Nfu Oh 570

(3 coats)

This is a streaky mother. I wish it applied like 119. But I like the color very much. It's quite a bit greener on the nail than in the bottle.

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Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! over Dior Nirvana

Nicole ...Spotted! (one of the dumber polish names, imo) is multicolored (blue, gold) and multisized glitter (some hex, some micro) suspended in a turquoise jelly. The polish alone is pretty sheer so I layered it over Dior Nirvana, whose color is pretty much a perfect match for the Nicole jelly. It was less sparkly than I expected it to be, leading me to suspect that it might actually be a better layering polish over a contrasting color. Still, it was a nice way to extend my Nirvana manicure for another day before I got bored of it. :)

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Missha HG R01

(2 coats)



The rose scent on this is so impressively strong. I could smell it days later.

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My lame nail art.

For some reason, I had the urge to engage in some nail art recently. Little nail art. Nail art is usually way, way, way out of my comfort zone, but I felt a burst of creativity! My mani at the time was Essie Geranium (which is actually much more orange-toned that this pic would suggest). I added three little dots of Essie Turquoise & Caicos on each thumb using a bobby pin.

Essie Geranium + Turquoise & Caicos

I thought the result was fairly cute and went well with my turquoise jewelry!

And yes, I took this picture in my car...I wasn't going to share it at first but then I felt like snapping a pic at the wheel. However, I was parked in a parking lot! Don't ogle your nails and drive ladies!

Please don't judge too harshly - nail art is not my thing! Have you tried any nail art lately?

kittytokaren

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Dior Nirvana

Dior Nirvana

Nirvana indeed! A wonderful teal polish that has a very subtle but very real blue shimmer. I'm so glad Dior has started releasing more interesting shades because for awhile there, I was afraid I would have to start to enjoy reds, pinks and beiges in order to ever get a Dior Vernis fix. :P Two coats. Looked great for all four days I wore it.

Closeup of Nirvana

I took maybe two dozen photos with the express goal of trying to capture the shimmer. You can kind of see it in this closeup photo. I didn't even notice the shimmer when I applied it. I only realized it was a shimmer polish when I got out in the sun. (It was a great moment because my first thought was, "Aw, man, did I accidentally get some shimmer polish mixed up with my Diamont again??" (No, I didn't.)

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Thumb accent mani: OP JITNB and CG Atlantis

Inspired by kitty2karen I decided to give a thumb accent mani a go. This is OPI Jade is the new black plus China Glaze Atlantis for the thumb accent. I like it, but I don't love it. I was kind of hoping more of the sea green jelly in Atlantis would come through, because this mostly just looks like silver holo glitter on green, and pretty though that is it's not subtle. JITNB looks a lot like Orly Wandering Vine to me (I planned to do comparison swatches before I took the mani off, but this chipped badly within two days so I didn't get a chance). I do like the glitter thumb idea, though, especially since removing only two nails makes me a little less suicidal than doing ten.

Any suggestions for colour schemes?

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Butter London Henley Regatta

Butter London Henley Regatta is a gorgeous blue/green sparse glitter. It does nothing fancy - no holo, no multi-size glitter, and it's only two colours - but it is stunning nonetheless and so sparkly it practically goes *ping!* when the light hits it. Behold:

This has many many pros:

1. Just look at it! I spent ages twirling my hands and going 'ooh'.
2. Dries faster than I can say 'where's my topcoat'
3. Wears like iron (I took it off 8 days later with only tip wear)
4. Totally smooth with one coat of Seche Vite - you wouldn't know you were wearing glitter.

On the other hand,

1. Removal is a bitch, as you might expect
2. It's sparse, so requires at least three coats. I popped it on over my existing mani (BL Thames, which itself is sheer) so I had 9 coats in all. My nails were about an inch thick.
3. I failed my driving test while wearing it. (I blame the sparkliness for distracting me - definitely not my own fault for not indicating to move off, oh no).

Have another one for good measure. As an aside, the wear time is so awesome that I couldn't be bothered to take it off before the big conference I had to go to last week. So I rocked sparkly turquoise nails with my black suit in order to deliver a paper on public administration. The panel head said my nails were amazing (never mind the paper), so clearly a good choice if it took her attention off how nervous I was!

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Butter London Victoriana: when good polish goes bad

Urgh...ever have those manicures when nothing goes right? This is one of those. Nice polish, gorgeous colour...crap manicure. Figured I should post it anyway because it doesn't look that bad in the pictures despite the awful inception.

This one was doomed from the start, since it was done on Eurovision night. For anyone who's not come across Eurovision - lucky you - it's an annual knees up where tragically awful acts from European countries get to perform, and then every country votes. Usually for their neighbour. Hence why Azerbaijan (where?) won this year. It's a cherished cultural institution in Europe, because it's wonderfully naff and usually involves parties where everyone gets dressed up as a country and then proceeds to get blind drunk. Can you see why this was a bad idea?

As it happens I wasn't at a party last night - we stayed in with friends over - and I decided to do a mani/pedi to keep me occupied, because I'm a fidget who can't sit still in front of the television. So I did my toes first, whilst knocking back the ale (the pedi was even worse, by the way - I took Illamasqua Alarm off which stained my toes tomato, and then tried to put a nude over the top. Result: hot mess). By the time I got to the tips I was polishing with the kind of exaggerated comedy concentration normally only seen in five year olds. I did two coats, and then the takeaway arrived, whereupon I dinged them to hell and lost the bottle cap. Epic fail.

The next day, cracking hangover in tow, I tried to tidy it with a third coat and topcoat. This was the point at which Neurotic Cat had a minor breakdown and decided that if I didn't give her a cuddle that very moment, she would leave home. Then Kamikaze Kitten got jealous of the attention and jumped on my lap too. They then had a fight. Meanwhile, I'm holding my hands in the air like I'm directing traffic. Finally I kick them off and go to put topcoat on, but my seche vite has set like jelly and makes it even worse. I give up.

This is the result. The Polish is a gorgeous colour - a kind of dingy teal-blue with silver microglitter. It would probably be fine with two coats if those two coats hadn't been applied through beer goggles. I find the BL brushes a little fiddly because they're narrow, and the glitter in this means that the polish doesn't move very far, so thick coats are necessary. But it's lovely and I will definitely be trying it again under more auspicious circumstances.

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Comparison of Zoya Breezi and Sephora by OPI Slushied

This is why you should never de-dupe your collection by just looking at bottle color.

Zoya Breezi (Summertime, 2011) and Sephora by OPI Slushied (Glee, 2011)

OK. So Breezi looks a tad bit darker than Slushied, right? I mean, maybe if you look really closely, you could think that Breezi may look a tad more teal than Slushied. (Btw, thanks to my SO's mom for Slushied. It's awesome.)

From left to right: Slushied, Breezi, Slushied, Breezi

Seriously, this is not a weird camera quirk. They looked this different on the nail. They're barely even in the same color category (in my head -- granted, my head subdivides the rainbow into about a hundred colors). Slushied is this bright creme that falls somewhere between azure and cyan. Breezi is closer to a very blue teal and it's almost got a bit of a jelly squish to it. Both applied extremely well: two coats each.

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*insert pirate joke here* - my POTC picks!

You've already heard (way too much) about the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, I'm sure, so let's get to the meat of this sandwich!

These are the colours I chose from the collection, and I think they are all must-haves!

Stranger Tides

Probably my #1 favourite - a murky pistachio green that feels like it was designed with my skin tone in mind. Neutral enough to be wearable as it doesn't scream "GREEN!", but different enough to be edgy and cool. I. Am. In. Love!!! Unfortunately, this is *really* close to Essie Da Bush - from the Essie Resort 2011 Collection, which you will see soon - but I love the colour so much I'm going to keep both. (For those interested, Da Bush is a bit darker and ever-so-slightly more blue-toned.)

Skull & Glossbones

Again, this feels like it was made for me. Usually greys turn purple on me thanks to my yellow skin - even Essie Chinchilly, which many people claimed had green undertones, looks purple on me. See? Other greys are just too cool-toned for me and look...off. But this is my perfect light grey! It is somehow grey and warm at the same time. *swoon*

Steady As She Rose

I wasn't expecting to like this as much as I do! It's a great pale pink - it looks practically lavender in the bottle! On the nail murky and blue enough to keep this pink from being too sugary and girly - it's feet stay firmly in chic territory. Hallelujah!

Mermaid's Tears

This is my one kind of iffy one, but to be fair, I haven't worn it as a full-on all-day-all-night manicure yet. (And it looks stunning on my friend Megan!) It's like a murky piece of polished jade - I was surprised to see that it was quite similar to Essie Turquoise & Caicos in colour, but not necessarily in saturation/brightness. To me, this is T&C's dustier, more sedate cousin. I think that while T&C is out at the beach in a bikini, Mermaid's Tears is brooding in a cafe. I'm just not sure this colour looks *quite right* on my tips...

Silver Shatter

This is probably the one I will use the least, but have the most fun with! A little fling every now and again is just fine (with polish)! Here it is over Essie Mint Candy Apple, for funsies. It's SUPER shimmery, but doesn't seem to crack as much as Black Shatter. I like to apply thicker coats to get more divided cracks - less of the spider-web effect.

I know this collection is being talked and talked and talkedandtalkedandtalked about, but I have to say it is my favourite OPI collection since Holiday 2009. I feel like these dirgy (dirty + dingy) pastels are right up my alley and will have a long, happy and loved life in my collection. Couldn't be happier. Just when we thought Johnny Depp couldn't get any better...

Did you score any POTC polishes? Which ones and what do you think?

kittytokaren

P.S. Shout-out to my friend Keeley who is doing her preliminary exam today! Good luck and knock 'em dead with your knowledge!!!

read more "*insert pirate joke here* - my POTC picks!"

Butter London Thames & Illamasqua Viridian

So, remember in the last post where I said you could have first dibs on which Butter London I swatched first? I, er, lied, apparently. This parcel turned up two days later and as I was unwrapping it, my mum (who took delivery for me) was looking over my shoulder as I admired Thames and said 'Oooh! That's amazing! You must wear that!'. I decided it would be rude to disappoint my mother. Plus, I really liked the colour. However, it did look a bit familiar: I was wondering if it would be a dupe for Illamasqua Viridian. And they do look very similar in the bottle. There's a bit of extra navy swirly-ness in the Illamasqua, but it's very close.

On the nail, though? Definitely not dupes. Below is one coat of each. Yes, that's ONE coat of Viridian, no top coat, no voodoo...it just is that awesome.

Three coats of Thames, one of Viridian. Thames is lighter, and feels like tonnes of shimmer packed in a sheer grey base. Viridian's base is darker, bluer, and much more intense. There's also more duochrome swirly shinyness (not sure what's happened to my command of English...).

Three coats. (Sorry it's a bit rough and ready - I had to dash and forgot to do clean-up). Dry time is average and wear seems good. It is a really nice colour, and I can't find a ready dupe in my collection, so I can happily justify owning both this and Viridian (especially given my sick problem concerning shiny blue-greens). But if I only had $14? I'd get the Illamasqua.

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Nfu Oh Jellies

I bought 6 Nfu Oh jellies: three ~non-traditional~ colors and three classics.

Today are the non-traditional colors (i.e. the only colors you guys care about).

Teal Jelly JS-33

(5 coats)

This one was the most clear. 5 coats and it's still no where near bottle color. The VNL is much more visible in person. At 5 coats I was worried about dry time (not Nfu Oh strong suit, IME) so I slapped on an ultra thick coat of Diamont and bubble city!!! Hated this mani and it didn't dry great, quelle surprise.

Apple Green Jelly JS-17



(3 coats)

Ahhhh more reasonable coverage. I think we'd have full coverage, no vnl at 4 coats but I don't do 4 unless I HAVE to. And I thought the unbelievable squishiness of this one would be compromised if I went with any more coats.

This one dried a liiiittle bit fussy (a some bupples popped up after 20 minutes or so) but applied reasonably well and I got lots of compliments. Just look at that swatch! I want to drink that color it looks so juicy!

Raspberry Jelly JS-26


(3 coats - Warning - this one is a bit more purple IRL, also the smudge on the middle finger is the TC not the polish)

Formula-wise, this one was the star. It applied pretty evenly and dried nicely (though not speedily).


I bought colors based on the fabulous street swatches (which are wanting in terms of lighting) and I tried to guess at the more opaque jellies (I can live with VNL but I really don't like completely see through, which is JS-33). One was a failure but frankly I was quite pleased with the other two.

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A right royal haul: Butter London

…In which I discover Butter London, and my wallet weeps.

One of our lovely readers asked if I could get hold of Butter London's 'No More Waity Katie' to swatch. The answer was that yes, I could, but only if I was prepared to surrender fifteen of my Great British Pounds (about $25) for the privilege. Fifteen! Plus postage! That's almost enough to buy you a house in some of the less salubrious parts of Birmingham*. Ironically it's much cheaper to buy over the pond - it's available to US and Canadian customers for the much more reasonable sum of $14.

Anyway, incredulous cheapness aside, my interest in the brand was piqued. I decided to try a few of the more 'me' polishes available (their regular polishes are also quite a bit cheaper than NMWK at around the £9.50-£12 mark, which is a little less than an Illamasqua polish). So I put in an order from powderrooms.com (I've not tried them before), and prepared to pounce on my nice postlady. We've had four bank holidays the space of 11 days here, so all the nation's post is sitting in some mighty pile at Royal Mail HQ while the posties top up their tans in the unseasonably good weather we're having. Just as I was starting to sweat that I would have nothing to show you, the package turned up! And what a package it is:

The little envelope one? SWEETS. With 'powder rooms' piped in the centre. Greedy squee!

Here's my haul. L-R: Henley Regatta, West End Wonderland, Victoriana, Rosie Lee. Confectionary, blogger's own

I'm really stoked about the glitters. I mean, it doesn't take much to get me fired up where glitters are concerned, but these are So. Pretty. West End Wonderland looks to me like a finer, sparser version of OPI Gift of Gold (which I have been stalking on ebay since Christmas, but I can't quite bring myself to drop £17 or so on it). Henley Regatta is a little like China Glaze Atlantis in the bottle, except that the colour in Henley is glitter in a clear base, whereas atlantis is silver holo in a coloured base. Same hue family, though. Victoriana is paler than I was expecting, probably as a result of all the pearly silver shimmer/micro-glitter. It's only a wee bit deeper than Illamasqua Caress, although I'm expecting it'll dry darker, so I'm looking forward to trying it. Rosie Lee I have nothing even vaguely alike - not a surprise since I don't wear pink (on which more later) but it's just oodles of awesome.

Which one do you want to see first?

I may have already put in another order. Happy wedding day, Royal people! If you'll excuse me, I'm off to coat my mitts in glitter.

*Not really. I'm allowed to make that joke because I live there.

read more "A right royal haul: Butter London"

My Top 5 Summer Pedi Colors of 2010

Inspired by K2K's post, I thought I would share with you my own top 5 summer pedi colors of the 2010 summer. I wore all of these at least twice last summer.

I generally get pedis year round, but some colors just feel right when it's hot out (and some feel very wrong, like my fav pedi color - NARS Midnight Express). Here's my summer-time list:

• American Apparel Malibu Green
  

(2 coats)

You didn't think I was gonna subject you folks to my feet, did you?

Love this color, but holy crap, I wore it ONCE as a mani and will never do that again. Stain city! Very pigmented formula. Could have gotten away with one thick coat. AA has some incredible polishes.

• Zoya Charisma (Sinful Dream On, Essie Perky Purple)

(2 coats)

This photo isn't even close to color accurate. I couldn't even fix it w/ photoshop. It's like my computer is telling me this color does not exist and is merely a figment of my imagination.

No matter what, you know what it looks like. You've seen Charisma or one of her cousins. It's a great "staple" neon. I love this color so much.

• OPI Cajun Shrimp
  

(2 coats)

Probably my favorite pedi color period. I did a pedi with this 3 times last summer and a couple times as a mani. Considering how many polishes I have...

• China Glaze Flip Flop Fantasy

(2 coats)

I'm fairly certain it was THE pedi color of the Summer of 2010 among NP enthusiasts.

• Milani Radiant in Purple
  

(2 coats)

Really any medium purple creme works in this space. It's a go-to for me.

I wonder what's in store for us this year...

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OPI & Illamasqua teals

This manicure has a short story behind it: my aunt took a weekend trip to Florence (Firenze) and asked me for recommendations, since I spent a fortnight there in '09. I duly provided her with a long list of gelato vendors (I used my time there productively) and asked me to bring me back some scarves, since I'd overloaded my carry on luggage on the way home with four. She picked well: a beautiful teal shawl, which is very possibly my favourite colour. And since I wanted to wear it immediately I decided co-ordinating nails were in order.

OPI ski teal we drop, two coats + Illamasqua muse tips, one coat (with Nailtek foundation II and Seche vite)

Since I had no exact match I decided to do a two-colour french. I've worn both of these colours on their own and both are perfection in their own way: 4-5 day wear with minor tip wear, easy two coat application (possibly one if you're less of a klutz than me), shiny and intensely pigmented. And the colours are goooorgeous.

The respective brushes lend themselves really nicely to this kind of manicure, since the OPI pro wide is so…well…wide, and illamasqua's brushes are very narrow and precise (much like Essie's).

I really liked this combo and would probably do it again with variations - I'd love to try a grape and plum combo, or maybe banana yellow with white, or navy and green.

Are you ever inspired by fabrics? What's your favourite?

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China Glaze crackles - crushed candy and lightning bolt

Hello! My first post here. Thank you for having me on board, I look forward to posting reams of manicure pictures and exciting all the lovely readers rather than boring all my lovely colleagues.

My early efforts with crackle polishes were, frankly, pretty grim. I tried painting it thinly, which just made it look patchy, speckly and weird. I kept trying colour combinations that seemed great in my head (navy and white, how can that go wrong?) but which looked like I'd done myself some kind of grievous injury in practice. I nearly gave up. But then I tried painting thick coats and picking complementary base colours, and now I'm quite pleased with the effect. The finish makes me think of duck eggs for some reason.

China Glaze crushed candy over Essie playa del platinum

China Glaze lightning bolt over OPI hot & spicy

The only thing I am not loving about the crackles is my total inability to apply them neatly. My only objective is getting it on thick and quick before it starts to crack. As a result it usually ends up all over my fingers. My 'swatch hand' isn't too bad, but the reason I didn't take any pictures of my dominant right hand is that it's flecked with bits of white crackle everywhere (in some frankly improbable places) and I expect my colleagues will be asking me tomorrow whether I’ve been repainting my bathroom.

Looking forward to the OPI and Models Own releases later on in the summer to try some different colours – orange, navy and turquoise are high on my list of current wants!

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A few from my Top 20; re-swatched

In December, MUA's nail board had a Top 20 survey and I went on a swatching binge of my Top 20 colors of all time. I've posted these colors before, but I like these swatches better.

China Glaze Recycle

(2 coats)

Cool greys don't look so great on me so I love this one, which seems to have just a touch of brown in it.

BB Couture Moon Over Manhattan

(2 coats)

I need to pull this one out for a full mani soon. It's been too long.

Diamond Cosmetics Cherry Tobacco

(2 coats)

This is so freaking underrated. This has got to be one of the best reds ever.

Essie Limited Addiction

(2 coats)

Another great red. In terms of number of wears my #1 polish of 2010 by far. So many manis.

read more "A few from my Top 20; re-swatched"