Leopard print fun

I promise I haven't disappeared or given up on nail blogging - I've just been reaaaaallllyyy busy recently. I also unfortunately have an exam in a few weeks, so any manis I manage to blog about until that has passed are likely to be quick 'n' easy - although that's surely never a bad thing??!! Nail art still provides a welcome distraction though - there are only so many times I can read about earned value formulae and stakeholder management theories (zzzzzzzzzzz).

I decided to continue with the animal theme this week and try out a leopard print mani - plus I knew it would be quick to do which was a definite plus :)

with flash inside

 One big downside of the colder weather and shorter days coming in is the lack of natural sunlight to take nail pics in - I may have to think about investing in a lightbox for pictures (what I really mean is I might need to bribe my husband to make one ;) ).

without flash

 I do love the cool weather though - I sleep with the window open so the crisp night air always clears my head (although the mornings can be a bit nippy and that means a dash to the warmth of the bathroom)!

flash again

For this mani I started with two coats of 'A Butterfly Moment' from the OPI Mariah Carey collection, then used 'You Don't Know Jacques' for the brown blobs. Finally I finished by using my Barry M nail art pen in black to make the outlines and adding a coat of Seche Vite top coat.

side view

 I quite like it and will likely give the neon or pastel variants a go too at some point, especially when my nails get long again!

What do you think, are you enjoying the cooler weather? Have you ever tried a leopard print mani?

Fx

Foxy baby!

The unthinkable happened - I broke two of my lovely long nails :(

I don't think I had properly cut them (apart from shaping) for a few months, and was feeling pretty pleased with myself and smugly self congratulatory. So when two broke within as many days I was surprising upset - and very, very annoyed!

Having short nails just feels weird - I can't pick sellotape on the roll, can't drum my nails loudly on my laptop (annoys my husband greatly, one of my pleasures in life ;) ) and I'm able to type without making a multitude of errors - ok well maybe the last one is a bonus.

The biggest annoyance of all though is how much is restricts what designs I can do with my nails - I know plenty of bloggers have short nails by default and they do a fantastic job, but for me I'm used to having that extra canvas to work with. So - it will be simple nail art for a while I think!

And with that it's on to today's post! I saw this design months ago and for the life of me can't find it again (always like to give credit), and as it was fairly simple while being a little different, I felt now was the time to do it.

In sunlight

I started with 3 coats of MUA 'Fever Red' as my base, then used OPI 'You Don't Know Jacques' for the 'fur' of the fox. Ideally you would use a lighter colour of brown or even dark orange for this, but it's not a colour I have  a lot of so had to make do.

partial shade

I then used a nail art brush for the white on the fox using NYC 'Pinstripe White' and finished off with some black dots for the eyes and nose using China Glaze 'Liquid Leather'.

side view

You could do this design on all of your nails, it's really easy to do and not too fiddly, but I decided to stick with an accent nail :)

We get a lot of urban foxes round where I live as we're really near to some woods - I might need to ask them what they think!

What do you think, have you used animals in nail art before? My next attempt is sure to involve bunnies!

fx