I will fully admit to having prepared really, really far in advance for holiday nail art this year. Over probably the past six months, I've been collecting nail polishes and stamping plates that I knew I was going bust out this holiday season. One of the products that I picked up is the base polish for today's mani - and it's a STUNNER - but I couldn't for the life of me actually figure out what to do with it once I sat down to do holiday nails. One of my personal favorite designs, though, is classic Fair Isle sweater nails so I just leaned into it and created a simple, straightforward mani with a truly, truly gorgeous base.

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I'm actually new to Polish Pickup this year, so I missed the first time Bluebird Lacquer released The Ryan King, but I have definitely managed to get a feel for just how obsessed everyone was with it. I'm also an enormous fan of rich green polishes, which makes this 100% right up my alley. So, of course, when PPU Rewind came around over the summer, I had to have this 2.0 version. And even though I've seen people saying that it doesn't quite live up to the original, I feel like this is a genuinely STUNNING polish and I'm so thrilled that I have it.

For this mani, I applied two coats of The Ryan King 2.0 to all of my nails and let it dry down. And it is STUNNING all on its own and might actually end up being what I wear on my other hand for this holiday season. 

Initially, I decided that I wanted to keep the contrast in this mani kind of soft and thought about going with a taupe or a grey stamping polish, but in the end I decided to keep it monochrome and went with this sort of muted, ashy green polish. For the design, I decided to go with one of my personal favorite Fair Isle sweater images from the Whats Up Nails B022 Winter Time stamping plate. This is one I've used many times in the past and it's one that I have no doubt I'll also use many times in the future. I decided to apply the image in the same direction on all of my nails to maintain cohesion and the vibe of a sweater sort of moving across my nails. 

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and then followed with a glossy top coat to really make that base polish sing. And voila!

This will likely end up being the most simple and straightforward design that I share this holiday season, but I feel like it packs enough impact that I really don't have to do more than this to make it interesting and beautiful. This really is the kind of stamping image that has a ton of versatility and punch to bring it all on its own. 

Be sure to keep checking back here on the blog as well as over at @pblnails on Instagram for more holiday themed nails every day in December leading up to Christmas Eve. Also, if you haven't already, be sure to follow me over on Instagram for video tutorials of all of the nail art I post here on the blog!

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