Halloween Nail Art: To-Die-For Day of the Dead Digits

Photo by Cody Garcia

Make no bones about it! Gravity star Sandra Bullock recently got into the Halloween spirit with an otherworldy outfit. She and her 3-year-old son Louis wore matching macabre skeleton costumes to his school party. Bullock also completely covered her face with Day of the Dead makeup using white paint accented by black eyes, nose, lips and cheek stitches, and a red flower chin and petal socket eyes. 

Sandra Bullock: Superstar sugar skull look.

This type of face paint honors a holiday celebration in Central and South America called Day of the Dead. Dia de los Muertos, as it's known, takes place on November 1 and 2, and actually brings about joyful rather scary feelings. The tradition remembers deceased friends and family members with special altars that have been lovingly adorned with edible sugar skulls, flowers and other gifts that the departed enjoyed during their lifetime.

Sugar skulls inspire festive nail art designs in a scary good way. Whimsical elements that can be applied with polish include petal socket eyes, cobwebs, stitches and flowers. So, in honor of Halloween and Day of the Dead, my niece, Natalie J. Wilson, and I created several easy patterns using glue-on thumb nails as our canvas. They're drop-dead gorgeous!

Please feel free to share your own Halloween or Day of the Dead nail art ideas. We'd love to hear about them!  

SIMPLIFIED SUGAR SKULL

Nail art by Natalie J. Wilson

SHINE: Karma Organic Nail Polish San Gennaro in September (red), Velvet Night (purple) and Cobblestone Matte (gray). BEAUTY: Start with two coats of gray polish. Then, using purple lacquer, paint two large eye sockets, a triangle nose and a mouth with a long, straight line and several small vertical stitches. Use the tip of your brush or a nail art dotting tool to finish the skull with red flower-like petals around the eyes. BEACON: No animal testing. Free of toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate. 

STYLISH STITCHES

Nail art by Natalie J. Wilson

SHINE: Ruby Wing Color Changing Nail Polish Green Peace (bright to dark green), Summer Love (bright to burnt orange) and Horizon (bright to deep red). BEAUTY: Sugar skull art often features flowers, stitches and geometric shapes. To create a sophisticated stitch-'em-up look, apply two coats of orange polish. Next, paint two layers of green lacquer over the upper half of your nail bed. Where the two colors meet, draw a red line across the entire nail. After it dries, paint small uneven vertical stitches to complete the look. BEACON: Vegan and no animal testing. Supports GLAAD, Autism Speaks and the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund.

CLASSIC COBWEB

Nail art by Rhonda J. Wilson

SHINE: Dazzle Dry Nail Lacquer Portia's Wit (white), Midnight Express (black) and Oh My! (bright orange). BEAUTY: A spider web design playfully presents a gothic graphic look on a sugar skull--and your nails. Start with two coats of white polish, and then paint fan-shaped straight black lines from the bottom of the nail to the top. To complete the cobweb-like effect, draw arches in between the lines to connect them. Finish by painting orange polish over some of the black lines to create more depth. BEACON: Vegan, and contains no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, camphor or nitrocellulose. 

FESTIVE FLOWER

Nail art by Natalie J. Wilson

SHINE: Dazzle Dry Nail Lacquer Morning Dew (bright green), Oh My! (bright orange), Rapid Red (crimson), Midnight Express (black) and Strawberry Macaron (pink). BEAUTY: Sugar skulls often get crowned with paper or fresh flowers, such as gladiolas. To recreate one, layer two coats of pink polish over the entire nail. Next, use a nail art brush or the edge of the polish brush to draw a large star-like outline with four pointed corners in black lacquer. Then, begin coloring in the look with green leaves and orange petal polish. Complete the flower by placing a large red dot in the center. BEACON: Vegan, and contains no formaldehyde, toluene, dibutyl phthalate, camphor or nitrocellulose. 

Photo by Shabnam Mogharabi

My Halloween version of Day of the Dead.