Stone Cold Leopard

Hullo me lads and lassies :D Thanks to all who've stuck with me this long! Now that the challenge train has reached it's final stop, it's time to hop aboard the Amanda Express, where few ever leave, but all are entertained!

I have no idea where the previous sentence came from.

On to the nails, and a manicure I call Stone Cold Leopard! I'll explain why in a sec. But check it out--these were inspired by a pair of my socks!

Rawr :D

Yep, these grey socks with black and hot pink leopard print is one of my favourite pairs (although I have a lot of cute socks, including other funky animal-prints... maybe I'll showcase some others one day).

I used three China Glaze polishes for this look: first, the suede-finish dark grey polish from which the mani gets its name, Stone Cold. It was released with the Hunger Games collection. It's really great--covers opaque in one coat, and dries super fast (and in case you haven't noticed a pattern by now, these are always two of my favourite qualities in a polish). I wore it alone for a day at first, because it matched this sweater perfectly:

Pretty much made for each other, see?

I then used Liquid Leather and a toothpick to make some random blobby bits and C-shapes, leaving space for the pink in the centre of some of them:

I actually may have liked it better this way, before the pink was added. So cool!

And another pic of the same thing, with more flash, because I couldn't decide which I liked better. Get over it :D

Finally, I used Shocking Pink (Neon) to fill in the centre of the circular shapes:

Those little stringy things on the small finger weren't even noticeable in real life. O_o

I didn't use topcoat, because I loved the contrast of finishes--they were all a little different. Stone Cold has that great metallic-yet-matte suedey look, Liquid Leather is glossy, and Shocking Pink (as with most neons) dried with kind of what I believe is called a "satin" finish, at least in the Scotch Tape world. Ha.

With the inspirational sock. See, you can find artistic ideas anywhere!

Have you ever taken manicure inspiration from something a little... unusual? Look around and see what you can create! xoxo