I was recently sent the heroine.nyc Dream Cremes polishes for review, and got to work creating nail designs to my hearts content.

 

 

    

These polishes are some of the best pastel creams I have ever tried! They make nail art so easy and pretty!

 

Today I'll be sharing how to create this spooky, stamped Halloween mani - I hope this is a helpful how-to for beginners.

 

I start out by prepping my nails with a base colour - this time a dark grey (Illamasqua - DWS). I will also use my favourite black stamping polish (Painted Polish - Midnight Mischief).

 

 

 Once two coats of base colour are nearly dry (still slightly tacky), I get my stamping stuff ready. 

  

 Curali stamping plate 019 & heroine.nyc [Peek-a-Blue]

 

Apply a generous amount (roughly one drop) of polish to the chosen image, gently swipe once or twice with a scraper (to remove the surface excess), then quickly roll the stamper across the image to pick it up onto the silicone surface. It should look something like this -

 

 

You can see I am using a clear stamper - which means placing the image is easy-peasy! Mine is a generic one which I purchased from eBay.

I have decided to put these pale-blue gravestones in the background of the nail like so (just pressing it into place, straight down) -

 

 

You might be wondering how to reverse stamp? (Also known as making stamping decals.) Well, simply repeat the same steps as before -

 

Then use small amounts of the Dream Cremes polishes (on a nail art dotting tool, small nail art brush, or even the tip of a hairpin in a pinch), to colour-in the image. Using a clear stamper means you can check you're staying within the lines by looking up through the bottom!

When you're finished, it should look something like this -

 

 

My camera has made each colour look white, but here I in fact used Lilac It, Empower-mint, and Sugar Spun. With reverse stamping, I find the trick is to let your image dry 90% on the stamper head (usually 60 seconds or so), then press down directly onto the nail to apply. If you mess up the timing, you could smudge the image - then you'll have to start all over again. So, be patient!

 

 

The possibilities are pretty much endless! Here is a finished set of 5 nails - ready for creepy Halloween festivities! 

 

Thanks for reading and I wish you all a happy and horrible Halloween! 

Ruth