Nails for Halloween: vampire nails are the nail trend you’ve been waiting for

Not everyone wants to follow the Halloween nail trend, but searches for vampire nails have started to skyrocket on TikTok, spurring tons of inspiration. In fact, experts at UK Saunas analyzed the platform’s data to conclude in real time that the term “vampire nails” was at the top of the list of manicure suggestions, with over 12 million views on the app.

The trend is a perfect storm, coinciding with the rise of the grunge aesthetic from Goth girl which is becoming popular on TikTok, as well as with Halloween approaching. So, even if you’re not usually a fan of the latest trend or follow a particular theme for Halloween, remember that the nail design it’s a state of mind unto itself.

What are vampire nails?

Before you imagine tiny Dracula bills glued onto your nails, know that this style is actually all about a color scheme rather than a specific design. Vampire nails include thrilling red and black manicures in an infinite number of versions, from aura nails to dégradé nails via stiletto ones.

How to do vampire nails?

So far, the most popular way to interpret them is with an aura design. This look is a revisitation of the dégradé and involves a mixture of two or more colors to be applied in a spherical way, so as to make the color change from the center outwards, rather than horizontally or vertically. Even dégradé, however, remains an effective way of wearing them.

6 of our favorite ways to wear vampire nails

Nail artist @glossytipped has garnered over 9 million views on her black and red aura nail design, which she created using a square outline of black nail polish applied to a sponge, with a blood red in the center.

Nail artist Aisté, who goes by @heygreatnails, showed how she created vampire aura nails using red nail polish with dabbed black eyeshadow.

User @foreignnlaurynnnbeauty showed us a close-up of her “reverse aura” vampire nails. He concentrated the darkest color in the center, making it fade into a brighter red towards the edge of the nails, and then upped the ante with some decorative jewels.

If you want a great looking manicure lethal, we really like this dagger-point shape. Instead of an aura pattern, @tippedbaby chose a dégradé French manicure with black tips and a red base.

The pros at @lightslacquer showed how they managed to achieve cherry aura nails in vampire shades.

And @nail.art.by.marie created a vampire aura manicure on short, elegant nails.