Giant Leopard Moth Print | Nail Art

Today I am bringing you the hot new thang in animal print trends: Giant Leopard Moth print! Leopard print was, like, so 2012. Or something. Whatever.

In the (ahem) off chance that you are not familiar with the Giant Leopard Moth:

Source: http://biologie-me.blogspot.co.uk/2010/02/buggin-out-on-thursdays-giant-leopard.html

I pinned this image to my nail inspiration board on Pinterest (which I occasionally remember to use) aaages ago, so I'm glad I finally got round to making use of it!

I almost regretted beginning this design because it meant starting with a white base, which is always a pain in the backside. However, I used Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in 'Ivory Skull' this time around and it was kind of okay. I mean, it's a bit sheer and streaky and if I looked veeery closely, imperfections were sometimes visible even at three coats in certain, but the formula itself wasn't difficult to use. 

After much deliberation, I added one coat of Essie 'Pure Pearlfection'. It's a silver-ish shimmer top coat, but if you look closely you can see that the individual particles have a green/pink iridescence. It's pretty subtle in person, but even more so on camera. It showed up best in underexposed images...I hope these prove that the shimmer actually exists!

I thought the random piece of paper in the background really added something...

I added the 'spots' using a super skinny cut-down brush. I had planned to use my Model's Own x WAH nail art pen, which I've tested on paper but never yet used on my nails, but when I attempted a trial run (again on paper) it seemed to have gone very watery. Not cool. If you've had a similar issue and have any suggestions, do let me know! 

I left these shiny for about a day but added ELF's matte top coat while I was taking my photos and I think I prefer them this way. It seems to help the shimmer come out to play, too. ELF's isn't the matte-est matte top coat I've seen and it doesn't stay matte especially long, but it isn't bad for the price.

Shiny/Zombie hands

Matte

So, what do you think? Did I make the right decision in adding the shimmer? Are you a shiny or a matte person? I do like this design since it's quite striking and unusual, but now I want COLOUR, so I don't think they'll last very long!

When Giant Leopard Moth print starts popping up on the catwalks, just remember that you saw it here first... ;)

Monochrome Circles + Rhinestones x Nubar Violet Sparkle

I'm back!  I've been suffering from a combo of busyness and bad weather, yeuch.  On to the nails!

I can't think of a remotely catchy name for these?!  What would you call that circular pattern?  Before I talk about how I created this design, I have to tell you how frustrating I found trying to capture Nubar Violet Sparkle on camera.  I've tweaked these photos a little  in an attempt to make them more colour accurate because no matter which settings I used, it appeared far too blue.  Eventually, though, I just had to accept that it would never look as amazing in my photos as it does in person: it is just far more intense and the sparkle is simply mesmerising, often with quite a strong magenta tone, even in relatively low light.  Sorry for gushing, but Violet Sparkle is such a true beauty and I wish you could all see it like I can!

SPARKLES!

For the patterned nails, I started with a base of black (Orly Liquid Vinyl).  Then, using my largest dotting tool, I added dots of white (Essie Blanc).  Getting them all a regular size (and shape, haha) and aligning them all properly was more difficult than I thought it would be - I started on my pinkie and almost abandoned the idea before I'd really begun, haha - but it did get a little easier as I settled into a rhythm.  I went in with the small end of the same dotting tool to add a black dot in the centre of each white dot.  My nails are not exactly the right size/shape to fit on a whole number of dots, but since I wanted the pattern to go right to the edges, I make the very wise decision just to plop the dots right over the the sides of my nails/cuticles and all over my fingers.  Good one.  Cleaning that up was great fun.

Shade picture for the sake of completeness...

While the black dots were still wet, I finished up by placing the purple rhinestones from the 1.5mm version of this wheel from BornPrettyStore.com using the pointy end of an orange stick, moistened by my tongue (creepy).  They look really purple while they're just chilling in the box, but they seemed quite pinky next to Violet Sparkle - which actually complemented the magenta-ness I mentioned earlier and pulled the whole design together rather nicely.  I let them settle briefly then sealed everything with top coat.

I'm really pleased I didn't abandon this idea!  Although the dots were not immaculate the effect I was going for was definitely there and I loved rocking some sparrrkle!  Also, I've just noticed that this matches my blog colours quite neatly, haha.  

What do you think?   Do you like a bit of bling?