Aqua Leopard Nails for #NAILLINKUP

Week 2 of the March N.A.I.L. Linkup is AQUA.  I picked through my stash for the best aqua shades (ironically two of them had the word MINT in them.. go figure) and I came up with this cute leopard print.  I only tried leopard one time before, using water-based paints and only on 2 fingers, so hopefully this came out okay!

What I’m wearing:

base color ♥ wet n wild I Need a Refresh-Mint

blue sponged on tips ♥ NYC Skyline Blue

silver spots ♥ OPI Push and Shove

teal glitter ♥ Sinful Colors  Lush Life

black striper polish ♥ L.A. Colors Art Deco in black

I’m excited to wear my new OPI Push and Shove mirror polish!  I haven’t worn it on it’s own yet, and since I’ve been dying to try it, I decided to make my leopard spots with it!  To make my silver spots look even cooler I thought I’d add my Sinful Colors teal glitter in little blobs over top… but unfortunately the sinful formula wasn’t dense enough with glitter.  So I ended up lightly swiping the glitter over the entire nail instead.  Not really the look I was going for since I really only wanted it over the silver, but as I always say… it’s good to want things! Other than that little change in plans, the leopard print was pretty easy to do.  Now I wanna try it again!

I hope you like my first ‘real’ attempt at leopard print!  You can see the other aqua designs right here:

Stamped Leopard with a Gradient

Day 11 of the 30 Day Nail Art Challenge is ANIMAL PRINT!  Who doesn’t love animal print?  And what’s the foolproof way to get animal print?  KONAD!  I love my Konad Stamping Kit and plate M57 with leopard print is perfect for today’s theme!

I started with two coats of AVON Nailwear Pro Inspire.  This awesome yellow shade is from a special collection of 3 avon polishes called Zenergy and it curiously reminds me of the The Peter Som Trio for Zoya.  Hmmm?!  Inspire is great because it’s perfectly opaque with two coats which is more than a lot of other yellows can say!  I’m glad I picked this one up- it will be great for nail art.

I waited for my yellow to dry and then I did a gradient using a small piece of a makeup sponge and some Orly Coffee Break.  It looked pretty cool-  I was a little afraid to stamp over top of it in fear that I might mess it up!  Ya see, my nail beds are the EXACT same length as the stamping design on my Konad plates.  That means I have no wiggle room when I’m stamping…. I need to get the placement just right so it covers my nail completely.   I really wish Konad would make their designs bigger!

I finished off the look with some MASH matte topcoat to lock it all in.  Matte topcoats go great with busy designs like this.  It helps diffuse the light so you won’t have a glossy shine to distract from the design. I think it came out great- I love this wild look!  The gradient really helped add some dimension to the leopard print too.  Can’t wait to see what the other bloggers come up with!  Check out this inlinkz link to see the other designs.

Oh speaking of other bloggers… I’d like to mention that I’ve been nominated for the Liebster Award and I really appreciate it so much!  Thank you for supporting my little blog!  I haven’t forgotten- and soon I will type up a proper post to thank the girls who nominated me!  😀  Blog on!