Metallic Mercury, Quilting and Caviar!

Good evening my lovelies

I am absolutely loving not being at work! I know that is how most people will also be feeling but honestly it is doing me the world of good. Spending this much time with Mr LiPP and my sister is just what I needed.

Tonight I am showing you a manicure that I just couldn't leave alone. It was one of those that I couldn't resist going a little too far with just so I could test out my new mini caviar beads :-)

The below picture is the finished look...

Now lets start at the beginning... I started with a base of two coats of W7 Metallic Mercury. This polish has a plum brown base and a stunning pink and gold glass fleck finish. It really was beautiful under the lamp I use to take pictures as the below picture shows.

Then I took my striping tape and laid out a quilted design which I gently sponged over with Barry M Pink Foil (limited edition for Christmas), these two steps are pictured below.

As soon as I had finished sponging I carefully peeled off the striping tape to reveal the criss cross design below. At this stage I also used a small cotton bud to tidy up the excess sponged Pink Foil.

At this stage I maybe should have applied a top coat and left well alone...

The trouble being that these mini caviar beads were just calling my name and looked like they would sort of match...

What do you think of the finished manicure? I liked the feel of these mini caviar beads but I am totally in love with the quilted ring finger accent. It takes a little patience but the results are worth it :-)

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Jingle Bells

Good evening lovelies

After all my bright red, green and white Christmas manicures I decided to try something in my favourite classic combination of black and gold. It gave me a great opportunity to try out several unused stamps and also to make a welcome return to my hologram Gold top coat.

I give you... Jingle Bells...

I started with a base of W7 Black. Its such a godd quality polish for such a cheap brand and I am almost at the stage where I need to go and buy a back up bottle!

Once the Black was dry I then added a good layer of Northern Lights Hologram Top Coat in Gold. Last time I used it I just could not get good pictures but with my lovely new Lumix camera it was much easier. Just check out the shimmery beautifulness in these pictures!

For the various bell images I used Barry M Gold Foil as my stamping colour and the following plates: BM 302, BM 14 and my Christmas plate B 35.

Lastly I could not resist adding some festive holy to my thumb nail

Jingle bells, jingle bells
Jingle all the way
Oh, what fun it is to ride
In a one horse open sleigh 

Do you like my black and gold Christmas nails or would you prefer to see more traditional colours like red and green?

Louise xx

Christmas Nails: Penguin

Good evening lovelies!

Can you believe how close to Christmas we are now? Even with our Christmas Trees being up, the lights being on and all our presents wrapped beautifully and waiting to be handed out it doesn't feel real. Maybe I need to wait for work to finally be over before I can feel truly festive. On the plus side all of this does not prevent me from creating yet more Christmas nails... tonight it is time to introduce Percy...

Don't you just love this little fella! I was inspired by another picture I saw at PolishPedia and just could not help but recreate this adorable accent nail. I decided to call him Percy the Penguin?!

I started with one easy coat of Revlon Hazy (my perfect light grey) and then added just one thin coat of Barry M Silver Pink Glitter. It looks perfect with the grey base showing through and under my office lights had an almost holo shine hidden in the fine glitter particles.

Using black, red and white I added various size dots to all nails except my ring finger which I reserved especially for Percy.

Percy was free handed on with my favourite nail art brush and a dotting tool for his eyes and the row of white fur on his santa hat.

I loved this look so much I wore it for two days which is just unheard of when I still have so many manicures I want to squeeze in pre Christmas Day :-)

Take care

Louise xx

Party Nails!

Happy Thursday lovelies!

Tonight I thought I would resist my desperate urge to paint Christmas nails and try out some of the lovely new polishes I picked out at the Clothes Show last weekend. To be honest these nails do have a party theme so you could wear them to a party which just so happened to be a Christmas party... :-)

For this party themed skittle I picked out three new W7 shades. I started with Last Tango in Paris on my index and middle fingers. Its a gorgeous mix of cerise pink, plum and purple. It shimmers beautifully and I'm really pleased with the finish which was perfect after two thin coats.

I used W7 Blue-Tini for my little finger and thumb. It is so bright it could almost be a neon but has the added depth of gorgeous electric blue shimmers and also a few plum sparkles for added good measure. Again another easy to apply colour and I only needed two thin coats.

Lastly I painted W7 Monnlight onto my ring finger and along the top half of my thumb nail. Moonlight is a really densely packed glitter polish that has many shades of blue, purple, silver and pink hidden within.

Sticking with the party theme I stamped this cute little cocktail design onto just my index finger. Who doesn't love a cocktail?

As it is the festive season and I cannot resist sparkles and shinies (yes like a magpie) I added some co-ordinating pink and blue square rhinestones, and then a row of silver square studs for my thumb finally completed this manicure.

What do you think? Would you wear this sparkly skittle manicure for a party or do you prefer all your nails to match?

Have a lovely evening and TGI almost Friday!

Louise xx

Roses and Bling Baby

Hope you are all having fantastic weekends?

Our meal at Loch Fyne last night was gorgeous :-). We had good food, fine wine and great company! The restaurant was beautifully decorated for Christmas with a huge tree at the main entrance, pretty decorations around the room and crackers at our place settings. It was the perfect background for our festive gathering.

I just couldn't decide what to do with my nails and as time was getting away from me I painted ten black canvases and waited for the creativity to take over, here is what I ended up with...

I have wanted to create a pure bling accent nail for a little while now but just need the right occasion... what could be a better occasion than our first Christmas meal of the year :-).

I stamped all my other nails with the large rose design from plate BM323 using Barry M Silver Foil. I thought it would make a nice change to use Black and Silver together as I usually lean toward Black and Gold.

Finally I repainted my ring finger with one coat of Barry M Silver Foil as I thought the black base would show through too much. While the Silver Foil was still wet I placed each rhinestone individually. I worked quite quickly but had prepared in advance by tipping all the rhinestones out onto a placemate, turning them all right way up and keeping them in a neat line that I could just work along.

I was so pleased with the results and 24 hours later every single gem is still in place and they feel as secure as they did when I first applied them last night.

Enjoy the rest of your weekends lovelies

Louise xx

Black & Gold Skittlette

Happy Friday lovelies!

I love the weekends! Tonight we are having our first of several Christmas meals. We will be dining at Loch Fyne with six of our close friends and I cant wait. We booked it several months ago and have already picked our food so all that is left to do is drink fine wine and enjoy ourselves!

Saturday we will be wrapping our Christmas presents and drinking a large amount of Baileys as is traditional in our house! Then on Sunday we are meeting up with lots more of our friends to go for a roast dinner to celebrate Tasha's birthday. Busy but fun.

Onto my NOTD... Black and Gold is such a great combo

For my little finger and thumb nails I used Barry M Gold Mine Glitter. It is the first time I have used this and I love it. Easy to apply and very effective.

 For my ring finger I painted the base with two coats of W7 Black and then stamped this gorgeous and detailed lily flower design using Barry M Gold Foil. The design is from plate BM 314.

Now here is where I admit to a nail fail :-(. I originally painted my index and middle fingers with three coats of OPI Don't Pretzel My Buttons and then stamped the below filigree scroll design using Konad Black. Unfortunately even though I left it to dry for 35 minutes and ran both nails under cold water to 'set' the design they still smudged terribly. Why does Seche Vite hate Konad polish so much?



I couldn't leave it looking all sad and smudgey like that so I quickly removed those two nails and returned to my trusty W7 Black and simple gold studs for added detail.


So how do you like my black and gold skittlette? I think it looks classy :-)

I will return to that beautiful filigree scroll design in the near future

Have fantastic weekends everyone

Louise xx

Love for Lava Flow

Happy Friday to everyone!

I am so looking forward to the weekend... chilling out, eating good (naughty) food, drinking some nicely chilled wine and spending quality time with my loved ones. Perfect!

Here is my Friday Feeling manicure... a skittlette using my newly purchased W7 Lava Flow.

I started by painting three nails with two coats of W7 Lava Flow. As you will see this is basically Salt n Pepper but with added red sparkly bits! Easy to apply and dries quickly - two slicks of top coat made this glossy and smooth to the touch (no nitty gritty)

Using W7 Black and W7 Red I created two different but complimenting accent nails.

Finally I added some square rhinestones to the accent nails - the perfect finishing touch, dont you think?

Which one is you favourite - Salt n Pepper or Lava Flow?

Another sneaky peek of Salt n Pepper

Hope you have fantastic weekends - what are you up to?

Louise xx

Love for Salt n Pepper

I would like to show you something a little different today. This look combines black glitter set in a white polish base topped with a fimo slice, the end result is one quite striking manicure (even if I do say so myself!)

This little beauty is W7 Salt n Pepper. As you can see from these pictures this polish has an off white base and is packed to the brim with black glitter particles. It applies perfectly in two coats and is like a ready made glitter sandwich!

I then added just one pre cut fimo slice to my ring finger. Doesn't it just set this polish off nicely?

I am so pleased I finally added Salt n Pepper to my polish collection. At the same time I also purchased another one from this range called Lava Flow, its similar to Salt n Pepper but has the addition of bright red glitter particles. I look forward to posting the swatches soon :-)

Louise xx

Mirrorball - Boogie Nights

I have something lovely and sparkly for you tonight ladies... another of the stunning polishes from the Models Own Mirrorball collection.

This one is called Boogie Nights...

Just look at how it sparkles :-). I never pick purple as a favourite colour but I adore this polish from the Mirrorball collection. Its purple, its lilac, its blue and its pink... its stunning!

Boogie nights
Come on now got to get it started
Dance with the boogie get down
 

I layered two coats of Boogie Nights over W7 Black and Barry M Matt White so you can see just how amazing this is as the glide on 'nail frosting' Models Own intended.



'Cause boogie nights are always
The best in town
Got to keep on dancing

I love love love this collection. So far I have shown you two of these pretties... I still have three to go :-)

Louise xx