Swatch: OPI Sands: Mariah Carey

Happy Monday

Tonight I am going to show you two pretty textured polishes from the Mariah Carey Holiday 2013 collection. These are textured polishes however OPI calls them Liquid Sands. I got these little mini bottles in a Sallys sale a while back.

Wonderous Star: Which finish?

Happy Hump day!

My goodness time flies... So busy at work each day and then so much fun stuff to cram into each evening. I feel like my feet don't touch the floor at the moment but that's fine by me :-).

Time for a quick vote... do you like this beautifully unusual polish with a glossy finish or a matte finish?

Glossy - Seche Vite top coat

Matte - Essie Matte About You

I know this polish is a little love or hate for most people but I have to say that I love it and am really glad to have it in my collection. It's certainly a unique polish and I like it both glossy and matte.

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Swatch: OPI: Wonderous Star

Happy Monday loves

Tonight I have a slightly unusual polish to show you. I think this is going to be like marmite for people... you will either love it or hate it. I picked this up in a Sally's sale a while back, £4 instead of £11, but something about it stopped me from picking it up out of my untrieds stash. Until now...

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

Blue and Silver Glitter Tips

Tonight I tried something a little different. I was feeling a little uninspired with my stamping plates so instead I turned to my new french manicure sticker guides. I didnt like the idea of using traditional french manicure neutral colours so instead I reached for stunning blue and sparkly silver.

I started with OPI Ogre the Top Blue. It was a little on the thin side and I experienced a little cuticle flooding which I didnt try to clean up too much as my cuticles cant take too much acetone at the moment :-(.

I used the french manicure guides to section of my tips and then I painted one thin coat of Barry M Silver to just the tips. I originally thought I didnt need Silver in my collection as it looked like Silver Foil but I was wrong. Silver is sparkly and glitter like where as Silver Foil is a solid colour with a smooth finish.

To jazz this up a little I added some silver hex sequins to each nail with a dotting tool and a slow drying top coat.

I wasnt too fussed on these nails and even considered taking this manicure off in my lunch break! At least I ticked some things off of my untrieds list and I will certainly attempt a similar look again - maybe black and gold.

Louise xx

Black and White and Pink All Over

What's Black and White and Pink all over - My Nails..!

Sometimes a lack of inspiration means I come up with a manicure that is a happy little accident and I really like it :-).

I knew I wanted to use the chevron stamp from the third bundle monster stamping collection but I also really wanted to use more of my pretty little flat back pearls.

I started with a pretty pink base of No 7 Me, Me, Me. Its a really lovely colour without being too sickly sweet and actually has a really great formula. I used OPI MBSW as the base for my ring finger accent nail.

I used Konad Black and the chevron stamp from plate BM 201 for my accent nails. On each of the pink based nails I applied three little black and white pearls using a good thick coat of Seche Vite.

Finally I could not resist adding a little glitter so I reached for Barielle Starry Sky and used it just on my thumb nail.

 

I am so happy with how this turned out. I love the combination of pink, black and white - not to mention those cute little pearls. I have them in twelve different colours so you are bound to see them again soon :-).

Louise xx

Halloween Nail Art - Frankenstein

Happy Sunday lovelies!

I hope you have had a fantastic weekend so far?

I certainly have. On Saturday I spent the day with my sis and Dad. We took him to get our names tattooed on his feet (at his request of course) and then we went for an amazing lunch at Yo Sushi. Today we have been for a fry up with our Mum and then I spent the afternoon painting my nails and watching football. Its all about good food and frustrating football draws!

I decided to try my hand at some more freehand nail art today and here are the results...

For this look I started with a base of OPI Stranger Tides. Its a really nice sage green shade but yet another frustrating OPI formula and I needed three coats.

I used my black nail art pen to draw on the hair and facial details and then topped the other three nails off with Barry M Green Glitter.

I'm really pleased with how this look turned out :)

Louise xx

Dont Pretzel My Buttons and Stripes

I would like to introduce my first polish from the OPI Germany collection - Don't Pretzel My Buttons.

This is one of twelve shades recently released and I have at least five others from this collection on my wish list.

OPI describe Don't Pretzel My Buttons as a haute honey-beige that can always make you smile. I will leave it to you to see if you think that is accurate and true...

This manicure started with three coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons. It takes a little patience to build this colour as it is very creamy which means it drags easily if you don't let each layer dry completely before starting the next. It is a very pretty nude though and a great base for nail art.

Using strips of tape I then sectioned off my nails and painted a thick coat of Barry M Pink Flamingo down the centre of each nail. As Flamingo Pink was drying I gently removed the strips of tape using tweezers.

Finally to complete this look I added some cute little gold square studs from the Born Pretty Store.

Flamingo Pink turned out to be the perfect accompanying colour to Don't Pretzel My Buttons and I was really pleased with how this look turned out. Having stripes down the centre of each nail made my nails look much longer and really eye catching all day at work.

Do you like this new shade from the OPI Germany collection? Do you own any of the other shades?

Louise xx

New OPI with Animal Print

Its arrived... OPI Skull and Glossbones :-).

Frustratingly I have to order OPI polishes from the States in order to get them for a reasonable price. OPI is a UK brand, which just makes it even more frustrating, but I have found an online US seller who can deliver to me within a week, not to mention at £5 per bottle cheaper. I really can't complain about that!

This manicure is three coats of OPI Skull & Glossbones, with two coats of Color Club Ulterior Motive for my accent nails. Skull & Glossbones is part of the Pirates of the Caribbean collection from OPI and is a really pale grey beige creme. This will be a beautiful base for lots of future artwork.

Ulterior Motive from the Keep It Undercover collection is a fantastic jelly style polish which sits somewhere between pink and purple. It is packed with purple and blue micro glitters and sparkles fantastically in almost any light. I love the formula of this polish :-).

I stamped the leopard design over Skull and Glossbones using my W7 Black and Konad plate M57. For the added sparkle factor I then dotted the centres of the leopard print with more of the fantastic Ulterior Motive.

I am really pleased I finally have this OPI polish in my collection. I am totally in love with at least six of the new OPI Germany collection polishes so I will be placing a new order to the US seller in the not too distant future!

Louise xx