When I first saw the sneak peeks of the Uberchic Beauty Halloween 07 Stamping Plate, I knew two things. First, I knew that I would be picking it up and using the crap out of it, obviously. And second, I knew that I would be doing this exact mani with these exact polishes in this exact layout. It's a pretty simple, straight forward design without any bells and whistles, but I absolutely love how it turned out and I felt like it was the perfect mani to post for actual Halloween. Sometimes I have to remind myself that you can get really great nail art without having to throw the kitchen sink at it, and I think this mani is definitely evidence of that. 

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Honestly, you guys, the fact that we've gotten to the penultimate mani in 31 days of Halloween nail art designs is basically blowing my mind right now - especially since I'm still excited about the different designs I've been able to do. I was actually surprised when I realized that I'd never done bloody handprint nail art, but obviously I needed to remedy that so I kept it really simple and put together this quick and easy mani, perfectly for last minute!

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I very sincerely can't believe that we're already coming to the end of this marathon of Halloween nails. And honestly, I don't really know how I managed to even do it - I'm pretty proud of myself for actually finishing. For today's mani, it's all about the cuteness. When I first saw the product photos for the Uberchic Halloween 07 stamping plate, I knew that I would be doing something with the adorable little Halloween character images, but I wasn't quite sure what. In the end, I leaned on a trick or treating theme and brought it another stamping plate to pair with that one, and I love the way it turned out. 

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When I was planning out the mani's I wanted to do this month - trust me, 31 days of Halloween themed nail art takes A LOT of planning - I knew that I wanted to do a design like this one with the sort of... gradient bats design with black at the tip. Luckily, the Uberchic Beauty Halloween 07 Stamping Plate, which was their 2021 Halloween plate, has the perfect image for this design. I went back and forth on a few different options for the background, but I ultimately settled on this stunning red holo base and even though the photos do not do the in person mani justict I'm standing by it.

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I really did just get insanely excited to have ordered Uberchic Beauty's 2021 Halloween themed plate and I couldn't wait to get my hands on it - so much so that by the time Canada Post got their act together and got it to me I already had at least a dozen loose ideas and a handful of firm ones on how I was going to use it. Today's mani is one that was definitely a little bit both loose and firm in that I knew I was going to do a full mani using this particular image but I just wasn't quite sure how I was going to it. That's one of my favorite things about nail art. You start with the sort of loose idea of a design and then you have to dig into the details. 

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Clearly as I've been going through this Halloween nail design process, I've spent a lot of time thinking about Halloween colours and my favorite ways to pair them. Obviously black goes with everything - just ask the state of my stamping polishes that I've been reaching for pretty much constantly - but one of my personal favorite pairings is this sort of witchy Halloween purple with black. When I sat down to use the stamping image that I used for this plate I just knew that I wanted to employ that pairing but I wasn't immediately certain HOW I wanted to do it.

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Is this the third version of what was essentially the same mani? Yes, it is. Is it almost entirely inspired by mid 00s scene kids and Hot Topic? Also, yes. Am I kind of in love with it? 100% yes. This mani is definitely one of those ones that I should have marinated on a little bit more than I initially did, because this was always what it needed to be but I tried a couple of other versions before I got to this one. That said, I'm not sure that I would have gotten here without the trial and error as well as the little whispering emo kid tucked away in my head giving me ye olde Hot Topic inspiration. 

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Pretty much from the moment I saw the Nicole Diary stamping plate that I used for today's mani, I knew that I was going to do some version of this. It went through a few different iterations in my mind before I settled on this one, but I think it was pretty much always going to look something like this. That's definitely one thing I'm really loving as I've settled more and more into my own style when it comes to nail art - ideas like this come together pretty fully formed in my head without having to do as much trial and error as I did when I was first starting out. 

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When I was sitting down to plan how I was going to put together an entire month of Halloween themed nail art, one of the things I did was think about specific polishes from my collection that I wanted to pull out and feature. I feel like this many manis definitely requires some thoughtful choices in shades to really build it out and make it feel worthwhile and interesting. All of this is to say that I don't know what made my brain decide that the base polish for this mani absolutely had to get used and it very specifically had to get used in some sort of zombie mani, but it did so I made it happen. 

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Did I 100% buy the stamping plate I used for today's mani specifically because I've been wanted to do some version of VooDoo doll nails for years? Yes, I did. Did I have any idea how I was going to actually do it once I had the plate in hand? Absolutely I did not. One issue that I have with wanting to center an entire design around one smaller image is that it can be hard to think of a cohesive way to fill out the rest of the design. That said, this spooky season I have definitely leaned into a vibe of "everything Halloween is improved with more spiderwebs," and I definitely think that mindset served me well with this design.

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Today's Halloween nail design is one that I conjured in my mind weeks before I was actually able to do it, because I was waiting for the stamping plate to arrive, but I literally knew exactly what it was going to look like and what I was going to use to get the look for ages. Sometimes, I will admit, that situation doesn't work out the way that I might have hoped, but in the case I'm really happy with the end result and it really is exactly what I had in mind when I conceived it. It also walks a really interesting line between being both super simple and also really intricate. 

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When it comes to 31 different Halloween nail art designs, there's a fair bit of planning and strategizing involved to actually be able to get it done. One of the steps is going through the different subthemes that live within the overarching Halloween theme - like my personal favorite, Spiderwebs - and on that list is definitely skulls. I think I've done skulls pretty much every year that I've been doing Halloween nails and they're easily some of my favorite designs I've done, so course I was going to do a skulls mani this year. The trick, I think, is to change it up so that you're not doing the same thing every year - even if you, like me, are doing something similar. 

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Today's mani did a weird thing in my head, I have to be honest. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look it and basically exactly how I was going to do it, which absolutely should have made this easier, but it actually ended up throwing up a sort of block that almost meant I didn't even try. This, my friends, is one of the super fun things about executive dysfunction - as soon as I feel a little overwhelmed, my brain tends to just shut down entirely. Reverse stamping can sometimes feel really daunting to me and as a result I sort of tend to avoid it, especially when the entire mani is going to need to be reverse stamped. I waited this one out and pushed through, though, and I'm so glad that I did because I love, love, love the way this turned out.

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I have to admit, full coverage dry brushing isn't a technique I go to very often and it's one I tend to really forget the value of until I'm looking for something specific and it pings in my brain. Halloween is one such occasion when I feel like this dry brushing technique can really shine because in the right colors it can really evoke that grungey sort of horror vibe without being too on the nose. For this mani, I kept it super simple with a black, white and red color story and some full coverage spiderweb stamping for good measure. 

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2021 has definitely been the year that I've really developed an appreciation for the humble skittle mani, so of course I had to slot at least one into this 31 day long madness festival I've committed to here. I decided to go with an array of neon polishes for this design along with a speckled topper and some really simple black and white stamping, and I love how it turned out. This is another one of those mani's that I think would be really easy to recreate, especially if you're looking for a design that is definitely hand-paintable (though I, because I'm me, did do stamping for this.)

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The reason that I try not to do a lot of nail art designs that are just base polish and then straight up stamping is that sometimes it can feel a little bit boring and like maybe people won't really be interested. That said, one of my favorite things about stamping and specifically about the best kinds of stamping plates is really being able to build a cohesive, interesting design using just a base polish (in this case a really, really gorgeous indie that I got in a destash...) and some straightforward stamping. With great plates and a little bit of creativity, I feel like simple stamping can create some great mani's!

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I have to admit, I tried some version of this mani not once but twice before I landed on this one and both times I hated the end result and almost gave up entirely on my plan to do some Ouija board nails this Halloween season. However, for some reason that I can not even fathom, the base polish for this design popped into my head as I was sipping my coffee and I knew that I had to try pairing it with some black stamping from the Maniology M071 Stamping Plate, and I'm kind of obsessed with how it turned out. 

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Do I do some version of a graveyard silhouette mani every single year? Yes, yes I do. They're a staple and I knew going into this year's planning that I was going to do at least one (and probably two, even from the start) in this style. For today's mani, I definitely took inspiration from these Fiery Dry Brush Desert Mirage Nails I did over the summer, using similar sunset neon shades as well as the dry brush gradient technique that I used for that mani, and I think it really sets this one apart from similar designs I've done in the past. 

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When I started jotting down ideas for Halloween nail art - a must if you're planning on doing 21 different designs over the course of one month - I knew I wanted to do something sort of gothic and romantic with a plummy color scheme and initially I sort of left it at that. It wasn't until I decided that I wanted a really rich, beautiful plum shade for the base that the rest of the idea started to form. I feel like today's mani really calls to the little 90s teenage wannabe goth in me and I would have basically gone insane for this design when I was 16. Of course, maybe I haven't changed that much because I'm pretty crazy for it right now as well.

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One thing that I've found as I've gained more experience with different nail art techniques is how to manipulate nail polish in certain ways. For today's mani, I'm using a technique that I'm pretty sure I invented - I don't think I've ever seen anyone do this before - and I feel like it's going to be a bit of a game changer for me when it comes to backgrounds for nail art. This is another mani that definitely evolved in process, but it all started with a loose idea of spooky trees and a sort of multicolored background.

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