The Best Halloween Nails, According to Celebrity Nail Artists

Reported by Vogue.

Halloween is the one moment in the beauty calendar where the brief is essentially anything goes — and your nails are the easiest place to commit. According to Vogue, the nail artists behind some of the most-talked-about manicures right now are fielding requests that run the full spectrum: hyper-realistic blood drips, friendly cartoon ghosts, intricate occult imagery, and surprisingly wearable abstract sets that outlast October 31st without looking like a costume.

London-based Nailsbymets reports clients are obsessing over graveyard scenes, carved pumpkins, and deep red dripping blood nails — but her personal preference leans vampy and versatile: long stiletto or almond shapes in black and dark red that transition seamlessly from trick-or-treating to dinner. California-based Laysa Cazares confirms blood drips are her single most-requested Halloween look, while New York's Michelle Ramirez of AKIKO salon cites blood from the cuticle, spider webs on accent nails, and 3D fang decals as her top three. Shape-wise, the consensus is pointy or round — both read witchier, both make nails appear longer.

When Halloween Ends, the Nail Doesn't Have To

The smartest artists are already thinking past the holiday. AKIKO's Yumi Lee — who reaches for Deborah Lippmann polish when creating her eyeball and pumpkin sets — swears by negative space designs, specifically the black French tip: "Easy to create, classic, and they look good even after the holiday." Marbles Valdez of MVZ Beauty Studio in New York's Lower East Side points to aura and airbrushed nails in a spooky palette — think green, orange, black, purple — as her go-to for clients who want the Halloween energy without committing to a look that expires. Australian nail artist Miss Betty Rose layers jelly blacks and browns with fine-line detailing between coats for dimension that photographs beautifully and wears even better.

On the more avant-garde end, Chanel nail artist Betina R. Goldstein is incorporating actual human hair into braided nail art, and industry favorite Mei Kawajiri recreated a realistic injured nail last season using only polish and a fine brush — "creeped everyone out online," she told Vogue, unbothered. Meanwhile, Vanessa Hudgens' celebrity nail artist Zola Ganzorigt is proof that a studded French tip is all it takes to make something classic feel genuinely witchy.

Whether you're going full gore or keeping it to a single chrome flame on a bare nail, the real move this Halloween is treating your manicure like the accessory it actually is — intentional, considered, and entirely yours.

Read the original at Vogue.