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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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 when I look back through nail art designs that I've done before, I just want desperately to recreate those designs. So for this mani, I went back a couple of years in my own nail art to recreate this design that I put together back in 2021. To be honest, I kept it very much the same as the first time and all I really changed was the color story, which I think is distinctly different and yet no less cozy and features one of my new favorite polishes in my collection. 

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Recently on a bit of a whim, I picked up a couple of magnetic polishes from the Chinese brand Xeijayi. As soon as I swatched them out, I knew that I wanted to put together some version of this mani. I really, really love the way that cat eye gel polishes look when you mattify them, it gives them a really unique velvety look, so that's definitely what I was going for with this particular mani. 

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Being that it's the Monday before American Thanksgiving and I've already very much got Christmas nails on the brain, I decided today would be my last distinctly fall mani. And, of course, by fall I mean the pumpkin spice white girl version of fall. When I picked up the Uberchic Sweater Weather Stamping Plate, I knew I wanted to do some version of today's mani but I had actually intended on making it a little more intricate before deciding to keep it pretty simple. Simple, for me, can be pretty difficult to maintain, but I think I managed!

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I have to say, when I sat down to do my nails last night for this post, I was lacking in both energy and inspiration until I remembered that I really wanted to use the layered mushrooms image from the Uberchic Sweater Weather stamping plate rather badly. Layered stamping images have always stressed me out a bit, but I've been playing with them a bit more lately and it really is amazing just how quickly they make a really complicated design come together. In the end, this particular mani came together really smoothly and I love the final result. 

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I think sometimes, in my everything and the kitchen sink approach to nail art, I tend to forget how much value there can be in just keeping it simple. For today's Halloween nail design, I wanted to put together a mani that balanced simplicity with a visually interesting design - and I feel pretty good about it. It's very simple, but there's bats... so what more could a person need? 

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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'm someone who generally doesn't like to use more than one stamping plate for a mani, but as soon as I saw the new Uberchic Halloween 09 plate, I knew that I wanted to pair this really delicate full cover spiderweb image with another delicate spiderweb image from the KADS Halloween 008 plate. I also decided to pair it with one of the new limited edition Scooby Doo polishes from Wet N Wild, which I absolutely had to pick up because I really, really love Scooby Doo to a degree that I think might surprise some people. Anyway, I put it all together and I'm really happy with how it came out. 

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How is it already the last week of September? Very sincerely, I can't believe we're already almost to Halloween nail art time, but I always resist posting any Halloween themed nails until October hits, so I'm still sticking with a fall theme. For this week's #CBBxManiMonday, I was in the mood for what has sort of become a classic for me - some abstract dry brushing with layered leafy stamping. 

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I'm currently neck deep in that feeling where it's definitely fall in my head, but the weather is annoyingly and distinctly summery. Anyone else working with that? Anyway, the weather can't stop me when it comes to having transitioned into fall nails, so I'm going hard. Doesn't hurt that our #CBBxManiMonday theme for this month is fall either, does it? 

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I am entirely unashamed to admit that the color story for today's mani came from what was in my coffee mug when I sat down to do it. I quit drinking coffee about 4 months ago and I've been alternating between being a London Fog girlie and a Matcha Latte girlie and I just happened to be drinking the latter during this mani and something about the color just inspired me so I went for it. This mani is a bit of a recreation of one I did some time ago, but I changed up the color story and some of the details and I love the way it turned out. 

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I think my brain transitioned into fall vibes around the same time that every store started bringing out their Halloween displays. By which I mean, it was August 1. Honestly, I am not a fan of summer in general, as much as I love playing with fun summery nail designs, so I am thrilled to be transitioning into fall weather (even though it's going to be full on hot as balls here, today....) But I digress. I had this idea to put together what I loving call a Blobby Tip design featuring a bright summery color along with it's darker, more fall appropriate counterpart and I'm super stoked about how it turned out in the end.

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How is it already the last week of August? I very sincerely don't even understand how time works anymore. Anyway, for my last Summer themed #CBBxManiMonday, I decided to recreate a tropical leaves mani that I loved from last summer. Whenever I recreate a mani I've already done, I always try to change the color story and a few other elements, which is what I did with this one, and I think I like this one even more than I liked the first one, which is rare but very exciting. 

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A few years ago, I was trying to recreate the look of those gorgeous bright tipped ombre nail designs that I see nail techs do using colored acrylics and I came up with the technique that I used for today's design. I'm sure I'm not the first one to think of it, I will admit, but I feel pretty proud of figuring it out. That is honestly one of my favorite things about being a nail art hobbyist, figuring out how I could possibly pull off similar designs to professional gel and acrylic artists at home using regular polish. And while it's not always possible, it often is... with some adjustments!

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When I first saw the KADS Fashion 100 Stamping Plate*, there were definitely a few different designs that immediately jumped to mind, but the one I was most excited to try featured this graphic corner image that I knew would make a really lovely design. I actually tried a different version of this mani all in black and white and it just didn't have the punch I was looking for, which is what inspired this version. I love pairing grey with brights because it always has so much impact, so I went with it. 

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For this week's #CBBxManiMonday, I sort of ran out of time and had to throw something together at the last minute, so I just sort of decided to try an idea that had been bouncing around in my head for a couple of weeks and hope it worked out. It definitely came together on the fly and I actually quite like the final product, so I'm excited to share!

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