Hi everyone! First of all, I want to say a BIG thank you to all of my lovely readers - last weekend my blog hit an amazing 20,000 views, which I am super excited about. So thanks to everyone who has visited Little Tip Off over the past 8 months, you are absolute angels. I hope you continue to enjoy taking a peek at my nail art endeavours - I plan to keep on blogging for a very long time! Anyway, gushiness aside, today's manicure is my first attempt at something 'wintery'. I am a bit grinchy (it's my new favourite word) when it comes to Christmas. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore the giving and receiving of gifts, the visiting family and friends and, of course, the food and drink. But in terms of putting up a tree, wrapping presents and donning a reindeer jumper, I try not to think about it until the 1st December strikes. Thus, I have vowed to avoid overtly Christmassy nail art until next week at least! However, I can't see anything wrong with being slightly seasonal now the big day approaches, so when a desire for a floral mani struck, I decided to inject a bit of festivity into it and create a sparkly winter bouquet design.

Sinful Colors 'Snow Me White'

Sinful Colors 'Pistache'

OPI 'In The Cable Car-Pool Lane'

OPI 'Chic From Ears To Tail'

OPI 'Innie Minnie Mightie Bow'

OPI 'Stand In Lime For Days'

 Barry M 'Shocking Pink'

W7 'Purple'

No. 7 'Totally Teal'

No. 7 'Hot To Trot'

No. 7 'Gold Glitter Top Coat'

Models Own black nail art pen

Models Own white nail art pen

Essie 'Good To Go'

Medium nail art paintbrush

Small nail art paintbrush

I used 'Snow Me White' as a base, as I wanted there to be a high contrast with the flower design. Once dry, I began to add the base block colours using a medium sized paintbrush. I added large petal shapes in 'Chic From Ears To Tail', and the bases for roses in the same shade of pink, along with 'Purple'. I then used 'Pistache' and 'Stand In Lime For Days', which are pastel and lime green respectively, to add the bases for leaves. 

When I was happy with the base design, I started to add details with my tiny paintbrush. For the large pink petals, I used 'Innie Minnie Mightie Bow', which is a rich red shade. On the pink roses, I added details using Barry M 'Shocking Pink', and then turned to OPI again for the details on the purple roses. No. 7 'Totally Teal' was used for the leaf details, and when this was all complete, I decided to add some little berries into the gaps.

My Models Own nail art pens helped to achieve even more detail and contrast. I built up the shapes of the flowers in both black and white, and also used white to highlight the berries. Finally, I used 'Hot To Trot' and 'Gold Glitter Top Coat' in the areas that looked a little bit bare. The addition of gold sparkles really added to this design, and transformed it from a standard floral design into a wintery bouquet. What do you think? Let me know!