If you’re looking for some not-too-challenging (except for maybe the water marbles) nail art ideas for Halloween, here’s a round-up of some posts I did for a nail art challenge a few years back. Happy Halloween!!
Ghosts, Goblins And Jack-O’-Lanterns
Here’s Day 4 of the Tri-Polish Challenge from Crumpet’s Nail Tarts, last day with this color set!
The basic rules are that you have to pick three polishes, one coral, one purple and one green, and then use those same polishes to create four different manis. You can also add in white, black, silver, gold and glitter toppers.
The three colors I chose are Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Amethyst and Julep Courteney; I used all three here for this fan brush striped nail art pattern. There’s a video tutorial here on fan brush striped nails from simplenailartdesigns if you’d like to see how to do it.
I started with two coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls for the white base, then dipped the tip of a fan brush into Sinful Colors Island Coral and spread it across the nail, first from one side toward the center, then from the other side toward the center. I followed that using the same technique to add stripes in Julep Courteney and then Sinful Colors Amethyst.
I repeated that color pattern several times to build up the layers, and then topped it off with one coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.
I honestly wasn’t sure when to stop, and I can’t tell looking at the finished product whether I should have added more or already added too many (or if it’s good as is).
This was my first time using my fan brush, so will definitely try it again. I think I might like the design better with different colors.
Check out the rest of the challenge participants here:
Here’s Day 3 of the Tri-Polish Challenge from Crumpet’s Nail Tarts.
The basic rules are that you have to pick three polishes, one coral, one purple and one green, and then use those same polishes to create four different manis. You can also add in white, black, silver, gold and glitter toppers.
The three colors I chose are Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Amethyst and Julep Courteney; I used all three here for this basic argyle pattern. There’s a video tutorial from Cute Polish on the argyle pattern if you’d like to see how to do it.
I used two coats of Julep Courteney as the base and then used a striper brush to paint on triangles with Sinful Colors Amethyst, and then added white lines with Kiss Nail Art Paint striper polish in white.
For the accent nail, I used Sinful Island Coral as the base with Julep Courteney on top.
I topped it off with a coat of Poshe fast-dry top coat.
Check out the rest of the challenge participants here:
Here’s Day 2 of the Tri-Polish Challenge from Crumpet’s Nail Tarts.
The basic rules are that you have to pick three polishes, one coral, one purple and one green, and then use those same polishes to create four different manis. You can also add in white, black, silver, gold and glitter toppers.
The three colors I chose are Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Amythest and Julep Courteney, but for this mani I left out the purple one.
For the base I used two coats of Cult Nails Fetish, which is an unbelievably amazing polish that goes on super easy and dries to what the company describes as a “wax look finish.”
I then used some new striping brushes to add lines with Sinful Colors Island Coral first on the inside, and then Julep Courteney on the outside. I did not use a top coat because I wanted to keep the original finish on Cult Nails Fetish.
Admittedly the lines on this do not look very clean …this didn’t come out as well as I had hoped. But I hope you can still get the gist of what I was aiming for.
Check out the rest of the challenge participants here:
I’m starting a new nail art challenge today. This is the Tri-Polish Challenge from Crumpet’s Nail Tarts.
The basic rules are that you have to pick three polishes, one coral, one purple and one green, and then use those same polishes to create four different manis. You can also add in white, black, silver, gold and glitter toppers.
The three colors I chose are Sinful Colors Island Coral, Sinful Colors Amethyst and Julep Courteney.
I went for a simple dotticure, starting with the base color, adding a white dot and then a smaller dot of the base color. The index finger white base is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls, the same white I used for the dots.
Nothing too crazy, just wanted to get back into the nail art game.
Check out the rest of the challenge participants here:
It’s Day 30 of the 30 Day Challenge, and I’m proud to say that I made it all the way to the end without missing a day. Not bad for my first challenge!
Off the top, I’d like to thank Rachel from Polished Criminails for getting this iteration of the challenge going and for organizing the InLinkz codes that made it possible for us all to link to each other. And thanks also to all of the other bloggers that participated. I really enjoyed seeing what everyone else came up with.
So on to the manicure, which is inspired by a tutorial. It’s based on this video tutorial from IndigoNova1, recreated with a slightly different color scheme.
For the base I used Color Club Tweet Me from my September BirchBox, which is a chartreuse creme. I really didn’t like it in the bottle but I thought it would provide a great backdrop to this design, and I’m so glad I tried it out. I like it a lot better on the nail. And first glance I thought it was yellow, but now I see it as more of a green. As far as formula though, it goes on very streaky and patchy. I used three coats here, and had it not been for the fact that I was going to put nail art on top I would have needed a fourth.
For the dots I used Orly Liquid Vinyl and Ulta Snow White, and then Kiss striper polishes in Black and White for the stripes.
As recommended in the notes of the video tutorial, I used the blunt end of a wooden skewer as a dotting tool to create the largest dots. For the smaller ones, I used the head of a pin. This was pretty simple to create and pays off big with a strong visual element. It would look good in a lot of different color combinations.
And here’s a look at Color Club Tweet Me on it’s own:
Thanks very much for reading. I hope you enjoyed some of the manicures I came up with for the 30 Day Challenge. Next up for me is the Nail-aween Challenge from datyorkLOVES (not too late to join, if you’re interested) and the Polish Us Pink Breast Cancer Awareness campaign organized by The Subtle Shimmer and several other bloggers (another not-too-taxing one that you can still join).
Please visit some of the other bloggers that participated in the 30 Day Challenge this month.
I know we all needed a lot of encouragement to get through, so thanks for providing it! Click here to see them:
Coming in under the wire here on Day 29 of the 30 Day Challenge because it took me all day to figure out exactly how I wanted to portray the theme of vampires for my inspired by the supernatural manicure.
I’m a big fan of most things vampire these days: Buffy The Vampire Slayer, True Blood, Twilight, Being Human, Anne Rice novels, etc., etc..
I finally found this manicure based on the Buffy The Vampire Slayer TV series, so I used that as the basis and then tweaked it a bit to be more generally vampire themed rather than specifically Buffy.
The thumb represents fire. The index finger represents dripping blood, ever-present in most vampire lore. The middle finger is a cross necklace. The ring finger is a stake through a heart and the pinkie is a vampire bite. So representing both sides with this one: the vampires and the weapons that can take them down.
Here are the polishes I used:
thumb: two coats of Color Club Catwalk Queen, Sinful Colors Lets Meet, Kiko 359, China Glaze Riveting, Ulta Steppin Out
index: two coats of Ulta Snow White, Ulta Steppin Out
middle: three coats Orly Royal Velvet (untried for 30 Days of Untried), Kiss Silver striper polish
ring: two coats of Orly Liquid Vinyl, Essie Very Cranberry, Kiss Silver striper polish
pinkie: two coats of Ulta Snow White, Orly Liquid Vinyl, Ulta Steppin Out
Please visit some of the other bloggers that are participating in the 30 Day Challenge this month. I know we will need a lot of encouragement to get through! Click here to see them:
Polish Groupie 