Matte or Glossy: Put A Bow On It

Happy Thursday loves

I decided to add my new favourite Matte top coat to an ultra glittery polish and was so pleased with the results that I am going to dedicate a whole post to it! The polish is China Glaze Put a Bow On It, a seriously blingy purple glitter packed beauty!

Swatch: China Glaze: Put A Bow On It

Its Friday...

I am always excited for the weekend so I thought it was time to break out a fancy new glitter polish to help celebrate :). I actually purchased this polish in the January sales and am only now getting around to trying it out! Bad nail polish owner.

Inspired By: Cream and Coral Dress: Gel Nails

Something a little different from me today... I am showing you some gel nails that I created on my little sister, Laura. These were designed to match a stunning dress, that just so happens to be the backdrop to these pictures, which Laura wore to a wedding a few weeks ago.

Beautifully Bright with Flowers and Glitter

Its time for fun Friday nails :-)

I am so excited about this weekend. Tomorrow us ladies are off to Newmarket Races for the day. We will place some small bets, enjoy the friendly competition, have a few drinks and enjoy being dressed up in our finery :-). Then in the evening we are staying to watch James Arthur live in concert before getting the train home. On Sunday we are going to Cooper's 1st birthday party and then spending some real quality time with Dad who has been through the mill a bit recently and needs some TLC.

Navy Hearts and Glitter

Whoop whoop... Friday!

I am looking forward to this weekend so very much so what could be better than combining two of my favourite colours into a very pretty nail art look :-)

Here we have navy, pink and glitter all in one... LOVE!

Love Themed Accent Nails

Good evening lovelies

I can't believe I am only now getting around to posting these nails. For those of you who follow me on Instagram you will have seen a sneaky peek a few weeks back when I wore this manicure to match a black and white dress that has the word LOVE printed all over it in different styles, fonts and sizes. I rushed out of the house before I could take a picture of my nails and typically when I looked at them the next morning I had a chip on my index finger. Here is how I fixed it... ;-)

On my little finger and ring finger I have two coats of Illamasqua Boosh, which is a lovely and shiny jet black polish. I also own Illamasqua Scorn which is the matte version but I'm yet to try it. I cannot wait until Illamasqua have another big online sale as I bagged 17 of their lovely polishes last time around :-).

I stamped over each of the black nails with Konad White and this text stamp which contains nice romantic words such as Heart, Kiss, Sweet and Perfect :-).

On my middle and index fingers I used two coats of the absolutely gorgeous Fuchsia Fanatic from China Glaze. I have been looking for a bright raspberry pink polish like this for a while and I am not all disappointed with Fuchsia Fanatic.

Finally I topped the pink nails off with one coat of Chalk Dust by Maybelline. I am loving this black and white glitter polish and have already used it to make some beautiful nail polish rings.

How do you like this look? I love the pink, black and white combination :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Flower Stickers Nail Art

Happy Saturday lovelies

If the weather is not going to look or behave like summer then the least I can do is fake the summery vibe by making my nails the brightest they can be :-). Tonight we are off to a BBQ so while we will be wrapped up in jumpers and jeans my nails will shine bright.

I started with three coats of China Glaze Towel Toy Boy on each nail. I wanted to love this polish so much but I just couldn't... it was so thin that the first coat was almost transparent. It dried to a matte finish which just made the streaks even more prominent and even after the third coat I could still see patches I wasn't happy with :-(. On camera this polish looks lovely but trust me in real life it was far from lovely.

The picture below taken with my forced flash on is more colour accurate. I love the colour but hate the formula.

In order to hide the thin patches I decided to add some pretty flower decals that have been kicking around my nail room forever! I carefully peeled each flower individually from the backing and simply stuck them on once my nails were dry.

Once I had the flowers positioned how I wanted them I sealed the whole lot with a good coat of Seche Vite.

This is the first time I have been disappointed with the formula of a China Glaze polish which is such a shame as the colour is so pretty. Oh well the overall manicure looked summery and bright :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Flip Flop Fantasy Tape Manicure

Good evening lovelies

Nothing says summer like a neon polish called Flip Flop Fantasy! This China Glaze beauty has been on my wishlist for a while so I was pleased to pick this up in a recent haul at our local wholesalers. The true colour was ridiculously hard to capture on camera and in real life is slightly 'peachier' than my pictures show.

I started with two coats of Flip Flop Fantasy. A neon bright coral polish which dries super quick to quite a matt finish.

Using striping tape I then added a large criss cross to each nail. I will post some pictures on Instagram later tonight of the various stages. You can follow me by searching for @l_i_P_P or clicking the Instagram panel on the right hand side of this blog page.

Working on one finger at a time I used uber sparkly I Herd That glitter and Barry M Lychee to fill in selected triangles created by the criss cross tape. I left one triangle on each nail free so that Flip Flop Fantasy was still a main colour in the design.

Before each nail was dry I carefully removed the striping tape and added a square gold stud to the centre of the design. Once everything was dry I topped the whole lot off with a nice thick layer of Seche Vite top coat.

It is no wonder that Flip Flop Fantasy is one of the best selling summer nail polish colours and I am certain this will also become a pedicure favourite of mine :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Neon Coral and Leopard Print Nails

Good evening lovelies

Happy Friday! Just to add to my excitement its a bank holiday weekend so I have a whole three days off to enjoy the company of my loved ones, catch up on some serious swatching and of course write some blogs! Tonight I am having a mini Orly Gel FX nail party with little sis and her bestie Suzi. We are going to be naughty and have a takeaway Chinese first and then I will get into the serious business of nail painting!

Here are my nails of the day...

This is the most amazingly hard to capture on camera polish I have ever had in my collection. In real life it is a super pretty neon coral orange. On all my pictures it just looks like tangerine :-(. I still love this colour so very much.. it is called Pool Party and is from the China Glaze 2010 summer collection.

On my index and ring fingers I used two coats of I Herd That which is from the China Glaze Safari 2012 collection. I cannot tell you how much I love this gold, bronze, red and orange glitter. It applies perfectly and looked as good in the shade as it did in the sun. I am definitely treating myself to I'm Not Lion from the same collection now I know how good this one is :-).

Using small 'blobs' of Pool Party over the top of I Herd That I then used my brand new Barry M Black Nail Art Pen to create leopard print accent nails :-). The Nail Art pen was beyond easy to use and I am glad I also picked up the white and silver versions.

Finally using my Orly dotting tool I added a couple of small dots of I Herd That to each Pool Party nail.

I hope you all have something lovely planned for the weekend :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Pinky Pink

Good evening lovelies

Happy Monday. We were so busy over the weekend doing fun stuff that we didn't have time to food shop so we have to go tonight... boo! Just a quick post to show you this pretty pink on pink design :-)

I started with two coats of Essie Lovie Dovie which is a pretty pale pink with subtle golden shimmers. It turns out that the shimmer is quite camera shy but I still quite liked this polish and it made a nice base for this simple stamp.

Using Joy by China Glaze I stamped this simple flower print found on plate CH 12. The combination of Joy and Lovie Dovie together really worked for me and reminded me how much I love these quick manicures.

How do you like this look? Do you like using shades of the same colour to achieve a nice subtle manicure?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Feather Polish with Feather Accent

Good evening lovelies

Hope you all had lovely Easter breaks? I am sure I mentioned this last week but Mr LiPP and I are off work this week... Yay :-). So far we have had a fantastic time. Yesterday we had a lazy duvet day and today we went into the city for a touch of shopping and a fantastic lunch in a new steak restaurant. We have lots more planned over the next few days including a meal at the Jamie Oliver restaurant. We always eat so much when we are not at work!

Onto my nails... these little pretties were inspired by the recent trend of textured or feathered polishes that I have seen and read so much about.

I started with the very pretty China Glaze For Audrey, the perfect pale turquoise creme.

I then added one coat of Invogue Feather in Sunset to each finger apart from my ring finger. Sunset has a clear base and contains matte bar glitters in white and peach. I am not a fan of bar glitters however I do have a passion for all things feather related so I just knew I had to try at least one of these.

On my ring finger I then stamped this simple feather outline using Konad White and plate GA38.

How do you like the feather style polishes?

Nails Inc recently released a range of feather polishes but as they retail at £11 a bottle I decided to try this new range from Invogue instead. At only £3.49 I am pleasantly surprised and may go back for a few more... :-).

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Green and White Skittlette

Happy Good Friday lovelies!

I am in such a great mood knowing that I have all this time off work :-). To make the most of the double bank holiday I have also taken next week off so I get to enjoy a really good break away from work and spend lots of time with Mr LiPP and the pups :-).

For this skittlette I started with two coats of China Glaze For Audrey on all nails except my index finger. For Audrey is a gorgeous light turquoise creme polish and although I ended up covering most of it up with glitter and stripes it remains one of my favourite polishes.

On my little finger I applied one coat of China Glaze Atlantis over For Audrey. Atlantis has a bluey green base colour and contains so much holographic glitter that its hard to explain how sparkly it actually is!

Using Konad White and the same stripes used for my nautical accent nail earlier this week I added horizontal stripes to my ring and middle fingers. The finishing touch for these two nails was the addition of small green square rhinestones.

Finally on my index finger I painted two coats of W7 Salt n Pepper. I have only used this polish once but I really like it and it makes a great accent nail for this skittlette. Removal is a bit of a pain as the black glitters are quite gritty but I think its worth it :-).

I hope you like my nails of the day? Are you all looking forward to the Easter break? Have you got lots of lovely plans?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Joy really is a Joy !!

Good evening lovelies!

I just could not wait any longer to use my new China Glaze Joy as a stamping polish. I read that it would be perfect for stamping and I was not disappointed. Joy is super pigmented, dries very quickly has the added beauty of silver shimmer running through. What's not to like?

As you can see I started with a pretty pale pink base using Orly Decades of Dysfunction. As with many polishes of this barely there colouring it does require three coats for full opacity. Totally worth it :-).

Using China Glaze Joy from the Romantuque warm collection I stamped this simple but effective swirly pattern from Gal plate GA54.

I cannot wait to get more polishes from the China Glaze Romantique collection, if the others stamp anywhere near as good as Joy then my nail art options will be endless :-)

Do you own any polishes from the Romantique warm or cool collections?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

China Glaze Joy: Just a swatch (almost)

Good evening lovelies

Tonight I am going to show you a quick swatch post of China Glaze Joy. I recently purchased this polish after reading how good it was for stamping. I've yet to use it for stamping but dont worry I am bound to feature it very soon.

As a general rule I don't publish a whole post just for a swatch picture but I thought I would make an exception for this shade as it more or less amazed me...

All of these pictures show just one coat of China Glaze Joy with no top coat. This polish is a plum/purple foil with silver shimmer. Perfection in one coat and dry in about 20 seconds flat!

Joy is from the China Glaze 2009 collection called Romantique and after using this polish just once I am putting the rest of this collection on my lemming list.

You guessed I had to add a little stamping, right? :-)

These silver tips were stamped using Barry M Silver Foil and the pattern taken from plate BM10.

How do you like this colour? Isn't it just the ideal go to I am in a desperate hurry base colour?! Keep a look out for me using Joy as a stamping colour in the next few weeks, I am thinking over either a pale pink base or a very light lilac.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P