If you guys follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I've been getting pretty into nail art recently. It's been a while since I've really done nail art, so I've been really excited to try all of the new and exciting tools and tricks to create different nail art looks. I've been especially excited about Halloween nail art, so I was super excited when Nail Polish Canada contacted me about trying out the Whats Up Nails Graveyard Nail Vinyls* - and giving 10 of my readers an opportunity to try them out for free. I'm brand new to nail vinyls, so I was excited and a little bit apprehensive to try them out. 

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I have to admit, I did a LOT of looking around at other people's nail art to decide what I wanted to do with these nail vinyls and ultimately I ended up doing three different manicures with them with varying levels of success, though I blame the not-so-successful ones on my own planning and skills rather than from the vinyls themselves. I also decided that I wanted to try using them both as stencils and as decals and I definitely have a preference personally. 

As you can see in the photo above, there are two parts to each stencil. The outside part is what I find works best to stencil with since you can create a background of either a solid colour, a gradient, or some other kind of design, and then stencil in the shadows on the graveyard with black polish. When using these as a stencil, I recommend sticking them to your hand once or twice before applying them to the nail because I did struggle a little bit with pulling them off at the narrower parts of the stencil. I also preferred using a sponge to pounce the polish onto the nail rather than painting over the stencil just because it kept the edges a little bit smoother once the stencil was removed. Overall, I think it was really easy and quick to use these as stencil. 

I used the stencils for this look at with the graveyard at the base of my nails rather than the tip, but the lack of contrast between the base colour and the black made it very difficult to capture in photos, unfortunately. I definitely recommend using a lighter base, particularly where the stencil is going to be meeting the base colour, to get a really impactful look on the nails. 

My favorite way to use these has definitely been to use the inner part as a decal. For my skill level with nail art, which is in the still learning, novice stage, this is a really easy way to get a really crisp, interesting manicure quickly. For both of the looks I did using these as decals, I started with a gradient base and then applied the decal to the tip of the nail, doing my best to place it right at the edge. Next, I used a tiny pair of nail scissors to cut along the edges of the nail to get everything to fit just right. Finally, I went in with a crystal nail file to make sure none of the decal was hanging off the edges and finished with a two thick coats of quick dry top coat. And I am in love with this!

My three Whats Up Nails Graveyard Vinyls manis!

All you have to do is click this link to head over to Nail Polish Canada and add the Whats Up Nails Graveyard Nail Vinyls* to your cart. The first 10 people to use the coupon code OASD7E3L4Y4 will get a set for free! That's it! 

Enjoy your nail vinyls and if you post your Halloween Graveyard mani's on Instagram, tag me @beautyloveca so that I can check them out!

Thanks for reading!