Tutorial: Neutral leopard print

Here is my latest NOTD. Having to keep it tame for work so I like to think of it as subtle leopard print.  It's so simple to do yet I got lots of compliments so I thought I may as well do a step by step guide despite the fact that you have probably seen it 1000+ times before :)  Trust me, anyone can do this!

All you need is three things. A base colour, a nail art pen (or fine paintbrush and top colour) and a clear top coat. I used Essie's Chinchilly as my base coat which is a lovely greige! For the leopard pattern i whipped out my trusty Sally Hansen nail art pen in black (don't know what I would do without it)I finished it all off with my favourite Chanel top coat. Viola.

All you do is apply the base coat and wait for it to dry. On top of that draw leopard spots (or attempt to like me) I embraced the messy spots! Apply the clear top coat and you are done.

Rawr!  Told you it was easy!

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday :)

(Also I have a GREAT tutorial heading your direction so watch out)

Glitter Leopard

I got a bit adventurous with the nails today - Glitter leopard. I have been putting of an assignment I have like crazy and this is what I managed to do instead. Very productive I think :p

The photos don't quite do them justice. The leopard print does stand out more in real life and they are pretty sparkly which you can't quite tell in these pictures.  

Here is what I used to create these babies.

It was super easy, here's what I did it;

♥ I started off by applying my Orly base coat

♥ I then applied 2 coats of Essie's Playa Del Platnium (which is a really nice greige)

♥ I then used my Sally Hansen nail art pen and attempted (very dodgely) to create a leopard print pattern.

♥ Ove the top I applied a cheap glitter polish by BYS in silver over the top. The glitter layer works really well at it sort of disguises the leopard print if you have done a bad job like me, especially on my right hand. Next time I would use glitter with a thinner consistency as it covered up the leopard a bit more than I would have liked.

That's it! I was suprised with the amount of compliments I got about them today.  I want to do gold toned glitter leopard next time. I think that would be awesome.

Not long until the weekend, yay :)

DIY: Ombre Nails

Hey pretty ladies :)

I saw this video on the Seventeen magazine website for ombre nails and knew i had to give it a go. 

I can imagine it's a bit hit and miss for some people but I love the look, i think it's fun and I'm liking the ombre trend. So with that said here is my finished version..

This was my first attempt and I could definitely do with some practice! Overall I'm happy though and will probably try it again sometime. There is more variation between the nails than it appears in the photos but I think if i did it again I would probably try to make the nails a bit more different in terms of their shades as there isn't a lot of differences between some of my fingers especially my pinky and ring finger. Oh well lesson learnt.

It was a fairly simple process and here's what I used to get my purple shades.

Orly Bonder, OPI Lincoln Park After Dark, Ulta3 Lily White (which is just a plain white) and Orly Won't Chip. I also used a paper plate, a few toothpicks and a clean nail polish brush. 

Overall the process was relatively easy. Here's what i did;
♥ I started by applying a base coat, i used Orly Bonder
♥ I then started with a coat of plain Lincoln Park After Dark and applied it to my pinky nail
♥ Next I added a drop of white to Lincoln Park After Dark and mixed it with a toothpick on a paper plate and painted my ring finger
♥ I kept adding a bit more white for every new nail until all my fingers were done
♥  I finished off my applying a clear top cop and you're done!

I think Lincoln Park After Dark worked out to be a really good colour to use as it's a dark colour but has a lot of purple in it - i didn't realise how purpley it was until this. Obviously you can you whatever dark shade you like, i think i dark maroon and blue would be great too.

What do you think lovely ladies, love it or leave it?