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With 5 girls in the house we use a lot of nail polish. We love painting nails for holidays and these Halloween Nails turned out so cute we had to share.

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What do you mean DIY Halloween Nails?

I like to call these attainable nail polish ideas. I have never done any type of beauty school, I don’t have special tools.

There is no reason anyone couldn’t do their nails like we do ours.

Do you love looking at all the beautifully painted and at this point decorated nails you see online. I do feel like it’s hard to know what color they used or what people’s favorite nail polishes are.

It’s often frustrating seeing nails there is no way I could recreate. I thought it might be fun to share the polish colors we’re using and if we liked them. We do have some tips and tricks we’ve learned over the last lifetime of painting nails that might help you.

What are our favorite nail polishes?

I admit we haven’t tried every nail polish brand out there. For the most part I feel like a lot of them do the job well.

Personally I have weird nails. I don’t know what it is. There is no diagnosis or anything but I have spent a lot of money over the years getting my nails done.

I’ve done acrylics, gel, just regular manicures and for the most part they all last about the same length of time. I actually wonder if I have an oily nail bed or something.

Professionally done gel manicures last a few days and then I can peel them off in a full sheet. Same with at home gel polishes. Acrylics I can usually get to last about a week before they start lifting at the base of the nail.

I have just accepted that it saves me money (and stress) doing my nails at home where I can paint them every 3 days if needed without spending $30+.

Because I have spent a lot of time doing my own nails and my 4 daughters nails I have realized a few things. The main thing (for me) is that the brush is more important than the polish itself.

Why does the brush matter?

I love the OPI brush. It’s wide and flairs beautifully when painting. I can usually cover a full nail in 2 swipes. I also think most of polishes cover really well. There have been a few that left me disappointed but not many.

I also really like Essie nail polishes but you have to be careful with the brush. Some of them are so thin, when the brush is thin I feel like you end up with a more streaky polish. That means more coats and drying time trying to get it to look smooth.

I’ve started checking the brushes before buying a color so I don’t end up disappointed when I get home. It also allows me to decide if I love the color enough to deal with a thin brush.

I love that both of these brands have become more readily available. I might have a slight nail polish addiction and love checking out new releases when I’m at the store.

What colors are your Halloween Nails?

For this manicure we used all OPI polishes. I have a large nail polish collection and try to take good care of them so they last.

The polish colors are:

Pinky – OPI Alpine Snow
Ring Finger – OPI Exotic Birds Do Not Tweet
Middle Finger – OPI Summer Lovin’ Having a Blast (This color was from a limited Greece line – Suzi Needs a Loch-Smith is another great Orange)
Pointer Finger – OPI I manicure for Beads
Thumb – OPI Black Onyx

For this set of nails on my 9 year old I did 2 coats of every color except yellow. I did 2 coats and then a 3rd swipe down the middle of the nail to make sure there were no spots you could see through.

We all love a good top coat, I love the shine and my girls think it helps the polish last longer. Maybe it really does for them.

For this manicure we used Essie Speed-Setter as our top coat. I like to let the nails dry almost all the way before applying a top coat and this one dries so quick it’s great. And the shine is so good.

We had all these colors already on hand. If you own other yellows, purples, etc…try them out. We wanted to share how cute the colors look together. You don’t have to use the exact same brands/colors we did for a great set of Halloween nails!

DIY Halloween Nails

Yield: 1 Manicure

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Active Time: 20 minutes

Additional Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Difficulty: Beginner

Dress up your nails for the spookiest holiday with our DIY Halloween Nails.

Materials

OPI Black Onyx
OPI I Manicure for Beads
OPI Summer Lovin' Having a Blast
OPI Exotic Birds Do Not Tweet
OPI Alpine Snow
Essie Speed- Setter

Tools

Nail File
Fingernail Clippers

Instructions

Clip fingernails to desired length.
File to smooth out edges.
Soak nails in warm water.
Push back cuticles (trim if needed).
Apply 2 coats of fingernail polish to each nail.
Allow polish to dry between coats.
After polish color is dry apply Speed-Setter top coat for a high gloss finish.
Allow top coat to dry fully before using hands.

Notes

These are the colors we used and love how they look. We really like OPI nail polishes and feel like they're worth the money. If you already own black, purple, orange, yellow, and white nail polishes use them! We would love to see your Halloween nails!

Recommended Products

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I hope you like our Halloween nails and that you’ll share yours with us if you do your own. We’d also love to hear if you have other favorite nail polishes, we’re always looking to add to our collection.