Traditional Halloween [1] festivities don't need to be a one-night occurrence. Thanks to the huge amount of Halloween-inspired nail art filling Instagram, you can add a touch of spook throughout the entirety of October.
Whilst we adore over-the-top nails [2] (it is Halloween after all), they're not always the most practical and definitely not the most straight forward to DIY [3] at home. Luckily, some of the spookiest Halloween nail-art designs are actually some of the easiest to create. We searched high and low on Instagram to find the very best looks and the ones that are the simplest to re-create, including fingerprints, ghosts, and even a spooky twist on french nails. Halloween nail designs encourage gory, outside-of-the-cuticle action — so the messier, the better.
So, what are you waiting for? Grab your nail polishes, put on Hocus Pocus [4], and get creative.
Subtle Blood Splatter Nails
Try an autumnal shade of burgundy instead of blood red for your spooky nails this year. Use the trending almond shape for a subtle French manicure and add bookend block colour. Accent your ring finger with chic blood splats that will be perfect for those wanting to embrace Halloween [6] in the most stylish of ways.
Heart Cobweb Nails
A real trick or treat style, the pale pink base makes for a feminine touch. A heart stencil at the tips surrounded by delicate white cobweb lines is the ideal nod to spooky season.
Vampire Fang Nails
Take inspiration from comic book trends and use Vampire fangs as the focus of this nail art. Using black, white, red, and neutral colours, the white tips surrounded by red drips gives the perfect bleeding effect. A defined black outline adds to the cartoon feel, too.
Midnight Scene Nails
This night scene manicure is the perfect way to participate in some spooky season festivities without going full-on with the theme. Grab a sheer pink shade, black, white, nail art brush, and dotting tool. After painting your base, create a swirled off-centre tip using either the polish paint brush or a thin lining brush. Once that has dried, using a brush and dotting tool, add dots, starts and tiny moon shapes in the opposite colour to your base.
Watchful Eyes Nails
Start with a black base coat, grab your dotting tool, and using a white polish, create the whites of the eyes. Let dry, and do the same with a black polish inside the white; make sure the black dots are smaller than the white. To finish, paint over the entire design with a matte topcoat [7] (£5).
Halloween French Nails
Feeling like a bit of a challenge? Give this red Halloween-themed french manicure a whirl. You'll need a sheer pink base shade, red shade, thin nail brush, and a dotting tool if you have one. Now all that requires is some patience to trace each design on. If you need extra help, there are plenty of step-by-step tutorials to help — especially the fire design.
Spiderweb Nails
If you're got a steady hand, you've got to try this intricate spiderweb design. Grab some stiletto false nails and paint a few coats of black polish to create your base. Next, take a thin brush and white polish and carefully draw this web design on the tip of the nail.
Stitched-Up French Nails
This is a great Halloween [8] twist on a traditional french mani. Paint a clear or light-neutral base coat, then follow by painting on the orange tips. Using a toothpick or small brush, paint on the lined detail. This mani doesn't have to be perfect because the stitching is supposed to look roughly drawn.
Blood Splatter Nails
This design is definitely a messy one, but it's also absolutely the most fun. Paint a white base coat and wait for it to dry completely. Then, get a straw and cut in half; put some red nail polish on a paint palette, tin foil, or jar lid; cover the tip of one straw end with the polish, aim towards the nail, and blow into the straw. You'll get a messy blood-splatter effect. Depending on where your polish splattered, you might want to clean up your cuticles a little. Whatever you do, just don't suck nail polish up the straw.
Fleshy Ombré Nails
Using the same technique as the candy-corn nail design, paint a neutral base and then lightly dab layers of red over the top of it, sealing off with a topcoat.
Pumpkin Polka Dot Nails
This simple polka-dot mani is great for getting into the Halloween [9] colour theme. Paint a base colour of your choice, then use a dotting tool or the end of a pen (get creative with your tools) to dot on your other Halloween-esque shades.
Pixie Dust Pumpkin Nails
Another ombré! Using a nail polish with a texture gives an alternative finish to a simple ombré, perfect to be worn in the day if you don't want to scare your colleagues with bloody nails.
Ghost Nails
This is possibly the cutest Halloween [10] nail design we've seen yet. First, start off with a base of your choice; we love the pumpkin hue in these photos. Then, carefully paint on the ghost's body in white polish using a small paint brush (don't worry about being too perfect), and once it's fully dried, add the eye and mouth details using a nail dotting tool or a toothpick.
Red to Black Nails
For another stylish and simple design, start off with a red base coat and sponge on the black. To add more detail to this design, you can add small gems or spooky nail stickers.
Candy Corn Nails
Candy corn is definitely an American Halloween [11] tradition that us Brits have jumped on, and although it is hard to buy here in the UK, it makes great nail art. This technique is called ombré and almost always starts off with a white base coat. Once your white base is dry, paint the white, orange, and yellow polishes side by side on a makeup sponge and lightly sponge onto the nail; you may need to do this two or three times to get coverage (and be sure to wait until each layer is dry before going in with another). Don't forget the topcoat to seal the design in.
Friendly Ghost Nails
Try out this cartooned ghost mani — who knew ghosts could be so adorable? Using a white or cream base coat, dot on the black eye, and using a small brush or toothpick, create the triangle shapes. Patience is key with this one.
Bloody Special Effect Nails
This is an easy-peasy, ultrascary, and definitely grim manicure. All this requires is an unsteady hand and love of special effects (SFX) gore. We recommend using SFX blood in a few different shades and roughly dabbing it onto the nail and the cuticles. Continue building up the layers until you have your desired bloody effect.
Fingerprint Nails
Another fun Halloween [12] manicure involves literally putting your fingerprints onto your nails. Paint a white base coat, paint red polish directly onto your finger, dab onto some paper to get the excess polish off, and transfer the polish from your finger onto the white nail polish. Seal with a topcoat and you have a crime scene on your hands. If you want to step it up a level, add blood splatter effects over the top of the fingerprints like this artist did.
Stars at Night Nails
Paint a black base coat, leave to dry, and then add a sparkly polish. Using your tool of choice, add a mix of dots, stars, and a moon. These less-scary nails are great for the weeks leading up to Halloween [13] and can be worn in the day without getting horrified looks for your deceptively bloody nails.
Full Moon Nails
For this manicure, you'll need a white, black, and matte top-coat nail polish, plus a mini sponge (just cut one up if you don't have any small ones on hand). Start by painting on a rough circle using a small paint brush, then dab on white polish and go in with the black shade to create this full-moon effect. To finish, paint over the entire design (once it's completely dry) with a matte top coat.
Jack Skellington Nails
For another matte design, grab your black, white, and matte polishes again. You'll need a fine paint brush (or a nail dotting tool) to carefully paint the eyes, nose, and mouth detail. If you're nervous, start by using a small amount of paint on the brush and build up the colour once you have a rough outline.
Lightning Bolt Nails
These lightning-bolt nails are subtly spooky — and we adore them! You'll need a black, neon green, and a slightly deeper green shade of nail polish. Start by painting a black base, and once that's dry, dab on the deeper green hue in a rough lightning bolt shade. Once that layer is dry, use a fine paint brush to go over the dark green sponged areas in your neon green shade. To give it extra definition, you can use a teeny amount of white nail polish to really make the bolts stand out.
Gory Galore SFX Nails
We saved the best (or worst) for last. These are the ultimate zombie nails to scare anyone who catches a glimpse of them. This takes a bit more work than the others, but is still easier than it looks. You'll need to buy some cheap fake nails so that you aren't cutting your actual nail (that is never, ever a good idea). Using cuticle cutters or nail scissors, roughly cut the false nails before sticking them on. Then, using a sponge, dab both light and dark red polish onto the fake and real nail (where the fake one has been cut off) and over the cuticle line. Go over this with fake blood to make it look realistic. To get an even grimmer effect, dab on some red nail polish before adding the fake nail on to create layers of gory cuts. Ouch!