One of my absolute favorite nail artists that I follow is Hannah @hannys_manis because I think she does just... some of the most beautiful, fun, creative work out there and today's mani was heavily, heavily inspired by this one that she posted earlier this year. In fact, it was that mani that inspired me to check out Manitude and order some of their plates, which are definitely serving me incredibly well this Halloween season. Of course, I always like to put my own spin on my nail art and I love, love, love how this mani inspired by that one turned out in the end. 

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So when I think about the overall vibe of this mani, it's sort of... girly murder? I don't even know... But anyway, the color story I decided on for this mani was dictated by two things. I knew I wanted to use some shimmery polishes that didn't lean metallic and I knew I wanted to keep it in a sort of fun, playful pastel leaning vibe, so I decided to grab for polishes from Picture Polish. I feel like there's something distinct and unique about all of these polishes, the ones with the irregular fine holo flakes through them, and they just create the most beautiful texture. 

For my base, I decided to do a two color smoosh in sage and lavender. I wasn't entirely sure if it was going to have the impact that I was looking for, but I decided to go for it anyway. I started by applying one coat of Sage to my nails and let that dry down. I also applied a latex cuticle barrier, which I always do for stamping but is extra important for a smoosh because it can get real messy. To do the smoosh, I applied dots of Sage and Heaven to the head of my stamper and then just... sort of pounce it onto the nails until you get the blend that you're looking for. 

For the reverse stamping, I decided that I wanted to do two main images per nail - the larger image being the one that leans into the creepy murder vibe and then a smaller one that's quite girly. I also decided that I wanted to only use three colors for the fill so I went with Winter, a deep charcoal grey, Lakodom, a slightly silvery white, and Orchid, a rich almost neon purple. Using a nail art brush and dotting tool, I filled the images on the stamper head and let them dry down. Once they were ready to transfer, I applied a thin layer of sticky base coat to the nails, let it dry down until it was tacky, and then transferred the images to the nail. I did have to do this one nail at a time so that I didn't have a million stampers on the go, but it went fairly quickly. I also added some little stitches images to each nail where it felt a little sparse.

Once I was happy with the design, I sealed everything in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of glossy top coat for shine and volume. And voila!

I swear, I did not expect to be as in love with this mani as I am. There's one teeny tiny little thing I would do differently if I were to redo it - but I'm not going to tell you what it is. Otherwise, it's basically exactly what I had hoped it would be... and more! I have to say I kind of love that intersection of cute girliness and... you know, creepy murderiness. It's perfect for Halloween! Huge, huge, huge props to Hannah for the inspiration and for the heads up that Manitude exists!

Are you following me over at @pblnails yet? Head over there to check out video tutorials for all of my nail art designs and drop a follow to keep up with new Halloween themed nail art designs every day in October!

Thanks for reading!