Halloween Nail Art Attempts - Part 1

Over the weekend I had some free time and decided to try out some nail art ideas I had. For the first one I will be showing you today I took inspiration from this video from Andria (AKA, plasmaspeedo, YouTube). I had never done a gradient sponge mani before so I decided to try it. It was actually pretty quick and easy. It was really fun and I'd love to try it again sometime :)

Basically, the gradient is supposed to represent the sun setting, or in my case rising, with the foreground in the shadows.

The colours I used for the gradient were:

China Glaze - Lemon Fizz
China Glaze - Papaya Punch
OPI - Paploma Purple

I basically removed the rubber part from my Konad stamper, cut a cosmetic sponge and fit it in to the handle :) This really helps to keep your fingers clean while stamping. I layered the 3 colours 1 below the other on sponge then proceeded to sponge the colour on to my nails. I did this 2 times per nail to build up opacity. I also got some other regular sponges from the dollar store to try out, I noticed the actual Konad banded ones looked closer to the one I have in the photo below (dollar store). I haven't tried it yet so not 100% sure if it works as well as the cosmetic sponge.

Once that was dry, and it dried super quick, I cleaned it up a bit and took out some of my Bundle monster plates from the second setfor some nail stamping with black polish. I used bats, a "haunted" house and turned the pumpkin vines from the pumpkin patch stamp in to spooky trees! (BM-213 and BM-224)

 

I didn't apply a topcoat to this one, and if I were wearing it for a long period of time I think I would try a matte top coat to give it that dull, dark, Halloween feel :)

 

Stay tuned for some glow in the dark comparisons tomorrow, as well as a glow in the dark mani :)