Now it's time to paint your nails.
Side note: Because of my B vitamin deficiency, I have to use a special oxygen based (also called water soluable, or water permeable) nail polish for my base coat. If I don't my nails cannot breathe well and they are very uncomfortable, especially after I take the polish off. They ache as though they were starved for oxygen, because they were! As long as I use this base coat first, all is well for me. One of the companies I used to buy this special type of polish from, Julep, is now out of business. However thanks to the internet I found Orly who has a polish called breathable one step manicure. Thankfully it works just as well! There are other brands that are more naturally based that I might be able to recommend after trying some of them, but for now I am using these and do not have the problems I used to have.
(If you aren't sure about a brand, you might look for ones that are certified Halal. Just because a polish claims to be breathable doesn't mean it is permeable within the Islamic standard limits. But those that are certified would certainly be acceptable for anyone who truly needs breathable polish - me included! I learned this from a site called Tuesday In Love.) <3
One nice thing about doing nails at home for yourself is that you can customize the colors and designs however you want to, and whenever you want to.
When painting your nails you want to plan ahead on what art is going to go where so you can coordinate your colors accordingly. Usually people do some special accents here and there as pleases them, such as painting one nail and entirely different color for example. Do what you like and what you think looks good. Try reversing the colors if you can. For example if your nails were all white with black stamping polish on top, paint one of them black and put white polish on top. There are a lot of really advanced techniques for painting the nails that you can learn to work with but for starters you don't have to go all out. However you decide to go about it, just get all your nails painted so they're ready for the next step.
Let your nail polish dry most of the way before getting started with stamping. The nails don't have to be 100% dry. In fact, having the polish ever-so-slightly damp will help your stamping polish adhere better to the nail. For nails that have long-since been dry, you can buy a special sticky base coat to put on top of your polish so that stamps - or decals - will adhere better. Or you can apply a fresh coat of paint and let it mostly dry if you just had a solid color on. Making decals is a more advanced technique that we can get into later though. Don't worry too much about it right now. Just paint your nails. :)
You can "cap" the end of your nail with your base color to help preserve the paint job a little bit longer. Prepping your nail bed by working on the cuticles also helps in getting polish all the way to the back, and sometimes even under the edge of the cuticle, to extend the paint job life a little bit longer also.
As mentioned, while painting your nails, have the polish for stamping in mind that you're going to be using on each one so that you can be ready to go when it's time. Planning saves time and frustration later in the process, and for me, prevents me from feeling rushed once I'm in the process.
Tip - Make sure you do anything that you need to do before you paint your nails, such as go to the bathroom, blow your nose, open drinks or jars, etc. You don't want to mess up your fresh paint before it has a chance to dry thoroughly! :) This might sound like a no-brainer but it is so easy to forget. I am the world's worst at smudging things because I forgot they weren't completely dry yet. Even opening polish with wet nails will mess them up while gripping the container, so use care if you are re-applying. Drying happens faster if you do lots of thin layers and allow them to dry in-between coats. Some of my polish is one-step so I put it on thicker for coverage, which takes longer to dry fully beneath the surface. You'll learn as you go.
This is where your small fan could come in handy. Dry your nails under the fan for a bit if you want to help them to dry faster. Is it the only way to get regular nail polish to dry faster for stamping. (Meaning UV lamps only cure UV-cure gel polish. It doesn't do anything for regular polish.)
Don't worry too much if you end up with a little smudge. You can paint over it and let it dry again if it's not too bad. Also, the stamped design should take the attention soon enough and no one is likely to notice. Don't stress out about it much while you're just learning and practicing. :) Have fun with it, and don't be stressed! :)
If it's a really bad smudge though, be careful when using acetone to remove your paint. You can mess up your other nails easily. This is when you'll want to hold the acetone-soaked cotton with a clothespin or grabber, in order to avoid this.
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