Here are some Halloween nail art designs for you to mix and match together according to the level of difficulty you feel comfortable with.
By "mix and match" I mean you could paint eight nails black, wearing two of these designs on an index and ring finger. Or, you could wear the two vertically striped designs while keeping a few nails in plain red. You could give yourself a purple pedicure, wearing the spiderweb design on your big toes, or paint all your nails orange, applying a few pumpkin faces or a candy corn to the fingers of your choice.
My point is, you can combine and alter these designs in order to find a Halloween manicure that's perfect for you. Exactly how much nail art you're comfortable wearing at once is up to you, (though I definitely wouldn't suggest wearing all of these at once.)
Candy Corn, Happy Ghosts, Pumpkin Face, Stars and Stripes, Spider and Web and Halloween Lollypops.
This is the easiest of the six designs, so if you're just starting out in nail art it's the one I'd recommend. A full manicure in orange with a couple of these scattered about would be pretty cute for a Halloween party.
To create this candy corn look, paint your full nail in orange or yellow nail polish. It doesn't matter which one is your base, as you'll just be using the other to make a stripe across anyway. I started with a base of "Note to Self" from Sephora by OPI.
Holding your nail polish brush horizontally, swipe a stripe of white nail polish across your tip and a stripe of yellow or orange, (depending on whichever one you didn't start with,) onto the appropriate area. Don't worry about getting yellow nail polish on your cuticles as you can simply dip a cotton swab in nail polish remover to clean up afterwords. Also, don't worry about painting perfectly straight lines as real candy corn is often a bit wonky. Seal with a clear topcoat to even out all your layers.
These little ghosts are happy in their own creepy little way. Since they're very simple, they've been applied over some vertical stripes to make the overall design more interesting.
Paint your full nail in any red nail polish. (Or purple, or orange, etc.) I used "Posh" by Zoya. Then take a black nail polish and drag out two vertical stripes down your nail.
Use white acrylic craft paint and a small rounded paintbrush to apply your ghosts. Use the same paintbrush and black acylic paint to draw on their happy little faces. Apply a few red gemstones if you have them, otherwise just seal with a clear topcoat.
This iconic jack-o-lantern is the second easiest design of this set. While it would be very difficult to handpaint such crisp lines, the reason this one is easy is because dry nail polish strips are used.
"Incoco Dry Nail Applique" are sticker-like sheets of nail polish that cover your entire nail bed. I haven't worn them the way they're intended yet, but I do find them very useful for when you're making nail art that requires sharp edges, like a pumpkin's triangle eyes.
All you have to do is paint your nails in orange, cut out two triangles and a mouth from a black Incoco strip and place them on as if they were stickers. This is a fast and easy design; you don't even have to wait for the black to dry and if you can use a pair of scissors, you can apply this look.
Both the spiderweb and spider are made with acrylic craft paint. The spiders eyes here are red bullion beads, but you could just as easily dot on two red nail polish eyes or use tiny gemstones instead.
This one is one of my favorites. Apply orange, (or any color) nail polish to your full nail, then drag out vertical stripes in black polish.
Make two colored circles of acrylic craft paint for the lollypop heads, drag out a white line for the sticks and use the very tip of a small rounded paintbrush to apply the white swirls. (I used the same size 1 rounded paintbrush for everything.) Stick on a few colored gemstones if you have them, for visual balance, otherwise just seal with a clear topcoat.
As this is not a tutorial like most of my posts, please feel free to ask me any questions you may have about these in the comments section and I'll do my best to help you.
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About Asami
Asami is 23 and lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and cat. She enjoys painting watercolors, LOST, coffee and semicolons.
Shop Apothica for triple-milled silky mineral makeup from Glominerals Cosmetics; completely free of talc, perfumes or chemical dyes.
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nice!
love it!
Those are all so perfect for the season! Thanks for the "how to" on the designs :)
The ghosts look so happy!
ohh wow these all look amazing i love them,your very talented Asami.. i really love the candy corn one,i wish they had here in Australia ive been dying to taste it
Beautiful!!!You're great with nailart!
Beuatiful fantasy nailart!
All of these designs are terrific! The striped backgrounds for the ghost and lollipop nails are something I wouldn't have though of. It really adds a nice dimension to the design.
Those are so cute! I think that I am going to try a few of them!
These are incredible! Great job and thank you for showing!
Really cute! Makes me wish Halloween was celebrated here.
Wow very creative! I love the spider web and the lollypop design. You draw such clean and straight lines! Mine always end up looking very wobbly.
Asami, you are so awesome! I love them all! I really want to try the ghost and spider and lollypop designs! <3 your jack-o-lantern is so perfect-looking! you're a genius for using those polish strips. I would have never thought of using those... :P
You are so talented! I love ALL the designs, they are beautiful. I agree with Jin, your lines are so neat and crisp!! I would love to be able to be able to do the Happy Ghosts! They are gorgeous!! Thank you for some great ideas xx
I love all the designs Asami! You're so talented! I really wanna try the little ghosts, spider, and candy corn designs! They're all so cutee! Loveeee! :D
I'm so glad I made you laugh :) And yes! :) The bracelet is handmade by me :) Thanks for the compliment!
Green tea mochi with the ice-cream inside is my all time favorite! <3
Oh btw, I tried your web and spider design :) It was perfect because I had a white nail art pen and black sally hansen nail marker/pen :) I'm so happy with it! <3 Thanks so much!
Yes I think so too!:)) I would also try it out if my hair was longer! Love the nail with the ghosts haha
Hi! I just discovered your blog and I am loving it. All these nail arts are so cute!
All of those are so cute! I especially like your ghosts, I drew one on a nail last week and mine kind of looked more like the mask from Scream lol ;p Great job!
Thanks Asami! I have been waiting to do the candy corn since last year when u posted it. I just did it on my index and ring fingers. It looks so cute thanks!
the pumpkin is cute and funny for halloween!
*loves*
nini and Mary, thank you! :)
April and Ashley, hehe, yes. I tried out a "scary" ghost on paper before making this post, and it just didn't look right. Cute is the better way to go. :)
Skye, oh my gosh, you must taste candy corn at least once! Do you have any friends in the U.S. who can send you a bag? If not, I swear they're worth ordering off the internet. They're so tasty. :)
Astasia, thank you! That is very kind of you to say.
Deb, thanks! Yeah, while sketching out these little designs on paper I realized that the two striped ones would have been too plain without something going on in the background. I didn't want it to be too complicated so I figured stripes would work out alright.
gildedangel, alexas and Kirsten, thank you all very much! Your kind words make me very happy and proud of my nail art. :)
Jin, if you wait for your first color to dry completely, you can use tape to create perfectly straight lines. :)
Danielle, thanks! The happy ghosts are not too difficult since they're just simple white shapes. The hardest part is drawing on their faces, which could be made easier by using a ultra fine Sharpie marker. ;)
Wan, thank you! I hope you do try one of the looks; your nails always look so gorgeous. I always love seeing new pictures from you!
*~kAy~*, oh, thank you! I'm so happy to hear that you like so many of these Halloween designs!
Those Sally Hansen pens would be perfect for making the spider and spider web. I only have a white one because I prefer working with a paintbrush and acrylic paint, but I do have to admit that it's great for making polka dots with. In hindsight I should have mentioned those pens in my post, actually.
ATingsBlings and Nail Fanatic, thank you very much! :)
Kae, haha! Well, I think a Scream mask would be very appropriate for a Halloween manicure. :D
Chantal, oh, thank you! I can't believe you've been a reader for a whole year! I appreciate you sticking with me through the whole blog-move. Glad to hear the candy corns worked out well; I love candy corn. :)
Toothfairy, thank you! Your blog name is adorable, by the way. :)
I think that the paintbrush and acrylic paint would work way better than the sally hansen pen though... sometimes I have to push the nib to dispense the paint and I usually press too hard leaving me with a big blob of black paint all over :P very messy :P
thanks for your comment btw :) I don't think I would be bold enough to try bright blue contacts :P
and haha! you are so right! I didn't win ANYTHING from the fair :P I tried really hard too :P I was lucky my bf was able to get one :P
love it !!!
Asami, you have a genuine tallent. love this halloween nails, specially the darker shades!
Hope you like this http://discoverlifestyle.blogspot.com/2010/11/artistic-nail-design-geisha.html
I really love this tutorial. You should put Facebook like buttons on the posts so I can easily share it with my friends. Not complaining, just a suggestion. I'm going to go ahead and share the link the old fashioned way. :D