I did a lot of planning for this year's Christmas nails, but today's mani wasn't at all planned. I actually saw an absolutely adorable mani from @lindseysbeautylounge1 on Instagram and immediately wanted to put together my own version of it. There was just something about those tiny images right at the tip that just completely pulled me in and I knew that with the help of a couple of Clear Jelly Stamper plates, I could definitely put together a version that referenced the inspiration mani but felt like me. And I literally had this on my nails within hours of seeing it in my Reels feed.

Keep reading for more!

While the inspiration mani had a very simple milky beige nude base, I wanted to go with something with a bit more texture and interest for my base. I actually did struggle a bit with choosing a polish for this, but as soon as I had Girly Bits' Budget Schmudget in my hand, I knew it was the right shade. This polish is a pale cream shade but it has this gorgeous warm glow to it as well as some iridescent flakes that give it a bit of texture. All in all, I just really felt like it would work beautifully with the colors I had in mind for the stamping.

To start, I applied two coats of Budget Schmudget to all of my nails and let those dry down. 

For the stamping, I decided that the most important thing was scale because I really wanted to make sure that everything felt cohesive since this is such a simple mani. I ended up needing two different stamping plates for this, both from Clear Jelly Stamper - CJS-C06 & C07. The images I chose were a tree, a candy cane, a gingerbread man, a bell, and an ornament (thumb, not pictured) and I used stamping polishes in black, white, red, green, yellow and brown to bring together the design. In the end, I also added a single white star image to each nail, just to add a little something else and bring everything together.

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

Honestly, I'm still getting the hang of layered stamping, so it's not quite as perfect as I might like, but I am definitely a convert. This mani came together so quickly and easily that I didn't even finish the entire episode of the TV show I was watching while I did my nails before this was finished. Amazing!