Skittlette: Flowers and Glitter

Happy Friday

Time for funtime Friday nail art! This idea has been going round and round in my head for a while, I just love turquoise and pink as a colour combo but with the addition of the dark silver glitter I was over the moon with how these turned out.

Dream Combo: Turquoise and Peach

Happy Monday

I had such a lovely weekend that I didnt want it to be over so I am very glad that Monday has flown by and I am back home in my comfies doing what I love... NAILS!! This colour combination happened totally by accident when I was recently re-organising my stash and these lovelies ended up next to each other on the shelf. I hope you like them too...

Snippet: Turquoise and Gold

Happy Hump Day

Super quick post tonight as I have been away at a work conference and am about to head out on a team night out. Just got time for a quick change before I get the coach outside our hotel.

This is my final look using Hyper Gel Turquoise and Barry M Gold Foil.

Hope you all have lovely evenings

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Swatch: Models Own Hyper Gel: Turquoise

Happy Saturday

I hoe you are having a fantastic weekend so far? Just time for a quick swatch post... this is bright and bold and perfect for Spring :-),

Turquoise by Models Own Hyper Gel...

Turquoise and Orange: Same Accent Nail

Good evening lovelies

Hope you are all doing well? For the rest of this week I have decided to go with a bit of a theme for my nails. I will change my polish each day (as is usual) but I will keep my lovely accent nail just to show how wonderful and versatile it is!

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

Freehand Animal Accent nails

Good evening lovelies

Happy Monday! I thought it was about time I put my limited freehand skills to the test and finally tried leopard print. In the past I have proudly worn the stamped version of leopard print on my nails but when on a recent nail art course one of the ladies asked if any of us could freehand leopard print we all said no. I then made it a mini mission to teach myself so I could in turn teach my fellow nail art classmates :-).

For this manicure I decided to go for the double accent nail look so I painted two fingers with NV Lagoon (turquoise) and two fingers with Barry M Lychee (nude). Lagoon is a stunning shade of turquoise and was perfection is just two thin coats.

Lychee has already turned into my go-to base colour for many styles of nail art so I am going to treat myself to a back up bottle next time I am in the city.

Using the large end of my Orly dotting tool I added some random blobs of Lagoon onto the two accent nails. I made sure they were not in a uniform pattern and that they were of varying shapes and sizes.

Once the 'blobs' were dry I used black polish and the small end of my Orly dotting tool to add broken up outlines to each spot making each one look more like leopard print. I was careful not to join these black lines up and create full circles around the spots, this look only works if the shapes remain incomplete and a little random looking.

Lastly I filled in any gaps with small dots of black polish, et voila...

How do you like my double accent freehand leopard print? I am so pleased with the outcome and I really enjoyed teaching the others on my class what I had learnt :-). Also I am loving this creamy turquoise shade!

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

To Flock or Not To Flock...?

I have been wanting to use this gorgeous turquoise flocking powder for months! It just never seemed the right time but with the weekend just gone and our various social events I thought... what the hell... just go for it!

I started with two easy coats of China Glaze For Audrey. It really is the most perfect turquoise blue polish. It has a creamy application and dries in super quick time. In fact on some of my nails I only used one coat... shock horror! :-)

I stamped this pretty little bow in Konad White using the design on plate BM317. I applied some bright pink rhinestones for added interest.

For the flocked accent nail I first of all passed the clumped together flocking powder through a small metal tea strainer/sieve and then when my NYC top coat was still wet I rolled my ring finger nail in the fine powder and allowed it to dry. I then took a small fan shapped nail art brush and gently swept away any loose strands.

The result was this gorgeous furry looking accent nail that was both easy to achieve and oh so effective!

What do you think of flocked nails? I would definitely wear this style again as the powder is available in every colour under the sun. I washed my hands to see how it would hold up and am pleased to say that after a few moments of drying time the flocking remained fluffy! :-)

Louise xx

Leopard print nails

Today karma is restored, I had a much better day. No tripping over, no being late, no accidents with superglue and I got a space on the car park at work.

Also I am loving my animal print nails. I wore them for a business meeting that I was not looking forward to as I knew if I was having a bad few moments I could just glance down at my hands for an instant lift. It worked a treat :-).

To create thhis look I started by painting alternative nails with Barry M Turquoise and Barry M Limited Edition Boots. Both polishes needed three coats which is a little unusual for Barry M and a little frustrating for me. Also although this is called Turquoise and is a beautiful colour it is very blue and not very turquoise like.

To create the leopard print I used Konad Black and plate BM 221. As always I experienced a little smudging when I applied my top coat. I waited 30 minutes and also dipped my nails in cold water to help set the stamping but they dragged anyways!

Finally I added a few dots of Barry M Flamingo Pink to the centres of the leopard spots - just to keep it extra interesting :-).

I hope you like these nails

Louise xx

Coral and Turquoise Daisies

After my success with the new to me brand NV I decided to try two more colours from the collection to create this bright, summery and almost neon floral manicure.

Doesnt it make you wish the sun was shining and you could be at the beach sipping cocktails...?


NV Sunset - Bright Neon Coral

 

NV Lagoon - Gorgeous Turquoise

For this manicure I used two coats each of Sunset (neon coral) and Lagoon (turquoise) as the base colours and then stamped a simple daisy and vine design from the first bundle moster collection - plate BM 16.

To add a little interesting contrast I then dotted the daisy centres using the alternate base colour. Doesnt it look pretty and eye catching.

I have to say I also really like the bottles from NV. I have 8 polishes in total - purchased in two sets of 4. These two colours are from the California Dreaming collection, they have copper coloured lids and look beautiful standing out in my nail room :-).

Hope you like todays manicure?

Louise xx

Studded V-gap

I saw this clever tape mani here and just knew I had to recreate it for myself. This is my first attempt at a tape manicure and I am really pleased with the results. Nailside has a very detailed tutorial that made this super easy to recreate.

These gorgeous colours are Barry M Turquoise as the base colour with Barry M Denim as the accent V shape on each nail. I then used Barry M Silver Foil to add the dotted highlights.

This is definately a look I will wear again. I am really pleased with how my nails turned out and how easy it was made by following the brilliant step by step tutorial over on the Nailside blog.

Louise xx

Will it be... a Boy or a Girl?

We are soon to become Auntie and Uncle for the 4th time as Craig's sister Vicky only has two weeks left until her due date. Vic and Kei decided to not find out the sex of the baby before the birth so this manicure is dedicated to our excitement of finding out when junior finally arrives! Of course we are 100% happy either way but this manicure is just a little bit of fun inspired by the bottle print on new plate BM 307.

Firstly the girl nail art. Many colours and plates were used so I will provide a quick summary and if you would like anymore detail then just drop me a note in the comment facility below.

Index - Barry M Bright Pink, stamped using Konad White with flower print on BM 224
Middle - Barry M Stawberry Icecream, stamped using Color Club Hot Like Lava with the bottle and heart print on BM 307
Ring - Barry M Pink Flamingo, stamped using Konad White with the heart design on BM 317
Little - Barry M Shocking Pink, stamped using Konad White with the teddy bear design on BM 312

Thumb - Essie Marshmallow, stamped with Color Club Hot Like Lava using the flower corner on BM 316

I love all these pretty pinks together and would definately wear a skittle mani with them as base colours again in the future. What do you think?

Now onto the boy nail art. Again this is heavily centred around my love for Barry M nail polishes. I have so many blues that I had a hard job just picking 5!

Index - Barry M Cyan Blue, stamped with Konad White using the bottle and hearts design on BM 307
Middle - Barry M Turquoise, stamped with W7 Black using the smiley faces design on BM 304
Ring - Barry M Cobalt Blue, stamped with Konad White using the hearts design on BM 317
Little - Barry M Blue Moon, stamped with Color Club Cold Metal using the star design on BM 21
Thumb - Essie (the unknown beige), stamped with Barry M Denim using the square design on BM 320

These blues look super cool together and again make a great base for a skittle mani. Look out for it in the future as I am dying to call it the Barry Blues!

Not long until baby arrives and then I will design a manicure to honour his or her name.

Good Luck Vic and Kei - cant wait for the call to tell us 'its time'!!

Louise xx