Pretty Pink with Paisley

Happy happy Thursday!

Almost the weekend my loves. I've had a really good and positive four days at work. Time has flown by, I feel like I have achieved a lot and once the weekend arrives I feel like I will deserve the downtime.

Tonight I am showing you the nails I wore to the Polo a few weekends ago, not my finest work but in real life they looked much better and I just adore this paisley print.

Neons on Nude

Happy Wednesday

More than half way through the week already! Ive been working on some custom pieces of nail polish jewellery this week. A friend of mine is going to a wedding on Saturday and has treated herself to a pretty pastel dress especially for the big day. I am making a ring to match and also doing her gel nails on Friday night. The ring is taking a while as the drying time in between sponged layers of pastel polish is quite long but it will be totally worth it.

Time for another manicure inspired by the sunny weather we have enjoyed in the past week...

Blue and Pink Dry Marble nails

Hey lovelies

I just realised it is about time I share my birthday nails with you (given that we are now a week past the special date). I was very lucky this year and got to celebrate my birthday over several days with some very special people. On the Saturday before my birthday, 9 of my closest friends and I went for a meal at a steak house called Middletons. We ate fantastic food and indulged in a bottle or three of Prosecco. We then moved to a wine bar where we might have got through another three bottles and I might have downed a Limoncello shot! I decided to wear a very bold blue dress so of course my nails needed to be a little something special...

The fabric of my dress is the background in all pictures

Easter Bunny Nails

Happy Easter Monday loves

I have had another lovely day and am glad I have been able to really make the most of this four day weekend. Today started with breakfast with the girls. As the weather is much better than forecast we managed to get a lovely table outside overlooking the grounds of a local leisure club, each of us ordered the full works and happily gossiped a few hours away :-). After that I went on a lovely dog walk with my sister and her fox reds and then spent the later part of the afternoon cuddled up on the sofa with two very sleepy staffys.

White and Neon Nails

I promised you I would brighten up these white nails and there was no better way to do that than break out the neon nail polishes. It seems strange to use them in winter but I wanted to see how well they would stamp and show up on such a clean white background...

All My Favourite Things: Skittlette

Good evening lovelies

TGI Friday! Its been an incredibly busy week for me. I am extending my team by 9 people and in order to find that many amazing people I have so far held upwards of 35 interviews and only picked 4 so far! I am sick of the sound of my own voice and definitely bored of the 10 interview questions I picked. Oh Well!

At least my nails are looking fabulous though... ;-)

Grey with a Neon Twist

Happy Hump Day!

I loved my Neutral and Neon from Monday so much that I recreated it with a new favourite colour combination of mine... Grey and Orange.

Neutral and Neon: Animal

Happy Monday

Did you all have lovely weekends? As mentioned in my previous post it was my hubby's birthday over the weekend so we celebrated in style and enjoyed lots of time with friends and loved ones. We cooked Japanese food on Saturday night which was good fun and ate lots of naughty (but nice) birthday cake.

Back to work today... here are my neutral but with a twist nails...

Inspired By: Stripey Dress

Good evening lovelies

Hope you are all well? I have had a lovely relaxing day off today and for once the weather was on my side. The sun shone bright with barely a cloud in the sky so I reached for the sun cream and my kindle and spent a good few hours just making the most of some time on my own. Bliss.

Tonight I am going to show you some nails I did to match a new summer midi dress. Also those eagle eyed viewers will notice this is a rare appearance for my right hand which will explain the awkward hand poses!

Awkward Cinderella hand ;-)

Blue and Yellow Flower nails

Happy Friday lovelies

Just as I moaned that we havent seen any sunshine yet we are apparently at the beginning of a mini heatwave! Two weeks of sunshine are predicted with Sunday set to be an absolute scorcher! I cannot wait, it makes the weekends so much more enjoyable when you can spend time outside, not to mention its a great opportunity to break out the summer wardrobe!

I just had to do a summery bright manicure to match the upcoming forecast :-)

I started with two easier than easy coats of Barry M Gelly in Guava on all nails except my ring finger. Guava is the brightest turquoise I have in my polish collection and I love it! I have been wearing it on my toes for the past few weeks and it still looks perfect.

On my ring finger I used two coats of Almost Famous by Color Club topped with one sparkly coat of Daisy Does also by Color Club. Almost Famous is a gorgeous bright yellow that as with every other yellow I own applied streaky. After two coats I could still see streaks so I reached for Daisy Does and applied a nice thick coat as a topper. Daisy Does has a yellow base and contains lots of yellow and gold glass flecks.

For the finishing touches I carefully applied one small square yellow rhinestone to each of the turquoise nails and over the yellow ring finger I stamped a simple flower design using the same turquoise polish - Barry M Guava.

This below picture was taken with the forced flash on so you can really see the pretty glass flecks in the yellow Daisy Does polish.

I hope you all have fantastic weekends - no doubt mine will involve nail polish as I had some fantastic nail mail arrive today :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Navy Lace with Silver Accent nail

Happy Sunday to you all!

Hope you have all had fantastic weekends? We have been very lucky with the weather and experienced the hottest day of the year so far today. We managed to make the most of it by being out in the garden and I certainly feel better for it. Last night us girls went for a meal at a restaurant called Prime where the steak is served on a volcanic rock heated to 360 degree so you cook it yourself to your own liking. It was fantastic fun and the steak was amazing! I had mine with garlic butter and stilton sauce! Yums :-).

Here are the nails I did to go with my all time favourite navy dress and lace jacket combo...

I started with base colours of NYC Ink Stain, the most gorgeous and rich shimmering navy blue that looked extra amazing in the sunshine. My ring and thumb accent nails have a base of Color Club On the Rocks.

Then using a-England Merlin (bottle shot above) I added one truly gorgeous cost of crushed silver sparkles to each of my accent nails. All of the a-England polishes are beautiful but to get coverage like this from such a simple looking polish is amazing (if you ask me!).

Just to really finish off my silver accent nails I then added one thin coat of Orly Holy Holo, it is ridiculously dense with large holo glitter particles and was almost blinding in the sun!

To stamp this beautiful lacy style design I returned to Color Club On the Rocks as its subtle silver shimmery goodness was the perfect finish for this manicure.

I love my new Pueen plates so very much... anything lace and love themed is always going to be a winner for me. This particular pattern can be found on plate Pueen 27.

This final picture was taken in the shade just so you could see the lace pattern a little more clearly.

I really hope your weekends have been as lovely as mine, I'm off to enjoy the evening sunshine and a BBQ with the hubs. Thanks for cooking Mr LiPP ;-).

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Coral, Gold and Butterflies: All in One manicure

Good evening lovelies

This lovely manicure was worn for three days a few weeks back which is unheard of for me ;-). But honestly what's not to love... coral, gold and butterflies all in one!

I started with two coats of In Theory by Color Club. It's a beautiful coral with an orange tone, it was slightly streaky and would need three thin coats if you wanted to wear it alone.

Using Konad White I stamped the thin zebra style stripes from plate BM 223 onto all nails. I really liked how this looked but decided I couldn't quite leave it there...

Finally with Barry M Gold Foil I stamped the small butterflies from Konad plate M57 onto each nail.

The overall look was subtle as the gold didnt quite 'pop' against the white as I thought it would in my head... however, I loved the end result which explains why I wore this look for three whole days!

Good evening everyone :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Perfect nails for Shopping!

Today is my almost birthday!

It has long since been a tradition in my family that we stretch our birthdays out as much as possible... one day for celebrating with family... one day with friends... at least one big meal out (or sometimes two)... you get the picture, the more chances we get to celebrate the better :-).

Today was spent with my little sister, just the two of us eating, drinking and shopping! We had an amazing day and I was totally spoiled rotten. I got lots of lovely presents from Laura this morning, including a bag I fell in love with in London back in January and had no idea I was getting, not to mention money to spend on myself in the city - and spend I did.

Here are the perfect nails to accompany my shopping spree...

I started with a base of Warhol by Color Club. This colour is from my new Poptastic collection and is the  most amazing neon raspberry pink. I LOVE it!! My camera just could not pick up how neon but still gorgeous this colour actually is.

Using Konad White I stamped the small bows from plate BM 317 on my index and ring finger, the simple heart outline on my middle finger from the same plate and then finally the shopping text on my ring finger and thumbs from plate CH 54.

A close up of my thumb... how perfect is the shopping text for my almost birthday?!

Finally I added a layer of Northern Lights top coat in Silver and while that was wet I stuck some pretty rhinestones in the centres of the bows.

I have had such a lovely day with my little sister and we really did shop until we dropped! :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Nails you need Sunglasses for

Good evening lovelies

Have you been lucky enough to be enjoying sunshine today? It was the hottest day of the year so far in our region and whilst I was stuck in the office and unable to take advantage it was still lovely to look out of the window at blue skies :-).

Knowing that sunshine was on the way for a very short time (rain is forecast for the weekend) I was inspired to come up with this manicure...

These beautiful polishes were newly purchased by me at the weekend and are part of the Color Club Poptastic collection. The sunny yellow is called Almost Famous and has the great formula I have come to expect from Color Club. As far as yellows go (certainly not a favourite colour of mine) this one really is pretty good.

This in your face bright orange is called Wham! Pow! and certainly is the brightest orange I have in my collection. It looked this neon bright without the need for a white base colour and had a great formula that needed only two thin coats.

I topped all nails off with Northern Lights top coat in Gold to add a little sparkle and shine to these intensely bright nail polishes.

This picture below was taken in direct sunlight (you definitely need sunglasses for this picture!)

Finally I stamped over these pretties with the sunglasses image found on Cheeky plate CH 37 using Konad Black.

How do you like this sunshine inspired manicure? I love this new Color Club Poptastic collection :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Baby Shower Nails

Good evening lovelies

Have you all had fantastic weekends? We have been spoiled with glorious sunshine so Mr LiPP, the pups  and I have been out for some lovely long dog walks. We love making the most of being outdoors :-). On Saturday night I had little sis round for nails and wine and those of you who follow me on Instagram will have seen the pictures of her pretty pink gel nails. Today we have been at our friend Elly's Baby Shower which of course was my inspiration for these nails...

This was the perfect opportunity to use two new polishes from my latest TK Maxx haul. I couldn't believe my luck when I spotted the brand new only just released Kaleidoscope Summer 2013 collection for the bargain price of £7.99. The baby blue is called Evolution and the soft pink is Endless. Both have a lovely smooth formula and only needed two coats.

I then used Revlon Whimsical on just my index and little finger nails. Whimsical is not available in the UK as far as I know so I was lucky enough to have a colleague pick up a bottle for me from the States last year. It has a very pale blue milky base with lots of lovely pink and blue glitters.

On my middle finger I stamped the baby bottle and hearts image found on plate BM 317.

Finally on my ring finger using my Orly dotting tool I created two little baby feet using Barry M Matt White.

Oh how sweet are little feet? :-)

I am just home from the shower and we had a lovely time. It was held at a tea and cake place in the city were we had finger sandwiches, cup cakes, macaroons and eclairs as well as pots of tea and a glass of fizz :-).

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Grey and Pink Skittlette

Good evening lovelies

Guess what... its Yo Sushi Sister night tonight! I love the last Monday of every month :-). Time to eat great food and catch up on gossip :-).

While I am off eating so much food that I need to roll out of the restaurant door I will leave you to look at this pretty grey and pink skittlette :-)

For my index and middle finger I started with two easy coats of Decoded by Orly. Decoded is from last years Autumn collection called Electronica and is a dark grey creme polish. It was a little on the thick side which did not cause me any problems and may also make it ideal for stamping. I will test that theory out soon and let you know :-).

For stamping and also on my little finger I used Color Club On the Rocks. I love that even though its a silver foil polish it dries with no streaks. I think that is thanks to the tiny silver glitter particles packed into this bright and reflective polish.

On my ring finger I used three coats of this intensely bright pink (reminds me of Barbie!) from the new Barry M Gelly collection. I only just purchased this one and although I am glad to have it to complete my collection I do not like it as much as the other three. It is called Dragon Fruit.

As mentioned above I used On the Rocks to stamp over Decoded. On the Rocks is great for stamping and the shimmer particles give it an added dimension. The pattern I used is from BM 203. I cannot believe I have had this plate for so long and never used any design from it.

Finally I have included two additional pictures below to show off two of my home made nail polish rings. Both match this grey and pink skittlette perfectly and were made using gorgeous polishes made for me by Colores de Carol.

Ring made using Cupcake Fantasy by Colores de Carol

Ring made using Hero in Disguise by Colores de Carol

I hope you liked this skittlette? I have a real love of grey and pink together so this one was a favourite for me :-).

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Contrasting nails with a Cherry Accent

Good afternoon lovelies

How has your weekend been? Ours has been really lovely. Due to some really bad weather today didn't go quite to plan as my sister in law got snowed in so couldn't make the journey to Norwich to cook for us all today. However we made the most of having the day unexpectedly to ourselves and spent some quality time relaxing, catching up on tv and of course I found time to squeeze in a little nail art :-).

This super bright mani features two more polishes from the new Color Club Fiesta Spring collection. This time I chose Mamba (bright red) and Sunrise Canyon (yellow/green). Both polishes have a fantastic formula and good drying time. Mamba is so pigmented that it could be a one coater.

On my little finger I added just one coat of Leighton Denny Ruby Slippers (over one coat of Mamba). I have been dying to test this polish out since Christmas and am pleased I finally did. It is so perfect for this bright manicure as it contains red and green glitter particles.

As you can see I added contrasting dots to my index and middle fingers using the opposite colour to my base, on my ring finger I used a dotting tool to create these fun little cherries. The green stalks are drawn on using Wild Cactus which is the super bright green also from the Color Club Fiesta collection.

Sunrise Canyon is a strange but still beautiful colour... it changes from dark yellow to lime green depending on how you look at it. I don't think I have anything else like this in my collection so its a welcome addition :-).

How do you like the bright contrast of red and yellow/green? I am glad I was feeling bold enough to try it out as its a winner for me.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P