There really is no better way to start the day than a hot cross bun and a good strong cuppa!
From my reading of other blogs I am completely aware that this is unoriginal and overdone, but to start off the Mani element of this blog, I'm opening with.....leopard print nails. This is one of my favourite designs as it's so attention grabbing! I get way more compliments on this Mani than any others, possibly because its quite rare over here in the English Kingdom to see outrageous nails!!
The polishes I used for this look are:
- Barry M all-in-one base coat, topcoat and hardener
- Bloom polish in Goldie
- Barry M Mushroom
- Claire's black nail art pen
- Claire's Matte topcoat
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| L-R = basecoat, Bloom Goldie, Barry M Mushroom, Claires black pen, Claires matte topcoat. |
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| FIERCE! (please forgive me for the state of my cuticles and shoddy clean up - I'm still learning! :D) |
I love this look because it looks impressive, yet its so simple to create. Although the leopard full nail image on Konad M57 is great, I really don't think it's compulsory in creating this effect!
I painted my nails with one coat of base coat, followed by two coats of Bloom's Goldie (which is one of my favourite brands btw, the formula's great - chip resistant, fast drying, and nearly always opaque in two coats), I then added random "spots" of Mushroom. After it was dry, I outlined my leopard spots using semi circles and "C" shapes, adding dots and flicks here and there to fill in the gaps. I topped it all off with a matte topcoat. As I said, people are always fascinated by this design, and can't believe I do it myself when its so easy and really takes no time at all.
Although Konad is more accurate and neater in it's finish, i like the freehand effect - its not uniform! what leopard has perfectly symmetrical spots eh?!
What do you think, is my freehand attempt a fair compromise for the professional finish of the Konad design?
<3