I really, really wanted to use Cadillacquer Enchanted Forest* - a NailStuff.ca Exclusive shade - for another holiday mani this holiday season. I mean... could it be any more perfect a green polish for this time of year? Knowing that I wanted to use it for the leaves of the design on my middle two fingers, I also applied two coats to my first and pinkie fingers to be worn alone.

For the base for my middle two fingers, this is where I really struggled to figure out what I wanted to do. Not only am I not a huge fan of opaque white bases for nail art, I also felt like it would be too stark for this particular design. Ultimately, I decided to go with this sort of sage green polish that had some subtle flakes running through it. It just... wasn't flakie enough though, so when my second coat was almost dry, I used a clear stamper to apply a dusting of chameleon flakies to for texture and continuity with the darker green. 

I had a few options when it came to stamping plates for this design, but I decided to go with this more classic looking image from the Nicole Diary L13 Stamping Plate. First, I used dotting tool and a shimmery red stamping polish to fill in the berries. I picked this particular red because it's quite warm, which worked with the overall look I was going for, and also because it packs a serious punch to stand out with the green. Next, I used a really fine nail art brush to fill in the leaves. Once the stamping was dry to the touch, but still a little squishy, I applied a thin layer of sticky base coat and then transferred the image straight from my stamper to the nail.

Once I cleaned up my cuticles and was happy with the mani, I applied a layer of water based top coat to seal in my stamping and then followed with a glossy top coat for shine and voila!

This is another one of those mani's where I'm just absolutely in love with how it turned out. I love the pairing of the really deep green with the lighter one and I just love this really classic holly berry stamping image. I love it all and I'm so, so glad that I decided to chuck the first holly berry design that I did because this one is just so much more what I was hoping for. Worth the work!

Be sure to keep checking back every day up until Christmas Eve for more winter/holiday themed nail art - they're definitely going to get more specifically Christmasy coming up - and head over to @pblnails on Instagram to check out my video tutorials for all of these nail art designs!

Thanks for reading!