Vertical Gradient Leopard Print – Cheeky Jumbo Wild at Heart

Hello Beauties!

I’ve been thinking about doing a leopard print manicure for a while. I’ve seen a couple free-hand tutorials (shimmyshimmySHIMMER, Andrea Konecki, love4creativity) and wanted to do something with an image stamp. I went back and forth on what the base color would be, and then I think I saw something in a magazine with a gradient using similar colors to the ones I chose. So here’s what I did:

Base coat: Qtica Nail Growth Stimulator
Two coats of China Glaze Knotty
I did a vertical gradient using China Glaze Knotty and Orly Flare. I painted the two colors on a make-up sponge, then dabbed them onto each nail. I did three coats of this until the polish was at the opacity I desired.
I applied Seche Vite top coat to finish the gradient look and also help it dry quickly so I could do the image stamping.
When my nails were dry, I stamped the leopard print from the Cheeky Jumbo Plate, Wild at Heart. I had a couple other leopard prints in other stamp steps, but I chose this one because it was the largest image and would cover the nails most completely. The spots are larger also, which I was concerned about, but I think the size of the print is actually fine.
After the image stamp dried, I filled in the open spots with Kleancolor Chocolate Brown. I used a small dotting tool to fill in the dots. I initially used a larger tool because the spots were so large, but found that I wasn’t able to get the precision I wanted with the larger tool.
Next I applied Sally Hansen Triple Strong, a nail fortifier.
Finally, I ended with Qtica Extending Top Coat, and several drops of Qtica Half Time Polish Drying Accelerator.
When it was all done, I cleaned up the cuticles with acetone.

I’m happy with the way it turned out. The gradient is subtle, but I love it. As I said, the size of the spots work well, I think. I got good feedback at work today. For the manicure debut, I coordinated my outfit and wore a leopard print blouse and some tiger eye jewelry. It was quite nice. Next time I do this, I’ll probably do a random gradient rather than a vertical gradient. I think that will really give it the leopard coat feel. We’ll see!