Swatch: Barry M Gelly: Chai

Good evening

I hope you all had wonderful weekends? I had one busy day and one lazy day so the perfect combination for me :). On Saturday I spent the day in London with my mum and sister. We visited the Tower of London to see the ceramic poppies being planted in honour of the fallen British soldiers during the First World War. We then travelled across the Thames in the cable cars, walked around Covent Garden and then finally stopped for food and people watching before we got the train back home. Fantastic day!

Silver Bling: Textured nails

Happy Tuesday

Back to work for me today but I dont mind as its only a four day week and then I have all of next week off. Fingers crossed for sunshine :-). Last night was our monthly sister night out to Yo Sushi. I just love that place and always look forward to our 'Blue Mondays'!

Tonight I am sharing a blinged up textured mani with you...

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.

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.

Swatch: Fated Prince

Good evening lovelies

We are slowly getting towards the weekend and I cannot wait... we have not one, not two but three BBQ's to attend this weekend plus a whole host of other fun things planned with friends and family. The forecast is bright sunshine, blue skies and hot, hot, hot! :-)

With all this sunshine I have been able to get some fantastic daylight pictures of my new holo polishes.

Grey and Pink nails: I Heart

Good evening lovelies

I hope you are having a lovely weekend? Just a quick post from me tonight showcasing this very simple little mani. It didnt turn out quite as I wanted but I thought I would show you anyway :-).

I started with three thin coats of pale grey from No 7 called Winter Tale. I am a sucker for a pale or dove grey polish and even more so when it only cost £2 with a voucher.

For the hearts and lace design I reached for Barry M Pink Foil, the pattern is from my lovely new Pueen plates - number 27.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends - dont forget the sunscreen tomorrow... its going to be hot hot hot! :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Grey and Orange nails: Unusual combo

Good evening lovelies

Tonight I would like to show you the second manicure I did with my brand new Pueen stamping plates. I would also like to show you two new polishes that were beyond a bargain!

For the base of this manicure I started with two Collection 2000 polishes that I recently picked up in Poundland. The best thing about these polishes is that they come in packs of three for £1. How can you not love a polish that costs just 33p per botlle! Crazy good bargain :-).

The colours I used are Hip Hop which is a really bright orange and Angel Wings which is a perfect dove grey.

As you can see below I used the colours differently on each hand, on my left hand orange is the main colour with grey being the accent and on my right hand I went with grey as the main colour and orange as the accent.

Using Konad White I stamped this pretty filigree style vine pattern taken from plate Pueen 33.

In the picture above you can see one of my newly made polish rings, that beyond adorable owl stamp is also from my new Pueen collection and I cannot wait to wear it as a full manicure. The owl was the main reason I was so desparate to get my hands on these stamping plates!

Isn't this just the most perfect pale grey? So glad I have three bottles in my collection :-)

Do you like my unusual combination of orange and grey? I was so happy with the way this turned out and will definitely buy more of these polishes if they crop up in Poundland!

Have wonderful weekends

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Pretty Pink Bows and Hologram Heart Nails

Good evening lovelies

How has your Monday been? A hard one for me as it was my first day back in more than a week (sob!) so while I had a lot of work to keep me busy, I also had a serious case of the holiday blues.

One thing that will always cheer me up... something pretty on my nails...

I started with Miss Conduct by Orly which is one of my all time favourite polishes. It applies like a dream, looks fantastic in both natural and artificial light and contains so much holographic glitter that I never fail to be impressed. The picture above was taken in bright sunlight (gorgeous!) and the picture below under my desk lamp in the nail room.

On each of the raspberry pink Miss Conduct fingers I stamped this simple but perfectly pretty bow using Konad White and the small image found on plate BM 317.

For my accent nail I used two coats of a-England Ascalon, which is the perfect complimentary holographic grey for this look baring in mind how much I love holo and how much I love pink and grey together :-).

The heart pattern is also taken from plate BM 317, one of my most used plates!

Finally I added a clear rhinestone to the centre of each bow as a finishing touch.

I hope the rest of your week goes well... Do you have any nice plans other than work?

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

Orly Perfect Pairs: 6: Steel Grey

Good evening lovelies!

TGI Friday - As if I have to tell you how much I LOVE the weekends :-)

I saved my favourite Orly perfect pair until last... I have a soft spot for all things grey. I don't care if it is a pale dove grey or the very darkest of charcoal greys I will love it anyway. Add in some dark silver glitter and I am sold...

This is my finished look... made up of Orly Steele Your Heart and Orly Atomic Splash

Orly Steele Your Heart has been a staple polish in my collection for a while and everytime I use it I am impressed by the colour and the coverage.

Orly Atomic Splash is part of the Glam FX collection and is a must have for me. The gunmetal glitters will look amazing layered over just about any polish in my whole collection. Below is just one coat swatched over my naked nails.

Side by side shot...

I couldn't resist adding this winter sunshine shot. I took this picture in January after a particularly heavy snow shower, as the sun was broke through it added the perfect 'glare' to these pictures.

This is one of the promo shots I did for Hayley's campaign... she used these pictures on Valentine's but is also going to recycle them for Mother's Day :-)

One final shot of these beautiful polishes combined...

So this post concludes my series of Orly Perfect Pairs - I hope you enjoyed them all :-)

Although it was hard work completing all six looks in one day I really enjoyed it and I hope the campaigns are a success for Hayley.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Valentines Nails: Lucky me, beautiful presents

Good evening lovelies!

I love Fridays :-). Tonight we are having our Valentine's Meal and will enjoy a glass of bubbly or two! On Saturday I am spending girly time with my sister, we are having facials, massages and a nice meal in a Thai restaurant. On Sunday Mr LiPP and I are making some adjustments to my nail room and putting together a portfolio for the next part of my course.

Tonight I thought I would show you the beautiful polishes I got from my one and only valentine :-)

For this beautiful sparkly look I started with two gorgeous coats of OPI Lucerne-Tainly Look Marvellous. It is a beautiful shade of pewter grey and contains so much pretty sparkle that it appears more like a foil effect polish. It is smooth to the touch which is unusual with this much glitter in the base colour.

I then added one coat of OPI Pirouette My Whistle which is a glitter polish from the Soft Shades collection. Pirouette My Whistle contains lots of very fine silver glitter and lots of pearly white hex shaped glitters suspended in a clear jelly base. This will look lovely layered over just about any colour in my collection.

With the camera flash on

Quick picture of my Valentines gifts... the gorgeous leather carry case is for my nail supplies so I can go mobile in style and the OPI gift set contains the two polishes you have just seen and a rhinestone covered pen - the perfect accessory for a stationery addict.

What do you have planned for the weekend? Did you have a lovely Valentines or like us are you celebrating at the weekend instead?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Hero in Disguise

Good evening lovelies!

Are you as relieved as me that the weekend is finally here? Honestly I know I say it every week but it cannot come soon enough for me. I cherish my Friday nights so much :-).

Tonight I am going to share with you the beautiful swatches of my first ever Indie polish purchased from Carolina over at Colores de Carol.  I was so pleased when I realised that Carolina has been able to offer International shipping from the USA so I quickly snapped up Hero in Disguise, which I will show you now, and Cupcake Fantasy which I will feature next week. They arrived in super quick time and have settled into my polish stash very nicely :-).

Hero in  Disguise is a light grey jelly polish which has a subtle shimmer mixed into the base and is packed with small yellow hex glitters, larger coral hex glitters and lots of little black stars. The polish comes in a 15ml bottle and is big 3 free.

I decided to layer my Hero in Disguise over one quick coat of Revlon Hazy. Mainly so I could make this manicure perfect in just two coats of Hero in Disguise and not waste a third coat for the sake of opacity.

In the below shot you can see just how glitter packed this beautiful polish actually is...

With the flash on...

This final shot is the same as above but with no flash.

How do you like Hero in Disguise? Do you own any of Carolina's beautiful Indie polishes yet? I saw on her blog just recently that Carolina has also added some Limited Edition St Patrick's duo polishes, I particularly love Irish Night, and also the super cute Girls Night Out collection.

I will be back to buy more :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Zig Zag Tips

Happy Friday loves!

Hope you are all doing well and looking forward to fun filled weekends?

I have been dying to use these gorgeous Orly polishes since I treated myself to them a few weeks back. Today I decided to steer away from stamping and used my new zig zag tip guides to create something pretty instead.

These pretty colours are from the Orly Cool Romance collection. The mint green is called Jealous, Much? and the charcoal grey is called Steele Your Heart. Both have really great formulas and dry to a fantastic finish. I looked the Cool Romance collection up online and realised that there are 6 polishes in all, I jumped on ebay to see if I could purchase the others and found them selling for £20 each. Bit too steep for me so I will just stick to these for now :-).

These pre cut zig zag tips were super easy to use, I started by painting all nails with two easy coats of Jealous, Much? I then taped off the tips on each nail and using Steele Your Heart I painted the tips on each nail apart from my traditional ring finger accent nail. For this nail I decided to paint the lower section and leave the tip mint green.

For added cuteness I applied some flat back mint green pearls with the use of my orange stick and top coat. I love these little pearls and cant wait to use them in more manicures.

I am really pleased with how thes turned out and I love these two colours together.

We are now off to Nando's for tea with friends - what do you all have planned for this weekend?

Take care

Louise xx