Halloween 2015 - Harley Quinn (Step by Step Tutorial) feat. Barry M

If you follow me on twitter, you'd know that I hinted at a bit of Halloween overload on the blog this week and let's just say I think I'll deliver!  Every weekday leading up to Halloween, I'll be posting a new nail art look, most will be with step-by-step how to's so that you can hopefully get on board and have some cool nails for Halloween.

I used Google's cool Frightgeist website to get some ideas as to what nails might be needed.  Although the site only charts the popular costume searches in the US, I presume that they are symptomatic of the rest of the Western world so hopefully these nails will be of some relevance to you!

The first nail art look is taken from the #1 most searched for costume of Frightgeist, which is Harley Quinn.  Now, since the excitement over Suicide Squad is building and building, I can only assume that the Harley Quinn people are hoping to dress as is the newest incarnation of the character, as played by Margot Robbie.  I'm sorry to disappoint anyone who came here looking for the more traditional Harley Quinn nail look but there are plenty of tutorials out there for that so just have a quick google and I'm sure you'll find what you're looking for.  Now, if you're still with me, let's hop on under the cut and see how you can get this look in time for Halloween.

My nail art is specifically based on Harley Quinn's hair and heart tattoo on her face, as seen here;

Image: Warner Bros. Pictures via Moviepilot

Polishes - For your colour palette, you need a white/off-white as your base, a pink, royal blue and black.  I went for an all Barry M palette so I used Cotton, Get Set Go, Supersonic and (Matte) Black.  You'll see the matte black featured a lot during this week.  There's not a particular reason I'm using a matte black other than the fact is I need to buy regular black polish and this is all I have but it gets covered in top coat anyway so.

Tools - For this manicure, I used a fan brush and a detail brush.  The fan brush is any one you get in a standard nail art kit and the detail brush is a cut down eyeliner brush but I'm sure you can find a better one already ready to go.

STEP 1 - After prepping your nails with base coat, paint your base colour until you get full opacity.  With Cotton, this usually takes three coats.

STEP 2 - On a piece of tin foil or a plastic tray, dilute a bit of pink polish with acetone or nail polish remover.  Mix with a fan brush and after getting rid of the excess colour, apply the fan brush from the left hand edge of the nail into the centre, building colour near the edge.  This does not need to be perfect since we are aiming for a messy, grungy look.

Repeat on the other side with the blue shade.  If there is too much colour meeting in the middle, then dilute some white polish and apply onto the centre of the nail with the fan brush.  If you want a more distressed look, use nail polish remover all over the nail to create more distress but be careful not to use too much otherwise you will start to remove the base layer of colour (unless this is what you want).

STEP 3 - Using a detail brush and black polish, put a black dot onto the nail.  Using the fan brush dipped in nail polish remover, drag the black down and create a distressed dirty mark in the lower left side of the nail.

Using the detail brush and black polish, draw a heart on the lower left side of the nail, where the darker distress effect is.  Fill in the black heart and leave to dry.  Wait until all the nails are dry and apply top coat.

I hope you guys have enjoyed the post and like this format because you'll be seeing a lot of it during this week!  I wanted to open the week with what I thought was a current and popular costume that will hopefully be made all the more special with some cool nail art.

What have you got planned for your Halloween nails?  Let me know in the comments below and be sure to like, subscribe, and follow me on all the social media sites on the right hand side, until next time :-)