Fantasy Fire - the Layered Look

When I first started looking into starting my own blog in March/April this year, one polish that was pictured and reviewed regularly was the much sought after Max Factor Fantasy Fire. I purchased a mini bottle of this colour shifting rainbow shimmer but until now have not used it in any of my manicures. Tonight I was in the mood to create something a little special so I reached for that little bottle of goodness and came up with this...

I realise this manicure doesnt look very special from just the above pictures so I have included more below of how the layers where built up. I would love to be able to capture the real beauty of Fantasy Fire on my camera but it really is one of those polishes that has to be seen to be believed. 

Picture taken inside with LED lamp

Picture taken outside with natural light

For the base colours I used 2 coats of Barry M's Racing Green and Vivid Purple. I then layered one coat of Max Factors Fantasy Fire over the top. As Fantasy Fire is very sheer and would take approx 4 coats for opacity I decided to use it as a top coat instead. It looks stunning over both the green and purple base.

On the green nails I could really see the orange, copper and gold flecks dancing on my nails. On the purple nails the red, orange and purple flecks really came to life. I dont think I would ever get bored of looking at this polish and trying to count exactly how many different colour flecks it contains!

For the stamping I used Konad White and the simple flower outline pattern taken from plate BM 205. I added pink dots for the flower centres using Barry M Shocking Pink and lastly applied one thick coat of NYC Expert Top Coat to give that final glassy shine.

In real life this layered nail art looks amazing and I expect I will spend most of tomorrow staring at its beauty - in between working very hard in the office of course :-).

Louise xx

Off to a Wedding

Morning my lovelies. Today we are off to the wedding of our close friends Natasha and Steve. The weather couldnt be better, the sun is shining, the clouds are few and far between and my lovely sister is a bridesmaid so I cant wait to see her all dressed up :-).

My nails for today are of course inspired by the gorgeous new dress I am wearing. Trust me to fall in love with a dark printed dress when its going to be the hottest day of the year!

 

For the base colour I used Earthy Angel by Color Club. I then stamped using my trusty Konad Black with the print on plate M60.  I didnt like the formula of Earthy Angel so am glad I was stamping over it with quite a bold black pattern as it hides the imperfections!

Close up of my dress

Depending on how well the pictures comes out I may post a nice pic of hubby and I all dressed up so you can see how well the nails and dress match.

Have a lovely weekend all

Louise xx

A Little Bit of an Animal

When I first discovered nail stamping my absolute favourite print was zebra. I used it all the time with lots of different colour combinations and it amazes me that I have yet to debut any animal print on this blog. The more I think about it the more crazy it is!

I decided to start you off slowly with a nice simple zebra accent nail...

Barry M Block Orange



For this look I painted my nails with two coats of Barry M Block Orange and my ring finger with three coats of OPI My Boyfriend Scales Walls. As I sat back and looked at the orange I decided to add some sparkle by layering Barry M Tangerine over the top. Tangerine is a gorgeous orange and gold shimmer that works perfectly for this orange layered creation.

I then used Konad Black to stamp this simple but striking zebra print from Konad plate M57. It really is the easiest pattern to stamp and one that I will get lots of comments about as people cannot help but be drawn to it.

Barry M Tangerine

On the left Tangerine and on the right Block Orange

Over the next few weeks I will go all out and introduce some full on animal manicures but for today I am glad I started small with this zebra accent. I wouldn't want to scare you all away :-).

Louise xx

Teal Appeal

I cannot tell you how much I love green and pink together. It doesnt matter which shades of green or pink I can almost guarantee I will love them together. Tonights nail art is no exception.

I used Barry M Teal as the base colour. In all honesty at first I was not loving this polish. It has a frost finish which can be very unforgiving and can also look quite dated. However the more I looked at this polish the more I thought how pretty and unique this colour is. I certainly dont have anything else in my collection like this.

In real life this colour leans slightly more towards green than these pictures show and has a fantastic shimmery undertone in certain lights. These pictures show two coats for full opactiy.

To stamp the pretty flower design I used Konad White and a design taken from BM 05. The pink flower centres were done with Barry M Shocking Pink and one of my trusty dotting tools.

On my thumb I added a pretty little butterfly just to keep it interesting :-).

I hope you like this combination. You are bound to see more green and pink from me soon.

Louise xx

It's the Final Countdown

Tonight the London 2012 Olympics draws to a close with what promises to be a closing ceremony to remember. I have loved every moment of the Olympics and feel a huge amount of patriotic pride for what our country has achieved by hosting such a successful games. Team GB have been amazing and each and every medal has just increased my interest in the whole event more and more.

This manicure is dedicated to our final medal count. Overall we finished in third place with an incredible tally of 65 medals!



The Final Podium



An amazing 29 Golds, 17 Silvers and 19 Bronzes

Well done Team GB - you have done us proud

Louise xx

Feather Appeal

Good evening lovelies. Are you all enjoying your weekends? I am loving ours so far. The sun has been shining, hubby and I have lovely plans together for the whole weekend and Tom Daly is through to the Diving Finals later tonight - Go Team GB! Unfortunately I wont be able to watch the final live but we will be out with our friends for a meal to celebrate my girlfriend Amandas birthday so its no hardship really :-).

For this design I used Barry M Navy as my base colour and stamped this pretty double feather design using Barry M Gold Foil taken from plate BM 214. I found it hard to line this design up on each nail but in the end I was happy with the results.

I hope you enjoy this mani. I have a bit of a thing for loving how feathers look so I am sure you will see this stamp from me again some time in the future.

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