Reddit reviews VAGA 26 Nail Stamping Plates Acrylic Nail Kit As 160 Nail Stamp Designs To Match Your Gel Nail Polish & Stamping Polish Colors, Complete Your Manicure Set, Nail Art Kit Or Stamping Nail Art Supplies

Well, I'm quite new to this but I'll try :)

First off, are you sure your wife would like nail art? There may be a reason she doesn't use her nail polish?

Well, unfortunately there aren't many stores that sell stamping supplies. The best place for a lot of nail art stuff is Amazon.

If she's impatient/ always likes to be using her hands a fast dry top coat might be a good idea for her. Good ones are Seche Vite and Out the Door :)

Konad is the best brand to do with stamping about (as far as I know). Their stamper is the one to get. As for image plates- Konad ones are good but expensive. I would suggest getting a Cheeky or Bundle Monster pack. You can get so many different patterns I would suggest getting something like this or this, which has a variety of full nail images, individual stamps and french tip stamps. Also, if you do buy image plates etc. then I would suggest buying proper stamping polish, at least for black and white. Metallics work well for stamping too.

For nail art brushes, you can get them online but all of mine are actually acrylic art brushes. They tend to last well and you can buy them in store. Acrylic paints are really good for doing complex designs, over the top of a layer of normal nail polish. They're easier to mix, don't dry as fast and are cheaper than nail polish (if your wife would want to do art on her nails).

You can get dotting tools too, if you think those would be good?

I will say that some things are sold on Amazon from China, so the shipping times are quite large. They may not get to you in less than a month (depending on where you live).

Sorry if all of that was confusing or no help at all!

Oops! Just went digging through my stuff to check and realized these are actually not Konad... It's Cheeky #29. This bundle has it, in the big picture it's the 4th row 4th column: http://www.amazon.com/Collection-Stamping-Nailart-Designs-Cheeky/dp/B006OMHR1S

After watching and reading lots of stamping plate reviews I realized it's a very personal choice. How much money are you willing to spend? Which designs do you like?

Personally I bought the Cheeky set and a Konad stamper because I liked the Cheeky designs and they were cheap. My sister has the Salon Express kit so I use that one a lot too. I've just used nail polish I have in my collection for stamping, some work great, some don't. Trail and error.

The stamper that you got with your kit may be a little softer, but it is not a "squishy." The small pink ones never are. I'm not familiar with the Emori polishes, so I can't comment on that except to say that very few polishes stamp effectively.

I would try:

• A stamper like this keeping in mind that squishy stampers sometimes need to be "primed" (like /u/The_Griffin mentioned) by buffing lightly with a fine grit file or buffer. I can't stress enough how much I think this is a major factor--even if you get better plates, you will still have a hard time with that konad stamper. If the price is too high, search "squishy nail stamper" on eBay and take any one of the knock-offs that specifically mention that they are made of silicone. If it does not work well right out of the box, it will need to be primed.
  
  
• A polish that is known to stamp well. Maybelline Color Show "Bold Gold" or any of the opaque cremes from the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri line work well. I've had success with Sinful Colors "Black on Black" as well. All of those are under $5/bottle.
  
  
• Even with working quickly, it takes some practice. If this is your second attempt, there's still a learning curve ahead. Don't give up! I would try varying your technique--scrape lightly on the plate, try rolling with your konad stamper (both plate and nail--it has no "give" so pushing down to get the image is difficult).
  
  When all is said and done, there is a chance that you just have some bad plates. Unfortunately, like most things, stamping falls at least somewhat under the "you get what you pay for" and the set you have is like $4.50 for ten. The very cheapest plates I have (in that size) are at least $1/plate. They may be using inferior materials or etching equipment. There are quite a few 1 star reviews of that set on the Amazon listing, many of them mention shallow etching.
  
  I like something like this for beginners. I have plates from this brand and know with certainty that they are good quality. In this case, the price is so low because this set was released in 2012 and the company is selling off old stock because they release plates 1-2 times per year. 26 plates for $12 is on-par with the set you ordered, but there's a very good chance this set will be much better.
  

It's a brand of plate, not an adjective. This is an example of cheeky brand plates.

I just picked up the Cheeky 2012 and MASH 2012 sets for pretty cheap, with a Konad Stamper/Scraper Set. I've heard good things about Bundle Monster and Shany too, but these seemed to have more designs I liked. So there are realistically quite a few cheap options out there for you!

Cheeky 2012 plate set. It's the only set I have. :) It's a very good set for patterns and has a few "decal"-type stamps but not many.

As you can see the fine details on the plates come out very nicely in real life.