HALLOWEEN NAIL ART: Gothic Romance Grunge Spiderweb Nails

by - October 13, 2021


When I started jotting down ideas for Halloween nail art - a must if you're planning on doing 21 different designs over the course of one month - I knew I wanted to do something sort of gothic and romantic with a plummy color scheme and initially I sort of left it at that. It wasn't until I decided that I wanted a really rich, beautiful plum shade for the base that the rest of the idea started to form. I feel like today's mani really calls to the little 90s teenage wannabe goth in me and I would have basically gone insane for this design when I was 16. Of course, maybe I haven't changed that much because I'm pretty crazy for it right now as well.

Keep reading for more!


My original plan was to pair this deep, vampy base with black spiderweb stamping but I just knew it wasn't going to work in the end so I had to rework and I decided to go a little more contrast than the original plan. When choosing the vampy plum for the base, I knew I had to find the sweet spot where it wasn't too dark to really discern the color, but not so bright that it didn't feel vampy. Always a struggle - and the reason that I use to justify the size of my polish collection. Ultimately, I went with Twice Bitten from Color Club, which is a STUNNING plum shade that really sits perfectly in that sweet spot I was looking for. 

For this mani, I applied two coats to all of my nails as a base.


Like I said, once I decided to go for a little bit more contrast than my original idea, the design took a different shape and I decided to add some grungey black stamping to the background to add some subtle texture and interest there. The image I used is a full coverage image from the Nicole Diary L12 Halloween stamping plate and it's a phenomenal image to have in your collection for just this type of scenario.

For the main stamping, I used images from the Pict You PY-J050 Stamping Plate, which has all of these really modern stamping images centering around my personal favorite Halloween nail theme - Spiderwebs! I wanted to go with a gothic romance look, as I said, so I went with lacy spiderweb images, a dangling spider, and a rose sort of draped in spiderwebs. I chose a pale taupe stamping polish for this mani because it had enough contrast to stand out, but it felt like it fit with that gothic theme and gave a softer look than a high contrast white would have. 

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a water based top coat and then followed with a matte top coat to really drive home the vibe I was going for. And voila!


All Products Used
Color Club - Twice Bitten
Whats Up Nails - Neither Noir
Whats Up Nails - Buff Is The Stuff
Maniology Smudge Free Top Coat
Anchor & Heart Sea Glass Top Coat
Nicole Diary L12 Stamping Plate
Pict You PY-J050 Stamping Plate
Whats Up Nails Magnified Clear Stamper
Pueen Liquid Peel Off Cuticle Guard


Honestly, I feel like this mani is perfect for all of us former wannabe goths - or maybe that's just me. Writing this has 100% reminded me of when I was 15 and I had a very short skirt in this plum shade that I wore with platform combat boots that just made me feel like 100% of a bad ass. Ahhh memories! Anyway, I really do love how this one turned out, even without the context of my youth and somehow I think it manages to be kind of modern even at the same time.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check back every day in October for more Halloween themed nail art designs as I  continue to fall down this rabbit hole. 

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