Wow – I can’t believe that Christmas is already over.

I had a great time over the last six weeks doing my nails in all different sorts of holiday designs for you.

Just to recap, week 1 I did a simple gold and blue design that would have lasted forever and worked for holiday parties, Christmas parties, church, anything my life had going on.

Week 2, was the first of the designs that you voted for: Snowmen. It was a little bit of a challenge to get the snowmen to look right, and then the top coat smeared them, but I did enjoy them. If I were to do this design again, I would most definitely make my own nail stickers for the snowmen and then just peel and stick.

Moving on to week 3, this week I attempted to do peppermint swirls. This was honestly my least favourite choice from the votes but in the end, I almost liked having them on my nails! Drawing them freehand was easy, but instead of four red segments, I needed at least five to make them look more realistic.

Week 4 was French tips with striping tape. This was a great looking design! I loved the final product! For as long as it lasted. I always have issues with my striping tape. The clear top layer of the tape always peels off, and I don’t know why. I can use regular polish or gel to top coat it, and it still does it. Then the white tips of my nails also flake off.

The tips flaking off were a problem for week 5 as well when I did Santa faces. This time, I did the white tips and silver lines all free-hand and it showed in the final design. I should have used guides for the white and then free-handing the silver would have been much easier and the end result would have been much cleaner. The face of Santa did work out really well, though.

The last week was my gingerbread men. I was really intimidated by the detail required for this design, especially when using regular polish, so I decided to make my own nail stickers. This helped SO MUCH! I could easily do the design as stickers and not have to worry about having to draw with my non-dominant hand. It was my first attempt at stickers and I was so freaking impressed with how well they turned out! I am in LOVE. This was also probably my favourite design out of the whole six weeks.

Overall, I had a great time doing these nails. There were a few that didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped (looking at you, week 3) but I love to challenge myself and the limits of my nail art skills. This year has definitely been about pushing my boundaries and enjoying having great looking nails.

Over the last week few weeks, I have also been obsessed with a YouTube channel that has helped me so freaking much when it comes to nails! It’s Nail Career Education and I honestly can spend an entire day just watching the videos. I’ve also learned through these videos that I’ve been doing gel polish wrong! I always buff the nail surface, then smooth it out, and then shine it up before applying the polish. Apparently, this is all wrong! The polish needs the rough surface to adhere to. So I’m going to try that once I get back into gel polish. I’m also going to get myself some acrylic supplies and start learning about applying acrylic and sculpting nails. I’m super excited about it!

As for my upcoming plans for nail designs – I really don’t have any. The last six weeks have been so much fun, but also exhausting! I’m taking a break, filing down all my nails, and just letting my hands be plain for a bit. It’ll be a challenge since I’m already itching to get at my mom’s polishes to make my nails all pretty. But I also like to just keep my hands natural for a little bit sometimes.

Thanks for helping me have a great year of designs, and for putting up with me when I post polls and ask for advice because I can never settle on a design by myself haha!