These blood drip nails are the cool-girl mani for Halloween

Can Halloween nails ever really look cool? Cutesy pumpkins and novelty skeletons are tricky to make grown-up, but blood drip nails? The trend doesn’t sound like it should work, but having seen it created by some of our favourite nail artists, it turns out, it very much can. In fact, they look spooky and stylish in one swift hit.

With the goth and grunge aesthetic taking off on its own anyway (see also: #rockstargirlfriend, soft smokey eyes, studded skin and Avril Lavigne hair), edgy manis couldn’t be more timely. And, with most of the detail focused along the tips of the nail, the blood drip mani leans into another major trend having a moment right now, the French manicure.

Even better, nail pro, Melanie from Overglow Edit, took to her Instagram to prove just how approachable the design is if you wanted to try it out yourself at home. She used a dotting tool to create the bottom of the blood drip, around ⅓rd of the way down the nail, then streaked it up to the tip. Don’t have a dotter? The bottom of a bobby pin will also work. Next, she used an ultra fine brush to fill in the top, almost like a French tip. For this we’d recommend a nail art brush which you can get for a fiver or less on Amazon.