For my next tutorial I have decided to show you how to do 5 different animal prints. You can wear all these prints at the same time, like I have here or you can wear one at a time or use them as accent nails. I thought it would be a great tutorial because every girl should be able to whip out a quick animal print! It's one of the most versatile nail designs out there and a great design to incorporate into any manicure. So here we go ....
What you will need:
- top coat and base coat (I used China Glaze Strong Adhesive Base Coat and Seche Vite Top Coat)
- 3 neutral polishes (I used China Glaze Kalahari Kiss, Revlon Apricot Pastry and Sheer Nude)
- a white polish (I used China Glaze White on White)
- an orange polish (CG Orange You Hot)
- 2 brown polishes, one darker than the other (Zoya Nina, Revlon Chocolate Truffle)
- a black polish (CG Liquid Leather)
- a black striper polish (Kiss Nail Art Paint)
- 2 different sized dotting tools (small and medium)
Step 1:
Apply base coat to all your nails and allow to dry. Then taking your three neutral polishes and the white and orange you are going to paint each nail the base colour of the design you want there. For my thumb I did the giraffe design and I used Apricot Pastry as the base colour, for the index I did tiger print and I used Orange you hot as the base colour, for the middle I did leopard print and I used Sheer Nude as the base colour, for the ring I did zebra print and I used White on White for the base colour, and for the pinkie I did cheetah print and I used Kalahari Kiss as the base colour. If you don't have 3 neutral colours you can definitely use one base colour for the giraffe, leopard, and cheetah prints. I used different shades just to give each nail a slightly different look.
Step 2:
First I did the giraffe nail. Using the darker of the two brown shades (Zoya Nina) put a blob of nail polish on a piece of cardboard or paper and use the medium sized dotting tool to create big uneven shapes like those on a giraffe. I looked at a picture of giraffe print to copy the shapes, which are rectangular with rounded edges. Don't worry about perfectly shaped dots because in real life no two dots are the same and making uneven dots on our nails gives the same effect.
Step 3:
Next for the tiger print nail I took my black striper and drew thin lines, alternating down the sides of the nail. To make a good line try placing the end of the brush against the side of the nail right where it meets the skin and then quickly flicking it towards the middle, this will give you a nice tapered line. If that technique doesn't work for you it is fine to draw a line as thin as possible from the outer edge in towards the middle.
Step 4:
My favourite, the leopard print nail! For this one use the lighter of the two brown polishes (Revlon Chocolate Truffle) put a blob of polish on the paper you have already used and then use the medium sized dotting tool to make small brown dots all over the nail. Again, if you don't have two brown polishes go ahead and use the same brown that you used on the giraffe nails. Once the brown dots have dried bit take your black polish and put a blob of it on the paper. Then use the small sized dotting tool to outline the briwn dots. To outline you want to mimic the look of leopard spots and they are outlined with either a C shape or ( ) bracket shapes than dont fully go around the dot. try to do the outlining a little uneven as well so it looks more natural. After all the brown dots are outlined put in a few dots between the spaces and this will help it look more natural too.
Step 5:
For the zebra print nail you will use the same technique and black striper as the tiger print. To make the zebra print though you will connect a few of the lines coming out of the nail the make small triangle shapes and you will extend the lines a little further, almost touching them to the other side. These lines should not be straight across but have almost a wavy look to them to mimic how a real zebra's stripes look. I found it very helpful to look at a picture of zebra stripes as I did this nail.
Step 6:
Last but not least, the cheetah print. To do this nail you put another blob of black polish on your paper and using the small dotting tool you will make small dots all over the nail. The dots on the cheetah print should be uneven and a mix of round and almost triangle shapes with a few very small dots too.Again it will be very helpful to look at a picture of real cheetah print to get a good idea of the shape of the dots.
Step 7:
Before putting on top coat you will want to wait until all the black in the designs are completely dry, this is very important because if the black is not all the way dry it will run into the lighter colours (especially the white). Once you are 100% sure that the designs are dry put on a layer of top coat to make you designs smooth and shiny.
And now you know how to do 5 different animal prints! Have fun trying this design out for yourself and adding all these great prints to your future designs :)
