Hi friends, it’s Vero from @verobujo on Instagram and YouTube, today we are breaking out Archer & Olive’s Acrylograph pens to create some spooky fun nail designs that you can use for Halloween or any other spooky occasion. 

Sometimes I look at my acrylograph pens and think they’re too beautiful to use. But the problem with that is that at some point they may start drying out. While that won’t happen for a long time, I think it’s entertaining to use acrylographs for other projects and not just on paper. 

We’ll be creating this look today, and it’s great for those of us who normally have shorter nails. 

What you’ll need

• Nail Polish remover
• Cuticle oil
• Cuticle stick (to push back your cuticles)
• Base coat
• A light colour for your base colour
• Acrylograph pens, use code VERO10 for 10% off on archerandolive.com (I’m using the colours, white, black, and orange)
• Top Coat

The Steps

If you’ve never done your nails before, then there’s some prep work you’ll need to do before getting started. I use the word “need” but everything is subjective and ultimately up to you. By following my steps, you’ll ensure that your cuticles and nails stay in a healthy condition. 

Let’s start by hydrating the cuticles with some oil, I personally use Essie’s cuticle oil (it smells divine). And I apply it to my finger tips and massage it in. 

Then I’ll get my cuticle stick and push my cuticles back, this will ensure that I have maximum space for designs on my nails. Remember to use some sort of moisturising agent before pushing your cuticles back to avoid damaging them! 

Then we’re going to get the nail polish remover and wipe away any excess oils from the surface of your nail bed. We’ll now apply a base coat to protect the nails, and then you can apply the light colour for your base colour. I’m using Essie’s Mademoiselle colour. 

The thing about me, is that I only use nail polish, I’ve never tried to use gel. For all intents and purposes, I do believe that gel would work better with acrylographs, but I don’t have any and have never tried. So normal polish it is. 

Once everything has dried, it’s time to start designing. 

With your acrylographs make sure to give them a good shake and use the acrylograph pad (or really any non-absorbable surface) to get the paint flowing. This is important to make sure that you have the right thickness of paint and that it’s opaque. 

For a more in-depth view of me painting my nails, you can watch my video over here on Youtube. 

Tips

When doing your non-dominant hand, it’ll require practice, you can see in my video that my hand shakes a lot, and that it doesn’t always turn out the best. I recommend a solid flat surface and trying to move your hand getting the design rather than your hand that is painting which can reduce the shake. 

Remember to be patient with yourself, and if you don’t succeed just grab your nail polish remover and wipe the acrylograph away.  This is where your gel would work better, because nail polish remover wouldn’t remove your base boat. But if you’re like me just be careful or start the whole nail again. 

You can download my freebie for the exact step-by-step for the nail designs below!