Starbucks Holiday Cup

Its that time of year again! Last year I did these nails inspired by Starbucks’ red holiday cup, so I decided to give it another go with this years design. I love how cute these cups are…and these nails gave me an excuse to go get a drink at Starbucks! 🙂

Lately I’ve been using Deborah Lippmann Gel Lab Pro base and top coats. I have always been an Orly Bonder + Seche Vite combination kind of person, but when I ran out I decided I should just go through my hoards of others and try something new. I’m glad I did! The base is slightly thicker than others, but not too thick…just enough to smooth out the nail. The top coat is actually really similar to Seche Vite – its thick and shiny! 

For the art, I started with a base color of Zoya Purity, a crisp white. Honestly you can never have enough white polishes, they always get thick and goopy and there’s nothing like using a fresh bottle for your nails! On my thumb, I painted two coats of Smith & Cult Darjeeling Darling, a dark green (which is my favorite color for winter).

I recently got a Young Nails Micro Detailer Brush in a gel kit I bought from them…and wow! It’s so good! If you’re on the search for a nice quality brush, I would definitely recommend this. I was hesitant to paint these tiny details but I had an easy time with the brush. I first painted everything in black, Orly Liquid Vinyl. Then I went back in with Demelect Magmatized, a bright red, for the accents.

And for my thumb I painted the Starbucks logo! I’ve had this design on my to-do list ever since the cups came out a while ago, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it until it was actually Christmas time. What do you guys think?