It is my firmly held opinion that every holiday season needs a plaid mani. There's just something about plaid that just works so beautifully at this time of year. Interestingly, I used to do a lot more plaid designs that I do these days (should probably invest in some new plaid plates, actually...) but there's no resisting the pull towards plaid when the holidays come around. I went for a very similar design to something I did last year, but I changed up the color story and some of the details and I'm pretty much obsessed. 

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When I was deciding which direction I was going to take this mani, I was initially more drawn to a traditional red or green base polish, but sitting right there on my desk fresh from being swatched was Whats Up Nails' Moody Duty* and it absolutely caught my eye. Immediately I knew that this would be a perfect mani for the first day of Hanukkah. Even though I am not Jewish and I don't celebrate, it's obviously one of the huge December holidays and deserves to be acknowledged as well. 

As an aside, while I was doing this mani and I had just painted the base, my partner came into the room and all but rushed over to me saying, "WHAT IS THAT POLISH? THAT IS AMAZING!" This is not something that has ever happened before, so I'd say that's a huge mark in favour of this polish. 

To get that incredible response, I started by applying three thin coats of Moody Duty to all of my nails and letting those dry down. 

For the actual design, I decided to keep it really simple and stick to a completely neutral color palette to pair the blue. I started by applying the stitched image in black to all of my nails. This, in my opinion, serves as the grounding element of this design. Next, I went in with the solid lines using a silver stamping polish so complete the plaid design. Finally, I added a few snowflakes per nail towards opposing corners just to bring in that wintery holiday vibe.

Once I was happy with my design, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then followed with a layer of matte top coat to bring down the shine and give that velvety textile look. And voila!

I just absolutely love plaid for the holidays. What more can I even say? Whatever wintery or holiday elements it's paired with, plaid just immediately screams Holidays to me. When I showed the finished product to my partner, since he loved the base polish so much, he immediately said it looked like wrapping paper and I can't disagree. Happy Hanukkah!