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... ;)

piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013

Celebrating the Year of the Blogger!

HIYA POLISHED PALS!  Can you tell I'm excited?!  I'M EXCITED.  I was utterly over the moon when I received the email inviting me to take part in piCture pOlish Blog Fest 2013, not least because I had never had the opportunity to try their polishes before.  For those unfamiliar with Blog Fest, it is an annual event run by PP and involving bloggers from all around the world and this year, Blog Fest is celebrating amazing nail art.  Three lucky participants will also be chosen to create a PP collaboration shade each, for release in 2014.  The voting will take place on PP's special Blog Fest 2013 Pinterest board - if you'd like to see the other entries and take part in the voting, you can find that here: http://pinterest.com/picturepolish/

I was sent these three shades to play with:

Ocean - 'An octopus garden in the shade...'

Ruby Blou - 'Dazzling red, sparkling blue'

Atomic - ' WARNING...totally explosive!'

As you can see, Ocean and Atomic were created by Kelly's Kolors and Samarium's Swatches respectively - I hope I've done their beautiful creations justice!  So without further ado, here is my contribution to Blog Fest 2013!

Ta daaah!  Being so used to working with cremes, I was initially unsure how best to show off these three shades, but I am pleased with how they turned out.   If you'd like to recreate the look, you're in luck, because here is my FIRST EVER TUTORIAL!

1: After applying base coat, paint your base colour - this is three thin coats of Atomic.

2: Using a nail art brush - or the bottle brush, if you're so inclined - paint the shapes of your flowers.*

3: Outline your flowers in black, using a nail art brush or pen, then frame the rest of your nail (which I forgot to take a picture of, oops).  Don't frame the parts where the flowers are!

4: Glitter placement - plop some Ruby Blou on a bit of paper/tin foil and use a toothpick/dotting tool/weapon of choice to pick up individual pieces of glitter and arrange them roughly to form the centres of your flowers.

5: Add top coat & clean up if necessary, and you're done!

*When I used Ruby Blou as a base, I painted the flowers in black and added Atomic over the top afterwards.

The polishes themselves are really beautiful.  Ocean is super sparkly with holo-ish flakes in a turquoise jelly base.  It is quite sheer but the formula is lovely, so it truly isn't a hassle to layer it up.  Ruby Blou is a delightful mix of large and small hex (I think) glitters in red, blue and silver, suspended in a clear base.  Atomic isn't something I would necessarily have thought of as a 'me' colour, but it really is incredibly gorgeous and so complex.  The base is a silvery white shimmery affair, but there are loads of little flakes in there too - I see pink and green and gold reflections and sparkles.  I've included some bottle photos especially to try to capture some of the more complex elements of Ocean and Atomic.

Pretty special, right?  

What do you think?  Are you a piCture pOlish fan?  I'm certainly impressed!  You can find PP's polishes on their website or at one of their worldwide distributors.  If you're in the UK (& perhaps Europe?) you can find piCture pOlish at the wonderful Sally Magpies.  

HAPPY BLOG FEST 2013 EVERYONE!  I can't wait to check out all the other bloggers!

 pOlish On-line Store     Facebook     Twitter     Pinterest     Instagram


EDIT: Now you can check out some of the other BlogFesters' posts below and add your own, if you haven't already!