Easy star manicure using Essie Allure

I hope you have all enjoyed your Christmas time and NYE! I definitely enjoyed mine, but it has a been quiet on the blog because of it. If you follow me on Instagram, you have probably already seen this mani because I posted it already over there. I think this mani is definitely good inspiration if you’re in need of an easy christmas nailart, but I would say that it also works pretty well outside of Christmas season! In real life, a lot of people commented on my nails, even complete strangers in the supermarket, and it is definitely not much more effort than a regular mani!

So what do you need?

• Star glitter for nails (I bough them on Aliexpress, over here (not an affiliate link), you can also find it on Amazon over here (affiliate link) if you’re in a hurry)
• Sheer nail polish ( I used Essie Allure (affiliate link to Amazon), but you can really use any type of sheer polish)
• A thick top coat for the final coat. In my case I used the Sensationail Polish to gel topcoat (affiliate link to Amazon), however, you can use whatever thicker topcoat you’ll want (more on that later).

I started my manicure with four coats of Essie Allure. If you’re not familiar with Allure; it is a very sheer milky white, that’s been around since 2002. It’s one of the shades Kate Middleton supposedly wore for her wedding, and it has been even more popular ever since. At one coat, it basically looks like a layer of clear polish. With two coats it was very streaky, and with three it started to look decent. But I build it up until 4 coats, because I like the squishy finish.

While Allure is still wet, you can press the stars in it. I always try to appy them randomly over all nails. I usually pick them up with a dotting tool or set of tweezers. If Allure is already dry, you might apply the stars with some topcoat.

Because during the Christmas Holiday I didn’t want to re-apply new nail polish every two days, I decided to finish it all off with a gel topcoat. I first let Allure+the stars dry for 24 hours. After this I applied one coat of the Sensationail polish to gel, which is special for use with regular polish. After curing it in a UV light, it almost lasts as long as a regular gel mani! On my nails, it lasted for over 9 days before it started lifting. The advantage of using gel topcoat is that the stars are sealed in, but regular topcoat is also fine if you’re looking for a mani that is easier to remove.

And that’s all! Super easy, but very effective! Personally, I definitely want to try it again using a different combination of sheer polish and star glitter.

This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I bought all these products myself.