Guest Blogger - Teneil from Shades of Pheonix

Where am I? - quietly sailing between Mystery Island and Port Vila in Vanuatu. I should be sleeping when this post is scheduled, although I could be just staggering back to my room after having visited the midnight buffet.

Please welcome to More Nail Polish, Teneil from Shades Of Phoenix. Teneil is sharing how to create free hand leopard print, which I have to say I have never tried and therefore never shown on my blog before, but Teneil is certainly a master at this. Check out Teneils work below.

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Hi My name is Teneil, I'm from Shades Of Phoenix. Shades Of Phoenix started as a normal nail art blog which turned in to my own Aussie Indie Brand. As much as I love my Indie Polishes, I still like to go back to where it all started and do nail art whenever I get the chance because that is where my love of nail polish began.

Today I'd love to share with you a little tutorial for how I do my leopard print nail art. Everyone does their own leopard print different and there is no right or wrong way to do it, like any kind of nail art, its all up to interpretation.

First I'd like to show you the tools and polishes I will be using for this particular mani.

Always use a base coat - at the moment I'm using OPI -Nail Envy, it works for me and has made my nails the strongest they've ever been. The top coat I use is Essie- Good To Go, I find it is quick drying and just an all round great top coat. The last thing I do before I take a photo of my mani is cuticle oil and I am loving my Joss Strawberry Cuticle oil at the moment, it just smells divine. Next we have the tools - for my leopard prints I use my small dotting tool from my Bundle Monster set. Then most importantly my clean up brush that goes with me everywhere I do my nails, it is part of every mani I do.

The polishes I will be using are: OPI - My Throne For A Cranberry Scone, Sinful Colors - Black On Black & Snow Me White, China Glaze - Glistening Snow and OPI - Which Is Witch? however you can use as many colours and polishes as you like, this is for a simply leopard print mani, the combinations and styles are endless.

Now for the tutorial!

Step 1: Make sure you've got a base coat on, dried and ready to get painting. Then use your base polish colour for your mani. I've used OPI - My Throne For A Cranberry Scone. Depending on the polish 2 coats may be needed.

Step 2: Using your dotting tool and another polish colour - I used Sinful Colors - Snow Me White, make random circular shapes on the nail, spread out. They do not need to be perfect, the more abnormal and irregular the better.

Step 3: Again using your dotting tool and a different polish, preferably black, I've used Sinful Colors - Black On Black, make 'C' shapes around the sides irregularly of the white marks made earlier. Some people choose to stop here and leave their leopard print mani - this is again a personal choice.

Step 4: I usually do Step 3 and 4 at the same time. In the gaps make random little 'C' lines and dots with your dotting tool and black polish. Let try! This is important as even applying a quick try top coat when not dry can cause it to streak. Once dry pop on your top coat and do clean up if needed. Lastly is the (amazingly smelling) cuticle oil and your done!

Welcome done! You've just done a leopard print mani!

Here is the finished product with a feature finger of China Glaze - Glistening Snow and OPI - Which Is Witch? plus some pink rhinestones to jazz it up - the possibilities are endless when it comes to nail art!

As you can see on my pinky finger I've done a curved/half nail leopard print, this is simple as you only cover half the nail when doing steps 2,3 & 4.

I also wanted to show you some of my past leopard print mani's from the last few months! Just to give you some ideas on how different each one can look and the ideas that a leopard mani can creative.