So initially the inspiration for this mani was a little bit different and I had planned on doing some Hocus Pocus themed nails with this background, but in the end I decided to go in a slightly different direction with a bit of a less specific witch and some bats. "It's freakin' bats... I love Halloween!" Anyway, I think the design turned out really good and brought the creepiness I was looking for at the end of the day.

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The color story I was going for with this background was definitely a sort of ashy blue vibe, so I started with one of my favorite blue indie polishes as my sort of jumping off point for this design. Though I don't generally think of blue as a Halloween shade at all, there's something about the ashiness of this one that just hits different and feels perfect for spooky season.

I started by applying two coats of Different Dimension's Come One Come All to all of my nails and letting that dry down before I moved on to my stamping.

Because I didn't have exactly the right stamping images that I had in mind for this mani, I had to improvise so I grabbed for a plate I'd used before to create this sort of creepy tree limbs design. For the outer nails, I knew I wasn't planning on adding any silhouette stamping, so I just went in, first with a soft grey stamping polish and then following with a deep blue. For the middle fingers, I wanted to leave a bit of a space at the center of the nail, so I tried to create a sort of frame type of look to the branches and I'd say the results were... somewhat mid, but they got the job done. Finally, I went in with four scattered bats for my middle finger and a flying witch for my ring finger stamped in black to create that silhouette vibe.

Once I was happy with my stamping, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a generous layer of quick dry glossy top coat for shine and volume. And voila!

I have to say, I wish that I had been able to eliminate the glare on this one because I think it does take away a little bit from the design, but I'm still really happy with how these ones turned out. Definitely different from my original plan, but ultimately probably more in line with the vibe I wanted anyway. It worked out!

Be sure to follow me over at @pblnails on Instagram to stay up to date on all of my nail art designs and to see video tutorials for every mani I post here on the blog. Also, keep checking back because I will be posting new Halloween nail art designs every day in October!

Thanks for reading!