Our lovely facebook friend Louise recently asked if I would do a step-by-step guide to how I do my leopard print manicures – it’s been a little while in the making, but below is my step-by-step leopard print manicure!

I do two different kinds of leopard print manicure, one like this Revlon Minted Leopard Print manicure, which has a base colour and then different colour spots outlined in black and then one like this  Zoya Kali Leopard print manicure, which is a base colour with plain black leopard spots.

Step 1 – this is the first step for both the contrasting colour leopard print manicure and the plain black leopard print manicure

Leopard print manicure step 1 - base nail colour

Paint your nails with the base colour nail polish of your choice! Remember it needs to be light enough for the spots to show up, especially if you are doing a plain black leopard spot. Allow the polish to dry.

Step 2a. This is the second step if you are doing a contrasting colour leopard spot

Leopard print step 2a

Paint on your spots, you can use either a nail art pen like above or it is just as easy to use a regular nail polish. You should make the spots uneven in size and also randomly placed on your nail. Make sure you position some of the spots near the edges of your nail.

Step 2b – this is the 2nd to last step if you are doing a plain black leopard spot (see it’s easy!)

Leopard print manicure step 2b

You need to use a nail art pen to do this step of the leopard print manicure – I am using a Stargazer Nail Art pen in black. Paint on little uneven circles, semi-circles and spots on your nail – don’t worry if you think they are a bit messy, once you’ve done your whole nail it usually works out looking good! Once you’ve done this step for a plain leopard spot, the only step left is to wait for it to dry and put on a layer of your favourite top coat!

Step 3 – this is the second to last step of a contrasting colour leopard print manicure.

Leopard print step 3

Using your nail art pen, carefully paint a line around the edges of each of the dots of nail polish. Don’t make a full circle around the dots though, I think it looks better (and more leopardy) if you make the lines a bit jagged and don’t complete the circles. The final part of this step is to add in some plain black spots in the same way as step 2a.

Step 4 – Once your spots are dry, paint on a layer of your favourite top coat (make sure the spots are dry or you will get smudges) and Voila…. a finished leopard print manicure.

Leopard print manicure

I wouldn’t normally mix the 2 styles (I’ve just done that to show you how to do the 2 different prints) and I prefer the plain black leopard print on a nice bright base colour! The print on my ring finger has pale green spots, made using a regular bottle of nail polish.

Here are some more leopard print manicures to look at….! The colour combinations are pretty limitless, so I would give anything a try!

Purple, green and pink leopard print manicure

Revlon Minted Leopard Print manicure

Zoya Kali Leopard print manicure

For my leopard print manicure above, I used Rimmel I Love Fruities Apricot Punch nail polish (gorgeous colour and when it dries, smells like Apricots. You can also see the other colours in the Rimmel I Love Fruties nail polish collection in my post here.)  and for the spots I used Stargazer Nail Art pens in black and white.

You can buy I Love Fruities Apricot Punch nail polish online at boots.com for £2.99

You can buy Stargazer nail art pens online at Stargazer-products.com for £3

Also Models Own have just brought out their own nail art pens that cost £6 each and are available to buy online from Models Own