Dino Mountain Nights

Hey space turtles! I've had Mo You London's Jurassic Park 04 stamping plate sitting around for a while now and somehow haven't used it yet. Now is finally the time and I'm pleased to finally be creating dinosaur landscape nail art!

I started with a base of blue and then added the silver stars from Mo You London's Sci Fi 10 stamping plate. I then chose the base layer mountain image for each nail and added them in white to create a background for the purple polishes and stop them blending into the blue. I then added a later of light purple over the top, and a final mountain image on each nail in dark purple. I finally added a dinosaur in black to each nail and finished with a glossy topcoat. I'm enjoying the colour scheme of these, the landscape effect and the fact that there's a dino on each nail - so a winner all round!

Colours used: Aruba Blue - Essie, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, White Stamping Polish - Purple - Mark, Dark Purple - Mark, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend

Pastel Dino's for Sammy of My Nail Envy

Hey everyone! Got some nail art to share today :) This one is for a birthday collaboration on Instagram for Sammy at My Nail Envy. The theme was animals, and though dinosaurs possibly stretch that theme a little I wanted to do a pastel dino look as she once created another pastel dino look of mine! It was good to use the Jurassic Park plates again and this gorgeous mint Starilly Polish (Mint To Be).

So I started with a lovely sparkly mint green base - a good start in my opinion! I then used the Jurassic Park 02 stamping plate from Mo You London to create a few dinosaur decals on my Uber Mat (see now here). I also added a few layers of leaves from the same plate on my thumb and ring finger nails. I started with just gold and silver but it was a bit too pale so I added some black leaves for more contrast. I finished with a shiny top coat to seal it all in.

In conclusion I'm pretty pleased with these, they're cute and fun. Can't go wrong with dino nails! I hope Sammy likes it :)

Colours used: Mint To Be - Starilly, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Foil Effect in Silver - Barry M, Hatch - Cirque Colors, Blueberry - Barry M

Abstract origami dinosaurs

Rawwr! Origami dinosaur nails to share with you today, which is something I've not done in quite some time! I got the awesome Origami 05 stamping plate from Mo You London years ago and it has the perfect combination of origami creatures: sea creatures, dinosaurs, a unicorn and a dragon! Recently I saw r4ch3lcakes on Instagram created an awesome design using the sea creature images, and I commented on how much I loved the design and the stamping plate. She suggested we do a twin mani with the dinosaur images so here we are :D. We agreed we'd use a white base, Hygge from Cirque Colors and another shade of purple of our choice for the colours splashes.

So I started with a base of white, then added splashes of light blue then purple with the brushes from the polish bottles. Once dry I used black stamping polish to add the dinosaurs. The one on my little finger is a bit wonky but I suppose that is true to how origami can look - certainly when I do it anyway! I then used a bit of clear nail polish to add some gold leaf from a craft shop, which I think really adds a little something extra. I made sure to add it where the flames would be for the dragon!

In conclusion I'm really pleased with it, I think it's a fun twist on the abstract look and can't wait to see what Rachel created too!! (We will be sharing them on Instagram shortly)

Colours used: Floral Street - Nails Inc, Hygge - Cirque Colors, Concord - Cirque Colors, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Gold Leaf - Craft Store

Ultra Violet Pantone Dinosaur Nails

Hi all! I'm back so soon as I have more collaboration nail art to share and it's all been posted to Instagram at once! This is my entry for this months Nail Addicts Collab. The theme was 'turn back the clock', specifically focusing on the Pantone colour of the year colours over the years. We could choose which one we wanted to do, and just add black and white for nail art. I chose 2018's ultra violet, as we did a nail art theme on this back in 2018 and I fancied trying it again with a different look this time. I decided to try out one of my new dinosaur themed stamping plates from Mo You London (Jurassic Park 02) for this look. 

I started with a base of white on my middle finger and thumb nails, and violet on the other two. I then used white stamping polish to add the leaves to the purple nails, and the purple polish to add dinosaurs on my thumb and middle fingernails. The purple stamped pretty well which I was pleased with as it's not a stamping polish, but I did mess up a bit on my thumb nail. On my ring fingernail I used black stamping polish to add the geometric pattern. Shockingly I have never actually seen the Jurassic Park films (I just happen to like dinosaurs!) so I'm not sure if this pattern from the plate really relates to them or is just for fun!

Overall I like these, the colour scheme is good and I do love a dinosaur theme! Messed the thumb up a bit but it doesn't look too bad. I'm glad this collab theme made my try out the dinosaur images in purple as I might not have done otherwise.

Colours used: Wigmore Street - Nails Inc, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, White Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection

Rocking Around the Christmas Tree (Rex)

Rawwwwr hello! Hope you're all doing OK. things aren't great here in the UK at the moment as I'm sure you will know. I'm distracting myself with nail polish as usual! (and soon Christmas presents!). When I saw the images on Mo You London's new Noel 10 plate I just had to have it, and I knew right away I would be trying out this Christmas dinosaur look this year! Today's Glam Nails Challenge prompt is Christmas Tree, so I thought I'd use this as my moment to try the tree-rex look!

I started with a base of green on my ring fingernail and ILNP's Christmas Cookie on my other nails, it's such a perfect base for Christmas nail art! I stamped the lettering in gold directly onto the green nail, I had to try a few times as I always struggle to get lettering to come out nicely with stamping plates. For the other nails I used my Uber Mat to create some dino decals, you can see how here. I pretty much followed the same pattern as the example on the MYL website as it goes well together, and added some lights on the thumb from the same stamping plate.

I'm so happy with how these came out! I am intending to change my nail art again on Christmas Eve as I always do, but it will be a challenge to let go of this one, Maybe I shall have to keep it! I've had a few successful 'can't take them off' Christmas nail looks this year!

Colours used: Spring Green - Barry M, Christmas Cookie - ILNP, Black Stamping Polish - Dance Legend, Foil Effect in Gold - Barry M, Madder - Cirque Colors, Misery - ILNP, Aria - ILNP, Yellow - Barry M

Stamping Sunday: Dino Party Nails!

Hi everyone, or should I say roar? I have a feeling I have done a dino party named blog post before but I think it sums up this look so I'm going to stick with it! This month I am taking the time to focus on designs I've wanted to do for a while, and not doing as many challenges, and this look is one that has been on my list for a while so I was pleased to finally do it! It was nice to use this base colour again, it's one of the earlier indies I bought and I have only one other polish that's even remotely like it. It's definitely got party vibes! I don't usually go for these type of polishes (I think they're called crellies?) but I do really like this one.

I started with a base of the aforementioned party polish! For the other nails I created decals using my Uber Mat, you can see how here. For the individual dinosaur images I used a plate which I think I got on ebay, called BM-611. I'm not sure which brand it's from but possibly it's an old Bundle Monster one. For the multi-dino images on my middle finger nails I used the Animal 04 plate from Mo You London. Colouring this in was a tad fiddly but it came together more easily than I expected! I think the pastel colours worked well too. Can't see the base colour much at all though but never mind, I should have thought that through and just used white, but I kind of like how you can see the teeniest bit peeking through! I finished the look with a matte top coat.

So overall I really like these, I think they're cute and fun, and wore them till they chipped (I had a peel off base coat underneath) and would definitely wear it this look again :)
Colours used: I refuse to be invisible - Ellagee, Black Stamping Polish - Rainbow Connection, Peach Melba - Barry M, Berry Ice Cream - Barry M, Mint Green - Barry M, Notting Hill Carnival - Nails Inc

Christmas Day Nails 2017 (ft Dinosaurs!)

It's Chriiistmaaasss! Hope everyone is having a lovely day :) Today has gone really fast for me but that's to be expected. I regret forgetting to bring my colouring book to my parents house as that would have been the perfect chilled end to the day. Christmas is one of those rare occasions when there's time to do it. So on to the nails, unfortunately I was in a rush to leave and didn't have time to get pictures of these in my lightbox, or with the fancy camera, so I took them with my new phone leaning over the bath! Therefore not so happy with the picture quality, but I do rather like the nails.

I like to have classicly Christmassy colours for my Christmas day mani, usually including red, and think these fitted that. The gem wreaths are a little wobbly, but kind of work! On my little finger I used my Mo You London Festive 45 stamping plate for the Merry Christmas wording. I used the same plate for the stocking on my index finger, for which I made decals on my Uber Mat, you can see how here.

On my ring finger I used Fired Up, one of the new colours from ILNP, I really like it so look forward to using it again and getting some proper pictures! I used a holly image from the Festive 06 plate, and placed gems over the berries. I really like how those ones turned out, a little more sophisticated than the rest of my nails! Last but not least the dino's! I layered up green metallic polish behind the glitter to make them stand out a bit more, and added my own little Christmas hats to the decals using a black nail art pen. I'm glad I managed to feature dinosaurs in my Christmas nails!

I have a little bit of a back log of Christmas nails, but wanted to share the Christmas nails on Christmas Day, so hopefully there will be more tomorrow. Merry Christmas!
Colours used: Madder - Cirque Colors, Fired Up - ILNP, Primadonna - Danglefoot Polish, Midnight Mishcheif - Painted Polish, Secret - Fun Lacquer, Emerald Green - Barry M, Alpine Snow - OPI, Bright Lights - Barry M, Rain On Me - Barry M, Nail Art Pen in Black - Barry M

Claws on claws

Hi everyone! I'm writing to you very sleepy in Scotland after a long walk looking for beavers! I'm on holiday this week. I made another (yes another!) purchase from Rainbow Connection a few weeks back and decided to try Tonic Polish. I bought two different purples, this bright metallic one with a hint of sparkle is called toxic.

I quickly got a little restless not having any nail art, so came up with the simple idea of adding some claws on my claws! They are based on my little microwaveable cuddly dinosaur, Cedric. I've included a picture of him below the nail art.

I used a small nail art brush to outline the green, and then filled them in using the brush in the nail polish bottle, and the nail art brush. I then used the nail art brush to add the little black claws, they were a nice easy shape to paint. I'm not sure the pictures quite capture the shade of purple but at least you get the shinyness!
Colours used: Toxic - Tonic Polish, Key Lime - Barry M, Lady In Black - OPI

HBP Presents: Dusty Dino's!

Hello nail world! Today I'm super excited to be sharing the nail design I did as part of this months Hobby Polish Bloggers Link Up. I love having a monthly theme as it gives me inspiration to try things a little differently. This months theme was dusty/muted colours, so I came up with the idea of dusty dinosaur's! I used advanced stamping for this manicure using my new Bundle Monster plate 611. I was looking all around to find dinosaur stamping plates and stumbled across my dream dino plate on Bundle Monster, so ordered it all the way from the US. It was worth the wait!

I used a grey polish to stamp the images onto my UberMat, as I thought black or white might be slightly too harsh against the muted colours. This old Grey polish from Barry M was perfect. I used a dotting tool to do eyes on some of the dino's, and then to colour them in in pale/dusty colours. Once I has placed them on my nails I used a matter top coat to finish the look. Really pleased with how these turned out, and was so sad when I had to take them off for a client meeting! I did have a few issues with a little bit of bubbling, which I have learnt from, as I'm rocking another advanced stamping mani now and it's much smoother :)
Below are close ups of a couple of the dino's and a picture of the stamping plate (excuse the reflectiveness, I struggle to get good pictures of stamping plates!). To see the colours I used, and the designs the lovely ladies of the HPB group have done please scroll past the pictures. It's a lovely and talented nail community so I would recommend you check them out!
Colours used: Pink Lemonade - Barry M, Grey - Barry M, Acai Smoothie - Barry M, Wisteria Haze - CND Vinylux, White Horse Street - Nails Inc, Swan Street - Nails Inc, Pro Matte Finish - Rimmel

An InLinkz Link-up

Stamping Sunday: Sparkly Holographic Dinosaur Awesomeness!

Today's stamping sunday post is continuing the theme of wearing bold/ bright things to try and brighten up January a bit. I now have a bit of a hankering for black nail polish though, so we'll see how long it lasts! As you may know, I love dinosaurs and also sea creatures, so when I discovered Mo You's Origami Plate Collection 05 I was delighted! It features four origami dino's, nine sea creatures, a dragon, three birds and a unicorn. <Insert excitable emoji here>

The base colour I used for this Design was Haloki by Bear Pawlish, which was a Christmas present from my lovely aunt, Uncle and cousins so I was keen to give it a try. The colour is beautiful and metallic in normal light (super shiny!) and holographic in bright light. I would probably recommend three coats with this one, but two thick ones seems to have worked on some of my nails. In the bottom left picture below you can see it in normal light, and in the other three you can see the holo working it's magic. With my Nail's Inc Kensington Caviar topcoat as well these nails were pretty blinding in any light!

The origami outlines were stamped onto my Uber Mat in black, and then filled in using a dotting tool and a variety of glitters. I found colouring in with glitter was easier than normal polish, not sure why. Once this was dry I put another clear layer of nail polish over the top, waited for it to dry and then peeled of to apply to my nails. I find the smaller images are easier to place. For my left over finger nail I just used a blob of silver holo glitter, to look like one of the dinosaur's had laid a huge sparkly egg!


Below i've included a couple of close ups of the dragons on my thumb nails. as you can see on the right the nail polish is paler, this is because I only did two coats on this nail. Not too obvious in normal light but under the bright lights for picture it showed up a bit more. I look forward to trying more of the origami designs, they're very cute and easy to work with.


Colours Used: Haloki - Bear Pawlish, Black knight - Mo you, Aqua glitter - Barry M, Fashion Icon - Barry M, Diamond - Barry M, Emerald City - Models Own, Chelsea Square - Nails Inc