Good morning, Dear Reader!
Today I have some of my choices for The Best of Konad for you in honor of
WowSoCool's sale (hence the Part I, there will be more to come). Note, this post has one simple label so we can all find it again later! To get the pictures, I simply had to do the searching for you - the only order to my picture storage is chronological, which isn't too useful! In any case, I found some favorites for you.
In case you missed it, the night before last after I was asleep, I got an email from WowSoCool telling me that through this month, they're doing 30% off everything but the already-discounted Build You Own Kits with code wowsocool1, which is huge. I've never seen a Konad discount that deep, and WowSoCool not only has the plates, Special Polishes, and Coraline sets, but all the new Princess Polishes and the Regular Nail Polishes (like normal nail polish made by Konad, I've shown you a few) as well. So this is a major opportunity to stock up. I don't benefit, get credit for, etc., anything with any WowSoCool code or purchase, and I'm not affiliated with them at all, they're just the best. They've filled every order I've ever placed in a matter of hours (usually two hours between hitting Send Order and getting a tracking number), always perfectly. The lady who contacted me from WowSoCool only found out that I, their customer, was me, the person with the blog, in recent months, so the great CS is not special treatment - it's their norm, which is why I'm so enthusiastic about them.
In addition to some favorites, I found the Konad tutorial I wrote last year,
Mastering the Konad, which I wrote as soon as I got the hang of stamping my nails. I was surprised at the date on it for two reasons: first, Konad has kept me wildly entertained for a just shy of a full year; and second, I was surprised at how early I was sufficiently confident in how to do it to write directions. I reread it this morning, and the edits at the top are still the only changes to the original draft, and the process of single stamping both hands now takes safely under ten minutes, double stamping both is around fifteen to twenty. I bring it to your attention because I remember Indi500Fan commenting not so long ago that Konad looks like it takes the skill of a brain surgeon - the finished manicure looks that way, but the process itself is really easy, and I was essentially a beginner when I wrote that piece.
Now for the Best Of pictures! They're in no order other than the order in which I came across them. I'm just grateful I label them so I know what's going on in them!
I usually end with my favorite, but today I'll start with it - this one, I remember wearing last Thanksgiving! I wore it to a huge gathering of about 500 friends and their families, and it got more comments than any mani I've ever had, which included one girlfriend about my age grabbing my hand and saying, "That's the coolest thing I have ever seen." It's a base of Chanel Gold Fiction double-stamped with Black Konad Special Nail Polish using the leopard pattern from plate M57. What I've found for black is that Konad Special Nail Polish gives the cleanest, blackest stamp, but that anything other than Konad Top Coat smudges it. The way I do blacks when they turn out like this is use Special Nail Polish, Konad Top Coat (which I reserve strictly for sealing Black Special Polish), then use Diamont over it to make it dry quickly and fix the fact that the Konad Top Coat isn't self-leveling. If you like black Konad a lot, I would suggest the Black Special Nail Polish and Konad Top Coat to use just for those manicures. The difference the super-black stamp makes is impressive, to me. I'm just not good about religiously using the Konad top coat...
As usual, any pictures of my nails over time look like a flip book, so please ignore that! Here are a few right after a break, where I got to use the all-over patterns alone. The first is Sally Hansen Salon Hearts on Fire with White Konad Special Nail Polish and a stamp from plate M65. Again, I prefer the Konad polishes, but I've since discovered Princess is cheaper per ml than Special, so I use that now for white. I believe I was the one who ran into the fact that FingerPaints Papier Mache was a passable "regular" polish for stamping, but the Konad is a much clearer and cleaner stamp.
Ah, the houndstooth, my beloved houndstooth! This one is SpaRitual Solitude, Light Gray Konad Princess Nail Polish, and plate M63. I love the houndstooth pattern!
This next one isn't my favorite manicure ever (I was being silly), but the lace pattern from plate M71 is a favorite, and this shows it well. It's Revlon Sublime Strawberry with the M71 pattern in White Konad Special Nail Polish.
The next, I really liked, and it has two of my very favorite patterns together. It's Borghese Argento Mist with a great all-over pattern from M71 in Pink Special Nail Polish and my all-time favorite-with-a-second-far-behind favorite tip pattern from plate M56 in White Special Nail Polish.
The next one has another favorite for short nails: the fishnet pattern from plate M57. Here, it's on Essie Perky Purple in White.
The zebra! I could not leave out the zebra from plate M57. I also love this one in black over hot pink, but where it is in white over Nubar Greener.
This is the last one for now, SpaRitual Delight with the little bow tip pattern from plate M57 in Konad Princess Coral Blue. I love the little bow pattern!
Previewing this right now is the first time I've seen these pictures all together. I just put the locations of everything I liked on a notepad as I browsed through. I've always claimed I have no favorite Konad plates, but it appears that I'm quite fond of M71 and M57.
As for polishes, one thing I can tell you that I've found: you can't lose with the creme Konad polishes, the shimmer (or "Pearl") ones can be trickier to work with. I've gotten the Pearls to work, but they can stick to the stamper a lot more than creme ones do. That being said, I almost exclusively use Konad polishes for stamping now, myself (with the "almost" being for the occasional Chrome). When the last code came out, I got a bunch of Princess polishes both for the cool colors and because I did the math and found they were less expensive than Special (regular price is Special = $0.6990/ml, Princess = $0.6658/ml). I love them - they simply work better for me with Konad, and after I spent several months screwing around with regular polishes to see what would give me a marginal result, I think that was a complete waste of time for me. I'll likely take this opportunity to load up on polishes, since they'll be $4.93 and $5.59. That's cheap enough to not waste my time messing around with watery polish that may or may not give some stamp, but again, that's just my perception.
The next question I'm asked a lot is which colors to get, and I say you can't lose with white, black (if you use Konad t/c), and any colors that tickle your fancy. Between the two lines, Special and Princess, there are so many shades to use with so many nail polish collections, I think it's individual taste, not a rule. So I'll show you more Konad polish color in coming installments of Best of Konad, but they're simply my own favorites - you may not care for them. The same goes for the plates I love.
That's Part I of my choices for The Best of Konad. As time allows, I'll hunt down more for you. Until then, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!
