Halloween Rag Doll Nail Art

Halloween is almost here.  Need a Halloween manicure idea?  These rag doll nails are the perfect addition to a creepy doll look.

Materials:

*Nail polish in a variety of colors of your choosing

*Nail art dotting tool

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Black acrylic paint

*Painter's tape

*Scissors

*Nail polish base coat

*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint nails with a base coat.  Use a regular base coat, not a peel off base coat (or the painter's tape will peel up your polish).  Let dry.

*Choose three colors for each nail and plan out your color scheme for each one.

*Paint nails in a variety of colors.  You probably want to start by painting each one using the lightest color you'll be applying to each nail.  This will end up being the middle color in your pattern, though, so choosing the lightest may not always make the most sense.

*Let dry for several hours.  I usually recommend painting the base color in the evening and letting the nails dry overnight.  You're going to be applying painter's tape on top of this coat, and you don't want to risk peeling up some of the polish.

*Cut wedges of painter's tape and place over the middle portion of each nail.

*Paint the tops and bottoms of the nails different colors.  Make sure these colors are also different from the base color on that nail.

*Carefully peel off the painter's tape.

*Using an ultra fine nail art brush and black acrylic paint or a black nail art pen, paint on lines separating the different colors.

*Paint x's over the lines to look like stitching.

Comic Style Nail Art

Considering a comic-themed Halloween costume this year?  Why not paint your nails to match?

Here was an attempt of mine at cartoon makeup.  The nails go quite well with the look, in my opinion.

Materials:

*Nail polish base color (in my case red, but could be any color)

*Nail polish base coat

*Black nail art pen or black acrylic paint

*White acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art pen

*Nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Apply nail polish base color.  Let dry.

*Using a black nail art pen or black acrylic paint, paint around the perimeter of your nails.  Let dry.

*Using white acrylic paint, add white highlights to look like light reflecting off of the nails.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear top coat.  I only have glossy top coats, but a matte top coat might work better here so you don't have actual glinting light on your nails in the photos.

Frankenstein Nails

 

Here's one final Halfoween nail art idea: Frankenstein nails.

Materials:

*Green nail polish
*Black acrylic paint
*Ultra fine nail art brush
*Nail polish base coat
*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint your nails green.  Let dry.

*Using your ultra fine nail art brush, paint on stitching.  I painted a couple of lines at differing angles across each nail and then painted x's and lines across them to make the stitching.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Here's how my right hand turned out, in case you were wondering.  The lines are thicker and there's less detail because my left hand is not as good at painting as my right, but they still have Frankenstein vibes.

I hope you've enjoyed this Halfoween nail art series.  Are you doing anything to celebrate Halfoween?  I'd love to hear about it.

Next month we'll be switching gears completely, so stay tuned!

Dragon's Eye/Monster's Eye Nail Art

 

Need some more spooky fun nail art ideas?  Maybe these monster's eye/dragon's eye nails will be up your alley.

Materials:

*Nail polish base color, e.g., purple, gold (this will be the color of the eyes)
*Black nail polish
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat
*Black nail art pen or ultra fine nail art brush and black acrylic paint

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on your base color.  Let dry.

 *Using a nail art pen or nail art brush, draw out the eye shape.  Let dry.

*Using black nail polish, paint the area outside the eye black.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear nail polish top coat.

Cracked Porcelain Nail Art

     Originally I was trying to do a marbling technique. After ruining my thumb nail trying to smudge the black lines with isopropyl alcohol, I decided that I liked the cracked design that I had going on.  It reminded me of a broken porcelain doll.  While the cracks are perhaps a little thick up close, they're quite visible from a distance, which I like.  Another nice thing is that you don't need any special nail art tools.  All you need is some nail polish and a Sharpie.  These look great for every day wear, but could also be a nice addition to a Halloween broken doll costume.

The nail art isn't clear here, but I can still see that there's something going on with these nails.  It actually looks kind of marbled, I feel like, although it doesn't so much when you get up close.

Materials:

*Clear nail polish base and top coat
*White nail polish
*Black Sharpie

Directions:

*Paint nails with a clear base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails with a coat of white nail polish.  Let dry.  Follow with an additional coat of white polish if needed.

*Once the white polish is sufficiently dry, use a Sharpie to draw cracks on your nails.  Let sit for about half an hour or so.

*Carefully seal in the design with a clear top coat.  I found that the Sharpie smudged pretty easily, although not really much worse than the nail art pen I had smudged when I applied the top coat.  For a less smudgy alternative, you could use black acrylic paint and an ultra fine nail art brush to draw on the cracks.  That's probably how I would have approached this if I had been shooting for this aesthetic from the get go.

Jack O'Lantern Nails

 

Looking for more spooky nail inspo?  These jack o'lantern nails may just fit the bill.  If I were to try these again, I'd probably freehand the faces, but painter's tape is great if you find it difficult to paint precisely on as small of a canvas as your nails are.

Materials:

*Rose gold nail polish
*Green nail polish
*Orange nail polish
*Yellow nail polish
*Painter's tape
*X-acto knife
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails rose gold, except for the accent nail (or accent nails).  Paint those nails orange.  Let dry.

*Paint the tips of each nail green.  For precise lines, you can use painter's tape as a guide, although you will want to let your nails dry for several hours first, so the painter's tape doesn't peel up the paint.  I usually let it dry overnight before applying painter's tape.

*Cut jack o'lantern face shapes out of painter's tape to create a stencil.

*Apply the painter's tape stencil to accent nails.  Make sure your nails have been dry for many hours before you apply the painter's tape, to minimize the odds that you'll peel up the tape.

*Paint yellow nail polish over the stencil and then peel up stencil.  Let dry.

*Apply a clear top coat.  Let dry.

Redrum Nails

We're counting down to Halfoween with some spooky fun nail art.  First up we have these The Shining-inspired redrum nails, which are fun to play with in the mirror.  Whether you're a fan of Stephen King's book, Stanley Kubrick's movie, or the 1997 miniseries adaptation, these blood red letters could be a great nod to The Shining.

Materials:

*Blood red nail polish
*Opaque polish color close to your nail color
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat
*Ultra fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint on a nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on a couple coats of a polish that is close to your nail color to try and make your nails look a little more uniform in color.  You could also paint them a light solid color, such as cream or light blue.  This is just to create some sort of base over which to paint the "redrum."  Let dry.

*Using an ultra fine nail art brush and blood red polish, write out "R" on your left ring finger nail, "E" on your left middle finger nail, and "D" on your left index finger nail.

*On your right hand, write "R" on your index finger nail, "U" on your middle finger nail, and "M" on your ring finger nail.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Kesha-Inspired Rainbow Geode Nail Art

     Looking for a bright manicure to add a pop of color to your looks?  Consider these rainbow geode nails.  These were inspired by Kesha's manicure in her "Praying" music video.  I followed the same color scheme as her manicure.  I've linked Kesha's music video below in case you were looking for my inspiration.

Materials:

*Black nail polish

*Light blue nail polish

*Red nail polish

*Pink nail polish

*Orange nail polish

*Yellow nail polish

*Gold glitter polish

*Nail polish base coat

*Nail polish top coat

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Acetone (for cleaning the brush between colors)

Directions:

*Apply a base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint a small, yellow half oval shape at the center of each nail.

*Paint an orange arc around the yellow.

*Paint a pink band around the orange one.

*Paint a red band around the pink one.

*Paint a light blue band around the red band.

*Paint the remaining part of the nail black.

*Add a little gold glitter at the center of the yellow part of each nail.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Here's what the nails looked like from a bit of a distance:

Up close the imperfections are a bit noticeable, but I feel like at a distance, they look pretty good.

If you like nail art and Halloween, stay tuned because next month I'll be sharing some spooky nail art designs with you as we count down to Halfoween (the halfway point to Halloween).

Book Inspired Manicure

 

Love books?  Why not try some bookish nail art?  I thought this design was reminiscent of the spines of old, leather bound books.  I'd like to try this design again some time, but instead of painting all of my nails the same crimson color, I'd like to add in some other colors, like blue or green, for a little more variety.

Materials:

*Crimson nail polish

*Gold acrylic paint

*Nail polish base coat

*Clear nail polish top coat

*Ultra fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint nails with nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails crimson (or other bookish color).  Let dry.

*Use the nail art brush to paint on stripes with gold paint.  I tend to freehand my lines, but if freehanding is not your strong suit, they make nail art guides you can use for creating lines.  Painter's tape can also work for this purpose.

*Seal in the design with a clear nail polish top coat.  Let dry.

Sheet Ghost Nail Art

Looking to add a touch of spookiness to you day?  These bloody-eyed sheet ghosts are the perfect mix of creepy and cute.  These were inspired by a dress the character Kira (aka Creepy Doll) wears in the book Bunny, but hence the bleeding eyes.  However, you can use this same process to create ghosts with undamaged eyes.

Materials:

*Sky blue nail polish or other base nail polish color

*Nail polish base coat

*White acrylic paint 

*Red acrylic paint 

*Black acrylic paint

*Brown acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art brush 

*Nail art dotting tool

*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on your base color.  Let dry.

*Use white acrylic paint to draw sheet ghost shapes on your nails.

*Use some black acrylic paint and a dotting tool to make mouths for your ghosts.

*Mix together red, black, and brown paints to create blood colored paint.

*Use a dotting tool to dot on blood red eyes.  Or, if you don't like the bleeding eye aesthetic, you could dot on eyes using black paint.

*Use the nail art brush to draw little blood drips coming from the ghosts' eyes.

*Seal in the paint with a clear top coat.  Let dry.

Fire Nail Art

Want nails that are lit?  Why not try this fiery nail art?

Materials:

*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish base color (I went with a multichrome blue)
*Red acrylic paint
*Orange acrylic paint
*Yellow acrylic paint
*Nail polish top coat
*Ultra fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Apply nail polish base color.  Let dry.

*Add a bit of orange acrylic paint to red acrylic paint to create a red orange color, and paint flame shapes on your nails.  I started by drawing some wiggly lines for the peaks of the flames, and then filled in the bottom of the nail with some more paint.

*Next, take some orange paint, and use it to add definition to your flames.

*Add some orange to a bit of yellow paint to create a yellow orange color.  Use this paint to add further layering and detail to your flames.

*The last thing I did was I used a teeny amount of the red-orange paint and brushed it along the nails in a few places to add some more flames.

In case you were wondering, here's how my right hand (which I had to paint with my non-dominant hand) turned out:

I didn't go for as much detail on this one because I have a harder time with fine motor coordination with my left hand, but I still think they turned out all right.

DIY Christmas Tree Cake Nail Art

Here's one final holiday nail design idea, perfect for all you snack cake fans.

Materials:

*Red nail polish (or other base color)
*Nail polish base coat
*Clear nail polish top coat
*White acrylic paint
*Red acrylic paint
*Green acrylic paint
*Very fine nail art brush 

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Once dry, apply base color.

*Using white acrylic paint and a very fine nail art brush, draw on a Christmas Tree Cake shape.

*Add stripes with red acrylic paint.

*Paint on sprinkles using green acrylic paint.

*Seal nail design with a clear top coat.

I hope you all have a fun and safe holiday season!

DIY Christmas Tree Nail Art

 

Looking for a fun, festive nail design?  These tree nails are adorable and the design is relatively straightforward to create.  The trick to getting the perfect triangle shape?  Painter's tape.

Materials:

*White nail polish
*Light green nail polish
*Dark green nail polish
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish clear top coat
*Small star rhinestone
*Painter's tape

Directions:

*Add your base coat and then paint the nail or nails you would like your tree on white.  Let dry for at least a few hours, although it may be best if you paint your nails white in the evening and let them dry overnight.

*Add painter's tape over the edges of your nails to form a triangular shape.

*Use your dotting tool to add dots of the lighter green polish in the triangle shape, leaving white space for the darker green polish.

*Use the dotting tool to add dots of the darker green polish into the white spaces, and then peel off the painter's tape.

*Use some clear nail polish to attach a small, star shaped rhinestone to the top of the tree.  Seal the nail design with a clear top coat.