Thursday, September 20, 2012

Neon week- rainbow leopard

Stamped leopard print manicure, with neon accent

Here is my take on a pretty classic kind of nail art, the leopard print manicure. I actually have a soft spot for leopard print, because it's the first kind of nail art I ever did. Back then, it was a pretty standard gold, brown and black scheme- nothing like the crazy combo I have here.

This manicure features a simple white base with black stamping, and an array of neon polishes. Find out what colors I used and check out some more pictures, after the jump!
I started with a base color of Sinful Colors Snow Me White and then stamped with Salon Express stamping polish in black.

Rainbow of neon colors as spots in leopard print, natural light lamp

Next, I used a dotting tool to start adding neon polishes to the spots on the leopard design. I used the same polishes I mentioned my previous post, with a couple of additions. Here's a list of them again:


Orly Beach Cruiser-pink
Sally Hansen- Blue Me Away
China Glaze Yellow Polka Dot Bikini-yellow
China Glaze Sun Worshipper-yellowish orange
China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy-coral pink
Sinful Colors Irish Green-green
Sinful Colors Summer Peach-orange

For this manicure, I stamped with the Salon Express stamping leopard design plate and the Salon Express stamper. Even though it works, I much prefer using my MASH plates and BM stamper now that I've used those and can compare. I think the Salon Express plates are not etched as deeply as better plates, making the stamping results more messy on the nail. In addition, I think the material or design in the Salon Express stamper mean it doesn't "grab" the design as well. I mention all this because I was less than thrilled with my stamping for this manicure.

Rainbow of neon colors as spots in leopard print, sunlight
I relied more heavily on a variety of colors in the neon spots largely because I wasn't pleased with the stamping underneath. Had the stamping turned out better, I might not have included quite the array of colors that I ended up with. Nevertheless, I love the leopard look in combination with the neon rainbow!

1 comment: