THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.

Clearly I am a big fan of the blobby abstract mani, right? Like I really don't think I've been subtle about that - it's just such a versatile technique that works for any occasion, including Christmas apparently. For today's design, I knew I wanted to use the Pueen Accent Fun 01 Stamping Plate to put together n abstract botanical design and I decided it would be really fun to do it using some classic Christmas colors, some blobs, and a little bit of dots just for good measure.

Keep reading for more!

So when it came to the base for this mani, I knew before deciding on the design what red and green polishes I was going to use because I very, very much wanted to use them together somehow this holiday season. Both are sort of darkened versions of what we might traditionally think of as holiday red and green, deepened up but still distinctly festive - in my opinion, anyway! To go with these red and green polishes, I decided that I wanted a shimmery white base for my two accent nails. Though I considered going with a sheer sandwichy kind of base, I ultimately decided to go with an opaque one.

To start, I applied two coats of the green polish to my first finger, the red polish to my pinkie and thumb, and the white polish to my two middle fingers in preparation for the nail art. 

So to start, I had to make the blobs. I did this the easiest but sometimes a little messier way by just drawing random blobs using the brush straight from the bottle. If you have a specific shape in mind, it would probably be best to use a nail art brush for this, but I wasn't too concerned about the shape as long as it was sort of... blobby? Anyway, I did those and let them dry down before moving onto the stamping. 

For the stamping, I kept it really simple. I decided to go with two botanical images and apply both to each of the accent nails. When placing the images, I tried to sort of follow the shape of the blob I was placing it on as best I could and I placed the images in the same direction on each nail. Next, I went in with a dotting tool and silver stamping polish to add a few random dots alongside the stamping in each blob, just to add a little bit of extra interest.

Once I was happy with the design, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of glossy top coat for shine and volume. And voila!

I'm honestly kind of smitten with how this one turned out and I love that it's both clearly and unmistakably Christmasy without actually having any Christmas specific imagery - perfect for the whole holiday season, I think, and also really easy to do.