THIS POST IS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH PUEEN COSMETICS.  

One thing that I'm trying to teach myself as I finally sort of settle into nail art - until this point, I've still felt very much like I'm still learning, but I'm settling more into a confidence that I know what I'm doing - is to lean into the simplicity sometimes. While my tendency is to throw the kitchen sink at my nails, I'm finding myself more and more drawn to much simpler designs. Of course, simplicity and Christmas don't exactly tend to go together, so I'm having to focus a little more and resist the urge to DO more, which is what I did with today's mani. 

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One trick to making a super simple mani scream holidays is to reach for what is arguably the most festive polish in your entire collection. In my case, that's Starrily's Infrared. One of the collab shades with Kelli Marissa, Infrared is a red jelly base packed with golden shimmer and holo flakes. Is there any other description that could possibly feel more Christmasy?

To start, I applied two coats of Infrared to all of my nails and let that dry down before moving on to my stamping. 

For the stamping, this is actually a design I've done a version of before but there was something about that design that just screamed that it would be perfect for this season so I decided to recreate it in a different color story. This actually uses two different plates. For the full cover image, I used the 100 Stamping Plate, from the 24M Collection, and for the little clusters of stars, I used the 60 Stamping Plate from the 24B Collection. These images honestly work so well together that I would even argue they each make each other better. 

Once I was happy with my design, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat. And voila!

I'm so happy with how this turned out! I think the combination of that really sparkly, gorgeous red base polish with the bold, crisp white stamping is just absolutely dreamy. Probably not explicitly Christmasy... and yet, I feel like it's unambiguously Christmasy as well?