runway inspired Halloween manicures

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.

pink polka dots

One of my favorite new fall items is a sweater from J. Crew. Burgundy and pink polka dots, I love it.

J. Crew COLLECTION CASHMERE POLKA-DOT SWEATER

Well I was thoroughly smitten with this combination and decided to try it out on my nails.

I used Essie’s Skirting the Issue as a base color. It a bit more of a red than the sweater in photos but in person it’s a pretty deep dark red. I used a dotting tool and Revlon’s Plum Seduction.

It’s not my best or favorite manicure. The pink polka dots don’t have quite the right vibrancy.

Chanel pearls

 

I saw this pearl manicure a few days ago on Polish You Pretty and had been thinking about how I could make something similar but a bit more wearable…something less ‘sculptural.’

nails from Polish You Pretty

I thought pearlescent dots in Chanel’s Intermezzo would be a good substitute. I can’t find the polish anywhere. I think it was a limited release color from a few years ago. It’s pretty white with a pink iridescence.

For this manicure I used Dior Blue Label (my new FAVORITE blue) as a base color. Then I used a dotting tool to make varying sized dots in Intermezzo around the moon of my nail bed.

Pretty easy.

 

 

 

 

chevron nails

I spotted this amazing chevron and glitter manicure on pinterest ages ago. I haven’t been able to figure out who to credit the image to but if I could I definitely would.

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I have been wanting to recreate it but knew that chevron was going to be a bitch to do. Well I finally did it, ugh, chevron is worse than a bitch. I am a perfectionist though.

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I used Essie Clambake (an all time classic) as the main color.

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The chevron was awful to do. I will say though that I started with a base of two coats of white and used a detail brush in black to do the stripes. After a lot of detailed clean up with a paintbrush dipped in acetone and touch ups in both black and white I got some good sharp edges.

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For the glitter nail I used two coats of a peach polish then immediately dipped the nail in loosse rose gold glitter after applying the second coat of polish. This way the peach polish just barely shows through, lending even more rosiness to the glitter.

nail art

neon on neon

This is a pretty simple manicure. First though I always put 1 coat of white nail polish on before I apply a neon color. Neons tend to be thin and streaky. A white base coat means you only have to use 2 coats of the neon color and it makes the neon SUPER NEON.

For this manicure I used two coats of China Glaze Celtic Sun. Then I painted 2 coats of Essie Lights in the shape of my nail but leaving room around the cuticle and on the sides to let the neon yellow show. Ta da!

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