The Chalkboard Nails Halloween Nail Art Rewind

I've done my fair share of Halloween manicures over the years, for sure. It's fun to get into the spirit of the season with spooky nail art, and there are just so many ways to interpret the theme. Take a trip with me through the Chalkboard Nails Halloween nail art graveyard to visit with the ghosts of my favorite manicures past.

Delicate Glistening Spiderwebs
Make your spiderwebs pop against a midnight black-to-navy gradient! A bit of glitter on the white web adds a touch of glam while still keeping the look clean.

Black Widow Nail Art Tutorial
Textured polish combines with a bright red creme for this arachnid nail art look. No freehanding required; all you need is striping tape! Stop by the full post for the how-to.

I'm Watching You...
I love me some eyeball nail art! This is my third eyeball look and by far the most Halloween-appropriate, but if you enjoy ocular patterns, be sure to also check out my 1984 manicure and my original Halloween eyeball pattern nails.

Spooky Splatter Tutorial
This classic orange and black combo is a bit messy to create, but tons of fun and seasonally appropriate (without being TOO on-the-nose). I grabbed an orange jelly for my base and splattered black over the top, but any pairing of spooky colors would look awesome. Think purple, green, orange, and black.

Brainssss...BRAINSSSS...
This abstracted, graffiti-esque design is zombie approved for maximum flavor. TIP: To achieve better results with your nail art pen, try putting down a matte topcoat first!

Midnight Smoke Nail Art Tutorial
This eerie manicure first made its debut during the 31 Day Challenge 2013, when I created the effect for black and white day. Recently, I created a tutorial for the look, and I think you'll be surprised by how easy it is to pull off. Perfect for the gal who wants to celebrate the season, but keep things classy.

Chilled to the Bone
This is one of my oldest Halloween nail art posts (from way back in 2011!), but I think it holds up well! These mix and match bones are creepy-cute over a matte purple base.

Which one is your favorite? How do you like to celebrate the spookiest season on your nails?

Tattered Monochromatic Spray Marble

I never look forward to the water marble day of the 31 Day Challenge. This year, instead of putting myself through all of the pain, I went straight to a technique that I do have fun with: the spray marble! This technique is a sister to the water marble, and I actually prefer the edgy, tattered outcome.

Nail polishes used:
Polish My Life Birthday Suit
Polish My Life Storm Clouds
Jessica Cosmetics NY State of Mind
China Glaze Ghoulish Glow
Formula X Dark Matter

I started out by using a triangle makeup sponge to do a gradient of cream, grey, and dark grey. Then, I painted on a coat of glow in the dark topcoat, because why not?

The spray marble began with filling a plastic cup with room temperature filtered water and taping off the area surrounding my fingers to minimize mess. I gently dropped one drop of black polish on the surface of the water, and then used a spray bottle to mist a 50/50 mixture of water and apple cider vinegar on the polish. I've seen other people use hairspray, perfume, all sorts of other mixtures to break up the polish on the water, but @madamluck was the first one I saw that used the vinegar mix. It worked great!

I dipped one finger in at a time, removed excess polish from the surface of the water, and pulled my finger out. Remove the tape, clean up, and topcoat; you're done!

The glow was stronger where it was layered over light polish. Looks kinda like alien eggs, doesn't it?

Previous water marble work:

• Turquoise water marble
• Starburst candy water marble
• Soft flower marble