When I picked out the stamping plates that I wanted to use for my 12 Nails Of Christmas, the new BornPrettyStore Christmas S002 plate was pretty high on the top of my list and I eagerly awaited its arrival. Of course, even though I ordered it in September, I wasn't entirely sure that it was going to arrive before Christmas, but I was hopeful and IT DID. I actually wanted to use most of the images in the plate, but the one I really wanted to use most was the cascading twinkle lights, stockings and presents image, because I knew it would walk that line between being delicate and impactful if I reverse stamped it with bright colours. 

Keep reading for a closer look and to see how I got this mani!

I wanted a fairly deep base with some interest to it and initially considered a shimmer or holo black polish, but ultimately decided that I wanted to go with a deep purple and chose Emily de Molly Calibrated because it had the depth I was looking for but also a lot of texture that I thought would pop nicely under this fairly busy stamping. I started with a coat of Unt Ready For Take Off, as I always tend to with bases that have glitter or flakies in it. Next, I went in with two coats of Calibrated for  really beautiful opacity and depth in the base. 

Next, for the stamping, I of course used the BornPrettyStore Christmas S002 Stamping Plate along with BornPrettyStore White Stamping Polish. I used four different clear stampers for this so that I could fill in the images one colour at a time for all of my nails. I used two double ended dotting tools to fill in the images, one tiny one for the lights and one slightly larger one for the stockings and gifts. I used Sinful Colors Sugar Sugar (red), Light My Sapphire (blue), and Queen Of Green (green) as well as BornPrettyStore Gold Stamping Polish to fill in the images and tried to spread the colours of the lights out evenly but differently for each nail. This is a bit of a tedious process, I'll admit, but I feel like it was very much worth it in the end. 

To transfer the images to my nails, I used a thin coat of Yellow Stopper Base Coat and let it dry for about a minute or so to get a tacky base before transferring the image. I find that this method works quite well for me, but I do only do 1 or 2 nails at a time so that the Yellow Stopper doesn't complely dry before I've had a change to transfer the images. I tried to shift the image with each nail so that they all managed to look at least somewhat unique. Once all of the images were transfered and the edges cleaned up, I finished with a generous coat of Essence The Gel Polish Top Coat. 

All Products Used

Unt - Ready For Take Off Peel Off Base Coat
Emily de Molly - Calibrated

BornPrettyStore - White Stamping Polish

Sinful Colors - Sugar Sugar

Sinful Colors - Light My Sapphire

Sinful Colors - Queen Of Green

BornPrettyStore - Gold Stamping Polish

BornPrettyStore - Christmas S002 Stamping Plate
Yellow Stopper Base Coat

Essence The Gel Polish Top Coat

I feel like this year is really all about stepping outside of traditional colours and patterns for Christmas Nail Art - which may or may not be YOUR thing - but I absolutely love this deep purple base for this mani. I feel like the holiday theme really comes across in this mani with the bold colours in the stamped image, but the purple gives it a little something different. What I'm saying is... don't feel married to red, gold, and green this holiday season! Play with what feels good to you!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to keep checking back for more nail art every couple of days leading up until Christmas Eve for my 12 Nails Of Christmas! And check out the rest of my 2018 holiday nail designs here!