Floral Leopard Nails

Leopard nails or Floral nails? Both, please! Two of the most popular nail art prints combined in one nail design look surprisingly chic. While gold foil flakes add a touch of luxury, matte finish tones it all down and allows the Leopard pattern and floral prints to stand out.

I created these Floral & Leopard nails for the #Artists4Earth challenge but only had a chance to show it now. The design is dedicated to the critically endangered Amur Leopard and it also features one of the colours from my untrieds stash – Dior 851 Rouge En Diable from Dior Fall 2018 collection.

WHY AMUR LEOPARD?

I chose the Amur Leopard because these subspecies are literally on the brink of extinction. People usually think of leopards in the savannas of Africa but in the Russian Far East, these graceful animals have adapted to life in the below zero temperate forest. Amur Leopard is also known as the Far East leopard, the Manchurian leopard or the Korean leopard but don’t confuse it with Snow Leopard that is native to the mountain ranges of Central and South Asia. With only 84 Amur Leopards left as of 2018, they are critically endangered, mainly due to the prey scarcity and poaching.

According to WWF, the Amur Leopard is poached largely for its beautiful fur. The forests where the leopards live are surrounded by agriculture and villages, which makes poaching a problem. Not only for the leopards themselves, but also for important prey species, such as deer and hare, which are hunted by the villagers.

The great news is that the Amur Leopard can be saved with the right conservation efforts. There are still large tracts of suitable habitat left across the Amur in Russia and China, but the prey base is insufficient to sustain large populations of leopards. For the Amur Leopard to survive, it needs to repopulate its former range. But for that to happen, prey populations need to recover first.

While same may think that the Amur Leopard is unimportant, these rare animals are in fact part of Amur Heilong landscape, which one of the 7 eco systems human race needs to survive.

While WWF is doing all the ground work to save the Amur Leopard, we also can do a lot to facilitate their conservation efforts! Together we can help to bring these graceful creatures back and ensure long-term conservation of the region.

(Amur Leopard image from WWF)

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

Stop wild life crime. Find out how you can take action against the most urgent threat to leopards and tigers.

Adopt a Amur leopard. Make a symbolic Amur Leopard adoption to help save some of the world’s most endangered animals from extinction and support WWF’s conservation efforts. The plush leopards are super cute will make an excellent gift to any kid – a gift with a meaning!

Rise Awareness. You can simply share photos of this Amur Leopard nail design on your social media and tell their story. And of course, feel free to re-create this nail art. There is still time to turn things around! So help me to rise the awareness about the Amur Leopard and other endangered animals by joining one the #Artists4Earth challenges or in any other way that suits you.

It all starts with education, so let’s spread the word! The more people know about the current environmental crisis, the more chances the necessary changes will happen. It’s up to us, humans – citizens of this world, to secure a clean and safe future for ourselves and also for all the creatures that inhabit the Earth, including the Amur Leopard.