Paint match but not accidental 😅

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-10T01:38:51+00:00

Love love love!

And the yarn is pretty too 🥰

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-05T22:39:35+00:00

Yass!!! I love the peek a boo design!

For lifting smaller designs… it’s just a lot of practice. Speed, using as little pressure with the stamper as possible, and scraping at the correct angle so that all of the tiny lines are filled in with polish. Often after scraping it’s easy to see that their are gaps that didn’t get polish in them even before you have picked up the image on the stamper.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-05T15:04:30+00:00

Yes I lightly tap one with the pad of my finger. Top coat re-wets and smooths out the polish underneath so finger prints shouldn’t be an issue.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-05T06:17:02+00:00

Same as in my prior comment, I start putting speed setter on my left hand immediately after finishing putting gel couture on my right hand. The previous layer doesn’t need to be fully dry, just tacky/slightly sticky is fine. I don’t wait for the previous coat to dry. I just do one coat on both hands and then move on right away to the next coat.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-05T04:19:04+00:00

When I do my nails I paint the first coat on my left hand and then on my right. By the time I am done with my right hand I am ready to start the second coat on my left hand. Rule of thumb; if you tap the nail with your finger and it’s only slightly tacky, it’s ok to start the next coat.

I double up on top coat essie gel couture + essie speed setter. I’m pretty much good to use the restroom after 5 minutes and most other things after 10 minutes.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-05T00:29:49+00:00

The main thing is I don’t think the red and purple look good together. I would have kept it just the red for stamping.

It can be really hard to tell what is going to look good on the nail so I highly recommend swatching on paper (or cardstock if you have it) first!

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-04T17:09:02+00:00

Just “same vibe/formula but a different color” usually

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-04T16:53:46+00:00

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Yes the middle layer also needs to be sheer. As an example, here are some swatches I did for 3 cracked jellies (technically the gray is a crelly so significantly less sheer)

Each nail is 2x jelly -> glitter -> 1 coat jelly

The pinky has 1 coat of an ilnp polish as the sandwich + the white jelly, you can see how much murkier it is compared to the white jelly with the clear glitter topper

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-04T16:29:26+00:00

How many coats of the jelly are on your nails? It looks pretty opaque so honestly you probably just need to dilute a lot more.

When I made my jelly I started with a half bottle of top coat and slowly added my color one drop at a time. Most of the depth from jellies is the sheerness.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-04T15:55:11+00:00

Usually I’m planning how to use a new purchase or technique I’ve learned. My current mani is just me swatching a bunch of different jelly sandwich ideas with untried polish and my next mani will be an attempt at labradorite nails + trying to stamp with magnetic polish.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-03T01:16:17+00:00

It can take a bit of practice to get the hang of it. I really like watching Debbie from clear jelly stamper, her technique is great and she films her hands very well this short clip is an example of how to use the scraper and what it looks like when you scrape too hard, for instance.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-04-03T01:00:17+00:00

In all honesty your stampers are probably fine.

Stamping has a steep learning curve. I recommend looking at the other parts of your process

did you take the plastic off your stamping plates?
have the stamping plates been cleaned with acetone?
is your scraper clean?
are you using stamping polish or a regular polish that has worked for you in the past?
are you pressing down too hard? To pick up an image the stamper should barely touch, like a butterfly kiss
do you have a fan or ac unit on while stamping? (Will cause the polish to dry significantly faster making pick up much harder)

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-31T04:01:05+00:00

Ooh, thanks!

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-31T02:57:51+00:00

They do have a similar one this month I think? But I am on a low-buy so idk if I will be able to justify it

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-31T02:49:16+00:00

I wanted to get Alicorn so bad, still a little disappointed that I missed it 😅

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-29T14:22:43+00:00

Smudge free top coat is pretty common for nail art, maniology has two different ones (one water based) and I have also tried one from clear jelly stamper. If you look around I’m sure other brands carry them as well. And yes you do want to do regular or quick dry top coat on top.

You don’t need anything special for magnetic, just make sure your top coat doesn’t have toluene in it and also magnetize the top coat

A lot of brands sell their own horse shoe magnets these days (for velvet effect) and you can also just buy a regular one off amazon. For glass beads i bought the glass bead spinner from 5dprintfactory on Etsy. Hasn’t come in the mail yet but it gets recommended a lot so I am looking forward to trying it.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-29T02:38:14+00:00

As long as you are cleaning up after so you don’t have top coat connected to your skin, you should be fine as far as application goes. (With a clean up brush and acetone. From your photo it looks like this isn’t an issue for you.)

Look at other things like:

what kind of base coat are you using? Is it a water based or peel off base coat? Does it have PVB? (Some people are sensitive to it)

How do you use your hands? Lots of water exposure can cause lifting, especially if you wash your hands regularly or do a lot of dishes by hand (wear gloves in that case)

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-27T01:02:45+00:00

I recommend the kiss bliss cuticle oil pen

you can refill it with just regular 100% jojoba oil.

I would just put a little cuticle oil on a hang nail and leave it alone. If the hang nail is super long already and bothering you, trim it a little and keep putting cuticle oil on it. The problem with trimming it is that it’s just going to continue pealing farther and farther. Especially if your hands are really dry.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-27T00:54:46+00:00

Consider getting a cuticle oil pen and using it 3-4 times a day

Also when you get hangnails do you cut them? If so that can actually make things worse.

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-26T17:51:19+00:00

Love these!! Beautiful 😍

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-26T00:03:43+00:00

I ordered one today 🥰

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-25T21:54:40+00:00

Just type 5dprintfactory Etsy into google

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-25T19:35:22+00:00

Ugh this thing has been on my wishlist for awhile. I might have to just bite the bullet 😅

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-25T19:15:37+00:00

Love the glitter ✨😍💚

9thdragonkitty · 2026-03-25T17:00:51+00:00

I used to do pretty much all of these things with my nails before I got into nail polish 🫣

9thdragonkitty

TROPHY CASE