Cute Animal Print Nail Designs

Don't let the title intimidate you into clicking the Back button on that browser. Here, you'll learn how to do your own cute animal print nails; zebra, leopard, and giraffe. Getting the look isn't as hard as it may seem, believe me. Especially if you have the right tools to work with. Heck, even if you don't there is always room to improvise. Say you don't have the nail art brush kit polishes, as long as you have a thin stick about the thickness of a toothpick, or something similar and plain old nail polish, you can still get a decent design from it. Making dots, swirls, and lines are just a start and it's also the basis of what I will be demonstrating. So get out your favorite color combinations and gather your tools because class is starting!
Okay, start with a quick clean-up of any old polish left on the nails, even if there isn't any just to clean off the nail and file or clip the nails to the desired length. Push back the cuticles and pick your base coat. I chose to use a pure white, Pure Ice brand in White Canvas. This brand's formula is pretty sweet because it dries in no time and its super affordable at $1.99!
I'll go for the leopard print first since it takes the most time to complete compared to the others. I used a hot pink for the inside color of the spots and black as the spot outline. You can use any color you choose! Its all up to you, which makes DIY so great. Make small dots varying in size over your base color in random places. Let dry. Now the fun part. Take the outlining color, mine being black for the demonstration, and blot oblong dots to almost surround the center dot. I use no more than four dots and make them pretty big to mimic the print as close as possible. Let the design dry before putting on a clear coat or else you'll be smearing that design all over the place.
Now to the zebra print. This print can be as hard as you make it. In this demonstration, I'm also using a white base and black for the stripe. Bursting with color, huh? I usually like to start from the top left corner and drag  across with a slight diagonal tilt then the same on the other side, going from right to left, careful not to the two lines touch. Remember to add a very light pressure when starting the line then lift the precision brush (or other tool) as you go to form a thick to thin line. This best replicates the natural stripe of a zebra. Just repeat making the lines until you reach the tip of the nail and done. The completed stripes should overlap slightly and shouldn't reach to the other side of the nail. This technique can be altered slightly for tiger print by just angling the thin tail of the stripe downward as you reach the middle. Seal with a clear coat and admire.
And at last, giraffe print, which is pretty unique because its not as random as leopard print but still needs to remain pretty uniform to make the print easy to distinguish. It could be mistaken for cow print if you're not careful. Not that that's a bad thing, since cow print could be used to bring out that inner Cowgirl. Yeehaw! I kept the white base and this time I'll go for using a neon orange as the base. Since the orange isn't very opaque I had to use the white to brighten the color and make it stand out more. So if you don't need to use a white base, don't. After the orange dried I too the white nail art polish with precision brush and did a few straggly lines down then across, stopping short where the lines intersect to drop then line a bit and even thicken it as I go.Try not to get the lines completely straight or you'll end up with what looks like a Tic-Tac-Toe board on your nails. Pull up an image if need be to get an idea of what you're going for. Keep in mind though that each animal print differs so try not to stress when you see a print or image that's different than what you produce. Once you're satisfied, seal with a clear coat and let dry.
As you can see, I'm no artist. No where close! But I was still able to get a cute animal print nail design that is fun and customized to my style. All because I did it myself and it costs next to nothing. I think that's as good as it gets, don't you?