Tutorial: 3 x wild animal print nail art

Hi guys!

I saw these amazing wild animal print nails on one of my favourite bloggers, Leslie from Nail Polish Art Addiction, and decided to give them a go myself.

I absolutely LOVE the result! Ye be warned: It DOES take a lot of patience and time to do these. But they're totally worth it, I'd say. Though I won't be doing them again for a long time ;)

On the other hand they're very simple to do - anyone should be happy to try this design.

Anyway, look through this page before you decide on not doing them? :)

 

Here's what I used:

• China Glaze - Electric Beat
• GOSH - Gold
• Nubar - Cloud White
• Seche Vite - Fast Dry Top Coat
• Konad special stamping polish - Black
• Konad stamp
• Stamping plates - I've used one from Bundle Monster, BM 10, and one from Konad, m57
• Lots of scotch tape

Giraffe print: Bundle Monster BM10

Zebra + cheetah print: Konad stamping plate m57

Step 1:

Base Coat

You always want to start out with a base coat to protect the nails and prevent them from being stained.

I use Mavala's Ridge Filler. I find it strengthens my nails and prevents them from splitting.

Step 2:

Paint'em blue - all over

Step 3:

Stamp a design with the black Konad special polish. It doesn't have to be perfect all over, so if you make a tiny mistake, don't panic. It won't show if you paint over it later - but we'll get to that.

Step 4:

Tape over the areas where you want to keep the black spots. It is very important that you don't do this step until the polish is COMPLETELY dry!

I actually used a layer of Seche Vite to seal the deal and then waited over an hour before doing this step.

Step 5:

Make sure the tape sticks tight to the nail before painting white over the area where the tape doesn't cover the nail.

Step 6:

Remove the tape before the polish dries to prevent ugly, crackled lines.

 

Step 7:

Again - make sure the polish is COMPLETELY dry before recovering it with tape. Otherwise this will be the result, and that's not pretty ;(

Step 8:

Repeat steps 3-7, until you're done. And off course, don't forget to wrap it all up in a coat of Seche Vite.

It will be a lot of putting tape on and off, waiting for polish to dry only to put the tape back on and repeat again.

This is why it takes a lot of time to do this mani... But once it's done it's sooooo pretty - don't you think? 

Direct sun, no flash

Direct sun, no flash

Artificial light, no flash

Artificial light, no flash