Nail Art: FingerFood's Theme Buffet #16 - Gothic

When all of the members of the Theme Buffet were throwing around ideas on the Facebook group for the upcoming months, I was excited to see Sarah of Penny Pinching Polish suggest a gothic theme. I had a whole bunch of ideas that I would have loved to try out.

And here I am, two hours before this week's deadline, trying to throw together a mani really quick - one which was none of the things I really had in mind. This was one of the weeks I was most looking forward too...and of course it would turn out to be the one where I had little to no free time.




This is actually a really simple manicure. A few coats of polish, a little stamping and voila!...instant gothic manicure.

I didn't have much time to throw something particularly time-intensive, and it had to be something done in a single shot - no trial and error - so I decided to do a simple, but hopefully effective design.

I started off with a black base color on all of my nails (bonus is that I got to swatch a polish to review this week!) Walking around and taking a trip to the store in just plain solid black brought back memories of junior high and high school. Everyone was wearing their pastels and colored french tips (which were huge in 1998-99, my senior year),  I felt I was oh so edgy and anti-establishment with my solid black nails.

Over this black, I used a coat of Nfu-Oh 46 on all fingers but my ring fingers. This is a really vivid red jelly base with red flakies that flashes yellow to green at the edges. A single, thin coat of the flakie let the black still peek through, while the red flakes gave the perfect sparkly blood-inspired topper. Originially, I was going to do a gradient/ ombre effect with this polish... but then I saw The Sparkle Queen's look and realized it would look a lot the same. I also thought of stamping rose outlines in black over this.... but after trying one nail, decided against it.

Next, I broke out the stamper for a quick addition to my ring fingers. I used a skull pattern from  Cici & Sisi plate 11.  I hadn't heard much about these plates before, but when I saw them on Amazon, I figured I'd give them a try. They actually work out really well! There are tons of designs and I can't wait to try.

This was my first time using Silver Sweep as a stamping polish and I am in love. The image came out crisp, clean and opaque... and most of all, still looking like silver! I have seen this polish recommended time and time again for stamping, but now I can see why.

I was going to leave everything glossy, as it was, but at the last moment, I decided to throw on a matte topcoat. I'm glad I did, since I really like the way it turned out.

Polishes / Items used in this manicure:

• Black: Salon Perfect - Oil Slick
• Red Flakie: Nfu-Oh - 46
• Silver: Sally Hansen Insta Dri - Silver Sweep
• Matte Top Coat: NYC - Matte Me Crazy
• Stamping Plate: Cici & Sisi - 11 (Jumbo Set 2)

So, what do you think? I think it turned out pretty good for a simple, last-minute manicure! I hope I have time in the future to try out all of those other gothic designs floating around in my head.

I the mean time, take a look at all of the other nail art put out this week, and feel free to join in. I'm particularly fond of the looks on Kerruticles, FingerFood, Myristine and PennyPinchingPolish this week!  You can find us on the FingerFood's Theme Buffet Facebook group, through the InLinkz below and on the group Pinterest board.

An InLinkz Link-up