leopard-naisl-2

First of all, YES, I subscribe to Teen Vogue. I am not a teen. And I like it. (Big-kid Vogue has too many subdued colors and too few necklaces with little trinkets on them. (Getting Vogue-Vogue is like getting a McDonald’s hamburger not only without a toy, but with a 100 page advertisement supplement.) Anyway, the March issue had a delightful feature (page 158) called “the bright stuff.” And, yes, I was turned on. Each spread not only contained accessories in hues that could burn your retina in a single glance, but also painted nails nails nails that could burn your retina in a single glance.

I am always jealous of prettily painted nails, esp when they are all shiny and have delightful designs. Then I try to re-create them. Things go terribly wrong from the start. I spill nail polish. My room spells like nail polish remover. I forget to wait until things try. Colors run together. Always a disaster. Forget straight lines or multiple colors. I can hardly get my nails to be ONE color.

Anyway, I was totally thrilled to see these fabulous leopard print nails on page one of the photo-set. (See the picture next to “Nails” in the mini collage above — those are the Teen Vogue nails, the rest are mine.) No need to watch for running colors! Who cares if you blotch or drip?!

And thus, my first foray into sort-of-not-ruining-my-nails-but-still-having-them-look-cool. After the jump, a little how-to.

leopard-nails

This is a how-to for those of you who are impatient. It’s also completely made-up by me, a non-nail professional (alas!). There are no extra-fancy steps in this one, no fake nails, just you and your Wet ‘N Wild polish (I highly recommend this polish because it’s only a few bucks a bottle, comes in really bright colors, and can be purchased at easy-to-find places like drugstores or Target).

1. You could start with a clear coat, but then you’d have to wait for it to dry. So I just go right ahead and paint on a bright yellow or lime green layer, taking care mostly to get a smooth finish without painting too much of my skin (if you do get it on your skin, you can use a paper towel or a Q-tip to get it off quickly before it dries). In some places you might see through to your nail, but it’s okay.

2. Second coat (only after the first is completely dry! for serious!), this smooths out the first and should give you the full color you want. (If not you can do another coat, but if you do too many coats then it’s more prone to getting ruined or peeling off.)

3. Once the yellow/green has dried, paint on some little dots with orange polish. They can be all different sizes and shapes, some of them a little long, others a little rounder. I recommend three to five dots per nail.

4. Finally, after the orange dries, add the black. Put it over one or both ends of the orange. If you want it to be more whispy and have paint strokes, wipe a lot of the polish off before you paint your nail, this way it won’t bubble up into a perfect dome of polish.

The end! Don’t you feel cool?

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