Nail Art for Día de muertos - Day of the Dead

Hello dear readers!

This is the 3rd year that I get to do a manicure based on Día de muertos.

If you don't know what this Mexican festivity is about, you can read my two previous posts (here and here).

What I usually do is remember my loved ones who have passed away. Well, they are always in my heart and mind, but for Mexicans, November 1st and 2nd is a special day. We dedicate this day to go to the cemetery and visit our relatives tombs, put flowers and their favorite food. We stay a while there, and talk with our family while we remember special moments of those who have gone before us. This is what I mostly remember of día de muertos in Mexico. What I just described is another way of celebrating this day besides the traditional altar de muertos.

As for this nail art, it always takes me hours to put it together. From planing the layout of all the día de muertos elements into nail art, to painting the base color, choosing all the colors that will be used, stamping, etc... 4-5 hours at least. I just like to put a lot of thought and heart into it, as if it was my own altar.

 Here you can see many elements surrounding this tradition. Two skeletons in such "alive expressions" that symbolizes death as part of life itself and a reflection of ourselves. Cómo me ves te verás (The way you see me now, you will look like). The two nails in the middle represent my memories of going to the cemetery to leave my grandfather food and lighting a candle so it would guide his spirit to us. In our minds, he would know we were lighting that candle for him, he would see us and enjoy his food as well. *As a curious note, all people who make food offerings say that after this day, altar food loses its flavor, meaning that it was somehow consumed by our loved one.

Whether these beliefs are truth or not, for me, it is a beautiful, magical tradition that I grew up with.

The thumb design is just a representation of papel picado (cut out paper) that adorns altars and many other Mexican celebrations.

I hope you liked this nail art and learned a bit more about this Mexican holiday.

Día de muertos is more than painting your face as a sugar skull. I hope this day never loses its true meaning which is: honoring and remembering our lost loved ones...gone but never forgotten♥

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

Skeleton Nail Art - Tutorial

Hello dear readers!

I've been busy with everything regarding the stamping plates that I released recently. If you follow me through FB or Instagram, you know by now. If not, then you can take a look at the plates here or purchase directly through my store.

Now, let's get into Halloween mood, shall we?...

This nail art is very easy to do and no stamping is needed. All you need is nail polish and a dotting tool. (Pictorial below)

For this nail art, I started by applying Moda Bleu by Barielle, part their Me Couture collection .

Now, here's the fun part...

You start by painting  1 or 2 white lines along your nails. If your nails are long, then 2 lines is more appropriate. Then, proceed to put two dots, side to side on each end of the line. Repeat this on all your nails.

As you can see, this nail art had a shiny finish, but I thought a matte finish would look better.

I applied a matte finish top-coat as the finishing touch. 

Better, right?

Extra pic...

I hope you like this nail art. I think it is very easy to do and would go perfectly if you wear an skeleton-type of Halloween costume...Grim reaper, for example, or to compliment your sugar-skull look on Día de muertos. If you don't have long nails and you would still like to wear nails that way on Halloween, you could paint a set of false nails ;)

2x1 Día de Muertos Nail Art

Hello dear readers!

Today I will be showing you two different Día de muertos (Day of the dead) nail art in the same post ;)
I wanted to try a more traditional one and a simpler one, but with a similar theme.

More detailed pictures and details below....

As I wrote on my día de muertos post from last year, Nov. 1st (children) and Nov. 2nd (adults) are days for Mexicans to remember our loved ones who are no longer with us. We prepare an altar with elements such as fruits, food, and other elements that are supposed to guide the spirit of our loved one to us and then back to the afterlife.

(A  traditional día de muertos altar)

Now, this theme translated to nail art...

*I added the dead lovers as the center of this nail art as a symbol of love after death. 

Absence does not mean forgetting.

There will always be a very special place in our hearts for those who have gone before us.

For this manicure, I started with China Glaze - Howl you Doin' as the base. Then, I stamped the lover's skeletons, papel picado (cut paper) pattern, crosses and candles from HD C and HD D plates.

I painted the skeletons using the stamping decal technique.

On my thumb, I applied a combination of stamping sugar skulls and added flower stickers for extra decoration.

*In Mexico, calaveras de azúcar (sugar skulls) are given as a treat for this celebration or as part of the altar. When given to a friend or relative, the name of the receiver is usually written on the skulls forehead. 

Now, the 2nd nail art theme is death as part of life itself.

It is a fact that many people don't like to think about because it may sound gruesome or sad.

The day we are born, we have started a journey that will finish with death.

A part of a dancing skeleton stamped on my nail...

The skeleton is probably mocking us, saying "Cómo me ves, te verás"

(The way you see me now, sooner or later you will look like me).

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I hope you liked any of these two nail art that I made for this very special post.

I had to take some time to write something meaningful for this day because this festivity is very close to my heart. So, if you took your time to read through this post, I hope you've learned a little bit about día de muertos.

♥♥Thank you for reading♥♥

Halloween Skeleton Nail Stamping

Hello, dear readers!

As you may have read on my previous post. I released new HD stamping plates with Halloween and Día de muertos designs. Now that they are on my hands, I put HD-C plate to the test and did a manicure with it.

(All pictures can be enlarged)

I started out by using Revlon - Enthrall as the base for this manicure.

I stamped the spiderweb pattern on the thumb using a holographic stamping nail polish that I made myself with Spectraflair pigment. On the other nails, the spiderwebs look more subtle because I used a holographic topcoat instead to give a hint of shimmery spiderwebs. I stamped the dancing skeleton image with Sally Hansen - Silver Sweep. I used the stamping decal technique to have more control of the placement of the design across my 4 nails. I just transferred the design onto the stamper, added clear topcoat, let dry and cut/applied the skeleton in parts.

A close-up pic on the spiderweb design on my thumb nail.

(Can you see the holographic effect?)

What do you think of this manicure?

(You can purchase HD C and D plates here)

♥♥Thank you so much for reading♥♥

My Nails for Día de Muertos (Day of the dead)

Hi dear readers!

I want to show you my manicure for Day of the Dead.

To those who are not familiarized with this festivity. It is a Mexican festivity that takes place in Nov. 1st (for children) and Nov 2nd (for adults). It is a day to remember your loved ones who have passed away. It is believed that on this day, the spirits of loved ones come back to their families. That is the reason many people visit the cemetery and make offerings with flowers, food and other things that the deceased liked when they lived.

To guide the spirit of a loved one to ones home, people arrange altars and adorn it with cut out paper and make offerings of fruits, food, flowers and skulls made of sugar. Candles are lit because the light will guide the spirits to their homes.

As you can see, I tried to add many elements this tradition into this manicure. Everything you see (except the little dots around the skull eye socket ) was made using nail stamping plates.

The stamp plates I used:
A03, A30, A44, A57, AT03, BuNa01, GCOCL C02, HD03, HD04, m55, QA6, XL F and XL K (holiday).

Nail polishes I used:
Base - OPI Who are You Wearing?
Stamping polishes - Sally Hansen Insta-dri in Silver Sweep, Brisk Blue, Snappy Sorbet, Mint Sprint, Lickety Split Lime, Lively Lilac, Presto Pink, Speedy Sunburst, Lightening and Konad White.

I really wanted to share this manicure with you because this celebration has a special meaning to me and I feel very close to this tradition.

I hope you like this manicure and if you didn't know about this day, I hope you learned something new with this post.

♥ ♥Thank you so much for reading♥ ♥