When trying to put together this much nail art, it will surprising no one that walls are hit. Before doing this mani, I was struggling both with inspiration as well as execution - even when I had a great idea, I just couldn't get it to come together on the nails the way it was in my head. And then... I somehow broke through and this became instantly one of my favorite mani's of this entire marathon of Christmas nails. It may be a little less... festive (?) than some of the other offerings, but it also feels the most my style and I just love the way it turned out. (Could I congratulate myself more? Answer: Yes, I've been doing it in real life and I feel no shame.)

Keep reading to see how I did it!

Initially, I was going to do this sort of gradient tip on bare nails, leaving my naked nails to show through at the base but I decided in the end that I wanted more of a milky white sheer there. Of course, because it's firmly stuck in my head at the moment has become of my absolute favorite polishes this holiday season, I reached for OPI Robots Are Forever and applied one coat to all of my nails. I really did want to just have a really sheer, soft base so I didn't build it up any more than that.

For the gradient, I did the same technique I would have done if I were leaving my naked nail. To a makeup sponge, I applied a thin strip of Color Club's Beyond, which is a dark grey/black linear holo, and then used a clear polish on the rest of the sponge to help get the blend that you need for a nice gradient. This is the best technique I've found to get a smooth transition using just one colour for the tip and it worked beautifully here. I did three coats of the sponging to get full coverage and a good blend.

For the stamping, I used the Nicole Diary 120 Stamping Plate, which is literally nothing but snowflakes and basically a must have if you're like me and Christmas Nails are at least 30% snowflake mani's... This plate actually worked really well for this design because I could pick up and transfer multiple snowflakes in one pass, so all I had to do was decide which flakes I wanted and in which color and then place them where I wanted on the nail two at a time. I wanted the placement of the snowflakes to feel sort of random, but actually be really deliberate, so I did this part quite thoughtfully and tried to picture the mani as a whole while I did each nail.

Once I was happy with the placement and density of my snowflakes, I sealed in my stamping with a layer of water based top coat and then finished with a quick dry glossy top coat for shine. And voila!

There's a thing that happens, I've found, where the mani's I'm the most excited about aren't the ones that really hit with people, but I hope this isn't one of those times because I'm actually genuinely really, really proud of this design and I really, really hope that people love it. It's just... so exactly what I wanted it to be and I'm in love.

Head over to Cosmetic Proof and See The World In PINK for more holiday themed nail art for this week's #CBBxManiMonday!

Thanks again so much for reading and be sure to keep coming back for the last few Holiday/Winter themed mani's leading up to Christmas Eve! Also, be sure to follow me at @pblnails to keep up on all of my nail art and to check out my video tutorials of pretty much all of my mani's!