Christmas nail art- Christmas series 2014 #1

As a start to my Christmas series I will be focusing on a festive nail art that can really complement a Christmas party look. I've come up with a simple way to create an effective look. 

Step .1- Base coat

Start off with a clear base coat. This will help prevent the nails from getting damaged. I’m using the Body shop top and basecoat, which is great as its two in one.

Step .2- Base colour

This is where you can start to customise it a little more. You could use a red like the Barry M Gelly nail paint in Blood orange, a more berry fuchsia like Essie Haute in the Heat (limited edition for summerL), you could use white(Barry M Coconut) or nude(Revlon pink pineapple), or a teal(Essie ruffles and feathers-also limited edition for summer L)- like a Christmas tree colour. I went for Essie Haute in the Heat, as I love this colour at the moment. Paint all of the nails in this colour.

Step .3- Glitter!

This is probably my favourite part because I LOVE glitter. It’s especially pretty for Christmas. 
Rather than using a red glitter, I went for gold. I used the limited edition for this year Christmas nail paint from Barry M (you can tell I love Barry M nail stuff!) in the shade starlight. You could also use silver. Paint just the thumb and the ring finger as an accent nail. You could paint them all glitter and stop there, or leave it here with just the accent nails.

Step .4- The fiddly bit!

You can change it up here the most and make it really easy or really complicated. I’m using a nail art tool from Avon which is double ended. I used all the designs to show you the finished look but you’ve got a few options if you only want to do one:

•   Snowflakes- these are probably the easiest as you simply dip your dotting tool, toothpick or hair grip into some white polish (Barry M coconut) and dot it onto the nail. You could have more snow and the tip of the nail like I did, or have it snowing evenly all over.
• Candy cane- this is really easy. Simply dip your tool in white polish and draw stripes across your nail. I did it diagonally, but that’s personal preference-you could also do it horizontally or vertically.
• Tree- using the dotting tool and some dark green polish (Essie Ruffles and Feathers) make some larger dots at the bottom of the tree getting smaller towards the top. Then you can add some lights, maybe with neon colours to really make them pop. You could also add a gold star at the top of the tree, but if that’s too tricky then don’t do it.

Step .5- Top coat

To make sure your design stays looking awesome, apply a top coat. This will just seal in your design and make it really glossy. If you don’t have a top coat, then you could use a clear nail polish instead, just to add an extra layer of gloss to help it last longer.

5 steps to really cute looking nail art. The Christmas series will carry on all the way till the 24^th, I really hope you enjoy it. Also if you have any requests for Christmas posts, please leave them in the comments!