This nail design focuses a bit more on the ‘living’ part of Halloween, when the boundary between the living and the dead is blurred. The bright green background symbolizes life, renewal and growth, while the golden bat symbolizes abundance, courage and love.
The nail art tutorial below is for the single bat nail design of the pictured set. Before you begin, don’t forget to prepare your nail surface with a DIY nail cleanser!
Instructions
Step 1
- Apply base coat and cure.
- Apply neon green coat and cure. Reapply neon green coat until opaque.
Step 2
- Apply coat of mixing clear gel. Do not cure.
- On uncured mixing clear gel, add drops of navy green and neon green. Mix gel around for marble effect.
- Cure.
Step 3
- Draw bat with tack-free black gel.
- Cure.
Step 4
- Add gold chrome over black gel.
- Apply shiny top coat.
- Cure.
Commentary
Halloween marks the beginning of the cold, dark winter when the Celts (a collection of European tribes, some of whom now make up modern-day Ireland) believed that the worlds of the living and of the dead became blurred. At the time of writing this blog piece, an estimated 1.18 million people around the world died from causes linked to COVID-19. So, for many, almost every day since March 2020 has probably felt like a never-ending Halloween with harrowing stories of friends, loved ones and strangers who have succumbed to the virus.
So how do we celebrate Halloween in the year 2020? Maybe it’s just carrying on as we did everyday since society has been forced to slowly readjust to this new reality. Maybe it’s reflecting on the days, weeks, and months of fear, death, grief, pockets of joy, and confusion that blur the moments that make us feel alive and make us feel utterly consumed by the reality of the world around us.
With this in mind, the nail design that focuses a bit more on the ‘living’ part of Halloween. The bright green in the background of the design symbolizes life, renewal and growth, while the golden bat symbolizes abundance, courage and love. Bats are such inspirational creatures in these confusing times. They are the only mammal capable of true flight, are able to seek sustenance in complete darkness, and also survive for months in some of the harshest frigid conditions.
