Blue Animal Print Gradient

As you might have already noticed, I'm a big fan of animal prints. Why? Because they're really easy and very fun

Since I've already done more in-depth posts on sponging and animal prints, I'll keep this one quick. For my base color, I used two coats of OPI Skulls & Glossbones. Over that, I sponged a layer of China Glaze Caribbean Blue — I actually had to do this several times, since it's a little more sheer than the OPI cremes that I used. I did this with a ripped up make-up wedge, which works great to add texture. After that dried, I sponged OPI Dating a Royal on the tips, followed by painting the animal stripes with my black Stripe Rite brush.

With a layer of top coat, I was done and have a quick, colorful manicure!

Purple Zebra Print Mani

My first nail art of the new year! I actually did this mani away while spending the day at my mom's, so I had to improvise with what I had since I didn't have any of my regular tools with me.

I started with two coats of Sally Hansen XTreme Wear Lacey Lilac, a soft lavender creme that has a great smooth application. That was the only color I had with me, so I borrowed a bottle of my mom's polish, OPI Tomorrow Never Dies from the James Bond Skyfall Collection. At first glance, it almost looked like a royal blue when in the bottle, but applied as a saturated deep purple shimmer.

I (sloppily) freehanded a line sectioning off a third of the nail and painted a thick stripe of the OPI purple -- it looks a bit messy because I was working from my lap. Using an old paint brush with thin bristles, I drew the zebra stripes by dipping it into the open polish bottle.

The overall effect didn't turn out too badly, for having done this manicure on a whim. With the proper tools and better lighting, this could be a really cool piece of nail art.

Multicolored Zebra Print Mani

I've been on a colorful kick lately and today's mani is no different. I used all OPI creme polishes again, including some of my favorites and one color I'd never tried before.

On my thumb, I have a base of You Don't Know Jacques, a dark brown creme I'd never used before despite buying it a year ago in a "Best of OPI" minis set (oh the dangers of buying minis).

Next is Don't Mess With OPI, Fly, A Grape Fit and My Boyfriend Scales Walls, all great shades that I've used for other manis. Fly is one of my favorite polishes because of the bright, vibrant color -- even my mom is a fan!

I used a black striper brush to draw the zebra print over two coats of polish. After those dried, I used a silver striper brush to accent the print.

My favorite of the five colors was actually the white, My Boyfriend Scales Walls -- it inspired me to create a snow leopard mani next, so keep an eye out for new nail art up on the blog soon!

(From L-R: My Boyfriend Scales Walls, A Grape Fit, You Don't Know Jacques, Fly, Don't Mess With OPI

Purple and Aqua Animal Print Gradient

This mani was actually a happy accident ... I started out trying to just do a gradient, since I desperately need more practice in that area. My base color was OPI Fly, the middle sponge area is OPI Purple With a Purpose and the top sponge area is OPI Pamplona Purple.

I wasn't thrilled with the way the colors were blending, but loved the combination of the three cool shades. It seemed like it needed something else laid over it to help hide the blending lines. My go-to design tool is glitter, but since I'm going out of town this weekend and will probably do my nails again Friday night, I decided I didn't want to deal with the hassle of glitter removal. I opted for the animal print and used my black Stripe Rite polish to do a combination of leopard spots and zebra stripes. The whole thing ended up a little abstract, but it's an awesome effect and am considering doing a pink/orange version with white animal print overlaid with a shimmer.

It's So Easy Leopard Print

(Please excuse my brief hiatus ... I was busy getting married!)

I've never been an expert nail artist—I can give myself a mean manicure, but when it comes to painting custom designs, I thought I was a hopeless cause.

I had a few Stripe Rite brushes from It's So Easy Nails that I wanted to try out, so I clicked over to their website to get inspired. I came across this super easy Leopard nail art tutorial and I was hooked. Leopard nail art has to be one of the easiest (and quickest) manicures I've ever attempted -- plus it looks amazing! The best part about leopard print nail art is that you can totally customize it for any season or mood you're feeling -- I went for the basic tutorial colors, but I've seen it done with a gradient background, metallics and even crackle/shatter.

For my base color, I used OPI Gargantuan Green Grape, an awesome mint color I picked up as my one concession to the summer trend. The real stars of this mani were the awesome Stripe Rite brushes -- they made an easy manicure even easier. The colors used in the demo were midnight blue, light green, grape and cranberry pink, but I swapped out the light green with a yellow. What I really liked about the Stripe Rite polishes were the brushes -- a lot of brands I've tried out have long, unwieldy brushes, but these held their shape well enough for me to easily make my spots and add texture.

Topped off with a quick swipe of my favorite Seche Vite, this mani lasted for nearly two weeks and I've never received so many compliments!

Disclosure: The products reviewed in this post were provided by the PR company for It's So Easy Nails, but all opinions are my own. View our disclosure policy for more information.