Admittedly, when I sat down and started thinking about which polishes I wanted to bust out for Halloween nails, the ones I used to create this mani didn't even come close to entering my mind. It actually wasn't until I saw this mani from Ash @ashxmcgrath on Instagram that I absolutely had to create my own version of it. I mean... I was immediately in love with the design and I loved the really frothy pink color palette. Of course, the original mani was hand painted, as all of her gorgeous work is, and I am absolute trash at hand painting - but luckily I had the perfect stamping plate to use to make my own version of this design!

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So I'm actually not sure what technique she used to create the texture in the original, but of course I knew that a smoosh would be my best technique to get a similar look. I actually looked through SO MANY pink polishes before deciding on the ones I went with, because I really wanted it to have that cool undertone that I felt made sense for Halloween. I ultimately ended up going with a pink so pale it's nearly white, a classic baby pink, and then more of a midtoned orchid pink that leans just purple enough to really cool off the whole thing without actually skewing out of the pink zone.

To create the smoosh, I started by applying one coat of the baby pink polish to all of my nails as my base. While that was drying down a little, I also applied a cuticle barrier to aid in clean up. (In this case, my cuticle barrier was pretty much the exact same color as my base polish and there was something very satisfying about that.) Once that was dry, I applied random dots of my three polishes to a stamper and then just pounced onto the nail until I got the blend that I was looking for. 

Now, for the stamping, of course I wanted to keep it super cute to go with that cotton candy base, so I grabbed for the Manitude x Too Cute To Spook plate, which is basically the exact perfect plate for this mani because it's just packed full of adorable single images that you can mix and match for this kind of design. When choosing the images, I decided to create a cohesion across the nails by choosing images with big eyes as sort of the main image for each nail and then I built from there. I also added some bones, stars, and spiderwebs to fill sparse areas on the nail in a way that wouldn't overwhelm the design and I think it turned out great.

Once I was happy with the overall design, I sealed it in with a nail art top coat and then finished with a layer of matte top coat to bring down the shine give a cohesive look overall. And voila!

Honestly, I'm so, so, so thrilled with how this turned out. Not only does it really, really have the feel of the mani that inspired it even though I'm not a nail tech and I can't hand paint to save my life, but it's also just... so cute! I'm so glad I went with the big eyes images and also resisted the urge to add more contrast with a darker stamping polish. Who knew girly girly pink could be such a good fit for Halloween??

If you're not already following me over @pblnails on Instagram, be sure to head over there and follow to keep up on all of my nail art - including video tutorials. And, of course, be sure to come back every day in October for more Halloween themed nail art!

Thanks for reading!