Black Leopard Nail Art

Yesterday I got a few new pretties in the mail, which inspired me to do something different with my nails. Here's what I got, OPI Black Shatter and Zoya's Opal.

So after painting almost every toe nail, plus 2 glass jars, and a piece of the Bloom.com box the polishes arrived in, with a different idea... I finally decided on doing a Leopard design. However, upon reflection I decided to do something different since everyone does leopard prints. So I looked at Margays, then Panthers, then.. AHA! I was already set on using Zoya's Cynthia so I decided to do a Black Panther, which is really just a black Leopard :)


Here are all of the many polishes I used for this manicure:

1. a fortifier; I'm not really sure what brand this is. I got it as part of a kit many years ago and of course I no longer have the box. The bottle says "Professional Series" on it, but that's not much help! Regardless, I believe it's enriched with fiberglass and so far it's been a pretty good fortifier.
2. Zoya's Cynthia
3. Zoya's  Fleck Effects Opal
4. L.A. Colors Color Craze Circuits
5.  Loud! Music: I have no clue what this color is, but the picture is pretty true.
6. Sally Hansen's Teflon Tuff Clear top coat

So here's what I did:
1 thin coat of the fortifier.
1 thin coat of Cynthia.
1 thicker coat of Cynthia. I usually just do one thicker coat of polish, but I wanted this to dry fast so I did 2 thinner coats.
1 coat of Opal.
On each nail, I made a few small brush strokes in random places to look like spots using Circuits.
Using the round end of a straight pin, I filled in each black spot using the Loud! Music color. I don't have any dotting tools, so I had to make do with my sewing tools :b
Then I decided I wanted it to be a little bit more realistic, so I made a few black spots on each nail using Circuits and the pin.
Last of all, 2 layers of the top coat.

I also tried setting my nails faster by using the cold water/ ice technique shown here. I did this after each layer, but I still waited several minutes in between each layer to make sure they were dry. I'm still iffy on whether or not this actually did much. My boyfriend, who has many, many years experience painting, and airbrushing, swears it shouldn't do anything other than harden the top layer while keeping the paint underneath wet. Next time, I'll try using a blow dryer on the coolest setting because despite everything I did to try to speed up the process, it still took me 8 hours overall to complete this look, and I still woke up with my nails being messed up because the clear hadn't dried enough!

Here are a few step by step photos:

Here's just a shot of the nails with the fortifier on. I wasn't too worried about getting it perfect, just pretty good coverage is enough so you can tell it's a little streaky. The other problem with a fiber enhanced fortifier is that some of the fibers end up sticking out past the end of the nails. I later went back through and trimmed them off with nail trimmers.

I LOVE Cynthia. I've said this before and I know others may disagree with me, but I just love the dark color. When used with other colors as I did in this manicure, it really does look very different. Opal really helped to enhance the blue and green in it.







I tried tried tried to photograph Opal after applying it, but try as I might, it just wasn't happening. One of the problems with living at night, I'm afraid. As for Opal, I LOVE it! I only used 1 coat for this manicure but you can tell in all of the pictures, it really covered well. It actually covered a little bit too well, so my manicure turned about a little bit more green than expected but that's OK because I love it.

I have to say a few things about Opal, because after I bought it, I read a few reviews about it. I have to say ladies, whatever you were doing with Opal, you weren't doing it right! Some of the reviews I read stated that it only stayed 1 color: green or that it changed between green and blue. That just simply is not true! Even over top of Cynthia, in different light it takes on almost a rainbow hue. It's true that most of the time it looks green or blue, however, it all really depends on the light, the angle, and what you're wearing it on top of. I swatched some of Opal over top of a pink color, and at some angles it looks a greenish gold. In fact, the PolishAholic got some really good photos of these in her review. The only problem I had with Opal is the difficulty of taking accurate photos with it. It just really wants to capture the light!

I love how this manicure turned out. Aside from being greener than expected, it turned out just about as I planned. It's stunning under light, but even in the shadows where it looks almost black, Opal brings in some of the light and makes it shine. Here are some more photos for your viewing please :)

Natural Light

I *think* this one is with a flash. Sorry so messy, hadn't had a chance to clean them up yet :b

 These two I took during the morning hours, so a little better light. I think the one with Opal is a truer colors. I love the picture with Opal, because you can see the blue sparkles coming from Opal on a few of the fingers :)

Please let me know what you think! Thanks!

All images are copyrighted 2012 Melanie Snyder.