Hello!
So today, I thought that, seeing as its the weekend (yay!), I would go a little wild & paint my nails in a leopard print manner and so I thought I'd treat you all to a little tutorial just to give you an idea of how I achieve my look.
So for this look, you will need:
L-R:
- A piece of cardboard. I took mine off a tablet box.
- A wooden cuticle stick
- A base/top coat- I am using Collection 2000 2 in 1 top coat.
- A colour for your leopard blobs- I am using Barry M Gelly in Lychee.
- A colour for outlining the blobs- I am using Collection 2000 Lasting Colour in liquorice.
- A colour for your base- I am using Sally Hansen Salon Manicure in Dorien Grey.
*you can swap the colours that I am using for any other colours that go well together, so go crazy & mix it up a little*
Step one:
Take your base colour and paint your nails. Reapply as many coats as necessary until your nails are opaque. *you want to let the polish dry in between coats for a more professional, smooth-looking mani.
Step two:
Lift the brush out of the polish without wiping any excess off, and let it drip onto your cardboard into a ball.
Step three:
Dip your wooden stick into the excess nail polish on the cardboard and make spontaneous, uneven blobs on your nails. This technique is very good for people who don't have such a steady hand! You may need to put more polish onto the cardboard as it dries up rather quickly, making it hard to work with. *using the flat ends of the wooden stick makes this fairly easier*
Step four:
Repeat step two but use the polish that you intend outlining your blobs with. This was the black polish for me. And then use the opposite end of the stick (so that you don't mix up your polishes), use the pointed side of the end to randomly line the blobs. Again, you don't have to concentrate all that much, as the more spontaneous you do it, the better it seems to look!
Step five:
Wait for half an hour so that all the polish is nice & dry, and then apply a top coat so that your nails last as long as possible & have a beautiful shine to them. You may want to apply another coat whenever you find the time, but make sure that your last layer is completely dry, otherwise you'll end up ruining all that you've just done!
I hope you found this helpful or interesting... There are many different ways to adapt this style to something you may prefer if this isn't your cuppa tea, and there are also better tools than a cuticle stick, but I wanted to show how easy it is to use things that you generally have lying around! :)
Here are a couple of extra ideas:
I've used this many times now, where I've just wanted to spruce up an old mani, and I think it's perfect just if you need a little something to stop the pain of a boring mono-coloured paint job!
If you're feeling a little lazy, why not just skip the different coloured blobs and just outline imaginary ones for an update on the classic print.
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