Christmas Nails: Abstract Christmas Trees

Merry Christmas!!!

I hope you all have a fantastic day with you family, friends and loved ones.

Christmas Nails: Christmas Wreath

Happy Christmas Eve!

I am so excited. Honestly cannot remember the last time I was looking forward to Christmas as much as I am this year. I have already had some fantastic meals out with friends, been to family parties and exchanged beautiful gifts but still have so much more planned. Today I have to work but only until 1pm and then Mr LiPP and the puppies are coming to pick me up and we are off on a Festive Dog Walk with my little sis and her dogs and my mum and her dogs. Chaotic but Fun!

What could be more festive than gold sparkle, red sparkle and Christmas wreaths?!

Christmas Nails: Christmas Jumper Fair Isle Print

Good evening lovelies

These are some of my most favourite Christmas nails ever! I have really gotten into the Christmas spirit this year and even purchased my first ever Christmas jumper! Its just a simple grey with a white snowflake print but its a good start and I am sure I will go all out next year :-)

Christmas Nails: Mittens

Good evening lovelies

Another busy evening ahead for me. Tonight I have two gel nail clients both looking for Christmas designs which will be lots of fun for me to do. After that I am hoping to colour my hair ready for the final pre-Christmas week and maybe fit in a quick change of nail polish too :-)

Christmas Nails: Rudolph

Oh yes you read the caption correctly... I finally started my Christmas Nails!!

This beautiful red just lends itself so nicely to Christmas Nail Art and what could be cuter than a Rudolph accent nail?

Which do you like best... Shiny or Matte?

My Christmas Day Nails and a nod to my Grandad!

Happy Boxing Day my lovelies! Did you all have a fantastic Christmas?

We certainly did. Although I was so poorly for the whole festive period I put my game face on (fix up, look sharp) and carried on regardless. We had a fantastic lunch out on Christmas Day followed by a successful shopping trip to the Next winter sale at 7am this morning, followed by a buffet lunch at my sisters this afternoon. I have been thoroughly spoilt by both friends and family and loved every second!

On Christmas day 10 of our nearest and dearest went for lunch at a local hotel called St Giles. I was wearing a new navy dress and burgandy patterned tights so decided upon this little mani for the occasion...

Nothing too complicated but still quite effective. I started with two coats of Barry M Navy (quite possibly one of my fav's) and I stamped the pretty snowflakes with Barry M Silver Foil.
 

I thought I would also include a piccy or two of us on Christmas Day so you can see how my nails and outfit match...

My Mum asked me very nicely if I would mind doing her nails to match her new plum dress, how could I refuse and I thought it would be nice to make them sort of match mine...

This is two coats of the super pretty No 7 Damson Dream with the same snowflake design stamped but this time in Barry M Gold Foil.

Imagine my surprise when I saw my Nan and Grandad only to find her nails looking more amazing than ever, when I asked her where she got them done she said... Your Grandad did them! Seriously he is better at nail art than me and I practice every day :-)

Can you believe he applied those wraps himself on Christmas Eve! How cute...??

Speaking of which I just couldn't resist sharing this little picture of our doggies in their Christmas bows...

I hope you enjoyed this rather picture heavy post. I am beyond relieved to not be at work between Christmas and the New Year and really hoping to experiment with all my new nail polishes (seriously my friends and family were too kind)

Louise xx

Christmas Eve Nails: Santa

Happy Christmas Eve lovelies!

I cannot believe it is Christmas Eve already! Where has the time gone? I have to work until 1pm which has put a little dampner on the day but still at least it's not a full day and I have lots of presents to give out to friends at work so that will keep me nicely busy :-).

Of course I had to save actual Santa nails until today...

I used lots of polishes to create this look but as always for my Christmas manis I turned to Barry M Bright Red and Konad White.

To create the cute santa suit artwork I have on my ring finger I followed this brilliant tutorial from Kayla. If you haven't looked at her blog you should head over there right now.

This is the look I created for my right hand. Simple yet still very Christmassy...

I love the addition of both gold and silver hex glitters

I hope you all have truly wonderful Christmas Eve's. We will be with my sister and mum for somthing to eat after work and then will spend a nice relaxing evening at home with the dogs - no doubt sneaking a few presents open before the big day!

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Jingle Bells

Good evening lovelies

After all my bright red, green and white Christmas manicures I decided to try something in my favourite classic combination of black and gold. It gave me a great opportunity to try out several unused stamps and also to make a welcome return to my hologram Gold top coat.

I give you... Jingle Bells...

I started with a base of W7 Black. Its such a godd quality polish for such a cheap brand and I am almost at the stage where I need to go and buy a back up bottle!

Once the Black was dry I then added a good layer of Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Gold. Last time I used it I just could not get good pictures but with my lovely new Lumix camera it was much easier. Just check out the shimmery beautifulness in these pictures!

For the various bell images I used Barry M Gold Foil as my stamping colour and the following plates: BM 302, BM 14 and my Christmas plate B 35.

Lastly I could not resist adding some festive holy to my thumb nail

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh 

Do you like my black and gold Christmas nails or would you prefer to see more traditional colours like red and green?

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Candy Canes again

Happy weekend lovelies!

How are we all doing? I am feeling poorly with a stinky cold. I woke up at 3am with all the classic miserable symptons and haven't felt any better since :-(. We have got so much to do today as well with all the usual last minute errands to run and housework to finish.

Anyway lets move on to the reason for this post, I mentioned when I first painted Candy Cane nails here that I wish I had used the colours the opposite way around. So when I asked my sister in law which nail design I should paint for the family party she picked Candy Canes and I was only too happy to get a second go...

This time I started with a base of Barry M Bright Red. I have used this polish lots recently - it has been my perfect Christmas red.

I then applied one easy coat of Barry M Red Glitter. Again I have used this lots and I just love how it looks for all these festive manicures.

Using Konad White polish I stamped the same two design plates as used last time to create these bright and sparkly Candy Cane themed nails.

Which one do you prefer...? Now I see the two pictures together I cannot decide!!

Only three more sleeps to go...! :-)

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Modern Christmas Trees

Good evening lovelies!

As I mentioned earlier in the week we put our Christmas Trees up at the weekend. This year we have gone for a totally modern twist so we have black trees covered with pretty pink and silver decorations. They match perfectly with our recently decorated lounge which has some really bold feature wallpaper also in black and pink.

Using a tutorial from the brilliant Jane at Nailside for her bare Christmas Tree nail art I came up with a manicure to match our Trees :-)

I started with a base of the much loved OPI MBSW. It is a slightly off white with the smallest hint of grey which prevents it from being too stark. Then using my black striper I followed the tutorial from Jane and drew on the bare Christmas Trees.

Using my new Barry M Pink Foil and my trusty Silver Foil I dotted on baubles of various sizes. I am so excited about the Pink Foil as I have been patiently waiting for Barry M to listen to us bloggers and bring out a whole range of foils that are as perfect as the Gold and Silver ones are for stamping.

I added a few dots of Barry M Silver Glitter and a bright pink star shaped rhinestone for the necessary Christmas sparkle and voila... Nails to match our Trees!

For my thumb I used just one coat of Pink Foil and one thin layer of Silver Glitter. It looks stunning in real life!

Here is our main tree... Doesn't it match the wallpaper well?

Here is our second much smaller tree... Cute !

I just couldn't resist taking a few extra shots with some baubles (borrowed from the tree) for props...

How do you like our modern Christmas Trees? I know they wont be everyones cup of tea but we really like them and I love how my nails match so perfectly :-)

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Penguin

Good evening lovelies!

Can you believe how close to Christmas we are now? Even with our Christmas Trees being up, the lights being on and all our presents wrapped beautifully and waiting to be handed out it doesn't feel real. Maybe I need to wait for work to finally be over before I can feel truly festive. On the plus side all of this does not prevent me from creating yet more Christmas nails... tonight it is time to introduce Percy...

Don't you just love this little fella! I was inspired by another picture I saw at PolishPedia and just could not help but recreate this adorable accent nail. I decided to call him Percy the Penguin?!

I started with one easy coat of Revlon Hazy (my perfect light grey) and then added just one thin coat of Barry M Silver Pink Glitter. It looks perfect with the grey base showing through and under my office lights had an almost holo shine hidden in the fine glitter particles.

Using black, red and white I added various size dots to all nails except my ring finger which I reserved especially for Percy.

Percy was free handed on with my favourite nail art brush and a dotting tool for his eyes and the row of white fur on his santa hat.

I loved this look so much I wore it for two days which is just unheard of when I still have so many manicures I want to squeeze in pre Christmas Day :-)

Take care

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Christmas Trees

Thats right my lovelies... the time has finally come for me to create Christmas Trees on my nails. These are the little pretties I wore to our girly Christmas lunch on Sunday. We had such a lovely meal and we sat and talked for hours :-).

For this manicure I have gone for a very traditional look - green tree with red and gold decorations. This could not be more different to trees we have up in our house which have a very modern twist :-) but I like them all the same.

I started with one easy quick drying base coat of Revlon Hazy. I considered using tape to create perfect straight lines for my trees but decided against it so reached for my favourite nail art brush instead.

I painted a large triangle on each nail using Barry M Racing Green. Once that was dry I added a thin layer of Barry M Green Glitter to create a Christmassy sparkle!

Using a medium dotting tool I added baubles in Barry M Bright Red and Barry M Gold Foil. Last but not least I added a yellow star shapped rhinestone to the top of each tree.

 Below are the pictures of my right hand. As you can see on this occasion I didnt match my lefty and righty as I ran out of time (and patience)!

This simple but eye catching Christmas coloured manicure was created using Barry M Bright Red, Racing Green and a sparkly top coat of  Yellow Topaz from the relatively new Jewel collection.

Here is one last shot of my traditional Christmas tree nails...

How do you like my Christmas Tree nail art? Do you always wear matching manicures or are you happy to wear something 'easier' on your less dominant hand?

Here is a picture of us girlies at Loch Fyne...

Louise xx