This is Halloween

Good morning and happy Saturday!!! So today I have a mani that I am super proud to show you. In my past couple of posts, I mentioned that I needed more practice free handing. So when I sat down to do my nails this week, I told myself I was not allowed to touch my stamping kit. And because we are in the month associated with ghouls and goblins, I thought I would try some art that pays homage to the sugariest of all holidays, Halloween! Here's what I came up with!



Have you guessed the movie yet?



If you guessed the Nightmare before Christmas, you are absolutely correct!

 

In doing this manicure, I did not follow anyone's style in particulr, but did look up some mani's for inspiration. These are some of the mani's I used to inspire mine.

Nail Nerd
Catherine Manzanares
Nail it, Agnes

Ultimately, for my design I choose to do an extreme french on my pinkie, ring finger, and middle finger with the pinstripes from Jack's suit. I love how the french design and stripes make my nails look super duper long in these photos, perfect to match with Jack's spindly, elongated llimbs! For the stripes I originally wanted to use tape, but decided to paint the base of the french black, and paint over it with a white striper. All free hand!

Then, for my pointer finger, I choose to depict the mountain where we see Sally and Jack lovingly embrace at the end of the movie. To get the coloring right, I looked at the original image from the movie poster. In most of the nail art I saw, the artists painted their entire nail yellow and then painted the image of the mountain in black. However, in the original image, the sky is black with a yellow moon, the foreground is purple, and the mountain is black so I tried to stick with these colors. I first painted my nail with First Mate from China Glaze, which is a purple/blue creme. Then, using the gradient technique, I sponged black and purple (Wild Orchid, which is a purple sparkly color seen towards the base) onto the same nail, once First Mate had dried. Finally, once everything was dry, I sponged a circular hazy yellow moon in the center of the nail and used that as the main background for the mountain which was free handed using a black striper. Finally, I painted Jack, the pumpkin king onto my thumb, using a regular nail polish brush, and thin black striper. Not so bad I think for my first real free hand nail art attempt. What do you think?

If you approve of my Jack the Pumpkin King and other nail art, show me some love and sign up for my blog or follow me on facebook, pinterest, or tumblr! <3




 
I would have to say that Halloween is definitely my favorite month for nail art. Be sure to stay tuned for more Halloween nail art to come!



“The farther we've gotten from the magic and mystery of our past, the more we've come to need Halloween.

October Dreams: A celebration of Halloween ― Paula Curan

Sally Hansen - White On
Sally Hansen - Black out
China glaze - First Mate
Wet and Wild - Wild Orchid
Julep - Catrina (yellow moon)
White Striper