Freehand Roses and Pastel Polka Dots

Good evening lovelies

How has your weekend been? Lovely, I hope!

We had a lovely lunch out on Saturday and then spent the afternoon visiting family. We then celebrated with my Dad as he finally told us about his new business venture two years after he started planning and creating! Good Luck :-).

I have seen lots of beautiful pictures of freehand roses all over the blogosphere so decided I would try this pretty little look for myself...

I love these mini MUA polishes. The bottles have been completely redesigned and now look like miniature Essie's! At only £1 each you can afford to buy the whole collection :-). For my base colours I used Lush Lilac which actually dried quite pink and Pistachio Ice Cream (mint green).

I added nice simple white polka dots to each of the Lush Lilac nails using a large dotting tool.

On the Pistachio Ice Cream nails I firstly added a large blob of Strawberry Crush (bottle in the below picture). I didn't worry about being too neat for this step as I didn't want each rose to be perfectly round.

Then using a small amount of Fever Red on a the thin end of a dotting tool I started to add some definition to each rose in a similar way as I would for creating a leopard print design. Again I wasn't too neat but really must master how to use small nail art brushes rather than dotting tools for a sharper finish.

Lastly I added a few highlight lines using Lush Lilac and some small green leaves using Barry M Bright Green (bottle not shown).

These remind me of a real Cath Kidston look :-). I was really pleased with how they turned out and will certainly try free hand roses again in a different colour combination.

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

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

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