Do I do some version of this mani every year? Yes, I do. Is it one of the first Halloween designs that I ever did and absolutely fell in love with? Also, yes. The thing that I really love about this design is that there's just so much you can do with it and this will be the fourth time that I'm doing it and each one is different. The first year, I did it with an acid green full coverage holo glitter with black stamping. The second year, I did a super soft grey base with a flakie topper and black stamping. And last year I did a charcoal full coverage holo glitter with white stamping. Honestly, I could probably do this in just about every color combination you could think of and I'd probably love it. So really, this one's for me but I hope you like it as well!

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Honestly, deciding what to do as a base for this mani this year was trickier than you might think, but I knew I wanted to do something completely different than I've done before. Ultimately, I kept it simple... but also awesome, in my opinion. I started with two coats of a black créme polish and then followed with what might be new favorite topper - Starrily's Unicorn, which I purchased from NailStuff.ca. (I am an affiliate with NailStuff and new customers can use code TRYSH for 10% off your order!) This topper is just magical and in this mani you can really see why. You get full a full rainbow of iridescent flakes in this one and they just absolutely sing over black. 

When I say I did the exact same design as the last three years, I really do mean it - except for one small detail. First, I applied the full coverage spiderweb image to my outer fingers, applying it in opposite directions for just a little bit of extra interest. On my middle finger, I applied the smaller spideweb image by itself towards the tip with the small strings stretching towards the base of my nail. For the ring finger, I applied that same image in the opposite direction at the base of my nail stretching towards the tip. I also included the spider from that same image, which I removed with my lint roller before applying it to the middle finger. This is where the difference from the past two years comes in. Those years, I actually added a different spider in place of the one on this plate, but this year I went with the cuter, rounder one that came with the original image. 

As usual, once I was finished with my stamping and happy with the whole look, I went in with a water based top coat to seal in the design and then finished with a matte top coat to really pop those rainbows in the flakies. And voila!

I very sincerely have no shame about how much I love this design and the fact that I recreated it with different color combinations every year. It's just a workhorse and such a simple but impactful design - also, at this point, it's sort of a tradition. While I don't think you can still get this particular stamping plate, I do think this is a fairly easy design to recreate using different plates since so many Halloween plates come with different spiderweb designs. It's also one you could probably hand paint, if you're into that kind of thing!

Thanks for reading - be sure to keep checking back every day for all of October for more Halloween themed nail art designs!

Also, head over to @pblnails for video tutorials on all of my nail art designs!