Africa Inspired: Tiger Nails

Next Saturday I am going out to Africa, to teach in a school out there. So this week I wanted to do a few mani's inspired by Africa, as its a good excuse to Google pictures and get myself even more excited!!

But yesterday my bf came home with a new polish he had bought me :) He really liked the colour and was desperate for me to try it out. I thought, maybe I'll see tigers on safari, they're orange! So I went for a Tiger mani. I have since found out that tigers tend not to live in Africa, so I probably won't see one but shh! We'll just forget about that!

I started off with my new Sally Hansen Nail Nutrition base coat. I'll be doing a review of this in a few weeks, once I've been using it long enough to see how well it works! I then did two layers of Rimmel Golden Hour. This didn't really need two coats as it covered really well with just one, but I did another anyway, out of habit really. Then I sponged a little Barry M Matt White onto my thumb and ring finger, to create those little white patches tigers have! Next, I got a thin striping brush and freehanded some stripes on using Barry M Black. I didn't want these to be too neat and tidy, as that wouldn't be realistic! Finally, I finished off with a Barry M topcoat on the Thumb and ring finger. The Rimmel polish is so nice and shiny I didn't really need topcoat on the other nails.

I didn't think I'd say this when I first saw it, but I really like the colour of this polish. In some lights it's a vibrant orange, but as you move your hands, there's a lovely gold shimmer to it which isn't immediately obvious but makes its very pretty! You can just about see this on my little finger in the below picture.