When Melody Susie reached out to me to ask if I wanted to try out their gel polishes and put together a mani, I immediately knew that I wanted to put together some Christmas nails. I will admit that they did challenge me a bit with by asking me to use their nail art brushes to create a hand painted mani, but I was up for the challenge and I'm so, so glad that I went for it because I absolutely love how this design turned out and I feel pretty proud of myself for doing it entirely by hand. 

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I actually chose these three gel polish shades from Melody Susie specifically with some version of this mani in mind. 072 Cherry Boom* is a gorgeous red créme that is absolutely perfect for the holidays. 348 Lush Moss* is a rich deep green shade that feels very, very on trend to me right now. And finally, 479 Snow White* is a perfect crisp white that works beautiful both for regular application as well as the hand painted nail art elements of this design. 

To start, I applied Cherry Boom to my pinkie and thumb and Lush Moss to my pointer finger. I did two coats, curing for 60 seconds between each coat. For my middle two fingers, I actually started with Snow White, applying it in a color block at a diagonal at the base of my ring finger and the tip of my middle finger. I then went in and filled the rest of the nail with Cherry Boom and Lush Moss respectfully before moving on to the actual nail art.

I will admit that I watched a LOT of tutorials on how to paint snowflakes before I decided to go with the style I used in this mani. Because I'm a bit shaky when it comes to hand painting, I wanting something simple but impactful and these felt like the best option for that. You start by applying the dots and then drag through them carefully in a straight line to get the snowflake design. I also added some small dots around the flakes just to give the effect of snowiness.

For the cable knit sweater design, you start with a mattified base and then apply the design. I started with the cables down the center of the nail, slim lines along each side of the cables, and finally some dots along the edge of the design. Next, I dumped a scoop of acrylic powder onto the gel polish and then cured, wiping away the excess powder with a fan brush once it was all cured.

Finally, I finished with a gel top coat applied only to the colored parts of the design to really emphasize the difference in textures. And voila!

Honestly, I'm really, really impressed at the quality of the Melody Susie gel polishes and am eager to try more. These three polishes particularly are pretty perfect for holiday nails - or just general nail wear. Highly recommend. The company did offer me a coupon code for 12% off your order, so if you're going to pick up some Melody Susie gel polishes for yourself feel free to use code PBL12 for your order!