Leopard Print Nail Art Revisited

Considering that painting my nails is one of my favourite pastimes, done without fail a couple of times a week, I can't believe it's been over a month since my last nail post! If it weren't for the fact I snapped a few quick photos on my iPhone of these just after completion, this could have been another forgotten manicure.

This was a revisit/upgrade of the leopard print accent nail manicure I did when I first began this blog a couple of years ago. You can see the original post, 'Leopard Print Nail Art How To', for a basic explanation of the steps to create the leopard pattern. The old post is also a great illustration of how my manicure skills have improved (in my humble opinion!) which goes to show a little practice (and some  patience) is all you need for this manicure. It's much easier than it looks, and the key to a great leopard print effect is to make sure the splodges of color are various sizes and shapes. Also, don't completely encircle the colour with black, leave spaces and do a few dots of black on it's own in a couple of places.  Random is the name of the game!

Base color - Essie 'Marshmallow'  //  Leopard print - OPI 'Shorts Story' & The Face Shop 'Black Nail Art Pen' 

Even though I swore I hated it, I decided to give Essie 'Marshmallow' another shot, it took four coats to achieve this colour and getting it to look smooth was NOT easy. Needless to say, I still don't recommend it.

OPI on the other hand (pun just a happy accident), never seems to fail me. 'Short's Story' is a long time favourite of mine and for this manicure I used the OPI Top Coat too instead of Seche Vite. As much as I love the finish you get from Seche, the shrinkage can be pretty awful.


I'll try to do nail posts on a more regular basis, if that's something you lovelies are interested in seeing?