Purple Leopard Print

Leopard print with a funky twist

Base (black) - Sally Hansen - Blacky-O

Base (purple) - Rimmel - Purple Pulse

Glitter - Butter London - The Black Knight

Spots - Rimmel - Trend Spotting

Essence: Thermo Effect Polish - It's Hot Stuff

Hello all,


I love to have fun with my nails, so if there's a polish that adds to the fun it's going to be likely that I want it!  I spotted Thermo Effect colours from Essence a while back on a European blog, but that was before Essence came over to the UK.  When they arrived here, I sent them a cheeky Tweet to ask if we would be getting them as well and I was told they would be here soon.  On my last trip to Westfield I popped into the shop, obviously, and spotted this gorgeous pink that I needed to try.

Polish Party: Inspired by Another Member - Leopard Half and Half

Hello all,

I am very excited about the theme for this month's Polish Party - Inspired by Another Member!  We vote each month and since setting up our facebook group I have suggested this theme each time for the poll and it has narrowly been out voted by something else.  This month it finally came up on top though - Yay!

The only issue left after getting it through was picking who would be my inspiration.  There are so many fabulous ladies in the group who create such amazing nail art. so it was always going to be a tough choice.  In the end I decided on a half and half leopard print from Lauren at The Naily Mail.

Here's my version...

And here's Lauren's original design...



I had a shortlist of three designs including a galaxy manicure, a fish tail/plaited design with glitter, and this one. Lauren does gorgeous half and half manicures and I think it looks really effective which is what made me really want to try it out.  I love the gold she has used here, but I have done subtle coloured or realistic animal print nails before so I wanted to go really out there with a bright bold colour (If you followed the link above you will have seen Lauren's bright pink zebra nails, which were a source of more inspiration to do the animal print in a different colour).

Gone Wild - Animal Print Nail Art

Hello all,

Well, it seems it's only too easy to change my mind.  Having done a first last week, leaving a manicure matte, there is no stopping me now.  I have only gone and done it again!  After a comment on Twitter on my nails last week I was inspired to create my design this week and I am so so SO pleased with how they turned out.

These are my gone wild animal print nails.  Aren't they fun?  These took me quite a long time to do, but only because I wanted them to be just right so I took plenty of time.

From my thumb round to my little finger I have done, zebra, leopard, tiger, giraffe and cheetah prints.  I had the first four in mind all week long before doing these but had to think a bit more to come up with cheetah.  Want to know how I did these?  Well here goes.

Zebra - I started off with two coats of Snow White from Models Own.  After this had dried I used my Barry M nail art pen in black to freehand the stripes.  I bought the nail art pen especially for this as I was quite worried about this print and trying to do it with a striper or brush.  I can tell you now that I am most definitely not a fan of zebra print.  On my other hand I ended up removing it three times before it was only ok.  I do not think I will be doing this print again.  Well not freehand anyway!

Glam Animal Print Nail Art

Hello all,

I didn't post last week because I didn't do anything fancy with my nails.  I just did a simple French manicure with a glitter accent nail.

On Saturday I got distracted by all things shiny and bought myself three new glitters, well I didn't really even buy them, they were on offer and I had a voucher so it was even better!

I have had my eye on Models Own Jack Frost (Centre) for a little while now because, well look at it, it's just so pretty! Ive also been thinking about Bora Bora from the Hed Kandi collection (right) and you can't go wrong with a pretty gold glitter!  My boyfriend spotted the other polish, so it's his fault, not mine!! It's from Miss Sporty but it doesn't seem to have a name, sorry! **Edit - It's called Amethyst Dust**

I normally paint my nails on a Sunday ready for the week, so I got all my bits together and started on a design that I had had in mind for a while now.  I had nearly finished, but I just wasn't happy, so ended up taking it all off and doing something different instead!

So as an alternative design I thought I would try out one of my new glitters seeing as they were there in my nail bag glistening away.  I have had a go at tiger stripes before and thought they were really fun, but I had never tried leopard spots.  I know that lots of other people have done them and thought it was about time for me to have a go, so I combined the two!



I used Models Own Bora Bora as a base and Barry M Mushroom for the leopard spots.  All the black was done with my Models Own Nail Art Pen.  The stripes are really easy to do, just use a striper and flick the brush towards of the centre of the nails.  For the leopard spots I dotted on the Mushroom with the larger end of my dotting tool.  Once this was dry I added a bracket of black around the spots with the smaller end and added on a few smaller black spots of good measure.

I am really pleased with how my glam animal print nails worked out!  I love the fine gold glitter contrasted with the bold spots and stripes.  How do you think I did for my first go at leopard spots?