Hallowe'en Zombie Corpse Nails

A few days ago I saw this wonderful mani at The Nail Network, and decided I wanted to have a go myself. So here is my zombie corpse dripping blood mani!

First I painted a coat of Nails Inc Colville Mews, a pale whitish nude, as a base. Then I sponged (my first attempt at sponging!) what was intended to look like dead or bruised flesh all over them. I used Barry M Yellow (my bruises always have tonnes of yellow round the edges) and a blend of Barry M Dusky Mauve and Berry Ice Cream. This ended up being a lot more yellow than I had intended, but I decided to carry on anyway. I added a matte topcoat (Rimmel Pro Matte Topcoat) for the really dead look.

Then when this was really dry, I freehanded the blood dribbles using Barry M Raspberry, a dotting tool and the polish brush.  

The blood dribbles took quite a while to dry, and it took a lot of strength not to cave and use Seche Vite on top. I'm glad I didn't, because I think the contrast between matte and shiny makes a difference to this look.

I'm quite pleased with how this turned out, especially with it being my first attempt at sponging. I'm a bit horrified at how dry and untidy my cuticles look AGAIN! I think I need to do something about the lighting and or my eyesight, because I couldn't see this until after I'd taken the photos.