Pineapple leopard print nail art

Hey everyone! All hope for this blog is not lost yet. I'm still here... just slow at updating and still trying to get back into doing more than one nail art per week.

ANYHOW, Who's up for a tropical nail design today? First, what is your favorite tropical fruit? Not sure what falls under the tropical fruit category? Here's a list:

Mango, papaya, kiwi, mangosteen, banana, guava and here are some not-so-common ones. Have you heard of any on that list? I know at least half. ;)

I'm not a fan of pineapples unless they're in pizza and even then I don't like too many pineapple chunks. However, I've always been fascinated by the fruit. It just looks freaking cool and smells amazing. You can't deny the uniqueness of the pineapple. Come to think of it, tropical fruits are all super cool.

Let's get on with the design:

Taken indoors

As you can see, I started off with V-shaped designs which are easy to achieve with tape. Just make sure you 'dab' the tape a few times so that it's less sticky. I painted the green V tips OVER the yellow as opposed to painting the yellow over the green.

I honestly did not intend to do a pineapple design and I wore my nails like this for a day or two.

taken with flash

taken with flash

And then I got bored and wanted to remove this design... but then I had a brilliant idea. I'll mess with the design BEFORE I remove it. I already thought the color combo was like a pineapple's so I just went with it.

taken with flash

You can't really see the criss-cross pattern in this picture with flash but in the photo below it's more obvious.

I LOVE that the accent nail was a leopard print because it just looks so cute tied together and the colors are amazing.

I don't know what made me brush on green polish onto the V tips but that wasn't very smart. I should have just left it at the V tips. Still, it was NOT obvious at all under normal light and sunlight. The flash is just to give you a clear picture of what I did.

taken in indirect sunlight

I cannot for the lunch in me think remember the exact polishes I used because I did this last year but I do remember using Revlon Top Speed Yellow as the yellow base.

I LOVED doing this design. It was very tedious to do mix the polishes to get the exact shade of browns that I wanted and to draw the criss-cross 'boxes' (my fruit vocab rocks) but it was worth it. I wore this design for a couple more days and was sad to remove it at the end of the week.

Definitely would do this again. I just don't think I brought that blue-green polish with me. Blegh.

Anyway, tell me what you think! Are you a tropical fruits kind of person? What tropical fruits would you include in a nail design? Oh, and how was your weekend? :)

OH, an idea: what about a Valentine's Day themed tropical fruit nail art?! A pink pineapple and red leopard print accent nail? How cool would that be?!!

Thanks for reading and being patient with me!

Ariel from The Little Mermaid Nail Art

Hi guys!! Today I bring you another installment of Disney characters on my nails! After Jane, I was obsessed. I knew I needed to do Ariel because, duh, I heart mermaids and red hair and the ocean and you can check out my mermaid tail nails here and the red version of the mermaid tail here.

PLEASE tell me you love mermaids as much as I do!!

Taken in indirect sunlight

Sorry for the shaky hands!! I didn't manage to draw the lines as straight as I wanted and my eyes were getting tired from aligning the brush and trying to draw the outline.

I used a bajillion polishes to do this design (okay I only have that many bottles, not even close to 100) but I managed to compile the list:

Thumb:

• China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss
• China Glaze - Salsa
• China Glaze - First Mate
• China Glaze - White on White
• Orly - Liquid Vinyl 
• Love & Beauty - milky white
• The Face Shop - BR802

You can see the rest of the designs in the pictures below:

Index:

• 2 coats of China Glaze - Kalahari Kiss as a base
• The Face Shop - PP401 and a random purple polish for the shell top
• Sally Hansen - Lickety Split Lime and Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint for the tail

Middle:

• 2 coats of (my drying) Revlon Top Speed - Yellow as a base
• The Face Shop - BL602 for the stripes

Ring:

• 2 coats of The Face Shop - BL602 as a base
• Sponged on a gradient of China Glaze - First Mate, The Face Shop - BL602 and Love & Beauty - baby blue
• Used The Face Shop - YL702 and a striper brush to draw the moon

Little:

• 2 coats of Love & Beauty -  baby blue for the base
• Sponged on a gradient of The Face Shop - BL602
• Used a striper brush, Sally Hansen - Mint Sprint and The Face Shop -  to create the bed of corals.

Taken in indirect sunlight

From left to right: Ariel's bikini top and tail, Flounder's scales, the reflection of the moon minus Ariel sitting on the rock ala the picture at the top of the post, and finally the bed of corals that symbolize Ariel's home.

Taken with flash

Taken with retro filter

Taken in indirect sunlight

I did all five nails in an hour which is a vast improvement from spending an hour on solo Jane on my thumbnail.

I'm pleased at how her eyes, nose and skin tone turned out... And I love the other designs so much!

BUT I'm not sure I managed to capture the true expression of Ariel here which saddens me because I want to do my favorite mermaid justice. My Ariel is more like meh, not frickin' impressed while the real Ariel is like hmmm, I wonder what's above the sea...

None of my red polishes match her bright red hair so I had to stick with China Glaze - Salsa though now come to think of it I should've used the red-pink polish.

What do you think though? How are these nails for a second attempt at doing semi-realistic painting?? Does it look okay, passable, so-so? Would you have me redo these nails? (I would) Or do you like them? -hopeful- Do you prefer my Jane nails or this set of Ariel nails?

Check out my Jane Porter nails here! If you have any Disney princess nail art requests, I'd love to hear them and take them into consideration. <3

Thanks for reading!
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