On any given night in 14C Warren Towers you’ll find some students studying, some kids on their laptops, and freshman Ally Martinez painting nails for her floormates. She specializes in painting leopard and zebra print and making small flowers. For the modest price of $5, girls getting ready for a formal, preparing for Valentine’s Day, or just looking to pamper themselves go to Ally to get her unique style. Her intricate designs could pass for a trained manicurist, but Ally swears that she’s no professional. “Honestly, I only started painting nails this way because I was bored watching TV one day and randomly thought of it. I just kind of taught myself.”
To get her signature leopard print nail look, follow these super easy steps:
- Start off with a clear base coat. This keeps the nails from yellowing, and it helps the polish stay on longer.
- Let dry for 3-5 minutes. Do this in between each stage; you don’t want the colors to blend!
- Paint on two coats of deep, bronze, metallic gold. Ally loves OPI Glitzerland.
- Next, paint on one coat of a more sparkly yellow gold. Ally uses China Glaze 5 Golden Rings.
- Using a nail tool, make irregular brown dots. Depending on the length of the nails, she suggests making 3-4 on fingers and 5-6 on thumbs.
- With the tool, dab black dots in three segments around each brown dot. Again, these spots shouldn’t be perfect.
- Wherever there are gaps in the nails, make very small black dots, 3-4 per nail. (A small step, but it really pulls the leopard print together!).
- Let this design dry for 5-10 minutes
- Lastly, add a topcoat to give your nails shine and to help the polish stay on longer
Voila! Your nails are now Ke$ha-worthy, thanks to BU’s best manicurist Ally Martinez.