Duochrome Leopards

Wouldn't it be awesome if duochrome leopards actually existed...?  Can't help but feel my nails are a bit of a let down now compared to these imaginary leopards!

I picked up a couple of the Revlon Chroma Chameleons a little while back, because a brand new polish collection being available in Poundland is just too much for me to resist.  Amongst the many I bought was Amethyst, a light purple with a green-greyish shift.  I wanted something a bit more than just a plain manicure in a hurry, so I decided a quick leopard print over this would fit the bill nicely!

I did these quickly before we went out, so the photos are from the next day - apologies for the dints and little chipped corners!

It's a very pretty subtle shift.  For a little bit more oomph you can use it over black as well, which helps to deepen the colours.  Not bad for a pound, although unfortunately I've come to expect a little more from multichromes thanks to the likes of Picture Polish and Hits!

Black & White Challenge #5: Faux Fur

The fifth challenge prompt in the Black & White Nail Art Challenge is Faux Fur!  How perfect!  Here's something I'm never going to struggle with inspiration.  I LOVE animal print nails, and possibly I'm deluding myself, but I actually think they mostly look quite classy.

Today I went with good old reliable leopard print.  I did try to push the boat out a little with my base though, and I attempted the dreaded gradient!

You may notice I've had a slight length reduction since this morning... I quite like nubbins but it takes a bit of getting used to - they make my fingers look so big at first lol.

Anyhoo, I used (do I even need to say it?) Barry M Matt White and Black, with the Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black.  I'm really pleased with how my gradient turned out for once!  It could've done with being a bit further up my nail I think, but heck, it's the best attempt I've had yet!

Pop back tomorrow to see whose manicure I choose to recreate for the last day of the challenge!

The Most Fantabulous Water Decals In The World

As promised, here's the second set of water decals I have to show you from Born Pretty Store!

Oh my giddy aunt.  Straight on with nail art pictures!

Here's the first manicure I did!  As I had hoped, the white ones were see though!  Yay!  So I blobbed on some pretty colours and applies the decals over the top.  They are faaaabulous.

The decals are super easy to use - just cut them out, peel of the protective plastic, soak for 10-15 seconds and slide off the backing paper.  And when I say 'cut out', this is what I do...

Personally, I find it easier to cut them out really roughly and then just clean them up with acetone (as you would polish) afterwards.  You can of course cut the shape out right in the first place, but I'm terrible at judging the right size lol.

Next up, even more fantabulousness...

I don't think words can actually convey how much I love these.  Actual photos of leopards on my nails!  Aahhhhhhh!  Epic.

There are, obviously, enough decals for four full sets of nails. But of course you can just use them for accent nails, and make them go further :)

It's worth mentioning, all the decals were translucent, so I put them on over a coat of white to make sure the colour popped :)

So if you love these as much as I do, you can find them here.  They cost $3.99 (£2.65) with free shipping worldwide.  And don't forget, you can use my code LKL91 for 10% off any purchases.

Matte Leopard Print

This is my 200th post - woohoo!

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly celebrating it in style.  I had a total creativity block and couldn't think of ANYTHING to do on my nails.  I wanted to do something to try out my Barry M nail art pens but...nothing...

So I decided to just go for some good old leopard print.

I used OPI Skull and Glossbones with Barry M Grey for the spots.  I used the Barry M Nail Art Pen in Black to outline my spots.  I decided to mattify using Rimmel Pro Matte Top Coat.

If you'd like to have a go at nails like this, there's a step-by-step tutorial, which you can find in the Tutorials tab at the top of the page :)

I'm going to say something a little controversial here...  I didn't think the pen was great.  See where it looks like I tried to squeeze too many spots on to my middle finger?  That's because a huge blob of polish came out of the pen, so I rescued it by adding a grey spot in the middle!

That being said, I had a little go scribbling on my nails with the pink pen, and it was fab.  I think for leopard print I prefer thicker, messier lines, so actually having more control makes for worse leopard print...  That's just my opinion anyway.

Over the weekend I'm going to put together a comparison of the four different types of nail art pens that I have.  If there's any particular aspect of their use that you'd like me to compare, let me know in the comments :)

A couple of other things!  I remembered that I forgot that I was working through my list of new techniques!  Pop over to my Facebook page to vote for which technique you'd like to see my try out this week.  Jelly sandwich is winning at the moment, and I don't really want to do a jelly sandwich, so please vote and save me!  Or seal my fate.  Either one.

Also, for any Instagram users, I'm attempting to use that now.  I don't really get how it works, but my username is polishedart.  I'll add a button on the sidebar just as soon as I can work it out...  Does anyone know if I can set one of my pictures on there as my profile picture, because it doesn't seem to be an option? Also, if you have an Instagram account, let me know!  I'm not following anyone yet!

Flip Flop #27: Recreate someone else's

Yeah so we'll just ignore the fact that this was a February challenge from here on..only one more left to post though!

Whilst I was MIA, I reached 30000 pageviews and 200 followers, so thank you all!

Due to my indecisive ways, I used a random number generator to select a manicure to recreate or day 27 of the challenge (yes, honestly), and I ended up selecting this manicure from Organic Neglect.  This was for Lizajane's day 25 (inspired by a tutorial manicure).  I do actually have OPI Designer de Better, which Lizajane used, but I decided to go for something a little more subtle and work-appropriate (if leopard print is ever work appropriate).

I used two coats of China Glaze Elephant Walk, then added leopard print tips with a silver nail art pen (sorry, it doesn't show up very well!).  Speaking of elephants, we watched a documentary last night about a zoo and it showed an elephant giving birth, and oh my word!  That baby came out so quickly, I don't know how it even survived hitting the floor with that much force lol.

Flip Flop #16: Animal Print

The other choice for today was stripes, but as is I was going to choose that over animal stripes!

Now I had a long hard think about this.  I've done a lot of leopard print and zebra print manicures, I've had a go at tiger and poison dart frog.  So what to do this time...

Well, after mulling it over, coming up with some new ideas, I finally settled on....leopard print!

Yeah ok, so not exactly new and exciting. BUT it does have a little twist.  Flocking powder!

I used Barry M Gold Foil, with OPI Warm and Fozzie for the spots.  Then I outlined my spots using a black nail art pen, and sprinkled on some flocking powder.  I think this is a pretty awesome idea, and how good would fuzzy zebra stripes look??  However, I think it needs more fuzz.  Maybe brown fuzzy spots as well?  I shall have to try it!  Maybe when I'm back in my flat though, I've got more than enough flocking powder on the hotel carpet.  And bed.  And chair.  It's their fault really for only having teeny little sheets of paper...

Anyway, I believe I'm currently three days behind.  I'll definitely catch up at the weekend if I don't before then (assuming I'm back in my flat by then!).

Animal Print

Well thank goodness it's Friday.  Ugh.  I've had a migraine since Tuesday and I'm exhausted.  I could do with just sleeping until Monday morning, but I need to pick up my Seche Vite from the sorting office, so I'll have to surface at some point tomorrow.  I also need (read want) some new clothes.

As you'll know by now, I do love my animal print.  So today I have a selection of animal prints for you in this safari skittle!

The elephant skin was a bit of a fail...I tried using cling film for it.  In hindsight, it would've been better to have just painted it one shade of grey, then when it was almost dry pushed it so it all wrinkled up (as I'm oh so good at doing unintentionally).

Not too many polishes to list!  Hopefully...erm...Max Factor Bright Orange, Barry M Grey, Matt White and Black, China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, and OPI Warm and Fozzie and Skull and Glossbones.

You can see my tutorials for leopard and zebra print here and I have one on the way for the tiger print :)  The giraffe print is one of the water decals from Born Pretty Store that I reviewed here.

What are your plans for the weekend? :)

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.

Glittery Leopard

Good morning (er...afternoon) everyone :)  I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!

I used to do leopard print nails all the time - they were very much my go to nails when I couldn't think of anything else to do.  They're so quick and easy to do, but they look like they've taken a lot of effort!  Anyhoo, I realised I haven't done leopard print in a while, so I decided that's what I'd paint on my nails the other night.

I bought a few new glitter polishes the other day, so this had to be glittery of course!

I wanted to use my new Barry M Gold Glitter for the base.  I thought this was going to be a nice dense glitter like Red Glitter, but I layered it over Barry M Gold Foil just in case there were any little gaps.  Good job I did, because Gold Glitter is actually a lot more sparse than I was expecting.  Don't get me wrong, it's quite dense for a glitter, but you really wouldn't be able to build it up to be opaque on it's own.  I used 3 coats here, and I'm happy with it - I think it still achieved the look I was going for, especially in real life.

I then added dots of Jessica Ruffled Bottoms, and outlined the spots using a black nail art pen (that was going a bit mental and coming out so fast!  Hence the thick lines...).

So the next day (yesterday) I was thinking 'I've got challenge manicures I need to do...but I don't want to take off this glittery goodness!'.  But then, as I was buttoning up my coat, this happened.

Well the PVA glue base certainly did its job of making the glitter easier to remove!  Has anyone got any tips for making a manicure with a PVA base last a bit longer than a day or two?  Or will I just have to suck it up and remove it the old-fashioned way if I want to wear glitter for a few days?

Also, I'm hoping to get a few tutorials done this weekend.  Is a leopard print tutorial something people would be interested in, or is that something everyone's pretty happy with doing already?  If you've got any more suggestions of tutorials you'd like to see, just let me know in the comments (or if you're feeling shy you can email me at polishedart@hotmail.co.uk).

Untried: Barry M Gold Glitter

Purple Leopard Print

This was an attempt at sensible work nails, that possibly went slightly awry...  I still wore them to work though, of course.

It's just a basic leopard print (I was feeling uninspired).  My black nail art pen was misbehaving, so the lines ended up being thicker than I'd have liked.

The polishes used are OPI Skull and Glossbones and Planks a Lot from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection.  I am totally in love with this collection, every colour is so pretty!  I just need to order Steady As She Rose and then I'll have a full set...

I should just mention that Planks a Lot is much warmer toned than it appears here.  It's so frustrating when your camera won't capture the colour properly.  I get it all nicely ready and in focus and all that to take the picture, and it looks fine on the screen, and then I press the button and it comes out blue...  So please don't use this as a colour reference for this polish!

So while I had this on I went on a little shopping spree.  I won't tell you how much I spent.  One of the polishes I picked up was Barry M Silvery Lilac.  I was too impatient to take my manicure off before trying out my new polishes, so I just whacked them on top.

This is one coat of Barry M Silvery Lilac on top. I really like the effect :)  Although I probably wouldn't bother with an accent nail if I was to do this again, as you can't really tell my ring finger's a different colour.

What do you think of Silvery Lilac as a layering polish?  Do you like to prolong the life of a mani by adding something to freshen it up a few days later?

31 Day Challenge - Day 1: Red

Morning ladies :)  Today I'm starting another challenge!  This is the 31 Day Challenge, and it's all been organised by Kimber over at Kimber's Lacquer Korner.  To make it a little easier, we'll be posting every three days rather than every day - might as well have a few days to enjoy each manicure!

OK, so here's my first manicure of the challenge.

I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, OPI Warm and Fozzie and a black nail art pen for the leopard print, and the red is a reeeaaally old OPI that I discovered in my bedroom, that I forgot to look at the name of.

This could've been a little neater if I'd used tape to do the red bit of my nails, but I always seem to make such a mess with tape that it didn't seem worth it.

Here's the full schedule for the challenge.  The next post will be on Thursday, and it's orange nails.

Take a look at the manicures every one else participating in this challenge has produced.

Kimber at Kimber's Lacquer Korner

Kat at Hooked On Polish

Diana at Nails By Diana

Aly at Wonderland Beauty

Meredith at Perfectly Polished

Nicole at The Color Republic

Kate at The Painted Pony Nails

Cee at Absolutely Cee

Sam at Polished Art

Nail Narcotics

Nicole at Nicole Gets Nailed

Shelby at Shelby's Swatches

Stephanie Louise at All Things Beautiful 

Mixed Mama

Joanna at Sweet Polish of Mine

Patty Greenberg

Liz and Lisa at Lozlosa 

Mari at Nailista 

Greta at How Was Your Day?

Miss L at Beauty by Miss L 

Nail Night

Happy Sunday lovely people.

As I said yesterday, last night I went to my auntie's house and drank lots of wine, ate lots of nibbles and painted some nails :)

Here are photos of everyone's nails - sorry they're not great quality, they're all taken with a flash.

These are my auntie's nails; she wanted a purple leopard print design :)

My mum was feeling a little indecisive, but eventually settled on a recreation of my rose nail art.

My little sister got no say in what she had, other than choosing the colours.  She was also the last person's nails I painted, and therefore I'd consumed the most wine by this point...

 From thumb to little finger, I did zebra print, leopard print, a lightning bolt, glitter and what's supposed to be a gradient...  This is the first time I've tried doing leopard print with a dotting tool - sooo much easier with a nail art pen!

If you want to know what any of the particular polishes are, just ask in the comments.  Also, I'm thinking of doing a few photo tutorials, including ones for the leopard and rose print.  Let me know if this is something you'd be interested in seeing!

Leopard On Safari

So I was unable to resist buying a few of the China Glaze On Safari collection.  So far I've picked up Kalahari Kiss and Desert Sun.  I'll definitely be picking up more of these - the formula on them is great and there are some other colours in the collection that I desperately want.  And the glitters...sigh...

I wanted to use these two polishes for a mani, and I thought I should keep the safari theme going with animal print.

I used Kalahari Kiss as the base, with Desert Sun sponged on the tips.  This is the first time I've tried this technique and I was really pleased with the effect.  The spots are Barry M Fuchsia and the lines are a nail art pen from ebay. And a coat of Seche Vite of course.

I was originally going to do gold or brown spots, but I thought the fuchsia (I keep spelling this wrong!) would be bolder.  What do you think?

Red Leopard Print

I'm away this weekend in Aberdeen visiting a friend, so I'm trying out this scheduled post business.  We'll see how it goes...

A little while ago I purchased the OPI Muppets Mini Collection.  My entire reasoning being that I needed to own Warm and Fozzie, because I have a Fozzie teddy that I've had since I was a baby.  Very logical, I think you'll find.  So, since I wasn't particularly attracted by the colour of Warm and Fozzie (just the name) I decided to get the mini set, so that I'd have a few colours to try out.  So in celebration of owning my first ever brown polish, I decided to do a proper leopard-coloured leopard print design.  I was feeling red, so this is what I ended up with.

I used two coats of Barry M Red (still a bit on VNL in this photo, but you couldn't see it in person).  On the accent nail I used Barry M Instant Nail Effects Gold Foil and Red Glitter, with OPI Warm and Fozzie for the spots, and the black is a nail art pen from ebay.  This photo was taken before I added my topcoat, for fear of dragging!

I was really pleased with how this design turned out.  So much so that I repeated it with blue and zebra print...  What do you think?