Christmas Holly Nail Art Tutorials
Get ready for the second festive tutorial in our Advent series! We’re excited to feature the incredibly talented @oliviaannicenailartist, who brings her creativity to life with a stunning holly leaf design. Grab your nail art essentials and join us as we dive into a world of tips, tricks, and festive flair that will take your holiday nails to the next level!
Watch the tutorial here
Product List
- Large Flat Brush
- Satin Gel Polish
- Cherry Detail Paint
- Metal Dotting Tool
- White Detail Paint
- Mirror Gold Detail Paint
- Emerald Detail Paint (exclusive to the HONA Advent Calendar)
TRANSCRIPT
Hey, today I'm going to be showing you how to create these stunning holly leaf nails ready for Christmas. The star of the show is a stunning new green, shimmery detail paint from the HONAs advent calendar, and it's perfect for the holiday season. First I am going in with my large, round, flat brush to paint a solid nail on my pinky. The detail paints are full coverage, meaning you only have to do one layer if you want to just look at how amazingly that paints on. This is why the detail paints are also amazing for nail art. Now that we're drawing our holly leaves, you want to remember to release the pressure of your brush drawing it away from the nail. When you want to create a thinner line, you want to start with one thin, quite short line where you want your leaf to be, and then draw off four spikes, two on either side. This doesn't have to be perfect, as no leaves are, but try and make the points as thin as you can. I'm going in with about two or three sets of two to make our little bunches of holly leaves, and adding a couple of random ones to fill in any gaps. You can get a little bit creative at this stage and put them wherever you would like, but always remember, release the pressure when you want the leaves to be thinner, and apply more pressure in the middle when you want them to be thicker. Now we wouldn't be creating a mix and match that. If we didn't have a french tip, using the same long liner brush as you use for your holly leaves, go in and paint a line just below where you want the thickness of your french tip to finish. Next mark up the side walls to where you want your smile line to end. Now that you have your key marking points, you can go in with a little more product and begin to connect those areas. Use small light strokes and try not to make it any thicker. This is why we paint just below where you want it to end in the beginning, to allow for any room for error, using the tip of your brush, make sure that the gel is nice and even towards the end, as we don't want it looking bulky, and turn your client's hand to either side to make sure you are nice. And close to those side walls, I like to turn the hand around and look at it from the opposite perspective to make sure it is nice. And even Next, we are going to go in with a couple more holly leaves. We are going to do two just towards the cuticle area, and allow these to swoop around ever so slightly. They can follow the natural curve of your client's cuticle area. Make sure to be releasing the pressure, making the tips nice and thin on those spiky leaves, and double check again from all angles before you cure. Remember, until your hand goes in the lamp, you can fix anything. So take your time and make sure you're happy with it, and only cure once you're ready. Because we just can't get enough of this gorgeous detail paint. We are going to do another full color on our thumbs. Once you've painted the thumb, you want to fully cure this hand in the lamp, as this is your first layer before we go back in and add some more detail. Now I know that I said you can do one layer on detail paints because they are full coverage, but just because of how stunning this shimmery color is, I'm going to do two layers to get the full effects of that shine. Sure you are painting on your layers of gel polish nice and thin, as we don't want them to become bulky or under cured. Go in if you need to with your liner brush and make sure you are nice and close to those side walls and cuticle area can be sometimes easier to do with this brush instead of your large round one, as it is obviously smaller and can get into those little gaps. This design is perfect for people who are beginners or confident in nail art, as you can choose whether you want to carry out the next step, I'm going to go in with satin from the into the darkness collection and add a couple of details to my holly leaves. Don't want much on your brush, and just add a couple of super thin lines where you want to add some dimension. Like I said, this step is completely optional, and if you're not confident to do so, the holly leaves just drawn in ivy are still absolutely perfect. I'm going to repeat this step on the pointy finger where I did the holly leaves near the cuticle, and again, make sure you don't have much product on your brush, as you don't want to completely change the color for our berries. You want a nice bright red, like this cherry detail paint from Hona using a small dotting tool, you want to create some little bunches of berries where the holly leaves Connect. I always seem to do three, but again, this is completely optional. You can do as many or as little as you like. You want to ever so slightly tap the colour onto the nail to not make them too big or bulky, evenly coating your liner brush with white. I like to add a couple of little details onto the berries to make it look as though they are shiny. Sometimes turning your hand or your client's hand to different angles can help you get into those little areas and make sure to do this on the other finger as well. Going in with that same liner brush, very evenly coated with white, again. And this step is completely optional, I'm going to go in and add even more dimension to those holly leaves. Once I do this, focus the white towards the very middle of each leaf. As a final little touch, I'm going in with mirror gold from Hona to add some little cute details and make the nails super shiny. Now I use this gorgeous, shimmery, pure foundation base. So when we put the top coat on now, you are going to see that shimmer come right back through, obviously using super shine. You want to float that down the nail, and be sure to coat every single surface. If your top coat is too thin, you might experience pitting or where it starts to come away from the free edge. So be generous, but make sure there's not so much that it's going to flow off the nail. It might just be me, but top coating is one of my favorite parts of a nail design. Look at that shimmer coming right back through, even shinier than it was before. And of course, it wouldn't be a Hona set without the Hona cuticle oil. This is my absolute favourite scent, and I just can't get enough of it. A fluffy brush to go in and blend out the cuticle oil in the cuticles and surrounding skin. This helps get rid of the glare on photos and make them not look quite as oily. I have a feeling this green is going to be very popular.