Gold Leopard Print Nail Art

I’m attending a fundraiser this evening for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and the theme is “Boots & Bling”.  I’ve been stressing about this for the last two weeks trying to find the perfect outfit and of course I knew I had to “bling” my nails to match!  I don’t own a pair of cowboy (cowgirl?) boots, so that was the first item I had to search for.  I didn’t want to spend a fortune because it’s highly unlikely that I will wear them again, except maybe on Halloween.  So I headed over to a resale shop called Plato’s Closet and ended up finding my entire getup for the event for just $20!  I bought a pair of boots, a leopard print dress, and a small gold purse to match.  Score!

The nail art was all done with Gelish.  The leopard print nails started with a base of Medieval Madness, and one coat of Twinkle for some gold sparkle.  Then I used a dotting tool and drew on the leopard spots using Sweet Chocolate and Meet the King.  The “bling” finger has a base of Meet the King, and I brushed on some loose gold glitter into the tacky layer before applying the top coat.  I wasn’t able to get the glitter perfectly smooth, so there are some small imperfections.  On my thumb and pinky, I applied two coats of Sweet Chocolate and then used nail art striping tape to create the triangle shapes that I filled in using Meet the King.  And finally I applied some gold stud accents that were purchased at Michael’s craft store.   Whew!  This took some time. 

I also found a cute little leopard print ring at Charming Charlies.

Here is a closer look at the pattern of the dress and the belt that I’m going to wear with it.  You can see where I got the inspiration for the thumb and pinky with the round gold studs.