THEME WEEK - My Favourite Neon

This is one you've seen before - Nfu.Oh 497. And, as before, I have failed utterly at getting a colour-accurate picture. This is such a great neon. It's bright but deep, a proper primary blue Crayola colour with a hint of green. It's awesome.

But Jesus Christ on a bike, is photographing it ever a pain in the arse. I think Nfu.Oh must put some weird plasticisers in their polish that deflect light (it applies a lot like seche vite, it feels more like molten plastic than polish and has a super shiny opaque jelly type finish) because they all go through some kind of insane hall of mirrors transformation in front of a camera. Through my viewfinder, it looks like this amazing bright teal blue. On my focussing screen, it looks like either light azure or royal blue. So I wrestle with the settings, try again...still whacked. Swear a bit, fiddle some more, all to no avail. So, um, try and imagine it like this, but with more of a cyan undertone, brighter, and about thirty times better.

Last time I photoshopped the frack out of it to get it even half way close to the real colour. This time I gave up and tried to trick my camera with my car's paintwork. I mentioned previously that it's very close to my car's colour. While it turns out that my camera also hates my paintwork, it hates it a bit less, so I thought that might be a useful comparison swatch. You can see the green undertone better in my car! So, erm, try to imagine that in the polish. Yes.

THEME WEEK - My Favorite Holo!

Nfu.Oh 066

It's so strange to see photos of my nails this long when I've had shorties for the past year or two... but anyway, here is Nfu.Oh 066. Holy holo!! :D Give me a good linear holo any day... although, admittedly, it's been awhile since I've worn a really good holo like this one. 

THEME WEEK - My favourite Holo!

Nfu.oh 65. Massive pic spam ahead.

Would you believe it? It's another blue! I know, I know. This must come as a terrible shock to you all. I really love this one because a) it's blindingly holographic and b) it's such a beautiful shade, which I actually find quite wearable rather than being too OTT. I'm even wearing this to a colloquium today. What my supervisor thinks remains to be seen, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

It is, unsurprisingly, a bit of a pig to apply. It's kind of granular and it can be tricky to get it to even out. I used my usual base coat, then aqua base, then three coats and then top coat. I personally refuse to go without top coat - they chip quick enough as it is, so I can live with it being slightly less holographic if it lasts longer than two days - but if you're worried about this, I find doing a top coat sandwich works well with Nfu.Ohs. Just put an extra coat of polish over your top coat, and it'll last much longer but still retain the super holo finish. I don't actually think the difference is very noticeable either way, but at least that's an option that makes wearing the more fragile holos a little less of a chore.

But ultimately, who cares when a polish is this pretty?

Nfu-Oh 51: Purpley flakie rainbow goodness

Back when I first started getting into nail polish, I remember reading this nail blog post by Scrangie about Nfu-Oh flakies. I felt this intense yearning -- back then, Nfu-Ohs were not readily accessible. When Scrangie had gotten them, she ordered them from New Zealand!

And then Fabulous Street came about. I <3 Fabulous Street. Decently priced, fast shipping... I remember she had a sale and I snatched up as many Nfu-Ohs I could get. They were all so beautiful...

The one that had the most hype was Nfu-Oh 51 because it had the same sort of magic effect as the even more rare Clarins 230. Purple base and a rainbow color shift.

Fast forward to now... lots of 230s on Ebay, Fabulous Street having steady stock of Nfu-Ohs... nail polish world is a lot more accessible now and it's awesome!



This is the lovely and wonderful Nfu-Oh 51 on its own, 4 coats. Delicious. It may have the same sort of rainbow as Clarins 230 but it's definitely not the same.

Nfu-Oh polishes are available at Fabulous Street for $12.50, free shipping over $25.

What was your first yearning for a polish that was hard to get, because of lack of distribution *looks at Wet 'n Wild*, it being an international polish or just HTF?

Oodles o' purple: Butter London HRH & Nfu.Oh 51

OK, long pic-heavy post - so I'll try and keep it light on the text.

Butter London HRH. Nice standard royal purple, red-toned base. I did two coats but it could probably have done with three since the base is a little jelly-ish. Me being me and compelled to fiddle with things that ought not be fiddled with, I put Nfu.Oh 51 over the top and the result really wasn't pretty:



Urgh. Sooo, that lasted all of twelve hours before I took it off. But I wanted to try 51 over something else because the real draw is the amazing blurple jelly base colour, which was totally lost over HRH. So I swatched it over (L-R) Orly gogo, illamasqua wink, illamasqua force, and OPI dim sum plum. And the result was much prettier:



Orly Gogo is just a total PITA to apply and not worth the 7 coats of polish (4 orly, 3 of the flakies) but 51 looked lovely over any of the other three. Two coats on force and dim sum plum, three on wink. I will definitely give this a full outing soon, because I really like the duochrome pinky colours in the flakies (just not over HRH...dear God not over HRH). Do click to enlarge this one, it's a doozy.



As Borat would say: 'naaaaaaice. Vairry naice.'


Edit - the UK Nfu Oh retail site has now launched. It's at Nfuoh.co.uk. Enjoy!

Illamasqua Boosh and Nfu.Oh 56

Illamasqua Boosh is a pretty standard black creme. I have 'issues' with black cremes. I spent my teenage years sporting Boots No.7 black nail polish (or occasionally 'black cherry' for variety, which was...well black, basically) which I applied on a weekly basis in front of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. So, perhaps unsurprisingly, it's been years since I've been willing to go near black creme. I'm not sure if I'm looking back on my younger days with rose tinted glasses (unlikely, to be frank) but I didn't think the application on Boosh was that great. It was a little sticky and required a bit of work to get it to level. Then again, that's black cremes for you. Man am I glad I don't wear this stuff all the time anymore.


Fortunately, I can't say the same for the lovely green flakies I put over the top, which are much more my to my twenty-something taste. This is the infamous Nfu.oh 56, which is every bit as good as I'd hoped. Bright green flakies with shimmer and a blue duochrome, these really pop layered over a dark colour. I had a hell of a time trying to pick up the duochrome (it drifts between grass, emerald, teal and blue, with the blue showing up best indoors in low light - I am sure those of you who are into lenses will know why this created such problems!) but here's a couple of badly focused macro shots which kind of show it. Click to embiggen.





Yummy, no? The only problem with Nfu.Oh is that I keep wanting to type it 'NFU', which is the national farmers' union. I wrote a couple of my Masters essays on path dependency and regional governance in EU agriculture. I can't see the national famers' union producing nail polish somehow. Anyway...

The Nfu.oh was sent to me for review by Affiniti, the Illamasqua was purchased by my own fair hand. Although technically it came free in the Art of Darkness four polish set, so I'm feeling like a big cheap-o today. No-buy status: 6/35.


Edit - the UK Nfu Oh retail site has now launched. It's at Nfuoh.co.uk. Enjoy!

Nfu.Oh 497: so bright it broke my camera

Usually I try to show my photos as 'normally' as possible - I take off all my fancy pants custom camera settings (it's used more frequently for portraiture and suchlike), leave it on P, take off the colour tweaks, and off I go. This one? 60 shots later, I am still no-where near doing it justice. It's just SO. AWESOME. Seriously. This is straight into my top-ten polishes - I do not want to take it off.


First off, I should say, this polish was sent to me for review by Affiniti, who are Nfu.oh's UK stockist. They are about to open a non-trade sales website, which I am very happy about, having spent 8 months trying to track down the flakies. (You US ladies have it made). After trying this and No.56 (coming soon to a blog near you) and going bananas for them I now have a wishlist as long as my arm, so as soon as I can afford it - on which see below - I will be getting more (GS14, come to mama!). I don't think I would have chosen this colour if it wasn't sent to me, but I'm so glad it was because I adore it.


You see this? This is like, a quarter of how amazing this polish is in the flesh. It's very very bright, yet deep and oceanic. It's creamy, yet squishy and super shiny and vinyl-like without having any VNL. It's super blue, but has a slightly cyan undertone (which is probably overplayed here, because most of the shots made it look like a light turquoise). Most blues look purple on my skin but this is really flattering. It was a whizz to apply in two coats and I just love it to death. I think it's knocked Illamasqua force off my no.1 blue spot. I also have an extra special reason to love it...

It's the same colour as my new car.

I am now on a no-buy. For the rest of my life.

OK, I jest - the ilexicamobile does 60 miles per gallon, so it's not going to bankrupt me, but it seems a good opportunity to spend less money on non-car stuff since the insurance is a bit steep, what with being a newly qualified driver (I passed my test yesterday). I will be thinking up some rules for a shop my stash challenge for the next post, and hopefully the threat of public shame will keep me on the straight and narrow.

Having a car is going to make my life so much easier. I commute 160 miles to university (usually once a week, usually on a train) so being able to make it under my own steam if the weather's horrid or I'm due back late will be heaven. Hoo-rah!

Edit - the UK Nfu Oh retail site has now launched. It's at Nfuoh.co.uk. Enjoy!

Purple Jelly Comparison

Hi guys!  I have a small comparison for you today.  A reader asked how these two polishes compare when I posted my swatch picture of Deborah Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible so I figured I do a formal comparison.  I don't have a bottle comparison picture since the Milani is in an opaque bottle.  First up, I'll repost the swatch pictures of each.

I think this is four coats of Milani Rad Purple.

And here's a picture of four coats of Deborah Lippmann Call Me Irresponsible.

Now on to the comparison.  I've got Call Me Irresponsible on my index and ring nails.   Rad Purple is on my middle and pinkie finger nails.  I used four coats of each and this picture was taken in the sun.

This picture was taken inside by a window.  This one is the most color accurate of all my photos.  I think it's funny how the Deborah Lippmann comes closer to the Milani bottle than the Milani does.

And this picture was taken with the flash.  It's not very color accurate, but that's how it sometimes goes with purples.

Rad Purple is brighter and redder than Call Me Irresponsible (which is bluer). Rad Purple also dries to a satin finish so I put top coat on it. Call Me Irresponsible dries shiny.  Formula-wise, the Milani behaved better for me.  I had a heck of a time trying to get the Deborah Lippmann even, but the Milani wasn't so bad.  They are both jelly finishes.

It seemed like such a shame to just wipe these off after taking pictures so I tried out some layering.  I pulled out Pure Ice Heart Breaker and Nfu-Oh #51 and added on coat of Heart Breaker to my index and middle nails.  Then I put one coat of the Nfu-Oh on my ring and pinkie fingers.  Gah!  This was so gorgeous.  I'll have to do a full manicure of Call Me Irresponsible with the Nfu-Oh on top very soon.

I hope you enjoyed!

An Nfu-Oh Flakie Extravaganza!

I love flakies.  They are so unique and never fail to get lots of comments.  The last time I wore a basic flakie polish over black, the cashier at REI totally couldn't believe I did my nails myself.  She asked where I got them done and when I told her I did it myself she was really surprised.

The Nfu-Oh flakies I have fall into two categories.  There are what I call pure flakies.  That is, they don't have any shimmer in them and the flakes are usually suspended in either clear or a very sheer jelly.  Then there are shimmery flakies, which are pure flakies, but with added shimmer.

The thing with pure flakies is that they aren't very interesting on their own.  In order for the flakes to really stand out, it's better to layer them over another polish.  So in my swatches, I've layered my flakies over several different polishes so you could see how they look.

First up is #40.  This is pretty much clear on the nail.  You can't see how cool this one is until it's layered over something darker.  I've layered it over OPI Alpine Snow Matte, Orly Country Club Khaki, Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme, and OPI Sapphire in the Snow.  I used two coats of the flakie here and I snapped this photo under my Ott Lite.

I also got pictures with no direct light source.  I think flakie polishes look best when they are in the shade.  I feel it makes the flakes pop out even more.

Here's #44 over the same four polishes as above.  I used two coats of #44 for these swatches.  I really love this one over black.  It reminds me of autumn leaves.

The shade really makes these flakes stand out.

Here's #50, which looks very similar to #40 on the nail.  The flakes in this one are a little larger than the flakes in #40.  Honestly, if you're going to order some flakies, I wouldn't order both #50 and #40 since they do look very similar.  I used two coats here.

And the shady picture.

The last pure flakie polish I have for you is #59, which has a slightly more pigmented base.  However, it's still pretty sheer and unless you layer it, you're going to have a very hard time getting rid of visible nail line.  I've layered three coats over the white and khaki polishes and two coats over the black as well as OPI Got the Blues For Red.

Here's the shady picture.  I chose to layer #59 over a red instead of Sapphire in the Snow.  I think this one looks really neat over the khaki polish.

That's all I have for pure flakies.  Let's move on to my shimmery flakies.  First up is #51.  I once wore this one alone and didn't like it.  It's way too sheer to wear alone if you don't want visible nail line.  Even after four thick coats, this one still shows visible nail line.  Again, layering this is a must in my opinion.  I used three coats over the white and khaki polishes and then I used two coats over the black and purple polishes.

Here's the shady picture.  This polish is truly a rainbow in a bottle.

Here's #52.  It's blue in the bottle, but sometimes it's blurple, sometimes it's blue, and sometimes it's green.  Very unique!  I layered three coats over the white and khaki polishes and then I layered two coats over the black and then Ulta Moody Blues.

Here's the shady picture.

Here's #56, a green.  I think this one is perfect for St. Patrick's Day.  I layered three coats over the white and khaki and then I layered two coats over the black and CND Green Scene.

The shady picture:

Since I think these look coolest over the black, I did a swatch with just a black base.  I layered just one coat of each of the flakies over one coat of Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme.  This is #51, #52, and #56 from left to right.

And in the shade.  I'd also like to point out that I like Wet 'n' Wild Black Creme so much that I decanted it into the bottle that my OPI Black Onyx came in.

And because this post isn't already picture-heavy, I thought I'd add in one last photo of the above polishes.  This is #56, #52, and #51 from left to right.

I hope you enjoyed my Nfu-Oh Flakie Extravaganza!