Halloween Nails 1

It is that time of year! Its nearly Halloween and the autumn is very much upon us now in the UK. Originally, I wanted to do a nail art design that I had never seen anywhere before. Pretty much all of my nail art has been inspired from somthing else I have seen elsewhere, so I thought I would try something completely original. As Autumn is my favourite season due to the colours of all the fallen leaves and bare trees, I thought I would try and transfer that into my nail art, and put some fallen leaves onto my nails. I searched on the internet and I couldn't find the design done by anyone anywhere, so as far as I know, it hasn't been done by anyone yet. Perfect. 

After work last week, I walked home picking up all the most interesting leaves I could find. When I got home I dried them out on the radiator. Last night I decided that it was time to try my design out. My plan of action was to paint my colour base coat, apply a tacky clear coat, and set about placing the leaf onto my nail. Whilst in place, I would file down the edge to remove the excess leaf, and then give it another clear coat of polish to stick it down and voila. This is the technique used when you do feather nail art so I thought it couldn't be too hard. Wrong. 

The leaf would slip and slide about the nail plate because of its uneven surface, smudging the paint underneath. It was also very thick at the stem, so was quite hard to file down. I also found the only part of the leaf I could use, was the tip in order to make sure no part of the leaf went over any skin. Sticking it down also required a good few layers of top coat making it hard to dry. Overall, it was a pretty terrible experience, and I can see why I couldn't find it on the internet. It also looked pretty rubbish to be honest. The image I had made up in my head is certainly not what I saw on my nail. My plan B was to paint on the leaf and then use my Mo You stamper to get the skeleton pattern of the leaf. Again, that didn't work, so I just decided to stick to good old nail varnish and tools and just do it myself! The effect I got with the polish is how I envisioned the leaves to look. Ha!

After all my efforts, I couldn't bare to remove the one leaf I succesfully (kind of) managed to attach to my nail. It looks pretty pathetic really, but I thought it would be a let down if I didn't show what it looked like! I also added a Halloween pumpkin, as the orange theme seemed perfect.

The orange base is 'Speed Dial' by Ciate.

The dark brown is 'Espresso' from the sublime collection by Mavala I reviewed a few days ago.

The green is the 'Ditch the heels' that came in my emerald collection kit by Ciate (see review here)

And the gold is 'Foil' by Barry M.

I simply dotted each colour over the nail and then outlined the leaf shapes and drew in the creases.

For the pumpkin, I blobbed some green on the tip of my nail and used a black nail art pen to do the detailing, and facial features. I then did the creases to add a more 3D effect using a gold nail art pen, as it was more subtle.

My first attempt at trying to be original was a big fail, but at least I have finally started my Halloween art work ideas now.