Vampire Nails Have Become the Most Popular Mani for Spooky Season

Not everyone wants to jump on the Halloween nails train, but searches for vampire nails have started soaring on TikTok. As a result, there are tons of inspiration rolling in on the platform. According to experts at UK Saunas, which analyzed data from the app, the term “vampire nails” is driving the most nail art inspo, with over 12 million views and counting.

The trend is a perfect storm, coinciding with the rise of the grungy goth-girl aesthetic that's exploding on TikTok, alongside the run-up to Halloween. So even if you'd never normally go novelty or follow a theme for Halloween, the nail design is a mood in its own right.

What are vampire nails?

Before you imagine tiny Count Draculas pasted onto nails, let's clarify that the trend focuses on a color scheme versus a specific design. Vampire nails sees dangerous-looking red and black manis in a whole bunch of renditions, from aura to ombré to stiletto.

How to do vampire nails:

The most popular way to play it is with an aura design. The look is a reconfiguration of ombré and involves a blend of two or more colors that are applied spherically with the color changing from the center outward, as opposed to horizontally or vertically. That said, ombré remains an effective way of wearing it too.

6 of our favorite ways to wear vampire nails:

Nail artist @glossytipped has brought in more than 9 million views, courtesy of her black and red aura nail design. She created it using a black square outline of polish applied to a sponge, adding blood red in the center.

Nail artist Aisté, who goes by @heygreatnails, showed how she created aura vampire nails using a red polish with black eye shadow buffed in.

User @foreignnlaurynnnbeauty gave us a close-up of her reverse aura vampire nails. She focused the darkest color in the center with the color merging into a brighter red toward the perimeter of her nails, then upped the ante with some bejeweled nail jewelry.

If you want a mani that looks deadly, we love this dagger stiletto shape. Rather than an aura design, @tippedbaby landed on an ombré Frenchie with black tips and a red base.

The pros at @lightslacquer showed how they created a cherry cola aura nail in vampy shades.

And @nail.art.by.marie created an aura vampire mani on short, smart nails.

For more from Glamour UK beauty editor Elle Turner, follow her on Instagram @elleturneruk.

This article first appeared on Glamour UK.