i'll show you how to get these nails in a few easy steps:
all you need is:
what i personally used is in brackets, but feel free to improvise with what you have!
- a gold coloured nail polish, (mac golden lemon pigment)
- a bronzy brown nail polish, (mac museum bronze pigment)
- a plain black nail polish, (rimmel 60 seconds in black out)
- an old clear nail polish if youre using pigments, (colour factory from an old set)
- a clear topcoat, (NYC Long Wearing Nail Enamel)
- a toothpick or something pointy, (bbq skewer was what i had on hand at the time)
- a small spatula or something to scoop pigment with, (end of tweezers)
- a clean sheet of paper
this is what im starting with:
just plain clear tipped acrylic nails that i did myself but you can work on any nails at all. i know mine aren't great, ive just been doing my own acrylics for a while. if you have short nails, you could do the leopard print all over the nail.
step one:
if you're using gold nail polish, ignore this step! i used the end of my tweezers to scoop a bit of mac's golden lemon pigment onto the paper. only put a little bit at a time as you need it so you dont waste it!
open the old clear polish you have and get a good sized blob on the end of the brush. dip it into the pigment on the paper and dab it around a bit to get it mixed in. we're using an old polish because its hard to clean the pigment off the brush, and it doesn't matter with an old one.
paint the the tip of the nail, sometimes its hard to get the colour even when using pigments, you kinda have to mash it around a bit to get it to mix up. it can also get a bit lumpy but not to worry! the smile line doesnt have to be too perfect. if you find it too hard to get pigment on some areas it doesnt matter, we can cover them later.
when all the nails are painted they should look like this (or all gold if you're doing your whole nail leopard!).
step two:
ignore this part if youre using brown polish! scoop out a little bit of mac museum bronze pigment or whatever brown colour youre using onto the paper. you really only need a tiny bit.
get some polish onto the brush, the same one you used for the gold. i know my brush has a lot gold on it but not to worry, it turns out fine in the end. again, dip the brush into the pigment. this time you only need to get it on the very tip so you can dot random circular shapes over the gold tip. by the way, the gold should be dry by now if you're as slow as me hehe. just dot the end of the brush onto the nail, dont be too careful, be a bit messy as it makes it look more like real leopard.
it should look like this once you're finished this step. sorry the lighting is a bit weird in that picture.
step three:
blob a bit of black polish (or if you're using a black pigment) onto the paper and get your toothpick or bbq skewer haha.
dip the toothpick into the black polish and draw slightly squiggly lines around the brown patches we just did. again you dont need to be too careful, it adds to the effect if theyre a bit messy!
do this for all the brown bits on all the nails, and finish with clear topcoat and you're done!
i hope you enjoyed this tutorial, its my first one 
if you liked it please check out my blog, the link is in my sig! its brand new and ive only got two followers hehe. i'll be posting lots of stuff like this in the near future! 
leopard print tip nails using pigments tutorial!
<-- my face when i go to MAC
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