A friend of mine, Hannah Morrill, asked me to come up with some runway inspired Halloween manicures for Harpersbazaar.com. I took ideas from Ruffian, Jenni Kayne, Prabal Gurung and Chanel runway looks to make a bit more real life friendly designs.

Prabal Gurung bloody tips:

I saw the Prabal Gurung manicure recreated all over the internet but kept thinking ‘who wants to look like they have been scratching off their mosquito bites?’ Somehow the runway version was a bit too literal for me. So I came up with something a bit more wearable. I love this manicure. It’s subtle enough for everyday. At first glance it reads as a plain red manicure but up close you see the shiny drips of blood. For more impact you can always apply the drips in a deeper red to amp up the contrast between the base color and the dripping ‘blood.’

Kate Spade polka dots gone googly eyes:

Everyone knows polka dots are in, everything is spotted and dotted up the wazoo. I liked the idea of reinterpreting  the  polka dot into googly eyes. Essie’s new Stylnomics hits on the rich jewels tones of Kate Spade’s fall collection so I thought it would make a great base color.

Jenni Kayne pumpkin french:

In the same vein of finding bloody nails less than appealing, recreating smoker’s jaundiced nails seems kind of gross to me as well. But the french manicure is a classic and I’ve been seeing multicolored french manicures all over the place. Enter the pumpkin french, I loved the Chanel beige and shimmering orange combo, and it doesn’t make you look like a chain smoker!

Ruffian / Chanel velvet silhouette:

Velvet manicures seem very popular right now. Ruffian had amazing 2 toned half moon manicures on their models for their fall 2012 runway show. there is something so luxurious and sophisticated about velvet. I have herd mixed reviews on the Ciate Velvet manicure sets but still can’t get the look off my mind. I decided to combine the Chanel cruise collection‘s silhouetted manicure with the sultry palette and texture of Ruffian’s fall nails. Matte top coat is amazing and really transforms the effect of a manicure.