Fun Friday Mani: Purple and Teal Hearts

Good evening my loves

It's time for a super fun Friday mani. I cannot get enough of these two colours together and who doesn't love a bow accent nail? I have so much planned for the next three days and I cannot wait, girly lunches, sister sleepovers, vampire diaries marathon catch up sessions, girly day out on Sunday and brunch on Monday. In between I need to find time to change my nails as often as possible ;-)

Spots and a Bow: Galahad and Bright Purple

Happy Good Friday loves

Have you all had a wonderful day? Mine was a little different to the way I had it planned out... In a nutshell I went for a dog walk this morning with my friend Debbie and then when we tried to get back into the house once we were done I realised I had lost my keys! Neither of us had our phones with us so after much searching and then banging on neighbours doors to borrow a phone my little sister arrived like a knight in shining armour and somehow found my keys in the middle of the field that we had already searched three times!

Phew! Time for my nails of the day...

Gradient Nails with Chalk Dust topper

Good evening lovelies

Here we are again, more than half of the working week already done :-). I am not away with work this week and have purposely kept my diary as clear as I can so I actually get some evenings at home. Last night I started working on some nail polish rings so I look forward to spending a few more hours completing them tonight. I also finally got around to using my lovely new indie inspired black and white glitter topper for my nail of the day...

I started with a base of Lavendar Cloud by Sally Hansen. Lavendar Cloud is a white polish with the subtlest hint of lilac mixed in. In all honesty there was not quite enough hint of lilac for my liking and this polish dried to a bright white finish. The formula was good as I have come to expect from the Sally Hansen Salon Manicure range.

Sally Hansen - Lavender Cloud

Using a small piece of make up sponge I gently  sponged Barry M Bright Purple onto the tips of each nail. I didnt worry too much about blending as I knew I was going to add this lovely glitter topper as a finishing touch.

Chalk Dust is the best glitter topper I have used in ages! I love how simple it is yet how effective it will look over every colour. I only had to apply one coat to get this look so you can see how chock full of glitter this clear polish base actually is.

Chalk Dust contains black and white hexagonal glitter varying in size from very large to very small - it really is that simple!

Chalk Dust - macro shot

How do you like this look? Are you a fan of black and white glitters? I cannot wait to try this again and I am defintitely going to break out my matte top coat next time.

Lou xx
@L_i_P_P

Blue and Purple Mix Up

Good evening lovelies. TGI Friday!!!

I have been looking forward to this weekend all week. We dont have anything special planned but I just wasnt ready to be back at work full time - it has been a hard week and I'm in the mood for some down time.

Tonight I am at my sister's for tea. There will be 6 of us girlies and 4 dogs so I am sure chaos will follow :-).  Other than that I am going to make the most of each day and enjoy every second. I do have a special post planned along with a polish buddy of mine so look out for my first 'twin' post on Sunday.

Here are my nails of the day...

For this party skittlette mani I started by painting alternate nails with Barry M Bright Purple and Color Club Total Mystery. Total Mystery is a vibrant blue with lots of pretty shimmer to add depth.

Before the stamping

I then stamped using Barry M Silver Foil and the fishnet style design found on Cheeky plate CH 11.

Lastly I added some sparkle by adding one layer to my index and little fingers of W7 Moonlight. I adore this glitter and the amazing coverage you get with just one coat! I have included a picture below with the forced flash on my camera so you can see how reflective the sparkle is.

With flash

I hope you all have fantastic weekends - it is apparently going to snow in the UK on Sunday so I plan on making the most of any good weather on Saturday in case the country grinds to a halt at the first sign of snow again!

Take care Louise xx

Dotty About Spots

Time for something a little different. For this mani there is no stamping, no Gold or Silver Foil and no sparkly gems. I used a gorgeous blurple (yes that really is a colour in the nail world - meaning bluey purple) from Barry M called Indigo. One of my girlfriends was sporting this particular shade at a recent Hen Do so I just knew it was time to give it a go myself.

It really is a lovely colour and much more flattering than I thought it might be.

I decided to add some simple polka dots using my dotting tool and two contrasting shades from Barry M - Bright Red and Bright Purple. It is hard to see on the pictures as my new NYC top coat has made my nails look like super shiny glass but I also added some Red and Magenta Glitter spots for a little bit of contrast.

In order to make these dots really stand out against the Indigo base I first of all created them using Barry M Matt White as you can see below. I allowed the White to dry and then dotted over the top with Bright Red and Bright Purple.

Pretty little bottle shot

Are you dotty about spots? Such a simple but effective idea and as the colour combinations are endless this is a design I can come back to again and again.

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