Halloween Nails 6: Dracula

Nothing screams Halloween like Bram Stoker's Count Dracula so it seemed fitting that he'd appear somewhere in my list of Halloween nail art tutorials. See how you can get this cute Dracula manicure in six easy steps.

Rimmel London - 080 Black Cab

Rimmel London a nail Tip Whitener

No 7 - 12 Temptress

Striper Brush

Dotting Tools

Now lets get creative!

1. Use a base coat to protect your nails from staining. Paint your nails white, you may need to paint two or three coats before the white will be streak-free.

2. Use your striper brush dipped in black polish to paint a black French tip at the top of your nail. Then draw a small point coming from the centre of the French tip like the top centre picture above.

3. Take your largest dotting tool and dip it in a dark red polish. Place two large dots side-by-side about halfway down your nail.

4. Take your striper brush and dip it in black polish again. This time draw a curved line beneath the eyes. Draw two small triangles coming from the curved line, these will be the fangs.

5. Take a slightly smaller dotting tool and dip it in black polish. Place a smaller black dot inside both dark red dots.

6. Finally, take your smallest dotting tool and dipping it in white polish dot two small circles inside the black dots from step five. Use a topcoat to protect your design.

Congratulations, you've nailed a fang-tastic nail art look in no time! 

Halloween Nails 4: A Crime Scene

Who doesn't enjoy watching procedural shows like C.S.I, Bones, Hannibal and the Mentalist? Do you know what all those shows have in common? Creepy crime scenes of the murder variety. Now if that doesn't sound like real-life Halloween horror, I don't know what does! So here is my take on a crime scene nail art look complete with police tape, chalk outlines and blood splatter.

To do this manicure I used:

Rimmel London I heart Lasting Finish - 030 Double Decker Red

Rimmel London I heart Lasting Finish - 080 Black Cab

Rimmel London Nail Tip Whitener

Maybelline Color Show - 749 Electric Yellow

Striper Brush

Cocktail Sticks

Now for the fun part!

1. Use a base coat to protect your nails from staining. Once that's dry paint your nails black. Use as many coats as needed to make the black streak-free.

2. Take your striper brush and dip it in white polish. Staring about half way down your nail, paint a thick line that reaches down towards the opposite corner (towards the tip) of your nail.

3. Repeat step two but this time coming from halfway down the opposite side of your nail and crossing over the thick line made in step two. Your nail should now look like the nail in the top right picture above.

4. Paint over the white lines in yellow. The reason I used white first was to really make the yellow pop. If you paint yellow over black it tends to look dull, which we don't want for our police tape.

5. Now is the time to clean up your strips of police tape. Outlining them in black using a striper brush not only defines the tape but you can give your tape very clean, straight lines which is what we want for our tape.

6. Next taking your striper brush or cocktail stick dipped in black polish paint some lettering along your police tape. Because my nails are so small writing full words wasn't an issue but its good to have an idea of what words you're writing in your mind to make it look more realistic. I wrote "CAUTION - DO NOT CROSS" along my police tape. Your nails should now look like the second picture on the left above.

7. Now that we've got the lettering and straight lines out of the way we can get more creative! Dip your striper brush/ cocktail stick in white polish and draw your chalk outline. This may seem hard but really all you have to do is imagine your drawing around a very small stick man. I started with a circle for the head and then painted two small arms and a torso. Thanks to the police tape we've already painted we don't have to paint any legs on our chalk outlines which makes it easier again. Your nails should now look like the second picture to the right above.

8. Lastly, dip your striper brush in red polish and use this to create some blood dripping down from the top of the strips of police tape. This will add some Halloween gore and brighten up your manicure! Then use a topcoat to seal your design and protect from chipping.

Ta-dah!!! You've nailed an eerie crime scene manicure.

Halloween Nails 2: Spiders and Cobwebs

My sister bought these cute spider earrings for Halloween in Tesco for €2.50 and asked me to do her nails to match. I figured since there's a pretty decent amount of people that are scared of spiders (how can you trust something with that many legs?!) that this would be a perfect addition to my Halloween nail art tutorials.

Firstly, I used the following to create this look:

Rimmel London I heart Lasting Finish - 080 Black Cab

Rimmel London Nail Tip Whitener

Nails inc. - 072 Westminster

Dotting Tools

Striper Brush/ Cocktail Sticks

The Spiderweb

1. Use a base coat to prevent staining. Then paint the nails you want to have your spiderwebs on black. Make sure the black is streak-free, paint two or three coats if needed.

2. Take your striper brush/ cocktail stick and dip it in your white polish. Use this to draw a "+" from the top to the bottom of your nail.

3. Take the tool you used in the last step (I used a cocktail stick) and dipping it in white polish again, draw an "x" over the "+" making sure the centre of the "x" crosses through the centre of the "+". Your nail should now look like the bottom left picture above.

4. Take your striper brush/ cocktail stick with your white polish again and connect each strand of the cobweb to the next. I did this twice, once closer to the centre of the web and the second time towards the edge of the web. Your nail should now look like the picture on the right above.

5. Finish with a topcoat, protecting your design from chipping.

The Spider

1. Use a base coat again to protect your nails from staining. Paint the nails you'd like to have spiders on purple. Make sure it's streak-free, painting two to three coats if needs be.

2. Take your second largest dotting tool and dip it in black paint. Place a black dot about a third of the way down your nail.

3. Take your largest dotting tool and dip it in black polish again. Place a slightly bigger dot beneath the dot you just made in step two.

4. Take your striper brush/ cocktail stick and dip it in black paint. Draw four pairs of small black legs extending from either side of the spiders body. They should increase in size slightly as you work your way down.

5. Take a small dotting tool and dip it in white paint. Place two dots beside each other at the top of the smaller circle you made in step two.

6. Take your smallest dotting tool and after dipping it in black polish place a small dot inside each of the white dots you made in step five.

7. Use a topcoat to protect your design from chipping.

And there you have it!! An adorable, yet creepy halloween manicure you can do in no time!

Halloween nails 1: Tombstones

With college work having kept me busy lately my nail art has had to take a back seat. However, thanks to the long weekend, I'm doing a spooky Halloween nail art look every day from now until Halloween! Today I've gone for an incredibly easy to do tombstone nail art look. Want to know how to nail this look? Just follow these four simple steps.

Firstly though, you will need some supplies!

Nails Inc. - 072 Westminster

Rimmel London 60 Seconds - 805 Grey Matter

Rimmel London I love Lasting Finish - 080 Black Cab

New York Colour - 298 Highline Green

Sally Hansen Complete Care Extra Moisturizing 4-in-1 Treatment (base coat and top coat)

Striper Brush/ Cocktail Sticks

Now for the fun part!

1. Paint your nail a deep, dark purple. Purple is a great Halloween colour that you can use to brighten up a dull and dreary manicure. Paint as many coats as you need for the purple to be streak-free and then let dry.

2. Next, take your grey colour and paint an oval from three quarters down your nail to the tip. Fill the oval in with grey polish and let dry. Paint another coat if necessary, you don't want any purple to be seen beneath the grey area.

3. Now that you've the shape of your tombstone sorted you can take your striper brush/cocktail stick and dip it in green paint. To make the tombstone seem unkempt and overgrown (and a little more spooky) use the green polish to create short fine strokes at the base of the tombstone. This will look like overgrown grass.

4. The finishing touch is what you write on your tombstones. I went for a simple "R.I.P" because the tombstones are small and I must admit lettering is my least favourite part of most nail art designs. However, if you're feeling particularly morbid/creative you could paint the names of famous Halloween celebrities to make your tombstones seem more realistic. Clean up the messy bits with a cotton bud dipped in nail varnish remover and then use a topcoat to seal in your design.

Ta-dah!! You've nailed the first of my spooky Halloween nail art looks!