31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day #13 - Animal Print

I really wanted to do a more unique animal print than the usual leopard print, zebra stripes, etc, so I asked my boyfriend for an idea. He suggested doing a sea turtle pattern, so that's what I did! Sea turtles come in many colors, but the general pattern is pretty basic.

Source

Here is what I used for this mani:

Base coat: Orly Bonder

Polishes: nails inc. Magnetic Polish - whitehall

               Sephora - Tiramisu

Tools: Small Square Brush

Top Coat: Seche Vite

I did a coat of the nails inc. magnetic polish and used a star shaped magnet for 30 seconds to make it a little less homogeneous. I've noticed that the pattern looks really clear right after applying the magnet, but it slowly fades over time. I wonder if I could lock in the pattern better by immediately applying a top coat.

Then, I used the small square nail art brush to hand paint the hexagonal design using the brown Sephora color. I just pressed the brush into the polish and pressed it onto my nail without any dragging. It was a little messy as expected with free-handing, but I think the overall effect was nice. The Seche Vite made it super shiny to distract from the messy-ness.

Doing this pattern again, I would probably use slightly lighter colors, but I am still happy with how it came out, and it's a unique animal print!