Red Leopard Print

This red leopard print design was painted on a clients nails yesterday. The red base polish I used for this design is 'Love My Team' by Wah London. It is a lovely bold shade of red and the polish gives great coverage.

To draw the leopard print design I used a black nail art pen by Wah London. If you don't have a nail art pen you can use any black polish with a fine nail art brush to paint on the leopard spots.

This design works well on short nails as it is a simple pattern to draw but also looks great on longer nails too. You can choose any colour you like for the base polish and if desired you can use a second colour to fill the middle of the leopard spots.

As always, be careful when you apply the top coat so you don't smudge the black design - it is best to dab the brush on to the nail rather than drag the brush across.

Lilac Crystals

I've been trying out some more nail art designs with gel polish so this week I'm sharing one of my crystal gel nails designs. The pastel lilac gel polish is a beautiful colour for spring and summer and looks great with both silver and purple coloured crystals. The silver crystals I used are Swarovski crystals and the purple crystals I used are generic plastic crystals which you can get from any nail art supplier. The Swarovski crystals are a lot more sparkly and shiny than the cheaper crystals so I would definitely recommend getting some if it's within your price range. I always keep my Swarovski crystals when I soak off my manicure as you can re-use them again!

Using crystals to create nail art designs is a very simple technique but offers a wide range of potential styles. You can place a single crystal on each nail for a subtle and elegant look or you can cover your whole nail in crystals for a glam sparkly look. I decided to create a pattern on my ring finger with different colours and sizes of crystals for a super sparkly manicure great for a party or special occasion. When applying crystals to your nails with gel polish I find it is best to secure them in place within two layers of top coat. I apply the crystals on to the first layer of top coat when it is still wet and then cure under the lamp to set them in place. I then apply another layer of top coat over the whole nail and over the crystals before curing it under the lamp again. Some people prefer to skip the second layer of top coat to keep the crystals more sparkly but they will start falling off much sooner and the amount of shine that they lose with the top coat is not noticeable enough to worry about.

I'd love to see some other people's crystal nail designs so send me your manicure pics @KathleenEmilyy on Twitter and Instagram!