This morning it is extremely rainy and dark and chilly and I’m gonna be honest . . .all I want to do is lay in front of the fireplace and eat leftovers of this dope pumpkin stew I made last night. It’s so dark and rainy as a matter of fact, that I thought it was still like 5 am and the sun hadn’t come up yet when it was actually like 9:15 and I totally overslept. Woopsiedoodles.

Alas, I really wanted to get an easy Halloween nail art post done so I decided to compromise by doing the nail art in my living room in my favorite chair with a blanket around me. The result is a very cozy casual nail art post, which is obviously way better than no nail art post.

So last week my friend sent me a photo of this really cool nail art that was like a black ombre tip with some gold glitter in the mix and told me I better try it or she would beat me up. She’s tiny so I totally wasn’t scared of her or anything but I was like fine I’ll do it anyway because I’m just a people pleaser. Alas, when I went to my nail polish rack I discovered an issue. I had left my black polish slightly open and it dried up. When I whined about it my fiance said he’s not surprised because I always leave the seltzer half open too. This is sorta turning into a blog post about how I’m the worst so . . .new topic!

Luckily I had just gotten my monthly ipsy bag which contained a super dark red called “Feeling Very Cherry” from Nicole by OPI and I figured it would get the job done. It totally wasnt the same look as the black version but it looks a lot like a bloody halloween manicure with glitter, so it kinda worked out perfect!

GLITTERY BLOOD NAILS:

It really easy to recreate too, it just takes a makeup wedge and a little bit of patience.

Basically just take a cheap makeup wedge sponge, rip it into pieces. Use one of the ripped edges to sponge on thin layers of the color, getting closer and closer to the bottom with each layer. I recommend waiting 30 seconds to a minute between each layer so it dries a bit, otherwise you end up soaking up some of the color onto the sponge again and it can get a bit uneven.

When you get to the very tip of the nail you might begin to feel like you cant get it any darker with the sponge, that’s the point where I like to switch to painting some on straight from the brush to get the shade in it’s full strength of color . . .strength of color? Is that a thing? You know what I mean.

Now it’s time to add the glitter. You can leave that out for a more straight up bloody halloween nail look, but i figure if you’re gonna have bloody looking nails they should at least be a little bit pretty. It’s basically the same idea as sponging on the red, except you’re just going to dab it in the middle of the nail where the lightest part of the red begins. I found it was easier to do it if i turned the sponge sideways, that way it was only hitting that one narrow area.

Once that’s done just add a nice shiny topcoat and you’re all done. Oh! but if you feel like you got a little messy just clean the edges up with a q-tip dipped in nail polish remover before you add the topcoat. The sponging technique can color outside the lines a bit if you aren’t careful.

EASY SKULL NAILS:

My most recent manicure is this green-grey color Essie “Fall in Line” with a simple little black skull on one nail. I know, super original right? I’m trying to keep it simple and attainable, cut me some slack! You can do it over any color that’s not too dark, and you can do it on as many nails as you want. I just did one because I’m lazy I wanted to be subtle. I’ll show you how I did it on a classic white though, because its easier to see.

All you need for this one is your base color and a black nail art pen. I like these Model’s Own ones because they have a pen and a built in striping brush, but Sally Hansen pens work too or you could just use black nail polish on a nail art brush.

Start by painting your base color and waiting for it to dry. That part is important, and if you’re impatient like I am it will be the hardest part. Then you can simply draw vertical lines at the tip of your nail to represent the teeth, I like to use the striping brush part of my nail art pen for that. Then some vaguely nose and eye socket shaped blobs and holy moly you’re already done! I told you it’s stupid easy.

See? easy and cute. But you’re going to have to be patient again and wait until the black is very dry before you add topcoat. Otherwise it will end up being a streaky mess.

So that’s my take on easy halloween nail art. If you have any cool nail art design ideas let me know, leave me a comment or instagram or Tweet them at me or something. I totally want to see!