Neon roses. Neon leopard spots. The formerly white, now neon inside of your parents’ washing machine that time you tried at-home tie dyeing (holy crap, weren’t they pissed?!) I have no idea what this manicure is supposed to be! But I do know this has quickly become one of my favourite non-technique techniques – just grab a whole pile of bright colours and go abstractedly buck wild. Happy weekends, y’all, I hope they’re as delightfully fun and random as this mani.
Right, so it’s official: There’s nothing I can pair with the word “leopard” that doesn’t make me think of a strip club, including the names of every manicure I’ve ever done with this polish, KB Shimmer’s leopard-spotted glitter, Spot Sign. It’s a sickness. Then one day I’ll use some flocking powder to create The Velvet Leopard and that’ll just put me right over the edge. 😉
Nothing but straight up, OG leopard spots for day 13’s theme of animal prints in the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge. Accept no substitutes.
The idea for this manicure, a remarkably not-too-much combination of two super unique KB Shimmer polishes, was a total light bulb moment. One second I’m listening to Mr. Finger Candy tell me about his day and the next I’m sitting bolt upright on the sofa shouting, “SNOW LEOPARD!!!” at the top of my lungs, much to the consternation of my cats, my neighbours and my husband’s belief that his wife is not a total nut job. But I had happened to glance over at a little collection of nail polish bottles littering the top of my coffee table and there were both Snow Much Fun, a snowflake glitter-packed, ice blue polish, and Spot Sign, a holo-flecked topper loaded with leopard spot glitter, sitting side by side, just crying out for some silly wordplay-inspired nails.
So I obliged, and here’s the resulting animal, two careful coats of Snow Much Fun topped with a single coat of Spot Sign, a bright and beautiful combination that’s quite unexpectedly smooth given that these nails are spackled in large, oddly shaped glitter (side tip: the key to applying chunky glitter polishes without things turning into a lumpy nightmare is to go slowly, keep your coats thin, daub in areas where that’s all that’s required and be mindful of glitter placement.) Super fun, and you can’t go wrong with a bit of nail art-related wordplay. And I’m sorry for interrupting your story, Mr. Finger Candy, but when nailspiration strikes and all that, you know? 🙂
Heh, that sounds like the name of a strip club – The Rainbow Leopard. I once stayed at a (in hindsight) fairly sketchy hotel in Toronto out by the airport on one of those too-short-to-actually-do-anything-touristy stopovers on the way to Florida, and its view looked out on a windowless strip club painted entirely in lavender leopard print. To that point I had never encountered exterior leopard print, and indeed to this day it remains the lone, shining example. I wish I had taken note of the club’s name – you know it would have been something fantastic with a paint job like that! I do, however, remember that there was a LOT of porn available for rent at the hotel, including the memorably titled Hawaiian Sex Fest 4, a film I declined to view given that I’d be hopelessly lost, having not seen the first three, um, installments.
But these nails have nothing to do with either strippers or porn, so long as you overlook the fact that they’re rainbow, glittery and covered in leopard spots. So sort of one and the same? 😉
This is actually KB Shimmer’s wicked fun Spot Sign, a clear glitter topper loaded with black circle glitter, black and silver holographic micro glitter and LEOPARD SPOT GLITTER, over a bright rainbow gradient. It’s so ’80s! The leopard spot glitter is so much fun (and I’m not even all that into animal prints) and I can really see myself getting a lot of utility out of this polish once I tinker around with some other techniques and combinations a bit. Formula-wise, Spot Sign is one of KB’s less-dense polishes – I’ve shown two coats here – and goes on smoothly with only a minimum of directed placement. Like all large and oddly shaped glitter, the leopard spots want to sink to the bottom of the bottle. Just remember to give your bottle a little jiggle every couple of nails to redistribute the glitter and you’ll be fine.
Here I’ve shown Spot Sign in the bottle in the shade, and because the day was overcast and wanted to hide all that pretty holographic micro glitter, under the shimmer-inducing pot lights in my kitchen. So tacky, but so pretty!
Finger Candy 