Yummy Strawberries

Good evening lovelies

Yo Sushi was of course amazing last night :-). If you have not been you must go at your next opportunity. Tonight I am eating out again... elasticated waistband anyone? I am meeting some girlfriends at my sisters, Jamie is cooking for us and I am supplying the dessert. We do this mini version of come dine with me every three weeks on a Tuesday night as it gives us a good chance to catch up on any gossip and to relax whilst eating good food :-)

My quick little nail of the day look is...

I started with a base of Barry M Gelly Pomegranate. There is no need for me to tell you how much I LOVE this colour as I have used it lots and raved about it every time :-). Its rich and gorgeous and applied carefully could be a one coater (I used two thin coats for these pictures).

Then using Konad White I stamped this cute little strawberry design from Cheeky plate CH 42

For my thumb and accent nail I used the same plate to add 'Yummy' to my nails :-)

I love how this turned out. It was quick and easy to do but still eye catching enough for me to spend a great deal of time staring at my nails :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Flowers with a Yellow Accent Nail

Good evening lovelies

We are now more than half way through the working week - thank goodness! I feel like all I ever do is wish my life away when I am at work - isn't that awful? I can't be the only one though :-)

I decided to push my self a little tonight and have an accent nail in one of my least favourite colours. I loved how it looked and this manicure made me feel seriously ready for some spring weather...

I started with a base of Outdoor Girl Blue on all nails except my ring finger. OG Blue is a pretty ice blue/silver foil effect polish which dries really quickly and is perfect in two thin coats. Even better was that I purchased this polish for just £1. On my ring finger is three coats of Barry M Yellow.

In all honesty this yellow was not as bad as I had imagined and I ended up really liking how bright and happy it looked :-)

I stamped this simple flower design from Cheeky plate CH 44 using Konad White.

Finally I added yellow to the centre of each flower using my smallest dotting tool. That final touch really tied this whole manicure together and made me think that my mum might like this for her Mothers Day nails in March :-)

Have a good rest of your working weeks lovelies :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Foils and Flowers: Green and Pink

Good evening lovelies

I hope your Monday went quickly. It's just so sad to be back at work already - the weekends just go too quickly for my liking :-). Tonight I am going out for tea with my Mum and Sister so at least I had something nice to look forward to all day.

My choice of nails for today are one of my favourite colour combos... Pink and Green.

For this manicure I started with alternating nails painted in Outdoor Girl Green and Barry M Pink Foil. Both colours dry super quick to a high shine foil finish.

I stamped using Konad White with a pattern taken from  Cheeky plate CH 44.

To add a little interest I dotted the flower centres with the alternate base colour. In all honesty I think this is a strange stamping pattern but as I love the colours so much I was pleased with the end result.

How do you like my pink and green nails? What are your favourite colour combinations?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Valentines Nails: Grapefruit and White

Good evening lovelies

How can I resist adding in another Valentine's manicure when it looks as adorable as this? I love coming up with nail art when I have a theme to stick to! All things romantic, heart shaped and love related are top of my list right now and I LOVE it!

I started with two super easy coats of Barry M Gelly in Grapefruit. I forgot how much I love to wear this as a base colour and I cannot stop looking at this colour in the office today! Too distracting :-)

I stamped using several different plates, the first being the mini grafetti hearts found on Cheeky plate CH15. I haven't used this design before and after I stamped it I did think it was a little fussy and hard to see the actual hearts but I like it none the less.

For my ring finger accent I stamped this adorable I Love You symbol from BM02. I don't use the original bundle monster plates all that much as the full nail designs are too small even for my short nails however they do have some great accent designs.

Lastly I stamped this little puckered lip design from the same plate (BM02), one in Konad White and one in Barry M Gelly in Pomegranate.

The final touch was a quick slick of fast drying top coat Hologram in Silver. If you don't own this little beauty from the Northern Lights brand I highly recommend you treat yourself. I use it loads!

I really hope you are enjoying my romantically themed nails as much as I am :-)

Keep checking back for the next installment

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Valentines Nails: Bright Red and White

Good evening lovelies

Love is all around but especially on my nails :-)

Time for my second installment of Valentines nail art. It is the perfect occasion for a beautiful manicure and I am loving the chance to use colours and stamps that are romantically themed. I decided to use Barry M Bright Red as the main colour in this manicure after using it on my friend Elly for her masquerade ball nails. It looked stunning with her black dress and red lipstick :-).

Here are my 'love is all around' nails...

I started with a base of Barry M Bright Red which although they look a little orange toned in these pictures is actually the truest brightest red in my whole collection.

Using Konad White I stamped the heart design onto all nails except my ring finger. It was a little hard to get it lined up in the centre of each nail but rather than obsess over it I decided to leave them exactly as they came out at my first attempt.

For my thumb nail I used a dotted heart outline pattern from plate CH 15.

Finally on my ring finger I added the word LOVE from plate BM 09

How do you like this look? I am loving the red and white together :-)

Tomorrow we are off to see my sister-in-law and beautiful niece, Millie. The doggies are away at my friend Sarah's for a sleep over. They will be spoiled rotten and it means Mr LiPP and I don't have to rush back so can have a lovely day catching up and hopefully a nice lunch out somewhere.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Valentines Nails: Pomegranate and White

Good evening lovelies

I thought I would start early on my Valentine's nail art this year. To be fair it is less than two weeks away and I have so many beautiful colours and stamps I could use for love themed manicures that I could actually fill a whole month of blog posts with them! Dont worry I wont and I will try to limit myself to just 4 or 5 :-)

This manicure actually turned out much better than I had hoped and I was a little upset when I finally had to take it off. I hope you like it...

As you can see in the below picture I started with two lovely coats of Barry M Gelly Pomegranate and topped it off with one thin coat of Hologram Silver by Northern Lights.

Then using Konad White I stamped these two different heart themed patterns onto my nails. One a full coverage pattern and one a cute and perfect accent nail.

With flash so you can see the holo...

I am really pleased with how this turned out and think it has set the bar high for the rest of my Valentines manicures :-)

Take care

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Hearts and Flowers

Good evening lovelies!

Are those in the UK sick of the snow yet? I sure am. I love how it looks but when I have to spend so long getting to and from work I start to resent it a little. Also because of bad weather warnings our dinner plans for this evening have been cancelled so now its impacting our social life as well! Pesky snow!

Anyhow onto nail related topics... Every so often (and to be honest it is rare) I feel in the mood for a palette cleansing neutral. After wearing my stunning Barry M Spring Green yesterday I decided to reach for my newly purchased Orly Faint of Heart and a nice simple white for the stamping.

Clean and simple...

Faint of Heart is a pale grey/brown polish. It applies really well and I am glad to have it in my polish stash. It was just what I needed today :-).

For the stamping I used two different designs from Cheeky plate CH 16. I have used these cute little hearts a couple of times already and love the simplicity of them. I am sure they will feature in any up and coming Valentine's manicures I post.

How do you like my palette cleansing mani for today? Quite different to how I would usually wear my nails but I liked it just for one day :-)

Louise xx

Butterfly Nails: Inspired by Nail Stickers

Good evening lovelies!

How has the start to your working week been? I am always so glad when Monday is over and I can get home and unwind with Mr LiPP and the pups.

I have a couple of polishes and stamping plates in my collection that I love so much I have never featured them on this little blog in case I cannot do them justice. Sounds crazy, right?! The owl stamping plate from bundle monster was one of those items where I finally conquered my fear and came up with this pretty little manicure that I was very proud of. Time to conquer another fear/favourite tonight... Barry M Spring Green.

Isn't it just the most vibrant green? I love it.

I created these nails to match some nail stickers I purchased to give myself a little pedicure with. When I saw them in the shop I realised they were exactly the same shade as Spring Green so it was a given that I would finally get to blog about this stunning polish.

For this manicure I started with two coats of Barry M Spring Green and then using my trusty Konad White I stamped these delicate little butterflies found on Konad plate M78.

I arranged the butterflies differently on each nail just to mix things up a little. For the finishing touch I added just one pink rhinestone as I love pink and green together!

How do you like these nails? I realise I am totally biased towards them as green is my favourite colour but I hope you all enjoy them too :-)

Have you tried nail stickers for manicures or pedicures yet? How did you get on with them?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Fussy Flowers and moving with the times!

Good evening my lovelies

Are you all as sad as me to be back at work? My goodness it has been a struggle although I really shouldn't complain as it is such a short week! Especially as I have Friday off on holiday :-). We girlies are off to London for the weekend in celebration of our friend Samatha's birthday. We have a theatre trip planned, a day at Winter Wonderland and then a meal in Canary Wharf which will no doubt include a few drinks.

I don't have any posts lined up so unless I magic up some time between now and then I am afraid it will be a quiet weekend on the blog. However I do have one little bit of exciting news to share with you... I finally moved into the 21st Century (kicking and screaming) and opened a Twitter account! I know I am so old skool! I am gradually getting used to it and will only tweet a few times a day for now but if you would like to follow me I can be found at... @L_i_P_P

Onto my nails of the day...

I started with two super easy coats of NYC Water Street Blue. I got this in a 3 for 2 deal on Boxing day and I love it. I know I have lots of blue in my collection but honestly in my opinion you cannot have too many! ;-)

Using Konad White I then stamped this quite fussy floral design from Cheeky plate CH 44

Absolutely loving this blue...

I wish all my nail bottles were this Konad shape as I always love how these pictures turn out - its such a great nail angle.

I added some very small dots to the centre of the flowers using Barry M Gelly in Pomegranate. Below is a quick bottle shot - I cannot wait to show you a full mani using this gorgeous colour.

Thanks for reading

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P