Purple, Teal and a cute bow

Happy weekend loves

How are you all doing? I have had a really lovely day. I woke up super early, made myself a cuppa, fed the dogs then all three of us got back into bed to catch up on Instagram, read my favourite blogs and of course just totally relax as its the weekend and it has been a tough week.

Vivid Purple and Fantasy Fire

Tonight is going to be a good night.. Mexican food and great company. This night has been in the diary for ages for I am glad it has finally arrived. I am off to one of my favourite restaurants with two of my favourite people... my little sis Laus and our boss turned mate; Paul. The three of us are collectively called T43, which means that when we get together we have Tea For Three people :-).

Onto my nails of the day...

Swatch: Barry M: Vivid Purple

Good morning lovelies

I am just too excited... Tonight, my little sis and I are seeing Jason DeRulo in concert! We have been waiting for this date to come around since we first booked the tickets in September and now its finally here :-).

Time for a quick but super beautiful swatch post...

This simply stunning polish is Vivid Purple by Barry M. It is the perfect Cadbury Purple with a shimmery twist and I quite simply do not wear this enough!

I will be back in the next few days to show you how I wore this colour and also to tell you all about Jason DeRulo and his Tattoo tour :-)

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Purple, Gold and Orange nails: Same Accent Nail

Happy Friday!

Tonight I am showing you the final look in my mini 'same accent nail' feature... I am so in love with these nails :-).

This shooting star look is totally inspired by one of the lovelies I follow on Instagram... @tsebian. Thank you so much :-).

Easter Purple Nails

Happy Day Before Easter lovelies!

Hope you all had a lovely first few days of the Easter break? Today I went into the city with my sister so we could get new outfits for our night out tomorrow. After an hour or so of not finding anything suitable we gave up and headed to the pub for an all day breakfast and a glass of wine. Yes you read that right... we ordered a nice glass of Pinot with our fry up and it was only 11.38am! Naughty but nice... well we are on holiday! :-).

Tonight I thought I would show you a super quick Easter inspired manicure I did featuring the perfect shade of Cadbury's purple with a gold accent...

I started with two coats of Barry M Vivid Purple on each nail. It really is a stunning shade of purple and as usual for Barry M the formula is great to work with.

On top of Vivid Purple I layered just one coat of the much coveted Max Factor Fantasy Fire. It is lovely to look at but terrible to take pictures of :-(. The above picture has the flash off and the below picture has the flash on so you can see just how multi toned the glitters are.

Finally I stamped just my ring finger with the rabbit in an Easter egg design taken from plate BM 302 using Barry M Gold Foil (of course!)

Quick and simple but definitely reminds me of the Cadbury's purple and definitely puts me in the mind for chocolate :-)

Take care

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Purple Chequers

Good afternoon lovelies!

How has your weekend been? Mine was lovely, I got to spend lots of time with my hubby which is always amazing and I had a wonderful lunch and spa afternoon with my little sister on Saturday :-).

The only negative over our weekend is that our dog Tuscan has been poorly with a stomach infection so we have spent time at the Vets and he is now on several different treatments to hopefully make him much better. Our youngest dog Lily has been very protective over him and done her best to make big bro forget his pain and carry on play fighting with her :-)

Onto my nail of the weekend...

I started this manicure with three coats of Barry M Gelly Hi-Shine in Prickly Pear. This is the only polish from the Gelly collection so far that has needed a third coat for full opacity which is a little disappointing however the colour is really pretty and I was pleased with the final look.

I added a quick coat of Northern Lights Silver Hologram to add a little sparkle but also to aid the drying time of the three coats so I could get on with the stamping.

Then using the very eye catching Barry M Vivid Purple I stamped this very effective chequered flag pattern from Cheeky plate CH 3. I had been saving this for a black and white manicure but as I was looking through my stamping plates tonight I just couldn't resist :-)

How do you like this look? I think lilac and purple look really good together and I love this chequered flag style design.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Another Nail Party

Happy Weekend Lovelies!

Friday night I had some girlies over for our much awaited nail night. We started with lots of naughty take away food and ended with some pretty nails :-). Unfortunately my little sister could not make it as she was at a presentation evening with her hubby, of course we missed her millions and it just gives us the perfect excuse to arrange another nail night very soon.

Starting with Samantha...

Samatha picked the very pretty OPI Dont Pretzel My Buttons as her base colour. It took three thin coats to achieve the perfect finish but she was very good and sat very still ;)

To stamp the leopard design we used Barielle Sterling Silver and sealed it all with one coat of my trusty Seche Vite

Very pretty and they suit Samantha perfectly. She is hoping this lasts perfectly until Monday as it is neutral enough to be office appropriate and she would like to show her colleagues :-).

Next up is Amanda...

Amanda had told me weeks ago that she would like me to recreate my zig zag tape mani but in a classy black and gold combination. We started with a base of super rich and shiny W7 Black

I then added lots of little strips of tape across the top section of each nail and sponged a thin layer of Barry M Gold Foil onto each tip.

For the added sparkle factor we used Barry M Gold sponged over the Gold Foil and a little pink glitter to create an accent nail.

Finally we have Jamie...

Jamie had also picked her manicure weeks ago by sending me a press release picture for the Nail Jewellery polishes from Nails Inc. For this look we started with a base of two coats of Barry M Vivid Purple, such a gorgeous and rich colour (I must use this more!)

I then created this gradient tips look by painting two thick coats of Pink Diamond onto Jamies tips and then dragging an almost clean brush down the nail to spread the dense glitter out a little.

Jamie loved this look so much that she is going to add a layer of gel over the top which should keep this nicely in place for a good two weeks :-).

Another great night ladies - cant wait to do it again

Louise xx

Purple on Purple

I really am not sure about todays manicure. I decided to push the boundaries a little and continue on my quest to use the bundle monster designs that I would not usually pick. I also decided that I would use a colour that I usually leave until last... dark purple.

Here are the results, I hope you enjoy the pictures...

I started with a base of two coats of Barry M Vivid Purple. As you will see from the swatch pictures at the bottom of this post this colour looks gorgeous on its own in full sunshine as you can really see the purple and silver sparkles that hide in this very dark purple base. In fact I may even be as bold as to say that I prefer this colour with no nail art over the top!

For the stamping I picked plate BM 322 again. I tried another design from this plate a few days ago, as seen here, but for todays manicure I opted for this quite edgy looking diamond shaped design. I had a little issue with the polish 'bleeding' over the lines of the design but if you can forgive those little blips then many of you will like this design. The colour used for stamping is Barry M Lilac Foil.

In the sunshine

In the shade

I didnt like this nail art enough to leave it on so it didnt survive a full day. However I will definately wear Vivid Purple again in the future. Maybe with just a few simple studs or rhinestones on my favoured accent nails?

Beautiful sunshine swatch

Still beautiful in the shade

What do you think? Do you like purple? Do you like these 'edgier' looking bundle monster designs or like me do you lean towards the softer floral designs?

Take care

Louise xx

Fantasy Fire - the Layered Look

When I first started looking into starting my own blog in March/April this year, one polish that was pictured and reviewed regularly was the much sought after Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I purchased a mini bottle of this colour shifting rainbow shimmer but until now have not used it in any of my manicures. Tonight I was in the mood to create something a little special so I reached for that little bottle of goodness and came up with this...

I realise this manicure doesnt look very special from just the above pictures so I have included more below of how the layers where built up. I would love to be able to capture the real beauty of Fantasy Fire on my camera but it really is one of those polishes that has to be seen to be believed. 

Picture taken inside with LED lamp

Picture taken outside with natural light

For the base colours I used 2 coats of Barry M's Racing Green and Vivid Purple. I then layered one coat of Max Factors Fantasy Fire over the top. As Fantasy Fire is very sheer and would take approx 4 coats for opacity I decided to use it as a top coat instead. It looks stunning over both the green and purple base.

On the green nails I could really see the orange, copper and gold flecks dancing on my nails. On the purple nails the red, orange and purple flecks really came to life. I dont think I would ever get bored of looking at this polish and trying to count exactly how many different colour flecks it contains!

For the stamping I used Konad White and the simple flower outline pattern taken from plate BM 205. I added pink dots for the flower centres using Barry M Shocking Pink and lastly applied one thick coat of NYC Expert Top Coat to give that final glassy shine.

In real life this layered nail art looks amazing and I expect I will spend most of tomorrow staring at its beauty - in between working very hard in the office of course :-).

Louise xx

A Mani of Firsts

As I was looking back over my posts to date I realised that I haven't featured purple as a colour so I decided to put that right by featuring five different shades in one mani. I also decided to try a technique that is new to me although I understand it has been a favourite of many established nail bloggers long before now - the braided accent nail.

This was my first attempt at a braided manicure and I have to say I am loving the results. It was easy (if a little time consuming) to do and I managed to get the design to stay in a central line running down my nail. I picked three shades of purple to complete the design but next time I would try three totally contrasting colours for a much bolder result

The colours used to create this mani are from the Barry M range (surprise I hear you yell) and are as follows:
Little finger - Vivid Purple
Ring finger - Braided with Lilac Foil, Vivid Purple and Bright Purple
Middle finger - Boots Limited Edition (no colour name)
Index - Bright Purple
Thumb - Berry Icecream

I also added a few accents using my stamping plates:
Index finger - BM 05 and rhinestone from eBay
Thumb - BM 309 (fast becoming my favourite plate)

Another fun little one day mani that I will remove tomorrow as I plan something special for our girls trip to the Polo Festival on Saturday. Take care.

Louise xx