All about Konad (basics)

We’ve received a lot of requests for “how to” or “tutorial” articles. One of the most requested posts was a Konad tutorial. Finally I took the time and recorded a few short videos on basic stuff about Konad. The videos are really short and to the point (I hope). I hope these videos will be helpful at least to some of you. I’ll also explain a few basic things about Konad in this post along with the videos. I hope the combination of videos and the explanations will help those, who have problems to transfer the images from the image plates to the nails. Let’s get started. ;)

What do you need for stamping?

1. An image plate

What is an image plate and how does it look like?

Konad image plates
Konad image plates

It’s a metal plate with engraved images. There are different brands of image plates out there. Some are good some not so much. I really have a lot of image plates of various brands and I think that the Konad ones are the best I’ve come across. I’ve never had any problems with Konad images. All the details from the Konad images transfer nicely to the nails, while at some other brands some images just don’t transfer or they transfer partially. The Konad image plates also look nicer and don’t have any sharp edges, while with some other brands you have to be careful that you don’t get cut on the edges. Though the all over images could be larger (some of the other brands have larger images, which is a huge plus). As I said before, I have other brands and I’ll definitely buy other brands in the future, just the quality of the Konad ones is my favourite.

2. A stamper

There are different stampers available. My favourite is the double sided stamper by Konad. It has a long handle and on each side of the handle there is a “rubber”. On one side there is a regular sized round rubber and on the other side is a smaller round rubber. The main difference between the stampers from different brands is the rubber. Some have harder rubbers, which means that the rubber does not “fit the nail” as good as the softer rubber. That’s the main reason why I prefer the Konad stampers over the others I’ve tried.

3. A scraper

There are also different scrapers available. Some have metal blade and some have plastic one. I prefer the plastic ones, because the metal blade damages (scratches) the image plates and the plastic ones don’t. But you can also use a credit card (or a plastic card) as a scraper. It works (see the video below)!

4. A nail polish …

… and not just every polish will do the trick. You’ll need a polish that is pigmented enough. There’s also Konad special polishes that will definitely work. Konad special polishes are thicker and more pigmented than the regular polishes and they also dry slower, which gives you more time to transfer the images from the image plate to your nails. There are three different lines of Konad special polishes: small, large and princess. I think that the only difference between them is the size of the bottles and also the Princess special polishes have flat brush while the others have a regular round brush. There’s a video that shows the differences attached below.

Note: I’ve read that people don’t recommend the gold Konad special polish as it’s not pigmented enough. if you’d like a very good gold polish for stamping I’d recommend China Glaze’s 2030 from the Khrome collection. All polishes from that collection work perfectly with stamping. Just be aware that these dry very fast, so you have to work especially fast when stamping with these.

4. Do you need an image plate holder?

No! A paper towel will do. ;)

6. What else do you need?

  • a paper towel
  • a cotton pad to clean everything
  • nail polish remover

How to Konad?

Before you start stamping, prepare your workspace.
* Cover surface with paper and/or paper towel.
* Clean stamper and image plate with nail polish remover.
* Unscrew the nail polish(es) you are planing to use.
* Soak cotton pad with nail polish remover.
* Arrange your workspace so everything is easily reachable.

Apply a top coat …

… but which one? Some top coats smudge the images. Gel-like top coats (like Seche Vite) work better than the “thin” top coats. The video below shows three different top coats (Ciate’s Speed Coat – I’m not sure if it’s still available, Essence High Shine Top Coat and Konad Top Coat). My experiences show that the Konad top coat works great (if not the best). It’s thick and gel-like. Despite everything be careful when applying top coat. Be quick, apply it lightly, try not to touch the nail with the bristles of the brush. Let the brush “float” on the polish (top coat). And cover the nail with as few strokes as possible. Though I have to mention that I’ve had a Konad top coat before and it was thin and it smudged images like crazy. Maybe that was some old version or what. I don’t know. I got Konad top coat shown in the video below a few weeks ago and this one is just perfect.

That’s it!

I know this is a lot to process and some (or maybe most) of you didn’t even have the patience to read to here. :D That’s OK. It’s important that the tutorial is posted, so you can come back and find the information you’ll need in that particular moment. That’s also one of the reasons, why I didn’t publish one long video. I prefer short and to the point videos.

Hope this tutorial was helpful at least to some of you! If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.

Happy stamping!

26 thoughts on “All about Konad (basics)”

  1. Sem bila ravno na dopustu ko ste objavile zame najpomembnejši prispevek :). Res najlepša hvala za ta navodila :rose: !
    Imam konad plato ter poseben (mali) konad lak, štampiljko in strgalo (kovinsko) pa od essence. Ponavadi sem imela težave s tem da se vzorček ni lepo ali pa sploh ne odtisnil – zdaj ko sem prebrala tvoja navodila sem ugotovila da sem bila verjetno prepočasna ter preveč temeljita s strgalom :). Se bom držala tvojih navodil in še enkrat poizkusila predem vse svoje konad pripomočke komu podarim…

    Reply
    • Pozdravljena nazaj iz dopusta! :wave:
      Če si spravila vzorec na stamper in tam izgleda lep, a se potem ne odtisne na noht, je to zagotovo, ker se je lak posušil (= bila si prepočasna). Če dobiš pol vzorca na stamper, je lahko kriva tudi plata, a če imaš Konadovo in Konadov posebni lak, se mi zdi ti to malo verjetno. Najbrž si malenkost prepočasna.
      Daj plato na TRDO podlago, nanesi lak, 1x s hitrim gibom odstrani lak s plate (če ostanejo proge, ni hudega), s stamperjem pobereš vzorec in ga preneseš na noht. ;) Lahko vadiš tudi na papirju. Da vzorec preneseš na papir. ;)
      Prepričana sem, da ti bo uspelo!!! :nails:

      Reply
  2. Maestra, fantasičen prispevek! Takole, za začetnico kot sem sama, je prava zlata žila. :wink: S štempljanjem sem se igrala morda enkrat, dvakrat do zdaj in preden poskusim znova, grem zagotovo še čez tele videe še enkrat. To da si jih pustila kratke je prav tako vredno pohvale, velikokrat se kar zgubim v kakšnem pet-deset-minutnem, ker iščem samo eno specifično stvar.

    Vse bolj ugotavljam, da bom morala investirat tudi v kak Konadov izdelek. Mislim da je višji nivo kvalitete vreden denarja, ampak so res precej dragi. Vsaj kakšen lak, da jih imam malce več. Najlepša hvala za tvoj čas pri ustvarjanju prispevka! :rose:

    Reply
    • Me veseli, da ti je prispevek všeč! :happy:
      Tako bom rekla: Pri stamperjih, so mi Konadovi vsekakor boljši in priporočam. Scraper imam raje plastičen (torej ne Konad; dejansko pa lahko kar kreditno kartico uporabiš). Pri lakih imam mešane občutke. Njihovi so super in jih priporočam predvsem tistim, ki nimajo ogromne zbirke običajnih lakov doma, da bi lahko preverjali, kateri delujejo in kateri ne. Konadovi ziher delujejo. Poleg tega jih priporočam začetnikom, ker se počasi sušijo in to dopušča več časa pri prenosu vzorca.
      Kar se pa plat tiče … meni so Konadove lepše in jih tudi največ uporabljam. Vsekakor pa lahko še najbolj prišparaš pri platah. Kupiš set BM plat, ki so res ugodne in še čisto dobre in z zanimivimi vzorci. ;)
      btw. še 1x hvala za link. :rose:

      Reply
  3. Super prispevek!
    Mene pa zanima, če se vam tudi Konad šablone obribajo po uporabi? Ali sem samo jaz pregroba s strgalom? :D

    Reply
    • Aham, strgalo s kovinskim rezilom tudi meni popraska plato (kar se vidi tudi v mojem videu o strgalih, kjer sem uporabila čisto novo in nepopraskano ploščico). :yes: Kot sem že zgoraj napisala, imam rada plastično strgalo ravno zato, ker ne popraska plate. :wink:

      Reply
  4. Thank you for this! Each time I watch a tutorial I pick up more helpful tips. I never thought to place the plate on a paper towel so I can clean the scraper as I scrape. It makes a lot of sense and is less awkward than what I was doing. I still need practice with Konad but I’m slowly improving!

    Reply
    • With paper towel is much easier and cleaner, because almost nothing stays on the scraper. ;) I’m glad you found something helpful in my tutorial! :happy:

      Reply
  5. Super prispevek. Sicer jaz bi ga potrebovala, ko sem sama začenjala konadirati. Bo mi pa vsekakor v pomoč, da izboljšam mojo tehniko konadiranja. Tako da Maestra kapo dol. Svaka čast. Ideja, da so filmči krajši. Super. Tudi meni se ponavadi ne da gledati 10 minutnih filmčkov :)

    Še enkrat HVALA, da si si vzela čas in pripravila tale prispevek! :rose: :rose: :rose:

    Reply
  6. super si to napisala..prav olajšala si mi delo..
    tebi se vsi vzorčki tako lepo odtisnejo, meni se včasih kakšen postrani odtisne..
    lep pozdrav

    Reply
  7. Oj, tole je pa super prispevek za začetnike=) z vsem napisanim se strinjam!
    Res je da je konadov zlat lak zelooo prozoren in težko opazen, ampak jaz ga vseeno zelo rada uporabim na temnejših odtenkih ter za bolj diskretne in umirjene manikure, ker vseeno da lep efekt. Tako da vseeno ni za v smeti.

    Kar se pa izkušenj z drugimi znamkami tiče, vem samo da sem nad essence ploščicami zelo razočarana, njihov karo se ne odtisne, črte pa uspejo samo po sreči, ne glede na izkušnje z štemplanjem.
    zanima pa me, če ima katera kakšne druge ploščice v uporabi, ker se mi kljub vsemu učinku konad zdi rahlo drag, sploh če hočeš imeti vse.

    lep pozdrav navdušenkam! =)

    Reply
    • Kot sem napisala, imam tudi druge ploščice. :yes: Od ostalih se mi zdijo Bundle Monster ploščice dobre in po izredno ugodni ceni. Pri Bundle Monster ploščicah mene edino moti, da imajo nekateri vzorčki predebele črte – niso lepo filigransko narejeni. Sicer pa imam same dobre izkušnje z odtisom njihovih vzorcev. Sicer (še) nimam njihovih najnovejših ploščici. Ampak kolikor berem so samo izboljšana verzija prejšnjih in še ta nove so bolj podobne Konadovim. ;)
      Od ostalih pa imam mešano in sploh ne vem, ali imajo ploščice kakšna imena. Tiste, ki sem jih naročala od Chez-Delaney so imele vmes vzorce, ki se niso dali dobro odtisniti.

      Reply
  8. ja res super prispevek :)
    mene pa zanima, če maš izkušnje s kakšnimi cenejšimi laki, kot so essence, catrice, h&m in če so kateri dobro prekrivni? :wink:
    ker tile konad in china glaze so kar malo dragi..
    hvala in lp :nails:

    Reply
    • Pri vsaki omenjeni znamki, se najde kak odtenek oziroma več odtenkov, ki so dobro prekrivni in so torej uporabni za konadiranje. Dobro pa je vedeti, da se bo na svetli podlagi (recimo beli) videl skoraj vsak temnejši odtenek, na temni podlagi (recimo črni) pa je težje. Podobno kot se praktično vsaka barvica pozna na belem papirju, na črnem pa redko katera. ;)
      Iz glave pa žal ne vem, kateri odtenki so res zelo prekrivni od omenjenih znamk.

      Reply

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