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

Stamping Sunday: Origami In The Sky

Hello world! I am playing catch up as usual but am pleased to be sharing this nail art today as I loved it! Kept this on for at least a week. It was on my nail art to do list for some time but came out well (if I do say so) and I liked it even more than I expected to. My favourite nail is the thumb nail in the top right picture with the squid and diplodocus. 

I started with a blue base on all nails accept my ring finger nail, where I used a holographic silver base. I followed the silver with a holographic glitter from Barry M, which is surprisingly good holo given it is a mainstream band and is a polish from a few years ago too. For the origami images I used the advanced stamping technique (you can see how here). I tried making entire nail decals together but did have to cut and pasts some of the images separately as I'd stamped them too far apart.

Simple design but I loved it and I think it works well for spring. What do you think?

Colours used: Can't Find My Czechbook - OPI, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Stamping Polish - Emily de Molly, Harp On It - Color Club, Diamond Glitter - Barry M

Holiday Nails - Origami with Tattoos

Hey everyone! Got some holiday nails to show you today, just before I go off on holiday again! :D Just got to get through those last couple of days of work... These are from my week in Shropshire a few weeks ago with my boyfriend and his family. I took the opportunity to try my temporary hand tattoos from Mo You London, and as they are origami themes I used my Origami 05 stamping plate also from Mo You London.

So I was pretty impressed with how  easy the temporary tattoos were to apply, even those that went round my fingers I could easily hold in place with the cloth while applying. They didn't last very long once on (just a day before there was significant wear and tear) but I think that's to be expected. I liked them so much I ordered more of the same design so I can do this more often :)

For my nails I tried out some of my new polishes from Cirque Colors Desert Bloom collection. I had resisted these when they came out originally but temptation got me in the end! They really are beautiful. They're not quite colour shifting but each one had an essence of another colour that runs through it and shimmers.

For some of the images I stamped them directly onto my nails in black and white, but for an accent nail I made a couple of decals using my Uber Mat, you can see how here. I wanted to soften the bright white background on those nails a bit so once my decals were in place I used a dotting tool to add some spots around the origami dragon and centaur.

Overall I was very happy with these, hope you like them too!
Colours used: Earthen - Cirque Colors, Floral Street - Nails Inc, Taos - Cirque Colors, Fata Morgana - Cirque Colors, Dusky Skies - Cirque Colors, Midnight Mischief - Painted Polish, White Knight - Mo You London

Origami Sea Creatures: Inspired By Paperchase

Hello everyone! This was meant to be a stamping Sunday post, but I got a little carried away yesterday and ran out of time. Feels like a Sunday to me still as we have a bank holiday today in the UK, so I've sort of lost track of the days a little! As usual it is going too fast though!

The manicure I'm showing you today was inspired by a lovely passport cover I saw online, and just had to get when shopping yesterday. Glitter and sea creatures are two great loves of mine, so I couldn't resist! I didn't quite stick to the colour scheme as you can see. I went for Eye Candy by Danglefoot Polish as I hadn't yet tried it. It is wonderfully sparkly!
Fortunately I happen to have an origami sea creature stamping plate from Mo You London (Origami Plate Collection 05) as I'm not sure how I would have attempted this otherwise! The plate has sea creatures, dinosaurs and mythical creatures on, it's basically perfect, all it needs is some cats! I used my Uber Mat to make decals to place on my nail. I used dotting tools to colour in the images which was nice and easy as I was only using one colour for each image. Before placing the images I used Foxy Paws Smooth Operator to give me a nice level surface. After trimming around the images and sticking them down I finished off with my glossy Nails Inc Kensington Caviar top coat to give it some serious shine!
Colours used: Eye Candy - Danglefoot Polish, Smooth Operator - Foxy Paws, Grey - Barry M, St James - Nails Inc, Coconut - Barry M, Seven Dials - Nails Inc, Key Lime - Barry M, Wardour Street - Nails Inc, Papaya - Barry M, Spring Greeg - Barry M, Seymour Walk - Nails Inc, Guava - Barry M

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