there was a full coverage nail. Yeah they got that one in the bottom left corner, but I want a completely covered, sparkly nail. But that is a tiny complaint. Pave has a full coverage image, but they seem to sell their templates with only one image at a time. Salon Perfect has 8 different orientations in one kit! I'm probably just being greedy lolz.

Pour a pile of stones onto the image you want to use. Use the cotton puff to push the stones back and forth so that they fall into the divots. You want the pretty side up and flat side down. This is probably the most finicky part of the whole process. I usually end up with a pair of tweezers when a couple stones just don't want to cooperate. 

Then you use the flat stamper to pick up the stones all at once.

And press the group of stones down onto a tacky nail. You can use sticky base coat to make them adhere to the nail or just don't let your base color dry all the way.  

A layer of top coat keeps everything in place.