Pink and Copper: Glitter Gradient

Good evening lovelies

This week has been all about gel nails for my lovely clients. Tonight is no exception, however the client just so happens to be my little sis :-). We are going to do Laura's nails and then cook ourselves something lovely for tea and chill out with our four doggies and a glass of wine.

Here are my nails of the day... Super simple...

Butterfly Wing nails

Good evening lovelies

Tonight is my girly birthday meal.. see what I mean about extended birthdays in my family :-)?

We are going to a Japanese grill called Shiki and I cannot wait. Some of us have been before and the food was amazing, all freshly cooked in front of us by our own chef for the evening. There are 9 of us dining tonight and I just know that we will all love our meals.

I did something a little special to my nails for the occasion...

I started with two quick coats of Barry M Papaya which is a lovely rich peach to orange colour. Then using a small piece of make up sponge I added Barry M Grapefruit to half of each nail.

I then topped each nail off with Northern Lights top coat in Silver. Once that was dry I opened my shiny new stamping plates that had arrived from Israel recently. I had been lemming after these plates for months so once I saw they were back in stock I purchased them quickly. You can read more about how to do that here... Nail Craze.

Using Konad Black I stamped the monarch style butterfly wing onto each nail. I love that you get two different sizes and I love it that the design is flipped so your right and left hands are mirror images.

Finally using a dotting tool and a little white nail polish I added some dots to make my nails look more like authentic monarch butterfly wings.

I am loving how detailed these nails look. I think Natalie from Nail Craze is brilliant for designing this beautiful plate and I look forward to using the others I also purchased from her.

I am off to eat at the grill - have a great evening everyone :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Zig Zag tape manicure

Welcome back lovelies

I am so excited about tonights manicure. This is my first attempt at using striping tape to create a pattern and also my first attempt at a sponged gradient. The two techniques combined created this fab looking manicure.

For this look I used Barry M Teal as my base colour. I then layered one stunning coat of Color Club Metamorphosis to create a pretty shimmery look.

I then cut lots of little pieces of striping tape and added them to each nail in a zig zag design. With the tape still in place I sponged a thin layer of Barry M Shocking Pink and a thin layer of Color Club Wing Fling.

Two thick coats of Seche Vite even out any raised surfaces and bought out the sparkle in theses polishes even more. My inspiration for this look was taken straight from the amazing Carolina of Colores de Carol. If you havent already checked out her fab nail art blog then you should do so right now! Many of Carolinas manicures are saved in my 'to do' folder.

I hope you enjoyed this manicure, I am really looking forward to trying this again with darker colours

Louise xx

Navy and Gold Gradient

Navy and Gold is always such a stunning colour combination so when I fancied another attempt at stamped gradient nails I reached for these two colours and set to work. I still think I need a little more work on this technique in order to get it perfected but overall it looks effective and is not as messy as the make up sponge dipped in nail polish alternative.

For this manicure I used Barry M Navy as my base colour and Barry M Gold Foil to stamp the gradient from BM 301. This Navy is a gorgeous colour, it goes on like a dream and looks fantastic in natural daylight as it contains millions of tiny little blue and silver sparkles which add a real depth to the colour.

Barry M Navy swatch

Check out the mirror shine!

Such a classy colour combo - who doesnt love navy and gold :-)

Louise xx

Green and Greydient

Almost all of the nail blogs I follow (which is a lot) have recently featured some kind of gradient manicure. The look is usually achieved using two colours dabbed onto the nail with a make up sponge to create a blended two tone manicure. I have yet to attempt this style of nail art however today I realised that one of the stamps from the 2012 collection will achieve a similar look.

For the base I used NYC Mint Macaroon and then to create the gradient I used Barry M Grey and the stamp taken from plate BM 301. I created an accent nail using Barry M Grey and the base and three pretty little mint green rhinestones taken from a set I purchased on eBay.

I think with a little bit of practice this stamp could be a really quick way to achieve a gradient manicure. I will definately be trying it again with a different colour combination. What do you think? Do you like the two tone look?

Take care

Louise xx