Leopard Print Tutorial

This is a tutorial for leopard print nails!  I love this look, and, once you've got the hang of it, it's really quick and easy to do when you need great nails in a hurry.

You can see some examples of manicures I've done using this pattern by clicking the links below:

Glittery Leopard Print

Half Leopard Print

Gradient Leopard Print

Leopard Accent Nail

I've just written the word 'leopard' so many times that it no longer looks like a word...

Here's what you'll need:

• Base colour (Barry M Gold Foil)
• Spot colour (OPI Warm and Fozzie)
• Black nail art pen (you could also use a Sharpie if you like)

Here's the step-by-step picture tutorial.

1.  Start by prepping your nail as usual (I buff and apply a basecoat) then apply your base colour.

2.  Using the brush that comes with the polish, apply a few blobs of your spot colour to each nail.  As a rough guide, I use 4-5 spots per nail, but you can adjust this depending on the size of your nail and the size of your spots!  Try to take some of your spots over the edges of your nails.

3.  Using your nail art pen, draw a rough C shape around each spot.  The wobblier the better here.  Don't make your lines too smooth and don't draw a full circle around the spots (see below).  If you're using a Sharpie instead for this step, you might find you get better results from dabbing with the Sharpie to make lines of joined up dots, rather than just drawing lines (if that makes any sense?)

4.  In any spaces you've got left, add in a few more little C shapes or just some dots.

5.  Apply a layer of your favourite topcoat and you're done!  CAUTION:  Nail art pens apply polish quite thickly, so please make sure you give your design plenty of time to dry before applying your topcoat, otherwise you'll end up with a very streaky leopard!

Here are some examples of how NOT to outline your spots!  Hopefully you can see that using a smooth line, or joining the line right the way up around the circle doesn't give as good a look as what I've done above.

If you have any tips for how to improve my tutorials or any ideas for tutorials you'd like to see, please post your suggestions in the comment area.