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.

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I can not even tell you how excited I was to get today's mani on my nails, I sincerely can't. As soon as I received the CjS-324 Stamping Plate, which was included in a Mystery Box, I was beyond excited to put together some version of this design. I initially planned on going with a more traditional red, green and white color story, but in the end I was in the mood for something a little more cozy. One of my favorite cozy color combos - not just for my nails - is pink and grey and I think it worked perfectly with this design. 

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While I do a LOT of planning for holiday nail art, this mani actually sort of came out of nowhere when my Clear Jelly Stamper Black Friday order arrived just when I was about to do some nails. As I was looking at the CJS-LC-100 Stamping Plate, the idea for this design just came together and I had to get it onto my nails. I am definitely still getting the hang of layered stamping (and am very much a perfectionist when it comes to trying to get it right) but I'm really, really loving playing with layered designs.

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Did I desperately want to do one of those adorably gnome designs that you see from professional nail tech's last year? Absolutely I did. Did I try and fail miserably at hand painting them? 100%. So this year, when I saw the Clear Jelly Stamper CjS-LC-100 Stamping Plate, which also featured some really gorgeous plaid stamping images, I just had to have it. HAD TO HAVE IT. Initially, I had planned on doing this mani in red, but in the end I decided to go with blue and let the gnome shine. 

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I've actually had today's mani in mind for a few years now - or some version of it, anyway - but it wasn't until this year that I had the perfect stamping plate to get the job done. As I've mentioned, I've been getting more into layered stamping recently and I've added several Clear Jelly Stamper plates to my collection. As soon as I saw the holly and berries design on the CjS-C33 plate, I knew that I was finally going to get to do this mani and I really, really love the way it turned out!

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Every year at Christmas, I try to put together some mani's that aren't in traditional holiday colors - red, green, white, gold, blue, silver, that is - but I'm beginning to find myself thinking that shades of lavender are also becoming a little bit festive in my head. I wouldn't say that this mani is particularly festive, but I do think it's a really fun wintery holiday mani and I'm kind of in love with it. It also utilized layered stamping, which I've always been super intimidated by, and I'm kind of wildly in love with how that aspect of the design turned out. 

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When it comes to Christmasy nails, I feel like it's really easy to go all in with your traditional Christmas designs and colors, but I always like to also do some more modern designs as well. Today's mani was actually inspired by a set of nail wraps I saw listed somewhere online. I apologise - I can't remember the site. In the end, I decided to go with a speckled green base rather than the nude base that the inspiration design had, and I personally think it makes for a beautiful, very modern take on Christmas nails. 

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Sometimes I have an idea that I absolutely love in my head, but can't quite get the execution right. It has never been more true than with this design, which I did three distinctly different versions of before I got it right enough that I was willing to post it here on the blog. The first two times were hand painted, but they just... didn't get it done for me, so on the third I did a combination of hand painting and stamping and it came together much more to my personal taste. 

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Like a great many people of my generation, I watch Scream and generally the entire original trilogy every Halloween season and I always feel inclined to do some Ghostface nails to go along with my mini marathon. I've done some hand painted ones once before (I will be the first to tell you that my hand painting skills are mid at best) but it was only this year that I finally got a stamping plate that featured a Ghostface image, so of course I had to do them. There was literally no choice. 

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I haven't actually used many Clear Jelly Stamper plates up to this point, but if the experience of putting together today's mani is any indication I definitely think that I should be trying more. From the moment I saw this plate, I wanted to put together this mani and pretty much this mani exactly. I just loved the idea of the really spooky and creepy zombie silhouettes coming out of the darkness like something straight out of a horror movie. And with these layering images, it actually came together really quickly and easily. 

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I was in a bit of a mood when I sat down to do today's mani, but what better way to clear up the gloom than to put together some super bright, fun summer nails? I decided to just go all in with neon base polishes and some layered stamping from a Clear Jelly Stamper plate that I'd had my eye on for quite a while and finally snagged from a friend of mine who was destashing a lot of her plates. 

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One thing that I always find myself being mindful of when it comes to putting together Christmas/Holiday themed nail art is that I can't lean entirely on the color palette that we think of as traditionally seasonal. I mean, I love a red and green or icy blue mani as much as the next one, but I feel like great holiday nail art can also come in more non-traditional colors - especially if those colors have a distinctly cozy vibe to them. For today's mani, I leaned into taupe paired with black, white and champagne gold and I think it definitely brings the holiday vibe without being too on the nose. 

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