NFUOh 073

NFUOh not only does really cool flakies, but they actually do some really nice other finishes too.

I picked out these three shades to try NFUOh 073 over:
Top to bottom: Essie Marshmallow, OPI Curry Up Don't Be Late and I have a feeling it's China Glaze Platinum Silver.

At first I just tried one coat (obviously) to see how much effect 073 had on the polishes. The frost and pearl finishes didn't let you see much of 073, I think a creme, sheer or jelly is more friendly for this kind of thing.

Here we go on to two coats! 073 over Essie Marshmallow and naked nail were turning out to be my favourites. Although I really loved 073 by itself, I would probably never wear it that way.

The formula of 073 is great, smooth and thin. The only iffy NFUOh formulas I have experienced have been from the more sheer, french colours.

Please enlarge the photos to see the detail! It really is a pretty polish, looks great in all lighting situations too.

Now I don't really know where to buy these in New Zealand but there is a site called FabulouStreet.com that ships internationally. USA residents can even get free shipping.

OPI Dating a Royal

Today I have OPI's Dating a Royal to show you! Dating a Royal was first released in the Mod About Brights collection 2008. I think the only other colour I have ever tried from that collection was The 'It' Color and I remember it being horrid on me. Maybe that's where my dislike for yellows began...

Dating a Royal is a mid-blue jelly. It's not as sheer as half the OPIs from the Texas collection but it is still a really nice polish to layer things with, franken or just wear on it's own. Dating a Royal is incredibly glossy, as with most jelly polishes.

 The formula is ok. Not bad, not amazing. I find jellies to be quite watery and tend to not be as easy to control. Dating's formula is along those lines but like I said, it's not as sheer or watery as the Texas collection so you can have that bit more of control.

The Mod About Brights collection was added to the main line OPIs so it's not hard to find at all.

Mode Rock Me Sweet

Mode is one of the cheapest polishes around in New Zealand. They used to be only $2.50 each but now they are up to $4.50 or $4.99 each. They can be found in most chemists in a big plastic bowl.

I've bought a few of their polishes before and the quality is actually really good. The only thing is their range can be limiting. You've got all your standard colours but they do have some real stunners and they occasionally bring out newer shades.

Rock Me Sweet is relatively new. I'm thinking it must be for the holidays but they never have a special display, they just chuck them in the bowl with all the others. However I did notice there was four new glittery shades, much like Rock Me Sweet but in red, silver and black. I wasn't really wowed by the others so I just got Rock Me Sweet.

To be honest, I am still a little sad that I never picked up China Glaze Mummy May I and was hoping this polish would get rid of that lemming... No such luck. Rock Me Sweet is mostly that pinky-purple glitter in a sheer purple base but it has some sparse silver glitter in there too.

The formula of this polish is great! Really easy to paint on. I did quickly test it over a mani to see how sheer it was and I could almost see right through it. So I decided to wear it over Color Club Ready to Royal.

The wear was more than I was expecting. I went to my Nana's house for some intense sewing over three days, not a single chip! It looked just as pretty as the day I painted it on.

I highly recommend trying out these Mode polishes if you haven't already!

Color Club Red Velvet

Today I want to show you my favourite polish at the moment, Color Club's Red Velvet. Red Velvet is from the Untamed Luxury collection released last year. There were a couple of stunners in that collection, Covered in Diamonds being one of them.

Spring and Summer are one of my favourite times of year to wear vampies, really dark shades. Quite often they have a beautiful subtle shimmer that really stands out with brighter light. Red Velvet is so pretty out in the sunlight. It is a bit more hidden in doors but it's probably one of those polishes that only you know that it's there. Like wearing special undies.

Look at that glow! Red Velvet went straight up to my all time favourites list the first time I wore it. There are a couple of duplicate shades out there, the only one I know off the top of my head is China Glaze Lubu Heels.

A long time ago I remember reading people being disappointed with how much red glitter was actually showing up in Lubu Heels and a few people were recommending to add one layer of China Glaze Ruby Pumps over the top. 

I tried this out over Red Velvet and while it was pretty, I still loved that black base with subtle red shimmer poking through. So you may like one variety of wearing this shade more than the other.

 

If you are a New Zealander and are interested in buying this polish, I have seen a few around in pharmacies and chemists for around $15. You can buy the one half of the Untamed Luxury collection that Red Velvet is in, online for $39.00, which works out to be around $5.60 a polish. Click here for the link.

Nail Art: The Joys of Thinner

It only just dawned on me why I haven't been doing as much nail art these days, it's because all of my glittery polishes are so thick! Luckily mum had a bottle of thinner on hand.

I was reunited with an old flame, Sinful Nail Junkie. To think that I even considered getting rid of it because I used it no longer makes me want to, 
(ﾉಥ益ಥ）ﾉ︵ ┻━┻

For this manicure I used Color Club Ready to Royal as the deep purple base, a small and short layer of NFUOh 050 followed by a sparse coat of Sinful Nail Junkie, topped with another thin coat of NFUOh 050.

Just a little bit more on Sinful Nail Junkie, here is a different look I did with it for the new year of 2010:

And here is a franken with it in it as well as Sinful UFO (orange version of NJ):

I hope you have a great week!

OPI Who The Shrek Are You?

Summer is just around the corner so I thought I'd revisit one of my old favourites, OPI's Who The Shrek Are You. New Zealand never got this collection in, so your best bet is to buy online. It should retail for around $14-$16NZD.

The formula in this polish is really weird. Do you remember OPI's first set of Mattes? Like if you didn't paint it on evenly it'd crack up (kind of like crackles) and shrink in places? Shrekkie tends to do that on the first coat. I even had a perfect circle appear in this manicure! Coat two and three tend to not do that though and fix it all up.

I haven't work Shrek in awhile, when I first bought it I think I wore it for two weeks straight! I think I need to get more accessories or clothes (shoes maybe?!) in this shade.

Nail Art: The Importance of Grid

I'm slowly getting back into nail art. It's sort of like a bug, you get it in bursts. Anyway, about the title. At university we've been working on a brief for creating our own wallpaper and we've all been learning about how important a grid is in setting up a recurring pattern.

I'm not sure if you remember this dress from another post or not, but it's what I wanted to wear for my final presentation along with some pretty nails.

I wanted to mimic the pattern and colour from the dress so I quickly painted up a few ideas I had. The colours used here are OPI Roadhouse Blues (navy), OPI Skull and Glossbones (grey) and China Glaze Dress to Kill (red, love that name btw).

I really loved how graphic the first nail looked with the navy flowers on the grey base. The second nail I also loved, the third was ok but wasn't as strong or bold as the first two. The last nail was pretty blah. I decided to go with both the first and second nails!

Here is where the grid comes in! Keep in mind that I did do my left hand first and didn't use a grid. Total mess. I do recommend getting some practice in before going straight into this lol. I really liked how the design looked at this stage. I may just have to have this as a mani on it's own one day.

Now Roadhouse Blues gets covered in Skull and Glossbones. I was a bit iffy about this because the grey looks quite a bit softer over the navy. I'll have to make that bit work better I think.

All finished! I think this was before I put top coat on. Because after I did it sort of smudged bits of the navy out and streaked. It wasn't major or overly obvious, but I knew it was there! >:( I used Essie 3-way Glaze for the top coat. Usually it serves me well, but not today...

An "in the shade" pic just for good measure. 


To do all of this I just used the flat end of a dressmakers pin. I desperately searched my apartment for a dotting tool and only found toothpicks. I've had bad experiences when using toothpicks for nail art and I found a rogue pin in my couch so I decided to use that.

Here is also a picture of my cat.

Glitter Gal is Growing! (literally)

Hey guys I just got an exciting email from Glitter Gal!

The bottles are growing up to 15ml in size and they want you to name them! All the winners will receive the collection of 15ml holographic and/or sparkles nail polishes!

This link is also uploaded on Glitter Gal Australia facebook and twitter site.

Here is a video from the wonderful laides at Glitter Gal explaining it all:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aO7bFqGyJo

China Glaze Ick-a-Bod-y

Mum had bought me this one a little while ago, I've always been too scared to wear it. Glitter usually tends to freak me out but it always looks so pretty. Last night I decided it was time to break out Ick-a-bod-y!

This is two coats of Ick over OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys (the chocolate creme from Texas). I knew Ick had a dark green base to it but I wanted it to be a little softer looking. I was also really inspired to break out my little rhinestones. These are Nfu-Oh ones! I have had these sitting in my nail draw for several years now. They're really pretty too.

Sometimes my camera likes to surprise me with awesome macro shots like this.

Featured on sofeminine.co.uk!

I received a lovely email today from sofeminine.co.uk saying that they thought Nail Juice was one of the best for nail art. I was and still am having an absolute crapper of a week, so it was really nice to see it.

Here is sofeminine.co.uk's list of best nail art blogs! I'm not keen on the whole 'who's the best' thing but it will be a great chance to check out some other blogs who are into nail art!

I don't post as much nail art as I used to. I should really get into it again. Alright, my nails are going to be fully blinged out for tomorrow! Here are a few of my favourites from over the years:

I hope you have a really nice day today :)