Halloween Pumpkin & Spiderweb Nail Art

It’s almost my favorite time of year… Halloween!  I love carving pumpkins, decorating, costume parties, trick-or-treating… the list goes on.  You can also dress up and be as creative, silly, or strange as you want.  This is the first of a few different nail art ideas that I have for this year.

For the pumpkin nails I started with two coats of Pink Gellac Velvet Purple… this is one of the new shades that I just started selling this week.  I thought the dark purple with blue flecks resembled a night sky and would work well as a backdrop.  I painted the pumpkins with some Mundo de Unas stamping polishes.  I’m admittedly not very good with hand-drawn nail art, but I recently purchased some fine-tipped Wistonia sable brushes to practice with.  I’m hoping to master fine lines and details eventually.

The spider web nails have a base of two coats of Pink Gellac Magic Pearl… also one of my new colors.  I stamped the spiderweb over top using a plate from the Bundle Monster Holiday set (BM-H07) and my black Mundo stamping polish.  I added a few extra lines into the spiderweb with my brush.  After letting the stamping polish dry completely, I topped each nail off with my Pink Gellac top coat (which you will learn more about in a few days).

I receive a lot of questions about stamping over gel polish, and though I’ve covered it before it can’t hurt to revisit the subject.  These are the steps that I normally take:

1. Prep your nails for a gel mani – lightly buff and cleanse.
2. Apply your base coat & cure.
3. Apply your color coats & cure.
4. Apply a thin layer of top coat & cure.
5. Wipe off the tacky layer (if there is one).
6. Stamp over the top coat using your stamping polish or regular nail polish (RNP).  I get the best results with very thick polishes like ones from Mundo de Unas, and Konad.  I have found some regular nail polishes that stamp well including metallics from China Glaze and Klean Color.
7. Let the stamping polish dry and then apply another layer of gel top coat over top & cure.
8. Clean any excess stamping polish off your skin using  polish remover.  A little acetone won’t hurt your new manicure as long as you are quick and don’t let it soak on your nails.  You can also use non-acetone remover or alcohol.

For more info about stamping, please watch my Nail Art Stamping Basics video.