Holiday Stripes (and "Ugly" Christmas Sweater)

Happy Holidays!! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Solstice, and Happy Festivus! It's almost time for the airing of grievances. Always a frothy, lighthearted time.

I was inspired by another nail artist for this mani. @iheart_nails_ did a great stripey mani for Christmas and I fell in love with the idea.

This year, I've been having fun changing up the traditional red and green color scheme so I opted for a teal color instead of straight green. Teal is always a good choice.

Holiday stripes and "ugly sweater" nail with cats! (shade)

Closer look...tiny kitties! (shade)

Right hand (shade)

Direct sun

Direct sun (right hand)

This mani took an inordinate amount of time. The stripes were the most tedious thing. For the stripes, I used a long, thin striping brush and a piece of paper as a surface on which to drip polish. This is what said paper looked like when I was done:

So many colors

The ugly sweater design nails were far less tedious. For the cat nail, I used a dotting tool and a striping brush. For the snowflake nail (is it a snowflake?), I used thin nail tape, a small brush, and a dotting tool. Honestly, the snowflake didn't turn out as sharp as I'd like, but I'll live. I originally tried some stamping with an ugly Christmas sweater stamping plate by Vivid Lacquer (VL 035). While, it was cute, it lacked the oomph I wanted for this mani.

Original plan for the snowflake nail. The stamp is cute, but not vibrant enough in this mani for my taste. Never mind the hideous stains on my skin.

And for the cat nail, I originally used a reindeer stamp from the same Vivid Lacquer plate. Also super cute, but I just wasn't feeling it at the time; it needed more cats.

Original cat nail wasn't cats. Decided it needed more cats so I re-did it.

Perhaps if I didn't redo my nails when slightly displeased, these things wouldn't take quite as long, but then I'd forever be curious about what could have been. I'm very...particular, let's say.

I'm really pleased with the color combo. I love how the red and teal look together. This red, Zoya Elisa, is my favorite holiday red. To me, it just screams "I'M SO FESTIVE!!" I used a total of 8 polishes for this mani:

Zoya - Elisa (red)

Zoya - Giovanna (teal)

Zoya - Purity (white)

Zoya - Ziv (gold)

Butter London - Abso-bloody-lutely (oxblood red)

OPI - Live and Let Die (dark green)

Bongo - Mint Chip Madness (mint green)

China Glaze - Roguish Red (orange red)

Here is the instagram for @iheart_nails_. Thank you for the inspiration!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season full of peace, love, and merriment! Thanks for reading!

-Melissa

All polishes and products used in this post are from my collection and were not provided for review.

Ugly Christmas Sweater Nails

Ugly Christmas sweaters are all the rage right now. Seems like you can purchase them anywhere, not just at the second-hand store or by raiding your mother's or grandmother's closets for sweaters from yesteryear. These sweaters have become one of my favorite parts about Christmas these days so why not have them on your nails, too?

I free-handed each nail for this (well, except for a little tape on the middle finger to help make the snowflake lines a little straighter). It's actually from last Christmas, but I hadn't started blogging yet. Couldn't let these go unblogged! 

Ugly Christmas Sweater nails

I wave my crazy cat lady flag high and proud as you can see on my ring finger. Cat-themed Christmas sweaters are my favorite.

Ugly Christmas Sweater nails

I did both hands. Same designs on each hand. Please excuse the awkward claw-like photo below... 

Ugly Christmas Sweater nails - Both hands

As you may suspect, this was incredibly time consuming, but so much fun. I think it might be interesting to do another free-hand ugly Christmas sweater mani this year for comparison. On the other hand, I just got a new stamping plate with Christmas sweater designs on it. Might opt for convenience this year. We'll see.

Thanks for reading!

-Melissa