THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

When I started plotting out my ideas for this year's marathon of Christmas nail art, a lot of the designs I was drawn to were the more abstract designs that have become so popular in the last couple of years. As much as I love the more on-the-nose Christmas designs, I think there's definitely something to be said for a more blobby abstract design at this time of year as well. For this mani, I decided to grab for the Pueen Accent Fun 01 Stamping Plate a really bold holiday color palette!

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Earlier this year, I did a mani featuring an orange gradient tip and even at the time I knew that I would be bringing back the look for a Halloween mani. I changed up a few things - obviously! - but there is definitely no denying where the inspiration came from. I really love designs that are sheer over the nail bed and then have an opaque gradient tip. Whether worn as is or paired with some stamping, I feel like it's super versatile and pretty much always looks great. 

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I am definitely someone who tends to revisit design styles that I've done before, though I do try to change things up at least a bit rather than just straight up recreating designs I've done in the past. One design that has become a sort of staple for me is the one I used for today's mani and it's one that I feel like I've done countless versions of over the past few years since the first time I did it. For today's mani I will admit that the changes are somewhat minimal, but I still absolutely love this mani!

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Today's mani is another one of those that was inspired for me by one that I saw on Pinterest. I would link to the artist directly, but even though there was a watermark I can't seem to find the original artist. Even though this is very, very much not a design that I would normally gravitate towards, I was so obsessed with the simplicity of it and how impactful it ended up being as a result that I had to put together my own version of it. I did bring it a bit of my own personal style to the design, as I always prefer to, but I think I stayed pretty true to the inspiration. 

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I must admit that I've developed quite an affection for spooky tree nail designs for Halloween and over the years I feel like I've done several different versions of this design. In the past couple of months, I've seen tons of different spotlight style nail designs with a bright center and dark edges, so for this mani I decided to pair that vibe with an acid green base and some spooky tree stamping and I think it turned out really cool. 

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How is it already the last week of August? I very sincerely don't even understand how time works anymore. Anyway, for my last Summer themed #CBBxManiMonday, I decided to recreate a tropical leaves mani that I loved from last summer. Whenever I recreate a mani I've already done, I always try to change the color story and a few other elements, which is what I did with this one, and I think I like this one even more than I liked the first one, which is rare but very exciting. 

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So today's mani was definitely a bit of a game of inspiration telephone, which I have to admit I really, really love. I take so much inspiration from other nail artists, whether it be a mani like this that leans more towards being a recreation or whether someone else's work gives an idea that grows into something else. So I was inspired by this mani from @iamdeliasnails, who was inspired by @nailing_painting, who was inspired by @hannys_manis, who was inspired by @polish_half_full. Honestly, I think this line of inspiration is one of my favorite things about this mani. 

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A few years ago, I was trying to recreate the look of those gorgeous bright tipped ombre nail designs that I see nail techs do using colored acrylics and I came up with the technique that I used for today's design. I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of it, I will admit, but I feel pretty proud of figuring it out. That is honestly one of my favorite things about being a nail art hobbyist, figuring out how I could possibly pull off similar designs to professional gel and acrylic artists at home using regular polish. And while it's not always possible, it often is... with some adjustments!

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I will admit that I have the sort of  brain that has some very, very specific ideas about some very specific and random things. One of those things is that July is for neon. Now, obviously, there are other occasions when I'm more than happy to bust out the neons, but there is no month other than July where they are sort of just a given. Anyway, since this is my last mani for July, I had to go with neon. And when you HAVE to go with neon, I sort of feel like you have to go with your classic neon yellow, right? Just me? Might just be me... 

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For this week's #CBBxManiMonday, I sort of ran out of time and had to throw something together at the last minute, so I just sort of decided to try an idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks and hope it worked out. It definitely came together on the fly and I actually quite like the final product, so I'm excited to share!

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Ok, it's official - I am ready to transition into spring nails. I usually jump the gun and get into them as soon as March hits and then by the time it's actually spring here where I am I'm basically all spring nails'd out. Does this even make sense? Anyway, when I sat down to do today's mani, my brain was definitely all up in spring ideas, but I also wanted to keep it fairly minimal (for me, anyway.) I actually really, really love how this mani turned out in the end and it definitely has me sort of whipped up to try some similarly thought out designs this spring.

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One thing that I always find myself being mindful of when it comes to putting together Christmas/Holiday themed nail art is that I can't lean entirely on the color palette that we think of as traditionally seasonal. I mean, I love a red and green or icy blue mani as much as the next one, but I feel like great holiday nail art can also come in more non-traditional colors - especially if those colors have a distinctly cozy vibe to them. For today's mani, I leaned into taupe paired with black, white and champagne gold and I think it definitely brings the holiday vibe without being too on the nose. 

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Well, there you have it! This month long marathon of Halloween nail art is coming to an end and I have to tell you... it's been a bit of a rollercoaster. I have to admit that this was basically a three month long process that started with working out far more ideas that I actually ended up doing back in the summer and then I actually started doing the nail art for this Halloween season in the first week of September, alternating through periods of going hard and then taking long breaks as my inspiration and executive function waned. I also ended up with a profoundly broken nail and some family struggles towards the end of this month, so I did have to leave these last two days without nail art, but I would say that 29 Halloween themed nail designs really is nothing to sneeze at! It has been super fun and I'm so thrilled with so much of the nail art I've been able to do. 

So without further ado, let's get into my very last Halloween themed nail art design for 2022!

I don't know if it's just me, but the pairing of hot pink and black, especially if it's a little bit deeper and more berry of a pink, just straight up reminds me of the early to mid 00s and the height of the hot topic swoopy haired emo kid revolution. And, of course, that absolutely always ends up being something I'm inspired to play with at Halloween. This particular mani actually started out with an entirely different plan, and then this mani but a much more simple version, and finally this one in all it's simple-but-also-kitchen sink glory!

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I love a signature. Whether it's a signature scent or a signature style or whatever, I feel like there's just something about really digging into something that's just yours that's so cool. Two years ago at Christmas, I came up with an idea that has become a sort of signature mani of mine and it's one that I tend to try and pull out some version of for a lot of different occasions/themes. For this Halloween, I had actually intended to change it up only slightly, but in the end I actually feel like I changed it up quite a bit and I am.. fairly madly in love with the end result, if we're being honest. 

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So today, the day I'm posting this, is my birthday. And it's one of those big, scary birthdays with a 0 at the end of the number, which is admittedly a little bit more stressful than I was anticipating. Anyway, I kept my birthday in mind when I sat down to do this mani and decided that I would lean into what I do this time every year, which is Harry Potter themed nails. Honestly, there is a fairly good chance that I will be curling up with some Harry Potter movies this weekend and trying to enjoy my big bad birthday. 

I want to acknowledge that I understand a lot of people don't have the affection for the Harry Potter series that they might have once because of the author, and I think that's perfectly valid and I support that. However, for me I have so much affection and warmth and love for this series that I will continue to enjoy it and find comfort and joy in it while actively disagreeing with the opinions and behavior of the author. 

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Today's mani is another one I've had in mind to do all summer, but for some reason my brain decided that it had to wait until August. I'm not entirely sure why that's the case, but here we are with end of the summer fruit inspired nails. (Hint: There will be another fruit mani coming up...) These watermelon nails were actually inspired by a mani that I saw a while back from a professional nail tech over on Pinterest, apologies that I can't find the original anymore, and I knew that I wanted to figure out how to do a version of it using traditional polish. Sometimes gel polish designs can be a little bit tricky to translate into regular polish designs, but I actually love, love, love the way this one turned out!

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Looking through all of the nail art I've done this summer, there isn't a lot of respite from the bright and I have to admit that I was feeling a little bit fatigued with all of that color so I decided to go for a design that's a little more muted and soft. Admittedly, a not insignificant portion of this design is inspired by The Golden Girls, which still holds up as one of my favorite TV shows of all time. When it comes to the aesthetic, there's something about that sort of washed out tropical Miami in the 80s vibe that just absolutely calls to me and that's what I sort of leaned into with this mani. 

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It was definitely a hot weekend here in Winnipeg, so I couldn't resist leaning distinctly into the neon of it all. Honestly, there's just something about July that, for me, screams for neon nails and even as I'm typing this post I find myself looking down at my nails and just getting a charge from how much I love how this mani turned out. I really love that these sorts of blobby abstract designs are so much on trend in nail art right now because not only are they really versatile and fun, but I think that they're fairly accessible to do at home regardless of your nail art skill, which is always a plus in my opinion. 

Anyway, keep reading for more on how I did this mani!