Don’t let anyone tell you that you have too many nail stamping plates–you don’t need that kind of negativity in your life. They don’t get that looking at the nail stamping plates is like looking at all the creative and fun designs you could create with them.
What is nail stamping?
Nail stamping is a type of nail art using etched plates to transfer designs in nail polish onto your nails. It’s quick way and easy way to put intricate and complicated looking images on your nails–once you get the hang of it.
Nail stamping is famous for having a bit of a learning curve. It’s difficult at first but then something clicks and it becomes easy. For a tutorial and troubleshooting of common stamping issues, see my guide to the Best Nail Stamping Kits.
Now let’s get to the plates.
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $26.50 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $8.99 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $9.50 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $5.79 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $6.98 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $14.99 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $22.99 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $1.97 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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Amazon Customer Reviews
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Price: $17.99 Shop at Amazon | Shop now Read our review |
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1. Maniology 5 Plate Collaboration Set
Pros:- Five plate set with five different designers
- Widely varied stamping images
- Great detail
- Stamps clearly
Cons:- Wide variety means you may not like every plate
- Works best with stamping polish
- Limited number made
If you’re looking for a nice wide range of stamping images, Maniology (formerly Bundle Monster) has Blogger Collaboration sets that combine a mix of designers for a fun, varied set of plates. Set Four is made up of five plates: intricate florals, geometric, strong patterns, kawaii, and a fun hipster mix.
Maniology makes some of my favorite plates and they stamp incredibly clean and clear images. I’ve gotten small, fine details off Maniology plates that I haven’t been able to make work elsewhere.
With this set, you can play with anything from geometric wolfs, wild strawberries, poppies, eye-bending optics, sweet macarons, and emoji onigiri rice balls.
Find more Maniology 5 Plate Collaboration Set information and reviews here.
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2. Ejiubas’ Fall Textures & Fairy Tales Set
Pros:- Space saving double-sided plates
- Nice balance of cute and edgy
- Images are very detailed
- Stamps well
Cons:- Double-sided plates can be a hassle
- Harder to store
- Double-sided plates can get scratched easier
With Ejiubas, you get double the amount of images per plate because they are etched on both sides. That does mean more flipping and making extra sure you’re storing your plates so that they don’t scratch each other, but it saves space and money.
One double-sided plate has Fall Textures with one whole side for detailed plaids that really look like stitching and the other side has unique textures like paint splatters, fingerprints, wood grain, and marker scribbles. You could get really creative with this plate.
The second plate is a collaboration with the brand Don Deeva and this plate has adorable images on both sides of unicorns, other cute animals, stars, and diamonds. It’s a sweet feminine theme for both sides.
For the price, I’m impressed with how well Ejiubas’ stamp. They create clear images, particularly with stamping polish.
Find more Ejiubas’ Fall Textures & Fairy Tales Set information and reviews here.
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3. Moyra’s Love Lace Stamping Plate
Pros:- Intricately detailed lace designs
- Stamping images are nice and big
- Stamps crisply
Cons:- More expensive than others
- Best with stamping polish
- Little variety in design
I think lace is one of the classiest and sexiest looks to stamp on your nails. It also looks impressive with all its minute detail and people will be amazed that you did it yourself.
The Love Lace plate from Moyra has 20 lace images from a simple fishnet style to intricate floral lace designs. There are a few images that are more paisley than lace, but they’re still gorgeous and stamp well.
Whenever you’re stamping something with this much small detail, you’ll want to perfect your stamping technique first and use stamping polish if possible. Though it’s a slightly lesser known brand, Moyra has beautifully etched plates that transfer very well.
Find more Moyra’s Love Lace Stamping Plate information and reviews here.
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4. Pueen’s Marble Paradise Nail Stamping Plate
Pros:- Get the cool effect without the mess
- Images transfer well
- Asymmetic designs are forgiving
Cons:- Not much variety
- Pricier for only one place
- Thicker designs for more advanced stampers
Water marble designs look incredible but water marbling is a miserable hassle. This stamping plate from Pueen let’s you get that marbled look without all the mess and waste of nail polish.
These stamping images have that same swirling effect but with only the need for a simple stamp. It looks even more convincing when stamped over a nail gradient or by using several colors of stamping polish on one stamp.
The plate is etched well so images pick up and transfer nicely.
Find more Pueen’s Marble Paradise Stamping Plate information and reviews here.
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5. Winstonia Third Generation 20 Piece Nail Art Plate Set
Pros:- Affordable at less than $0.50 per plate
- Huge variety of plates
- Stamps well
Cons:- Not everyone is into round plates
- Harder to store
- May be too small for very long nails
When you’re on a budget and looking to get a wide variety all in one stop, Winstonia’s Generation Collections are a good option. You get 20 circular plates with a huge range of designs including florals, abstract patterns, animals, circuit boards, and text.
I own Winstonia plates (bought with my own money) and I’ve found that they stamp well even with drugstore nail polish. Some images, like any negative space designs or text, will perform better with stamping polish.
The best part? It works out to less than $0.50 per plate.
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6. Born Pretty’s 5 Piece Spring Garden Box Set
Pros:- Works out to under $3 per plate
- Comes in gift-ready box
- Each plate has labeled protective sleeve
- Images all in theme of gardens
- Stamps clear and well
Cons:- Some negative space stamping images are not for beginners
- Stamps best with stamping polish
- Mostly floral
The first stamping plates I ever used were from Born Pretty and I still go back to them. Their etchings are clean and deep and they stamp well even without stamping specific polish. This collector’s edition box set comes with five stamping plates, all in a garden and floral theme.
It comes in a sleek black gift box and each plate has its own protective sleeve with a sticker on the outside of the sleeve showing a mini preview of what’s inside. I really appreciate this small but important feature because it means when you’re looking for a specific plate, you don’t have to go through and look inside each sleeve trying to find the one you want.
The images have a nice selection of floral, butterfly, garden patterns, and cactus designs to them as well as several negative space stamps to play around with so stampers of all experience levels will have options.
Find more Born Pretty’s 5 Piece Spring Garden Box Set information and reviews here.
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7. Cici & Sisi 4 Plate Tropical Set
Pros:- Scratch and bend-proof acrylic
- Four plate set
- Fun tropical theme
- Layered stamping options
Cons:- Acrylic takes a few try to get used to
- Could snap if you really bend them
- Layereds stamping requires a see-through stamper
- Get into a summery mood with this set of four tropical-themed plates from Cici & Sisi. They’re covered in juicy-looking tropical fruits, palm trees, flamingos, cacti, and cats. There’s a nice range of adorable, cartoony images and more straightforward illustrations so you can get a wide range of nail art effects with these four plates.
There is also a mix of standard stamps and layered stamping options so you can skip the reverse stamping process but still get that impressive, colored-in reverse stamping effect.
These plates are acrylic instead of steel which can feel weird at first, but after playing around on your first stamping session, you’ll get the hang of it. I bought myself some Cici & Sisi plates and the acrylic stamps just as well as steel but won’t bend, warm, or get scratched which is nice.
Find more Cici & Sisi 4 Plate Tropical Set information and reviews here.
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8. MoYou-London’s Animal Plate Collection
Pros:- Comes with protecting storage sleeve
- Can choose from regular and XL
- Super cute animal images
- Stamps clearly
- Lots of images to choose from
Cons:- Not all images available as XL
- XL images too big for some
- Not much variety in each plate
MoYou-London’s plates stamp very well, even when you’re not using special stamping polish. The etchings are deep and clear and the images are adorable.
There are 17 plates in this collection including dogs (17), cats (15), and woodland creatures (14). This adorable plate (04) from their Animal Collection has everything from narwhals to dinosaurs to jellyfish.
I also really like that MoYou-London offers many of their plate sets in regular and XL. The regular plates comes with 18 different images in three rows. The XL plate only has 12 images in two rows, but the images are larger to fit longer nails.
Find more MoYou-London’s Animal Plate Collection information and reviews here.
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9. Maniology 10 Piece Paisley Flow Collection
Pros:- 10 plates
- Large single image plate awesome for long nails
- Intricate lines
- Great for beginners
- Stamps clearly
Cons:- Too repetitive for some
- Large images not as easy to exactly duplicate
- Works best with stamping polish
If you are new to stamping, the best plates to start out with are more abstract patterns and the Paisley Flow Collection from Maniology is perfect. Patterned images like this are much more forgiving when you are learning to stamp since if part of the images doesn’t come out quite right, it’s not as obvious as it would be if you were stamping an image of a cat and then half of its body is suddenly gone.
The set comes with 10 square stamping plates, all with a different intricate design. The large, single image plates are great for long nails, as well as short. Maniology is one of my favorite brands for highly detailed, thin-lined designs like this when using stamping polish. Check out this YouTube swatch video to see how well these plates stamp.
Find more Maniology 10 Piece Paisley Flow Collection information and reviews here.
How to choose the right plate for you.
Not all plates are the same and not all nails are the same. As far as quality you want a plate that is etched deeply and cleanly so stick with trusted brands like the ones in this list. Cheap plates are easily bent and often stamp patchy or blurry.
What plates are best for you depends also on if you have long nails or short nails. If you have very long nails, you'll want to go for XL or full plates which have larger images so you won't have to worry about the stamp image being too small for your nails.
If you have short nails, your issue is finding images that are small enough to fit on your nails. Sticking with abstract patterns is a good bet here but there are plenty of brands who produce images the work with your smaller canvases.