Skull & Spider Web Nail Art

Boo!

I'm very excited today because I just happened to realise that it's been a year since I started the blog! Time sure flies! So obviously, I'm here today with a Halloween design for you!

Since October started, my homepage on instagram has been full of Halloween inspiration either from nail artists/bloggers or make up artists I follow and that really got me in the mood.

Last year I had done a nail design inspired by the Nightmare Before Christmas, so this time I wanted to try something a bit more spooky. I wasn't exactly sure what to do in the beginning, I only knew I wanted a creepy, bloody looking background and the rest came along the way.

This is the design I came up with.

I started off with a white nail polish as my base and then used small pieces of a make up sponge to dab my blood colors on random parts of the nail, trying to stay focused on putting more color on the area around the cuticle and generally on the "outline" of the nail.

Normally, I was planning to use a red polish for the blood and a dark red or burgundy polish on top, to give some dimension and depth to the look. Somehow though when I tried that, it ended up having more of a fuschia tone to it, so I decided to make my own color.

I mixed a bright red polish with a dark brown (one drop of each color every time) to get that dark red color I was going for. I used the sponge to apply it on my nails and after that was dry, I dabbed some of the dark brown in certain spots to make it look more realistic. To finish the background, I took a black polish and used the "dry brush" technique to apply it randomly on my nails.

As for the designs, I used acrylic paint and when everything was dry, I topped them with a fast drying top coat.

Here are more pictures.

I'm really happy with how this turned out.

Unfortunately we don't celebrate Halloween in Greece, but if you guys are celebrating, I'd love to hear about your costumes! :)

Polishes used:

OPI Nail Envy Maintenance Nail Strengthener

Orly - White Tips

OPI - Coca-Cola Red

OPI - Suzi Loves Cowboys

Orly - Liquid Vinyl

Rush 60 Second High Speed Topcoat

Tie Dye Gradient & Geometric Nail Art Tutorial

After uploading the previous post about the tie dye gradient with the geometric pattern, I prepared a tutorial for it. Even though I did explain how I created this look, I thought that something more visual would be helpful. Somehow though, I forgot to upload it. Silly me! So now that I found it, I figured I'd upload it even a little late.

This was the final look:

Now, on to the tutorial!

All the products are listed in the previous post (here). The only different polish I used, was the white one (Seventeen - 103), because it was near the bottom so I threw it away.

This was actually my first time making a tutorial. Feel free to tell me what you think about it!

Tie Dye Gradient & Geometric Nail Art

Long time no see!

A lot of things were going on during the past months, that made my mood and inspiration go down the drain. To top that, my nails were very weak at that point, so I decided to take a long break not only from blogging but from polishing my nails as well.

Now I'm back and even though summer is typically over, here in Greece it's very hot and sunny, so I'm still in a very colorful mood!

Before we even move on to the pictures, just let me say this.

1. I love gradients even though they're a real pain to clean up.

2. I love line work, geometric shapes and aztec prints on nails and there are so many nail artists out there that I admire just for that!

So after that being said and the title of the post, I guess you can see where this is going..

Here we go..

For this look I started off with two coats of white nail polish as a base, so that the colors I'd use on top of it would pop and applied a fast drying top coat. We need our base to be completely dry before we start "sponging" the color on. Then I took a make up sponge, cut it in a square shape and made it as smooth as possible for the polish to apply evenly. I chose very bright and neon colors for this almost tie dye looking gradient effect, randomly placed them on the sponge (see picture below) and dabbed it onto my nails. After the first layer had dried I did a second layer, reapplying nail polish on the sponge after each use, to get a more intense look. Wherever I felt like I needed more color, I just used small pieces of the sponge to apply the nail polish and topped it again with a fast drying top coat for an even finish.

This is what my nails looked like after the clean up.

PS: You could also leave your nails like this if you like. It still looks very beautiful.

However, I chose to keep going..

After the messy part was over, I took a long bristle nail art brush, that I had trimmed to be very thin and used white acrylic paint to do my line work. Keep in mind that brushes with very long bristles help us to make very straight and long lines, compared to short bristle brushes that are better for smaller details. Once that was dry, I used fast drying top coat (Again!) to seal everything.

All in all this was quite a time consuming design, but I believe it's fun, eye catching and well worth a try. Feel free to leave comments with your thoughts! :)

Polishes used:

OPI Nail Envy Maintenance Nail Strengthener

Seventeen - 103

Orly - Purple Crush

Orly - Risky Behavior

Orly - Key Lime Twist

China Glaze - Too Yacht To Handle

Sinful Colors - Endless Blue

Seche Vite Fast Drying Topcoat