Sunday, August 25, 2013

31 Day Nail Art Challenge - Day 13: Animal Print

I'll start this entry with yet another apology - I'm so late with this post! I made an impromptu trip up to my parent's house (4 hours north of where I live) and was gone Friday and Saturday. But, I'm posting now!

The latest theme of the 31 Day Nail Art Challenge is animal print, and as Meghan had also mentioned in her post, animal print is not really my thing. This is in fact the very first animal print I have ever done - I've never had the desire or need to do it before now! 

When I think of animal print and nail art, leopard print and maybe zebra print and the two that really come to mind. I like a lot of the leopard print ones that I've been seeing lately that use unique colors and varying textures and really contemplating going down a similar route for today's look. However, I decided that I wanted to go with a print from either one of my favorite African animals - Giraffe or Elephant. I was going to make an attempt at the wrinkly and wise skin of an elephant, but as that is not really a "print" per say, nor is it a very recognizable design, I went instead with Giraffe print!

I considered making these bright and fun colors, but when it comes to animal print, I'm a purist and really like print that looks exactly like that of the animal. I used Zoya's Flynn as the base color and Zoya's Louise for the spots and really think these two colors were made to be a giraffe print together ;) I'm a little bit bummed that I had some smearing of the colors on my ring and pinky finger, but alas, things happen. 
I free-handed this pattern with one of my Winstonia brushes (these ones, I love them! You can use the code WONDROUSLY for 10% off of this whole kit!) and it was much easier to create than I thought it would be. I randomly chose the starting place for the first spot and then just made sure to keep a consistent distance between each spot, while varying the size and shape to add interest. For those who don't know, a giraffe's spots are similar to a person's finger prints in that no two giraffe's have the same spots so it felt perfect that I was creating my own unique spots :)
What do you think of these? How do you feel about animal print nail art in general? 


Happy Polishing! :)