Today's Mani - Blue & Gold Leopard

Hey guys! So I finally got around to trying a leopard mani! The inspiration for the colours comes from @strawbrie on instagram. I was also happy to cross Sally Hansen's Pacific Blue off my untrieds list! 

These colours are: Sally Hansen - Pacific Blue, Nicole by OPI - The Next CEO, Rimmel - Black Satin 

When doing your nails more than one base colour, does anyone else forget that until they've painted all their nails one colour?! :( As I was painting my pinky I realized I forgot to leave the middle and ring fingers blank for gold... and as I was doing my right hand I only painted my middle finger blue before I remembered! I gotta fix this problem somehow so I don't have to always be restarting some nails and have them not a the same pace as the rest. 

Anyway, here are my nails pre-leopard and pre-cleanup: 

Here are my nails with the leopard dots, minus the outlines. Through watching many, manyyy, maannnyyyy tutorials on leopard manis, I've realized you don't need to have a TON of spots if you're gonna do them a decent size that's manageable to work with. If you're going for major leopard, then you can do them smaller and closer together but you'll need a much finer tool. I'll probably try this someday soon :) But for my nails the key is to have them spread out nicely and all different shapes, as you can see.

To create this look I used different size dotting tools. The biggest to create blue dots, and a medium one to create the black outlines and other random dots. When doing the outline, be as freeform as you like. It looks so much better when it's not all perfect, that's the point! Lopsided outlines are great, and all different types too. You'll see for some of the dots I did two outlines (like brackets), some are disproportionate brackets (one way bigger than the other), and some are almost completely outlined. 

Then in spaces where there's a big gap, fill it in with a blob the same colour as your outline. Do NOT overcrowd the empty spaces with the random blobs, you'll ruin the print! 

The only thing I wish I could change about my leopard print is the size of the outline. It's thicker than I'd like, although I still think it looks really good. I'm so proud of myself for doing this great of a job on my first attempt at a leopard print mani! (P.S. Sorry for my SUPER dry cuticles, I haven't been tending to them as often as I need to, and I took this picture after my first topcoat - I applied two - so I'll be using my Pro FX Apricot Cuticle Oil right after I post this!) 

Happy painting girls! Comment below with a link if you've got a leopard mani you'd like me to see :)