So... I've kind of been in a funk Nail Art wise lately. I've been sticking with the safe, boring, traditional single color mani's for quite awhile because I'm simply not comfortable doing awesome nail art on my own nails. I used to do it on press-ons and called it good. But I've quit putting those nasty things on my nails since they were basically just eating away at the nail.
I'm trying to get my feet wet, slowly but surely, one toe at a time. I was browsing YouTube this morning, half asleep with coffee in my hand mind you and I came across SimplePleasures' Acid Leopard Nail Art tutorial. Now, I used to be a huge fan of leopard print, but alas, tastes change and now I'm pretty much all about zebra print. So I decided to change things up a bit and do a Lisa Frank inspired Matte Neon Zebra Print Mani and that's the tutorial you're about to see.
Back in the old days, Lisa Frank was THE shit. You weren't cool unless you had at least one or two Lisa Frank notebooks, pens, trappers, etc etc and the list goes on. I always loved the cute little animals on them and the vibrant neon loveliness.
Here's what you'll need:
From L to R: A topcoat of your choice I'm using Hong Kong Girl from Glisten & Glow because it dries super fast. A base coat- I'm using Stuck on Blu Sticky base coat from Glisten & Glow. First time using this, so we'll see how it works. You'll need three bright colors. I used Orly Purple Crush, China Glaze's Frostbite and China Glaze's Sun-Kissed. You'll also need a white- I used Sinful Colors' Snow Me White and a Black like Orly's Liquid Vinyl. You'll also need a micro glitter top coat (not pictured) like China Glaze's Fairy Dust and a matte top coat like I have here- butter London's Matte Finish top coat. You'll also need some makeup sponges, a pallet and a nice thin brush and some acetone for cleanup.
Step One:
Prep your nails with your Stuck on Blu or base coat of your choice. A fellow nail blogger and good friend warned me that you need to let this base coat dry completely before continuing on or it'll become a goopy mess. So I let this sit a good 2-3 minutes.
Once your base coat is completely dry, continue on!
Step Two:
Take your white and lay down a nice coat. Usually SC's Snow Me White streaks worse than a drunk boy at a frat party but with the new base coat it didn't streak hardly at all, which is super awesome. I could have gotten away with just one coat, but the perfectionist I am I had to do two.
Once you're done, do a little spot clean up. Easier to clean up now than to have to take out layers upon layers of polish later.
Tip... If you do nail tutorials and you do them step by step with a relatively high priced camera and use acetone to clean up beware... Never think you WON'T spill when you're pouring acetone into a small container because you will. And your beautiful camera will get acetone on it. And it will freeze the on/off switch and shutter release causing you to panic and nearly hyperventilate. But they do eventually unfreeze and you have to stop and give your camera loving strokes to save it from the trauma of the situation.
Step Three:
Take your first color and your manicure sponge and wipe the brush against the sponge a couple of times to get it nice and saturated.
Should look like that when you're done.
Step Four:
In splotchy patches sponge on the color on your nail.
Until your nails look like this:
Ehhhh kinda weird looking.
Step Five:
Continue with the other two colors, overlapping each color as you go to make it look like it's faded into it.
Yellow
Blue
Step Five:
Once you're done, add a little fairy sparkle with your glitter topcoat. You might think you won't be able to see it once you Matte it out, but trust me, you can still see the sparkle.
Step Six:
Add your matte top coat and let sit for about 5 minutes.
Step Seven:
Once dry, put a little black polish on your pallet...
And squiggle on some zebra stripes. Doesn't matter if they're not uniform.. Or very attractive. Once you get them all on, it'll even out.
I mean, c'mon. Ain't that purty?
So there ya go. I think from now on I'm not going to use manual setting to do my manis. I hate how grainy they look. Just pisses me off. I need a new camera. *cries*
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