HALLOWEEN NAIL ART: Black & Laser Holo Spooky Gel Nails

by - October 18, 2022


I want to premise this post by pointing out that I am not particularly good at hand painted nail art. In fact, I look at the stunning work that nail techs and other nail artists who do hand painted work do and I'm just absolutely blown away by their skill. But sometimes, just on occasion and often at Halloween, I like to dip my toes in the hand painting pool and generally the other good results I have with that are with gel polish, so for this mani I reached for some gorgeous products that were gifted to me from Aimeili and I think the results are actually pretty cool even though I do not have the hand painting confidence that I wish I had.

Keep reading for more!


The inspiration for this mani actually came from one that I saw over on Instagram and I would link it, but I couldn't find the original and I'm not a huge fan of elevating websites that steal nail artists work to make listicles and don't credit properly and I don't feel like that's proper credit anyway. The mani that I referenced for this one was done in shades of pink and used a really beautiful metallic fuscia chrome powder, but I decided to put my own spin on it, simplify it a little bit to suit my skill level with hand painting, and in place of that chrome powder I used this stunning holo laser powder from Aimeili that I swear pictures can't even remotely do justice to - IT'S STUNNING. 

So, like I said, keeping it simple, I decided to do a black base for this mani. I started by applying a peel off base coat to all of my nails and letting that dry down completely before going in with two thin coats of black gel polish to all of my nails, curing between coats. 


Now for the nail art. To start, I applied a matte gel top coat to all of my nails, cured that in my lamp, and then wiped away any sticky residue. It's important for this technique to start with matte, fully cured nails. Next, I went in with my no wipe top coat along with a nail art brush and dotting tool to start drawing in my designs. Admittedly, I did have to try at least twice per nail to get the design I was looking for, but it's easy enough to wipe away uncured gel and start over, which is a huge part of why I like to hand paint with gel polish. Once I was happy with the design, I cured it fully in my lamp so that I could apply the laser powder.

Now, this is sort of the tricky part. I used the sponge applicator that came with the powders and just sort of buffed into that cured top coat until it was nice and smooth and had that insane flash through it. Seriously - SERIOUSLY - in person that holo flash is just insane and the pictures don't remotely do it justice. Next, I went back in with my no wipe top coat and painted over the design again to seal in the powder. This step is important because you're going to want to fully wipe away any excess powder just sort of lingering around, but if you haven't encapsulated what you want to stay it will wipe away your design. Once that layer is cured in the lamp, you're going to want to use a gel wipe and clean off your nails.

Now, at this point, I considered leaving it with that matte base and the shiny holo design, but it just wasn't as impactful as I wanted it to be, so I finished with another coat of no wipe top coat over my entire nails and cured that. And voila!


All Products Used
Unt Ready For Take Off Peel Off Base Coat*
Aimeili - 007 Blackpool Gel Polish*
Aimeili No Wipe Gel Polish Top Coat*
Morovan Matte Gel Top Coat
Aimeili Holographic Laser Powder*
NailStuff.ca 11mm Nail Art Brush**
NailStuff.ca Dotting Tool**

* = PR Sample
** = PR Sample/Affiliate NailStuff.ca code TRYSH for 10% off first order.


Not gonna lie, when I finished this mani I went and washed my hands and I literally started hyping myself up out loud to myself because I was just so in love with how this turned out and so proud of myself for the smoosh results even though I'm still not very confident at all in my skills in hand painting. I just love it so much and the super intensity of that holo on that black base is just so intense and stunning. Like even in dead light, this absolutely sings.

Head over to @pblnails on Instagram to see the video tutorial for how I did this technique and be sure to follow me there to keep up on all of my nail designs and to see videos for all of the mani's I post here on the blog. Also, don't forget there'll be new nail art posted here and there every day in October so be sure to check back!

Thanks for reading!


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