Baby's first stamping nail art

Hey loves! Today I'm excited to share with y'all my first foray into stamping! I've had stamping plates for a long time but never used them because stamping scares me. Something about the fact that you only get one try and if you mess up EVERYTHING IS RUINED just detracted me from trying.
Recently, though, I got the chance to try the first generation of Winstonia stamping plates. I looked at all the images and when I saw how awesome some of them were I knew I had to face my fears and give them a try. The plates arrived right before I left for Europe, so I didn't get a chance to use them until now.

The colors I used for these are Nicole by OPI Hit the Lights (yellow) and Revlon Trendy. My mama got both of them for me this past weekend when I stayed at her house. I've been lemming Hit the Lights ever since I first saw swatches, but I could never find it, so my mom and sister got it for me! Trendy caught my eye while we were grocery shopping and because my mom's awesome she got that for me too.

The color combo isn't one I probably would have picked normally, but I was swatching both of these polishes on a nail wheel and I liked the way they looked side-by-side so much I couldn't keep myself from doing a whole manicure with them. I used 3 coats of Hit the Lights and 2 of Trendy. Both had great formulas, applied well, and dried fast! I also need to tell you guys that Trendy is a near dupe to China Glaze Exotic Encounters, which I didn't realize when I picked it up haha... Trendy is bluer and a little brighter, so if you like teal as much as I do you probably need both anyway.

After my base colors were dry I stamped using Winstonia Plate W110. This little floral pattern is adorable and it stamped easily. My stamping results aren't perfect because I'm a super beginner but man, this manicure turned out WAY better than I expected based on my practice with the stamping plates the night before.

I don't know why, but the first time I tried to stamp I seriously COULD NOT do it. I tried different stamps, different polishes, different techniques, and each nail was a disaster. I was prepared to give up on the whole thing and declare myself a failure at stamping but I decided to give it another try with this manicure, and I got it this time! I think my main problem when I was first trying was that I wasn't moving fast enough. You really have to be speedy with stamping, which is definitely not what I'm used to with nail art.

I really liked the faded look of the flowers when I was done stamping, but I thought the design needed a little something extra. So I took my tiny detailing brush and used it to trace the outlines of random flowers with more polish to make them pop more. I think it makes these so much cuter! What do you guys think?

Overall I'm really happy that I got these stamping plates and I'm definitely excited to use them again. I'm already planning a few more manicures with them, so hopefully I'll have those to show y'all in the next week or two.

You can get the first generation of stamping plates from the Winstonia store online. You can use the code DRESSEDUPNAILS at checkout to get 10% off the plates until May 31st! Winstonia can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.

Some of the products in this post were provided for review.