OK, this photo is actually from a wedding we attended a few years back… but still!

So, it is almost Valentine’s Day. Now me and the boyfriend don’t really celebrate it other than going out for a meal. I tend to find all the romantic items that get shoved down our throats a bit sickly. One thing that I do love about Valentine’s Day however, is the chance to get creative with manicures and nail art.

So baring Valentine’s day in mind, I decided to experiment with negative space nail art. Negative space nail art is set to be the big thing for manicures this year, even though it looks like a bit of a faff to do. No pain, no gain, eh?

For this look I used Collection 2000’s Lasting Colour in Damson Jam. Which is possibly older than my niece, so there’s that. Despite being old it still goes on a dream, offering quick and equal coverage. I like this polish mainly for its colour; a lovely deep red. It kinda hints at being vampy without being full on femme fatale.

I painted 3 nails, leaving bare the nails on the thumb and ring finger. On the bare nails, I then used a dotting tool to draw the outline of a heart.

I thing painted the rest of the nail, using the dotting tool when I needed to paint close to the outline. As you can see on the photos, the heart on the ring finger went a bit wobbly however unless you’re looking (or taking blog photos) I think I can get away with it.

And there you go, that’s basically it.

I was toying with doing the outline of the hearts in gold, but then big brother happened.

Super simple and fast to do, this is a perfect manicure if you’re a beginner or don’t have time to create intricate Halloween nail art. For this look I have used Barry M’s bright purple as the base, an old unbranded silver nail polish and Barry M’s Diamond Glitter nail polish as a top coat .

First apply an even base coat in the bright purple. I love this nail polish, probably because the colour reminds me of Cadbury chocolate. Yum.

Once this has dried, use a dotting tool, nail art pen or cocktail stick to draw on three distinct lines. Try to get them all to originate from the same point, or as close as you can get, and flare outwards at an angle. This will form the basis of the web. You could have the starting point of the web at any place on the nail; however it makes more sense to me to place it into a top corner. I’ve chosen the ‘outer corner’ so that my webs are reaching inwards – as you will see in the photos.

The second part of this Halloween nail art, is to add in the horizontal webbing (is that what it’s called?) on the web. Do you have webbing on a web? Who knows?

You can see on this photo what I mean. The lines here look a bit thick, and if you are worried about them merging into a silvery mass, just carry on. You can define them later by adding purple in where the ‘gaps’ would be.

In the photo I have only completed one section but you need to carry on filling in the sections until the web is attached, so to speak, to each side of the nail.

I did these webs on four fingers, but felt that for Halloween nail art, it just needed something else to give it an edge.

As such, on my ring finger I created the spider. To do this, make a small circle ¾ of the way up the nail. This will be the head of the spider, and every head needs a body. So, make a larger oval attached to the head and add on one leg at a time. Try to give the legs a bit of a bend in them, rather than just sticking out straight.

For a final touch to the spider, add two small stubs to the head to act as pincers.

Cover in glittery top coat and you are done!

Told you it was quick!