Easter Nails: Eggs

Happy Easter

I wasn't really planning on doing anymore Easter related nails but as I sat staring at my pretty pastel polishes I just couldn't resist this quick but effective manicure based on everyone's favourite seasonal goodies... Easter Eggs!!

Any excuse to use these beautiful pastels is ok by me...

To create this sweet Easter treat I used the following polishes, all Barry M's:

Little finger - Blueberry Icecream

Index finger - Strawberry Icecream

Middle finger - Berry Icecream

Index finger - Peach Melba

Thumb - Mint Green

Once the pretty pastels were dry I added a quick coat of Northern Lights Silver Hologram top coat and then stamped the bow using Konad White and the design found on plate M56.

Finally using Barry M White I added lots of small randomly placed dots.

Super cute Easter manicure, done! :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

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

Green and White Skittlette

Happy Good Friday lovelies!

I am in such a great mood knowing that I have all this time off work :-). To make the most of the double bank holiday I have also taken next week off so I get to enjoy a really good break away from work and spend lots of time with Mr LiPP and the pups :-).

For this skittlette I started with two coats of China Glaze For Audrey on all nails except my index finger. For Audrey is a gorgeous light turquoise creme polish and although I ended up covering most of it up with glitter and stripes it remains one of my favourite polishes.

On my little finger I applied one coat of China Glaze Atlantis over For Audrey. Atlantis has a bluey green base colour and contains so much holographic glitter that its hard to explain how sparkly it actually is!

Using Konad White and the same stripes used for my nautical accent nail earlier this week I added horizontal stripes to my ring and middle fingers. The finishing touch for these two nails was the addition of small green square rhinestones.

Finally on my index finger I painted two coats of W7 Salt n Pepper. I have only used this polish once but I really like it and it makes a great accent nail for this skittlette. Removal is a bit of a pain as the black glitters are quite gritty but I think its worth it :-).

I hope you like my nails of the day? Are you all looking forward to the Easter break? Have you got lots of lovely plans?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Nautical Nails

Good evening lovelies

I am super glad that today is over with! I had a four hour training session this morning and then a follow up two hour meeting. Too much being talked at for my liking :-).

On the plus side I have been doing lots of lovely Orly Gel FX nails for friends and family this week, if you would like to see pictures you can follow me on Instagram by clicking the 'follow me' link down the right hand side of my blog :-).

Here are my nautical nails of the day...

I started with two easy coats of No 7 Sing the Blues. I love this colour and often overlook it in favour of my precious Barry M's but I really shouldn't. Sing the Blues sits somewhere between navy and royal blue but has a fantastic shimmer that really shows up on the nail.

On my ring finger I used two coats of NYC Times Square. This polish is a gorgeous shade of tomato red and dries in super quick time.

NYC polishes are such a bargain at only £2.79 a bottle and they are quite often on offer so you end up with two bottles for £2.99. How can you not love a polish that costs just 20p :-).

Using Barry M Gold Foil I stamped these two different nautical themed designs from my latest collection of Cheeky plates. The steering wheels from CH 49 and the anchors from CH 36.

Last but not least I added some horizontal stripes using Konad White. The stripes are actually vertical on the plate but as my nails are short I can flip it around and use them horizontally. I added a row of small gold studs to replicate a Captains uniform.

Nice and nautical!

How do you like these nails? My sister in law Vicky will just love them and now I have a shortcut to getting perfect stripes everytime I will definitely replicate this manicure on her :-)

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Grey and Pink Skittlette

Good evening lovelies

Guess what... its Yo Sushi Sister night tonight! I love the last Monday of every month :-). Time to eat great food and catch up on gossip :-).

While I am off eating so much food that I need to roll out of the restaurant door I will leave you to look at this pretty grey and pink skittlette :-)

For my index and middle finger I started with two easy coats of Decoded by Orly. Decoded is from last years Autumn collection called Electronica and is a dark grey creme polish. It was a little on the thick side which did not cause me any problems and may also make it ideal for stamping. I will test that theory out soon and let you know :-).

For stamping and also on my little finger I used Color Club On the Rocks. I love that even though its a silver foil polish it dries with no streaks. I think that is thanks to the tiny silver glitter particles packed into this bright and reflective polish.

On my ring finger I used three coats of this intensely bright pink (reminds me of Barbie!) from the new Barry M Gelly collection. I only just purchased this one and although I am glad to have it to complete my collection I do not like it as much as the other three. It is called Dragon Fruit.

As mentioned above I used On the Rocks to stamp over Decoded. On the Rocks is great for stamping and the shimmer particles give it an added dimension. The pattern I used is from BM 203. I cannot believe I have had this plate for so long and never used any design from it.

Finally I have included two additional pictures below to show off two of my home made nail polish rings. Both match this grey and pink skittlette perfectly and were made using gorgeous polishes made for me by Colores de Carol.

Ring made using Cupcake Fantasy by Colores de Carol

Ring made using Hero in Disguise by Colores de Carol

I hope you liked this skittlette? I have a real love of grey and pink together so this one was a favourite for me :-).

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Contrasting nails with a Cherry Accent

Good afternoon lovelies

How has your weekend been? Ours has been really lovely. Due to some really bad weather today didn't go quite to plan as my sister in law got snowed in so couldn't make the journey to Norwich to cook for us all today. However we made the most of having the day unexpectedly to ourselves and spent some quality time relaxing, catching up on tv and of course I found time to squeeze in a little nail art :-).

This super bright mani features two more polishes from the new Color Club Fiesta Spring collection. This time I chose Mamba (bright red) and Sunrise Canyon (yellow/green). Both polishes have a fantastic formula and good drying time. Mamba is so pigmented that it could be a one coater.

On my little finger I added just one coat of Leighton Denny Ruby Slippers (over one coat of Mamba). I have been dying to test this polish out since Christmas and am pleased I finally did. It is so perfect for this bright manicure as it contains red and green glitter particles.

As you can see I added contrasting dots to my index and middle fingers using the opposite colour to my base, on my ring finger I used a dotting tool to create these fun little cherries. The green stalks are drawn on using Wild Cactus which is the super bright green also from the Color Club Fiesta collection.

Sunrise Canyon is a strange but still beautiful colour... it changes from dark yellow to lime green depending on how you look at it. I don't think I have anything else like this in my collection so its a welcome addition :-).

How do you like the bright contrast of red and yellow/green? I am glad I was feeling bold enough to try it out as its a winner for me.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Yellow and Pink Leopard Print nails

Good evening lovelies

TGI Friday! I know I say it every week but I am so glad it is the weekend. Friday nights at home with Mr LiPP, the puppies and a nicely chilled bottle of Sauvignon Blanc make up my idea of the perfect start to any weekend.

We have a family gathering at my in laws to look forward to on Sunday and hopefully lots of other nice things between now and then.

A very bright start to the weekend...

I started with a base of Sally Hansen Yellow Kitty. Those of you who have followed my blog for a while will know I don't like yellow... plain and simple. I picked this polish up in Poundland a few weeks ago mainly because I am a sucker for a bargain but also so I could learn to love yellow.

What better way to learn than to add pink :-). Using my newly developed free hand leopard print skills I went a little crazy and added lots of leopard spots to each of the yellow nails.

I think the contrast of these two colours worked unexpectedly well together and this manicure is a fun way to start the weekend :-). What are you wearing on your nails tonight? Do you have lots of lovely things planned for the weekend?

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Skittlette and my first nail polish jewellery

Good evening lovelies

I am so excited about my post tonight... Not only am I using gorgeous colours from a new Spring 2013 collection but I have made my first pieces of nail polish jewellery and included them in some of the below pictures for you to see!

Firstly the polishes...

I started with two easy coats of Color Club Flamingo (bright pink).  Flamingo is part of the Fiesta collection released for Spring this year. I was lucky enough to snap up the full collection in TK Maxx last weekend :-).

On my ring finger I used just one coat of Color Club Wild Cactus (stunning green). I then topped this with two coast of Orly Go Deeper, from the Glam FX collection. I love this green glitter!

For my thumb I used two coats of Wild Cactus, once that was dry I dotted on Flamingo using both ends of my Orly dotting tool.

Here we go... first picture to include jewellery... :-)

As you can see this ring is made using Go Deeper polish with the glass bead set into an ornate silver ring blank.

A picture with the flash on... check out the beautiful shimmery colours in Go Deeper.

To tie the pink and green together I added some tiny green star shaped rhinestones and of course a few more dots :-)

Matching earrings...

I am so pleased with my first few pieces of jewellery. What do you think? I have ordered myself a small selection of glass beads and ring blanks so I can experiment some more :-). If you have any suggestions or recommendations for polishes I should use then please leave me a comment - I would love to hear from you.

Louise xx
@L_i_P_P

Black and White Filigree nails

Good evening lovelies

This is one of my favourite manicures to date... even if I do say so myself! I love the contrast of white and black together but with the addition of a super bright accent nail it was even lovelier :-).

I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I enjoyed wearing this manicure...

I started with a polish that I want to love but the formula gives me trouble so I tend to shy away from picking this out of my stash too often. Other bloggers rave about the formula of this polish but I always need three coats and for me that is a bad thing :-(. The polish in question is OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls... a very subtle grey white. In all honesty a fab base for this manicure but such a pain that it needs three coats!

My accent nail is two coats of Exposed All Nighter. This polish dries to a matt finish but a top coat of Northern Lights Hologram Gold soon fixed that. I added the black star shaped rhinestones just to finish this nail off.

Using Konad Black I stamped this gorgeous filigree pattern on all nails that had a base of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls (MBSW). I am so into this contrast and although I like to wear bright eye catching colours it did remind me how good black and white work together, and that I should wear it more often.

How do you like this finished look? Do you have polishes that everyone else loves but you struggle to work with? Thanks for reading :-)

Louise 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