Only Double Stamping Will Do

Hey lovelies

Tonight I am going to show you my finished nails using Barry M Chai as a base. Also this is one of very few occasions that I double stamped each nail and I absolutely love how the finished look came out :)

Orly Pink on Pink

Good evening lovelies!

Hope you are all doing well? Tonight I have a gorgeous polish to show you that I have finally ticked off my lemming list :-). I first saw this palest of pinks on other blogs about six months ago, after finally giving up on finding a stockist in the UK I ordered it from the States and I couldn't have been happier when it arrived in only 6 days. Hence this slightly picture heavy post... :-)

This pretty pale pink is Orly Decades of Dysfunction. I will admit now (quickly) that the formula was frustratingly streaky and required three coats (pretend I didn't say that) but the overall finish was lovely and the colour so very subtle.

I decided to pair this up with another favourite pink - Orly Miss Conduct. I used Miss Conduct for my accent nail and also as my stamping polish as I thought it was about time I experimented with something other than Barry M's :-)

This picture is taken with the flash on so you can see the true holo beauty of Miss Conduct...

Such a pretty pale pink...

Finally I topped the whole manicure off with Northern Lights Top Coat in Silver. I have been using this more and more as I find it dries just as quick as Seche Vite, does not cause polish shrinkage and also does not smudge my stamped patterns. Ideal!

One more picture because I just cannot resist

How do you like this palest of pinks? Do you like the contrast of pale and bold together?

Thanks for reading

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Purple Mix Up

Good evening ladies. Did you all having fantastic weekends?

I got a very exciting delivery on Saturday morning - one that I had somehow managed to forget I was expecting... 24 bottles of polish from a collection called London Girl!

So tonight I am showing you my first choice polish from this collection which unusually for me is purple.

This is two coats of London Girl Purple with an accent nail of one coat of Barry M Lilac Foil on my ring finger. I used the butterfly stamp from BM 205 for my first two fingers and then some co-ordinating square rhinestones for the next two.

I cannot tell you how amazing this looked in real life - the purple was so camera shy that I just could not do it justice. It actually has a really pretty metallic shimmer that reminds me of the purple quality street chocolate :-).

Louise xx

Mint and Silver

Following on from the success of my peach and gold combination manicure from a few days ago I have been trying to think up another combination that I could love as much.

I decided to reach for another polish from the Barry M pastel collection and also some embellishments to create an accent nail. Here are the results...

For this manicure I used Barry M Mint Green as the base colour. This is a gorgeous polish but does require three thin coats for a nice solid colour with no visible nail line. I then stamped using Barry M Silver Foil and the swirly line design found on plate BM 205.

I then created a ring finger accent nail (my favourite kind) using three square studs purchased from the Born Pretty Store. This is the first time I have used these and unfortunately I had trouble getting into the packaging and dropped at least 900 out of the 1000 studs all over my carpet :-(.

Barry M Mint Green swatch

I think this pretty peach and gold combination still remains my favourite but mint and silver is a very close second.

Take care

Louise xx

Fantasy Fire - the Layered Look

When I first started looking into starting my own blog in March/April this year, one polish that was pictured and reviewed regularly was the much sought after Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I purchased a mini bottle of this colour shifting rainbow shimmer but until now have not used it in any of my manicures. Tonight I was in the mood to create something a little special so I reached for that little bottle of goodness and came up with this...

I realise this manicure doesnt look very special from just the above pictures so I have included more below of how the layers where built up. I would love to be able to capture the real beauty of Fantasy Fire on my camera but it really is one of those polishes that has to be seen to be believed. 

Picture taken inside with LED lamp

Picture taken outside with natural light

For the base colours I used 2 coats of Barry M's Racing Green and Vivid Purple. I then layered one coat of Max Factors Fantasy Fire over the top. As Fantasy Fire is very sheer and would take approx 4 coats for opacity I decided to use it as a top coat instead. It looks stunning over both the green and purple base.

On the green nails I could really see the orange, copper and gold flecks dancing on my nails. On the purple nails the red, orange and purple flecks really came to life. I dont think I would ever get bored of looking at this polish and trying to count exactly how many different colour flecks it contains!

For the stamping I used Konad White and the simple flower outline pattern taken from plate BM 205. I added pink dots for the flower centres using Barry M Shocking Pink and lastly applied one thick coat of NYC Expert Top Coat to give that final glassy shine.

In real life this layered nail art looks amazing and I expect I will spend most of tomorrow staring at its beauty - in between working very hard in the office of course :-).

Louise xx

Cute as a Button... Damn Right

This colour is from Essie and is called Cute As a Button. It is one of those colours that I am just drawn to and although I know I have very similar shades in my collection I just had to have it. Once I realised the name of this polish is Cute As A Button it was a given that it would end up in my shopping basket as I very often say that same thing to my lovely husband :-).

 

I could not get the application of this polish as perfect as I would haved liked it so I ended up stamping with quite a full design in order to cover up more of the colour than I had first anticipated.

I cannot decide if this pattern is bows or butterflies? It is very pretty and suits this gorgeous corally pink perfectly. The pattern is taken from BM 205 and I stamped using Konad Special Polish in White.

Everything about this mani is cute so it suits the colour name perfectly. I hope you enjoyed todays post - thank you for reading.

Louise xx

Blue & Silver

Todays nails are truly beautiful in real life but so very hard to capture on camera. Annoyingly the silver clashes with my camera and so it will be hard for you to see the prettiness of the pattern I used but I hope you still enjoy the creamy goodness of Barry M Blueberry Icecream.

Amazingly considering this is part of a pastel collection, Blueberry Icecream is almost a one coater.To be honest if I painted in thicker coats it would 100% be a one coater, but by nature I layer up with thin coats and never wear less than two.

Base colour - Barry M Blueberry Icecream
Stamping colour - Barry M Silver Foil
Stamping plate - BM 205
Top coat - Seche Vite

I am sorry I was unable to do this particular combination justice in picture but believe me when I say this is worth a try and I will definately wear these colours together again. I have kept the pictures small as it minimises the blur caused by me trying to zoom in.

As I was taking these pictures I had a little helper...

We are very lucky to have two gorgeous staffies - a handsome boy called Tuscan and this pretty little girl called Lily. Tuscan is a little camera shy but I will make sure he is featured on the blog very soon.

I have some really good manicures planned over the next week or two as my mani to do list is getting crazy long so I am going to concentrate on ticking lots off and getting lots of great pictures along the way.

Take care

Louise xx