Happy Fall, everyone! I have a fun idea I’m very excited to share. I always want to be more creative with my nail art as I tend to go back to the same designs frequently – something, something, creature of habit. With Halloween coming up, I thought it would be a great time to stretch my creative juices.
Here’s the idea: I have a few nail polishes I’ve been dying (lol, get it, spooky) to wear as the weather cools down. For each of these polishes, I will use a randomizer to choose the nail art I need to do. This is to help me not choose the obvious – say, an orange base for pumpkin nail art.
I will make the nail art ideas, but I will not be able to choose what idea goes to which manicure!
The polishes I’m looking forward to using are:
Off the top of my head – and with some help from ChatGPT – some spooky nail art ideas are:
- Skeletons
- Slime
- Ghosts
- Pumpkins
- Bats
- Cats
- Witches
- Candy
From here, I’ll pull up a random wheel generator and put these ideas in. Because there are more ideas than polishes, there will be a few unused ideas.
Drum roll, please! The results of the wheel are:
- Zombie Claw “Persephone” → SKELETONS
- Lurid Lacquer “Plant Aunt” → BATS
- Jen & Berries “Raise The Shield” → CATS
- Ethereal Lacquer “Wilting” → SLIME
- Haunted Polish “The Wilting Rose” → PUMPKINS
- Dam Nail Polish “Merely A Mirage” → CANDY
You can watch the spins happen on my instagram reel here!
Alright, let’s get into it.
Persephone → Skeletons
Persephone in 2 coats with a glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting.
This spin was kind of kismet, right? Persephone is the Goddess of the Underworld, married to Hades. She also brings about Spring to the world as she returns from the Underworld each year. I had a few avenues to go down in terms of nail art being inspired by Persephone.
I first tried a normal white skull and added some simple dotted flowers to honor the attributes of Persephone, but I wasn’t really a fan of the design. It felt too basic and a bit cartoon-y for the vibes I wanted.
Using a white polish for the skull also felt a bit uninspired to me, so I thought about what else I could use instead that would look good against such a dark and interesting base. As I looked through my collection (which is now fully moved into our new apartment – yay!), two magnetics caught my eye because they had dark bases and very strong silver magnetic pulls. Those strong silver magnetic pigments are soooo shiny, and I thought they would be a cool use for my skull nail art! I thought I could make a skull using Dark Beach by Ethereal Lacquer (now Haunted Polish) and do the velvet effect to make a “peekaboo” skeleton. I first made an outline of a skull using Alchemy Lacquer’s Carbon, then layered Dark Beach over it using the velvet effect.
It turned out SO COOL… but, the problem was that it looked muddy from most angles. That makes sense – Dark Beach has a dark base, which doesn’t stand out from Persephone. That’s where I thought I could outline it with a white polish, and I think it turned out nice. The white polish used was Alchemy Lacquer’s Vanilla.
I did the Dark Beach magnetic skulls on my thumb and ring finger and did some white ribs on my middle and index fingers. I left my pinky alone because I love Zombie Claw’s Persephone oh too much…
Manicure in indoor studio lighting.
Manicure in outdoor sunny conditions.
In total, here were the steps for the skull and ribs:
- Base coat.
- Two coats of Persephone.
- Use Carbon to outline and serve as a base for the skull and ribs.
- Two coats of Dark Beach to fill in the skull and ribs. Lay finger in a velvet magnet during this process.
- Outline the skull, eyes, nose, and ribs with Vanilla.
- Top coat.
Plant Aunt → Bats
Plant Aunt in 2 coats with a glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting.
When I got “bats” for Lurid Lacquer’s Plant Aunt, I was feeling a bit… bored. And, let’s be real, Plant Aunt would look cool with any nail art, but “bats” left me feeling uninspired. However, once I drew a few ideas on paper, I was excited to see how it looked with the neon green background.
My main idea was doing a bat wing that lies diagonally across the nail. This then evolved in to two wings lying opposite of each other on the nail. The mirroring looked beautiful and thus, my nail art idea was born!
The tricky part was the rest of it: to choose what color to do the bat wings, whether to fill them in or not, and whether to layer Plant Aunt back over them. I tried a few different iterations and one favorite was one coat of Plant Aunt and using Great Lakes Lacquer’s Let It Grow as the bat wing outlines. It made the bat wings look very leaf-like, which isn’t a bad thing – I mean, the main polish is literally called Plant Aunt! However, I liked the look of Potion Polish’s Vespertine better as the outline, and I think it makes the green really pop.
Finally, I did decide to fill in the wings, but it needed to be a polish that was sheer so as to give it a cool iridescent look. The perfect match for this look was Ethereal Lacquer’s Otherworldly (now Haunted Polish). I was especially blown away when moving my fingers as the red shimmer from it comes to life.
I love this art attempt! I never would have paired a bat motif with a neon green like this – I chose this polish in the lineup for the slime motif originally. But, that is one of the points of this challenge: to uncover unlikely, beautiful combinations! From far away, the manicure looks a little bit like carpet you would see in a bowling alley in the 90’s, which is definitely a vibe I’m here for.
Manicure in indoor studio lighting.
Manicure in outdoor sunny conditions.
In total, here were the steps to this look:
- (Optional) Base coat and blurring base – Plant Aunt is a bit sheer.
- Two coats of Plant Aunt.
- Draw outline of bat wings with Vespertine.
- Two thin coats of Otherworldly using a small nail brush to fill in the bat wings. You can paint over the lines of the outline, but try not to “color outside the lines”.
- Outline the bat wings one more time with Vespertine.
- Glitter smoother and top coat.
Raise The Shield → Cats
Raise the Shield in 3 coats with a glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting.
OK, my nail art attempt for this combo cracks me up a bit. I had a few different ideas like the other two combos above. However, when I went to do this attempt, it was after a long Saturday where I went to the climbing gym for 2 hours (hence the bandage on my thumb) and then did another 45 mins of cardio after. No practice attempts were made on swatch sticks to practice different ideas. My main idea was to do a black french tip of a cat ears with the eyes in a yellow color. Dark on dark with cat eyes as the focal point, essentially.
When applying Raise The Shield, it looked so much like a beautiful starry night to me. It has a prominent green shimmer directly but shifts to a beautiful dark purple at extreme angles (it almost looks like a subtle multichrome to me). After applying, my main idea was to do a silhouette of a cat highlighting by a yellow crescent moon, and the silhouette would be that same yellow color. I also had the idea to go a bit more swirly with the art, a la Van Gogh “Starry Night”. Thus, my idea was set in stone. I used Mooncat’s Eternal Sunshine for the yellow.
Here’s where the fail comes in a bit… the cats on my thumb and ring finger look so much like monkeys. I SWEAR I’VE SEEN A CAT BEFORE. It’s clear to me that I should have made the silhouette of the cat first instead of the tail, then I could’ve made the cat sit more upright. Instead, I got carried away with the swirly tails and had to fit the cat in. It reminds me of the John Mulaney joke about writing “Happy Birthday” on a banner, getting carried away with the giant H-A, then having to awkwardly squeeze in the rest. “Ah, but the past is the past, BIG ASS B…”
I did cat tails for the rest of the nails with stars, which I think turned out pretty cool looking. They don’t necessarily look too much like tails, but art is art, I guess… I did realize that when looking at them from far away, they very much look like swirly Klingon script. Does anyone else see this?
In total, it’s not my favorite nail art, but I love that I was able to come up with a different idea on the fly that turned out alright. I love that I was able to channel some Van Gogh for a spookier version of “Starry Night”. I love that this mani came out of this challenge. And, I love that it looks sort of Trek-like. Where my trekkies at??
Manicure in indoor studio lighting.
Manicure in outdoor sunny conditions.
In total, here were the steps to the cats, tails, and stars:
- Base coat.
- Three coats of Raise the Shield.
- Draw moon and stars in different locations on each nail.
- Draw the tail to “swirl” around the moon or star with Eternal Sunshine. (In retrospect, I would wait on this until after the next step for nails with cats). Depending on the location of the moon or star, start the cat tail at the tip of the nail or near the cuticle. Break up the lines to make it more whimsical. For the ring and thumb nails, leave some space for a cat outline.
- Draw the silhouette of the cat with a few whiskers.
- Go over each line again for a second coat of Eternal Sunshine.
- Glitter smoother and top coat.
Wilting → Slime
Wilting in 3 coats with a glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting.
This combination intimidated me probably the most out of all the combinations. Wilting is so supremely beautiful alone. Before I had it, I always wanted to do a leafy nail art on it. So when the wheel picked slime out of all the options, I was thinking, “Uh, excuse me, rude… That’s just offensive to Wilting.” But, I must obey the arbitrary confines of this challenge’s rules.
I had a few options for a slime art motif: real slime that people play with, the slimes from Stardew Valley (so adorable), or regular cartoon-y slime. I wasn’t feeling the Stardew Valley slimes, so I vetoed that – but I will absolutely do a Stardew Valley mani at some point. I liked the texture of real slime photos I found online, so I tried that using some different polishes for added color. In the end, it just looked like a weird fall zebra pattern and not like slime at all. Finally, I gave in to traditional cartoon slime. I thought about doing a slime french tip, but then I found a great stock photo of slime illustrations online and felt inspired by one that looks like you stepped on it.
I decided to use a traditional bright green and yellow, Glisten & Glow’s Key Lime Pie and Lemonheads respectively (both purchased), to illustrate my slime. I was sold. I don’t know why I was so against going the traditional slime route. Thus, another lesson learned in this challenge is born: sometimes, a classic is a classic for a reason! And, it still looks strangely beautiful.
Manicure in indoor studio lighting.
Manicure in outdoor sunny conditions.
Here are the steps to my slimey, shiny mani:
- Base coat.
- Three coats of Wilting.
- Draw the base of the slime in Key Lime Pie. Make it a bit random on each nail.
- For the parts of the slime that is “stretchy”, put Lemonheads over it to simulate how “thin” it is.
- Glitter smoother and top coat.
The Wilting Rose → Pumpkins
The Wilting Rose in 3 coats with a glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting.
Ah, The Wilting Rose: the maiden voyage of Haunted Polish! I was really unsure if this prompt would do this polish justice. In the end, it was The Wilting Rose that essentially chose the style in which I painted my pumpkins (and other gourds).
The Wilting Rose is so very dark and vampy. I thought that by having this in the lineup, it would be a slam dunk for bat or witchy nail art. Instead, I got pumpkins, arguably the coziest motif on the wheel. How do I make such a vampy color cozy? Well, my expectations had to expand.
I had just ordered and received a UV flashlight to have fun with solar polishes inside by the time I got to this prompt, so I thought I could play with solar polishes as the nail art. I have an almost full collection of solars from Alchemy Lacquers that really shouldn’t go to waste. In that, I found an orange and green solar (Luminary and Daystar) that both turn dark orange/red when exposed to UV light. They both played up so vampy against The Wilting Rose, but not in a bad way. It almost reminded me of dark velvet, or a lush red sangria. It is so beautiful! I chose these colors to create some gourds across my nails, then outline them a bit cartoon-like with ILNP Pine.
Very fun fact: Using a nail art top coat that is water-based (I use one from Apipila, who frequently sells them in Hella Handmade Creations) is good for solar polishes!
The way I did my gourds almost reminds me of like a coffeehouse wallpaper, or like the background of an early 2000’s fall witchy music playlist on YouTube (starting with “Fade Into You” by Mazzy Star). These vibes are immaculate and exactly the coziness I was hoping for this mani. I’m not sure the actual nail art turned out that way, but the vibes I was playing off of were worth it.
Manicure with nail art without UV exposure.
Manicure with nail art with UV exposure.
Comparison between no UV and UV exposure.
Here are the steps to this manicure:
- Base coat.
- Three coats of The Wilting Rose.
- Use Luminary to draw and fill in a blob shaped like a tall gourd, then use Daystar to draw circular blobs for the pumpkins. Do this for a few coats to make them opaque.
- Use Pine to draw an outline of your gourds within the blobs.
- Use a nail art top coat (water-based), then a top coat for solar polishes (I use Alchemy Lacquer’s Solar Shine).
Merely A Mirage → Candy
Merely A Mirage in 3 coats with a solar glossy top coat, in indoor studio lighting, with UV exposure.
It’s the last challenge for Fall 2025! It’s taken me a few weeks to get here between my other PR (and I’ve also changed up my background for photos), but it has been so much fun to expand my horizons with nail art. Now, I get to my fun effect lacquer: Dam Nail Polish’s Merely A Mirage, a solar polish! This one transitions to a different color with UV light exposure… now, I did wear this one during a very overcast streak, so we’re using a UV flashlight I bought from Amazon to trigger changes.
This motif will be polarizing because I chose CANDY CORN! I love candy corn. And if you don’t like candy corn… more for me! I have a yellow and orange solar polishes from Chamaeleon Nails (Secrets of the Desert and Gloomy Canyon, respectively) that I will use to make a fully UV-reactive candy corn manicure. All of these transitions to dark, vampy colors, so it will be a bit spookier in the sun (read: flashlight).
Although I think this attempt looks adorable, the Chamaeleon Nails polishes I used for the art are very squishy and not super opaque, so I had to go over multiple times to build them up on the nail to show as yellow and orange. This made the stripes quite thick. I even put a layer of glitter smoother on, too! Alas, my stripes were too powerful. Looking back, maybe I could’ve mitigated it by putting a thin layer of an opaque orange and yellow creme below the stripes, but then I don’t know how dark they would be with UV light. Maybe I just need more opaque orange and yellow solars… With all of that said, it looks darling from afar and in the full hand shot! We love a muted palette for chic candy corns.
Manicure in indoor studio lighting with no UV exposure.
Manicure in indoor studio lighting with UV exposure on ring/pinky.
Well, it’s the end of this challenge. I really enjoyed doing this and branching out from my usual ideas! When I first came up with this challenge, I initially thought I would do a lot of stamping, but I stuck solely with freehand brush nail art (it also helps that I have no spooky plates). My dexterity with longer, thinner brushes has improved a lot. My respect for those who record themselves doing freehand nail art has also increased immensely!
What I liked about these nail art exercises is that I wasn’t wild about a lot of the combinations, but was happy with the ways in which they turned out. The combinations forced me to be creative in the approaches I took to creating the images I wanted, and in all different styles. I think my favorite styles I did were the Plant Aunt cartoon-y bat wings and The Wilting Rose gourd wallpaper, but my husband’s was the Wilting slime!
It was also really fun to work with nail polishes with special effects as the nail art, like the magnetic skeleton for Persephone or the solars for The Wilting Rose and Merely A Mirage. It gives me new ideas, like using thermal polish for nail art.
Thank you all so much for reading if you’ve made it this far. I am hoping to do a challenge like this for each of the seasons, with the next one for the winter. I have to see what theme I want for that!
Happy Halloween, ducklings! ♥