Purple Fan

Are you a fan of purple?

This question will make more sense when you see the pretty little fan pattern that I have stamped onto my lilac nails for todays manicure :-).

This lovely base colour was a new purchase last weekend. Its from NYC and is a pale lilac called Lavendar Cupcake. It did need a third coat to cover up a small number of brush strokess but to be honest for £1.99 I can live with that :-).

I stamped this delicate little fan design using Barry M Lilac Foil. This has limited edition printed on the lid so I am unsure if it is still available but as its a foil it is great for stamping. This is the first time I have used it and I love how subtle the contrast is against the base colour. Sorry about the reflective pictures obscuring the pattern but I hope you can still see the effect I was going for.

I hope you like my choice of manicure today, as always thanks for reading.

Louise xx

Peach and Gold

I love peach and gold together. This manicure made me smile everytime I looked at it and with the added sparkle from the rhinestones and glitter polish accent nails I just couldnt stop looking at it!

I used this stamp once before in a different colour combination and really didnt like it but today I was feeling brave so thought why not... give it a go. I am so glad I did.

The base colour is Barry M Peach Melba. Seriously this colour is just perfect. The formula is good, the colour stands out and makes me feel summery and thats no bad thing, as I currently have a few days off work.

Swatch of Barry M Peach Melba

To create this manicure I used Barry M Gold Foil to stamp the zig zag design taken from BM 201. I then added three sparkly little peachy coloured rhinestones to my ring finger and one coat of Barry M Gold Glitter to my thumb nail. One final coat of NYC top coat and voila... :-)

I cannot get enough of peach and gold! Love it.

Louise xx

Beautiful Green with Envy

I forget how much I love green. Then I stumble across a gem of a polish like this one and I fall in love with green all over again. I cannot tell you how lovely this polish looks on yor nails. Its shiny, sparkly and rich in colour. Its the pretty much the perfect shade. It looks great in the swatch pictures below but as this blog is about nail art I of course had to stamp something suitabley pretty over the top.

For this manicure I used BYS Green with Envy for my base colour. This polish really is a steal at only £1.50 a bottle. I love how it applies as well - two completely effortless coats of shimmery green goodness. I then stamped using my trusty Konad White and the flower design taken from plate BM 321.

As I had a little more time to work on this manicure I decided to add some pretty sparkly purple rhinestone accents. They never last much longer than the time it takes me to finish taking blog photos but they do look good :-).

BYS Green with Envy swatch

Gorgeousness in a bottle!

Just look at the super rich colour of these swatches. Whats not to love?

Thanks for reading

Louise xx

Summery Butterflies

Happy Bank Holiday lovelies.

Hubby and I have had such a lovely day. We had a lazy and chilled out morning at home with our two dogs and then went out for lunch with my Mum and Sister to Yo Sushi. This has become an all time favourite restaurant of ours. Its amazing how many people are put off by the name but we only eat one thing from the sushi menu - its the hot, cooked to order section of the menu we head straight for. Yummy chicken, salmon and prawn dishes all cooked to perfection. We would recommend Yo Sushi to everyone.

Enough about food... onto my nails of the day...

I designed these summery nails to match my pretty new top, a close up of the material can be seen below.

The base colours used for this manicure are Barry M Flamingo Pink and Barry M Lemon Icecream. I then stamped my much loved butterfly design from BM 307 using Barry M Gold Foil and Barielle Coalest Day of the Year.

Sneaky right hand pic for you

If I had to pick a favourite nail polish then I am fairly sure it would be Barry M Flamingo Pink. I hope I never have to pick just one but if I did then this would be a serious contender. The colour bridges the gap between the pink and the coral colour families and is easy to apply in two effortless coats.

These are the pretty beads I accessorised with today :-).

It is a shame we didnt have great summery weather to go with my new outfit today but we still made the most of it and had a lovely day. This is my favourite bank holiday of the year as this is the weekend that hubby and I first met five years ago!

Take care

Louise xx

Matching Mani Pedi

**Warning this post contains pedicure pictures**

This post is a new venture for me for two reasons. The first being that I am reviewing nail wraps rather than nail polish and the second being that I have included pictures of my toes! I promise it is justified and done solely for the purpose of showing just how amazing these nail wraps really are.

I have used nail wraps on my toes before (pre the launch of this blog) and was amazed at how easy they were to apply and at how long they stayed on. They survived eveything from a girly weekend in Marbs where my toes were crammed into five inch heels for hours of dancing to being back home in my walking boots for hours of doggy playtime at the marshes. I finally and reluctantly removed the wraps yesterday as they just wouldnt fall off!

These fabulous neon animal print nail wraps are by Nail Rock and I purchased them in TK Maxx as part of a recent small haul. They are perfect for summer and I only wish I had got them earlier in the year so I could have made the most of them in any fleeting moments of sunshine we did have.

The nails wraps come in a pack of 16 so of course once I had finished my pedicure I had 6 left over and decided to create a few accent nails and break out the flourescent polishes to finish the manicure off.

I am so pleased with this look and the fact that you have enough wraps left over to create a matching accent manicure is just the cherry on the cake for me!

For the non wrap nails I used W7 polishes - Flourescent Orange, Black and Neon Yellow. The application of W7 polishes is really good and considering I picked these up for £2 each they are a welcome addition to my slightly out of control polish collection.

I hope you can forgive me for publishing pictures of my toes - it was all in the art of blogging I promise!

In summary, these wraps are easy to apply, great value for money, incredibly eye catching and I would recommend them to anyone.

Thanks for reading

Louise xx

Pretty Little Animal

I mentioned in one of my previous blogs that I was going to use more animal print designs in my nail art and today is one of the days to follow through with that promise. I love this leopard print design, it looks brilliant with any colour you can think of and is so easy to do. Its eye catching and always attracts compliments :-).

For the base colour I used Barry M Blueberry Icecream. This polish has an amazing formula. It is almost a one coater, it dries quickly and evenly and  looks great with any skin tone. It has to be one of my favourites and whenever I'm in a blue mood I can guarantee I will reach for this polish.

I stamped this pretty leopard print design using Konad White and two different images taken from Konad M57. This look was so easy to create but certainly one of my favourites.

I hope you enjoyed this walk on the wild side :-)

Louise xx

Green and Greydient

Almost all of the nail blogs I follow (which is a lot) have recently featured some kind of gradient manicure. The look is usually achieved using two colours dabbed onto the nail with a make up sponge to create a blended two tone manicure. I have yet to attempt this style of nail art however today I realised that one of the stamps from the 2012 collection will achieve a similar look.

For the base I used NYC Mint Macaroon and then to create the gradient I used Barry M Grey and the stamp taken from plate BM 301. I created an accent nail using Barry M Grey and the base and three pretty little mint green rhinestones taken from a set I purchased on eBay.

I think with a little bit of practice this stamp could be a really quick way to achieve a gradient manicure. I will definately be trying it again with a different colour combination. What do you think? Do you like the two tone look?

Take care

Louise xx

Do they Match?

As promised here is a picture of hubby and I all dressed up in our finest at our friends wedding last weekend. I designed my nails to match my dress. What do you think?

I love it when we get the chance to get all dressed up. Doesn't hubby look lovely in a suit :-). 

Louise xx



Welcome to Millie

Welcome to the world Millie Rose!

This very girly and pink manicure was inspired by the arrival of our beautiful niece Millie. She was born just over three weeks ago to very happy parents Vicky and Keighley. Congratulations on becoming a family!

M for Millie

On this occasion I decided not to list all the colours and stamping plates I used but of course if anyone has any questions please feel free to leave them in the comments facility and I will get back to you.

Of course it wouldnt be right if I didnt include some pictures of Millie so you can see for yourselves just how cute she is!

I hope you enjoyed this slightly more personal blog from me today, I love it when I learn more about the other bloggers I follow so I am hoping my followers feel the same way :-).

Louise xx

Pink Lily

Recently a popular monthly magazine was available with a free nail polish attached to the front cover. This particular nail polish is a new brand to me but I instantly fell in love with the beautiful bottles. The brand is called Ciate and the polishes retail for £9 each. I then realised that the magazine actually had three different shades to give away which meant in true crazy nail polish lady style I had to buy exactly the same magazine three times to ensure I had all available shades. I reassured myself that this was in fact sensible shopping as to buy the three magazines cost me £11.25 where as to buy the three Ciate polishes without the magazines it would have cost me £27. That in my mind is positively a bargain!



In direct sunlight

This shade is called Jelly Bean (cute name) and is a bright pink creme polish which has a subtle blue shimmer making this cool toned on your nail. The shimmer is very obvious in the bottle but does not translate either to your nail or in the pictures.

Beautiful bottle



Jelly Bean swatch

 

I stamped this full lily design using Barry M Gold Foil and stamping plate BM 225. I am really happy with the results and looking forward to using the other two 'bargain' polishes I have from the Ciate collection.

Thanks for stopping by, as always I look forward to reading any comments you would like to leave me

Louise xx