Oh wow, I just realized that this is my FIRST beauty tutorial. Please excuse any nerves that I may have.
For this Halloween nail art tutorial I’m planning on using a base coat, an orange polish, a black crackle polish, and a glow in the dark polish as a top coat.
Step One
The first step is to apply a good base coat before applying your polish. Some polishes can stain the nails especially brighter colors like yellows and orange. For my base coat I like to use Revlon’s Multi-Care Top and Base Coat. I’ve never had a problem with my nails staining when I use this, plus it has the benefit that if I’m feeling lazy it can also be used as a top coat.
Step Two
After applying your base coat and letting it dry you’re going to want to find a good orange polish. Now how you choose to go with this is entirely up to you. Ultimately I wound up going with CoverGirl’s Go Go Mango because, to me, it’s more of a pumpkin orange and has no shimmer to it. If you only have a lighter orange, or a darker orange, or even an orange that has some shimmer to it feel free to use it.
The main reason that I chose the CoverGirl Go Go Mango polish was because it is super opaque in just one coat and comes off very glossy. This polish would look great with black tips making a more modern Halloween French Manicure, or you could just stop here with the orange polish. However, I think you’ll love what I have planned so lets keep going shall we?
Step Three
After letting the orange polish dry, and it needs to be completely dry or else the crackle polish will not work correctly, apply one coat of black crackle polish. Again you can use any black crackle polish but I chose to go with China Glaze’s Black Mesh because it was just a plain black polish with no shimmer or gimmicks to it. What I love about crackle polish is that as it dries you get very random looking crack designs which adds a bit of rebellion to the look, which is great for Halloween.
Step Four
I wanted to test out two different glow-in-the-dark top coat polishes for this tutorial. The first one is China Glaze’s Ghoulish Glow and it applies a very sheer coating of polish, only really adding a bit of haze to the nails.
The second glow-in-the-dark polish that I was testing for this tutorial is Julep’s Casper. As you can see, unlike the China Glaze polish Casper adds a very glittery topping on top of the nails. While this was very pretty and probably would be pretty by itself with a few coats I, personally, did not like the look of it for the tutorial. For the sake of function in this tutorial Casper also performed far under what the China Glaze polish did.
Finished Look
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and like the look of the finished project. I felt it was very Halloweenish and I actually have kept it on for almost a week, which is a record for me I think. One thing to note for this project is that to activate the glow-in-the-dark polishes you need to make sure that they set in light for awhile before using. A well lit room or in front of a window will work nicely for a few hours.
Also don’t forge to shop this post, if you liked the look of any of the polishes that I used in this tutorial make sure to head to their corresponding sites to pick them up. One thing to note is that as it is title “Ghoulish Glow” the China Glaze Glow-in-the-Dark polish will probably not be available for a long period of time. If you are interested in purchasing it you might want to snatch it up quickly.
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You did a great job on the Halloween Nail Art Tutorial! I really like how the colors go together… and the crackle finish looks fun!
Crackle polish is so much fun, and they now have it in so many different colorful options.
I would like to try that with white under the crackle!
The white crackle is very awesome. I tested it out and it was a bit light for what I wanted but it did look awesome. By the solid black polish with white crackle looks very classy 🙂
This is an awesome first tutorial! The nails look so great for Halloween!
The crackle makes for such an easy Halloween nail! Love it!
What a great Halloween nail art tutorial. We love crackle nail polish in this house, and it is very appropriate for your Halloween style.
Love the crackle look! Great color choices for your Halloween nail art! Great job!
This Halloween Nail Art looks great! The black crackle complements the orange beneath it perfectly. Also, I didn’t know about the base coat – I find that bright, bold colors stain my nails so I will have to pick up a bottle.
It’s a great base coat, and it’s not that expensive so if you get it and it happens to not work well for you you’re not out that much money. Plus it works as a top coat to boot!
Wow o with am a female, I would have like to rock that, my mom too is kinda old.
My daughter would love this. I will have to show it to her tonight.
I didn’t know that crackle existed! What a cool effect, especially for Halloween nail art!
I really enjoy doing my nails. I love the crackle finish. You did great!
I always wondered how easy it was to use the crackle nail polish. I have used regular crackle paint but never on my nails. I would be the coolest mom ever if I could do that for my daughter.
Just wait until the base polish is dry and apply over the top. It starts to dry instantly and you can watch the pattern take shape as it dries. Very cool the first time you watch it happen 🙂
I definitely need to get my hands on some glow in the dark polish… even though halloween is over in a couple hours. I’d totally wear it all the time!
Same here. You probably could find the China Glaze at Sally’s Beauty on discount in the next few days since Halloween is now over. Also Casper will probably be available for a little while from Julep as it just came out last month 🙂
This is so fun!! I was curious as to the best application for the crackle polish and this is perfect!! Happy Halloween!
Why have I never heard of crackle polish??? I love it! Now that I’m doing my nails again,i might have to start trying out all of these new polishes!
I love doing crackle on my nails. It looks so neat!
I really like the crackle look. I have never tried it before.
I like the outcome! That was cool and really express the Halloween spirit!