Nfu Oh #63 – review and swatches
I acquired my first Nfu Oh holo (from Nail XL). I first learnt about Nfu Oh through their flaky polishes, but I heard they did really nice holos as well, so I figured I'd give them a try... and they're pretty gorgeous! #63 has a baby pink shade for a base, but you won't be seeing it most of the time. If you look at this from almost any angle, you'll mostly be seeing the pretty holo colours. But this is what the base looks like by itself:
Isn't it a cute colour? It's a sort of frosty/metallic baby pink. This isn't the easiest colour to apply, though. The texture is kind of funny with the huge amount of holographic glitter in it. If you try to apply one thin coat, it'll start to dry as you're applying it and streak like crazy. You'll also damage it badly if you try to apply a second coat while the first isn't completely dry yet. My solution was to apply a somewhat thicker coat than usual so it went on smoothly, allow that to dry, then apply another coat like that, and don't do any more than those two. The result is holographic goodness.
Then I went and added yet another design from the Konad m64 plate to it. I still need some more practice with this to make it come out perfect, there's still a couple of gaps here and there -- but on the whole, it looks pretty cute.
China Glaze Beauty and the Beach – review and swatches
Beauty and the Beach is a rather pretty bright aqua. Well, actually, more like a bright light blue with duochrome greenishness... coming across as a bright aqua on the whole, and therefore, in all the pictures. This was very thin and sheer. From the bright look of the colour in the bottle, I had expected this to be pretty opaque, but I think it's actually the most sheer China Glaze colour I own. I needed a full four coats to get this to be opaque. Here's an overview of the colour build-up:
One coat
Two coats
Three coats
And finally, four coats, out in the sun.
The same four coats indoors, in artificial lighting.
Because there's so many layers of polish, this takes about forever to dry. And I do mean that literally; it pretty much never fully hardened out for me. This is partially my own fault, I guess. To save time, I'd apply one coat to all of my nails one by one, and then once I was done with the last nail, I'd move on and do another coat on the nail that I'd started with, and so on. If I'd allowed each layer to fully dry before applying the next one, I'm sure it would've been fine.
But anyway -- I applied a layer of Seche Vite top coat on top, and that dried in about five minutes (i.e. the polish feeling dry to the touch). After another ten, it felt like the polish had hardened out... but I think that was just the Seche having hardened by then, while the solvents in the actual polish were actually unable to evaporate now with the top coat on top. Because for the rest of the evening, it continued to feel slightly elasticy, you know, that feeling of not-quite-dry polish that won't really get damaged at the top layer anymore, but might still get dented all the way through? And then I went to bed four hours later, and by the next morning, this had happened:
Huge sheet marks and crinkles. Ick. It looked like I'd done my mani less than an hour before bed. So, to cut this long story short: great colour, great smooth application, too sheer, needs too many coats as a result. To hide the sheet marks somewhat and to test out my new larger Konad stamp, I put some Konad nail art on top:
China Glaze For Audrey review & swatches
For Audrey is a creme. I do not normally like creme polishes. This is purely a matter of taste, I know. There's nothing wrong with creme polishes, they're just not my thing. But... well, it's For Audrey. That's kind of the China Glaze polish everyone should own at least one bottle of, isn't it? So I had to try it for myself... and eventually, the creme thing grew on me. I suppose it possibly looks slightly classier than glittery polishes, too. Just not as fun :P
The colour is quite nice, too. It's Tiffany blue, or as close to real Tiffany blue as China Glaze could get without breaking the trademark law, as it's one of the few trademarked colours in existence. Basically, a nice soft baby blue kind of colour, that goes very well with the whole creme thing. This would make an awesome colour for a baby shower if the little one's a boy. Application was once again very smooth, and this was almost completely opaque with just one coat. Two coats and it's perfect.
Two coats of For Audrey in the sun (top) and shade (bottom). In the shade, there's just a tiny hint of teal to the colour.
I then turned it matte with China Glaze Matte Magic. The sun was shining pretty bright here so it still looks slightly shiny, but it really did turn into a true matte.
Finally, to spice it up a little, I added a design from the Konad m64 plate. Well. Sort of. This is my second time ever applying Konad and also my stamp simply seems to be too small for this large design... so it's really sloppy. Huge blue edges left open, designs askew and just ew. I took off the whole thing in less than a day because I couldn't stand looking at the bad job I did any longer. I'll try harder next time :P
China Glaze Outta Bounds review & swatches
As I posted earlier, I recently acquired some new China Glaze colours. Here's the first one, called Outta Bounds. It's a nice vibrant green; kind of a Christmassy green, I guess, but who cares? I'll wear Christmas green in summer if it's a pretty colour. :P This colour is pretty opaque; it was a completely solid green for me with just two coats. You will need the two, though, as it's still slightly streaky with just one. Application was pretty smooth, which is what I'm used to for most - but not all - China Glaze colours. I also quite like their brushes. I suppose it might be a matter of taste, but to me they're pretty much perfect in terms of density, not too stiff, not too soft either.
Two coats of Outta Bounds out in the sun. It appears slightly more teal in the picture than it does in real life. In real life it's basically a true green, and here it's slightly blueish.
Indoors, under artificial lighting. The green turns darker (which is obvious, isn't it) and more of a mossy green.
I then added one coat of China Glaze's Emerald Sparkle to the tips and did a little criss-cross design on top, using Konad Special White and the m64 plate. It's like 30° off on my right middle finger, though. Oops. Good thing I always take pics of my left hand, then:
China Glaze swatches: Other
Part three of my overview of all the China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: everything that didn't fall into either of the other two categories! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Blue Paradise; shimmery bright blue.
China Glaze Emerald Sparkle; deep green with bright green microglitter.
China Glaze Devotion: metallic silver with a slight lavender sheen.
China Glaze DV8; holo aqua blue.
China Glaze Fairy Dust - multicolour glitter in clear base - over
China Glaze Midnight Ride; very deep almost black purple.
Cherry Crystal, White on White and Blue Paradise; this was my Queen's Day mani.
Midnight Ride and White on White water marble.
China Glaze swatches: Reds and browns
Part two of my overview of all the China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: reds, browns and such colours! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Hippie Chic; warm toned bronze-ish red
...I'm supposed to have a Cherry Crystal swatch somewhere but I've misplaced it. Imagine it right here. Fairly cool toned medium red.
China Glaze Delight; metallic nude brown.
China Glaze Poetic; also a metallic nude colour, but slightly more peachy/pinkish than Delight.
China Glaze swatches: Pinks and purples
This is an overview of all China Glaze colours I've swatched so far. If you've been following my Twitter for the past few months, you've seen all of these before at some point. Also keep in mind that most of these photos were snapped as quick Twitpics rather than serious blog photos... Today: the pinks, purples and combinations thereof! All pictures are clickable.
China Glaze Awakening; deep rose with gold microglitter
China Glaze Chiaroscuro; semisheer soft pink with slight greenish sheen
China Glaze Emotion; metallic bright pink
China Glaze TTYL; holo peachy pink
China Glaze Harmony; slightly metallic medium purple
TTYL over Harmony
Harmony and Emotion water marble
Awakening, White on White and Midnight Ride water marble
Nfu Oh #56 – review and swatches
Look at that. It's gorgeous! It's Nfu Oh #56, the last out of the four I bought a while ago from Nail XL. I definitely saved the best for last, though it was unintentional. Well, let's start off with the colour all by itself. Like #54, it has a green base. But where #54 was a turquoise green and very very sheer, #56 has more of a yellowish spring green kind of colour for a base, that's not quite as sheer either. In three to four coats, it's more or less a solid green, so no Zombie Polish effects this time. I personally don't like this type of green much, though, but that's a matter of taste. I don't think it suits my skin tone very well either. See for yourself:
Three to four coats of Nfu Oh #56 by itself, sun first, then shade. The flakies in this are duochrome bright green to blueish turquoise, with emphasis on the green, and there's also a little bit of bright green microglitter. I took this off after about a day and replaced it with the Nfu Oh over China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Emerald Sparkle is a very deep green base with bright green microglitter.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #56 over two coats of China Glaze Emerald Sparkle. Same combo as at the top of this page. Oh wow. The pictures? They might look quite pretty already, but they do not do this combo justice. Emerald Sparkle is a fairly pretty colour by itself, but it's relatively dark. The Nfu Oh brightens it up a bit and adds the gorgeous flakies, of course. What with it being four coats of polish in total, the flakies seem to be suspended through the various layers and they give the whole thing an amazing depth. It looked as if my nails had been removed and replaced with glittery multi faceted pieces of jade. I wore this mani for five days straight -- and I tend to get bored with a colour within two days, mind you -- and I could not stop staring at my own nails. Okay, okay, I'm getting overly enthusiastic here, I'm gushing -- but I can't help it, I've fallen in love.
Oh, and because of the duochrome-ness of the flakies, it flashed a bright turquoise, sometimes, too. But only if the light hit it at just the right angle. This evening, I had to take it off, unfortunately. After putting it on on Sunday afternoon, it had finally started to chip as of this Thursday evening. To complete the set of swatches, I replaced it with the Nfu Oh over China Glaze Midnight Ride, two coats of each. It's still quite pretty, but not as good as my new favourite Emerald Sparkle/#56 combo. Then again, I wonder when I'm going to find something to top that...
Nfu Oh #54 – review and swatches
At first glance, it looks like #54 has a clear base. But just like how #49 may look transparent if you're not watching it too closely, and then turns out to be a very sheer pink on your nails, #54 actually has a very very sheer greenish base. Thanks to this... I don't like the way it looks on its own, at all. If you do a couple of coats to get a good amount of flakies, you get a base colour that's not quite transparent, but doesn't qualify for the name "green" either. It's a green so transparent that it seems to blend with the pink of my nails and turn into a murky greyish brownish colour. Frankly... it makes me look kind of dead. Except with shiny flakies. And while Sparkly Zombie Polish is kind of cool in concept, it's not quite what I was going for.
Over black, though, it's a different story. Then the green is sheer enough not to show up at all, leaving you with shiny black nails with pretty duochrome flakies. The flakies in #54 are green to bright aqua blue, quite a pretty colour. This was fairly easy to apply, as it's relatively thin for a flakie polish - not as thick as #51, for instance. I've heard some people say that drying time for these polishes tends to be quite long, but I always use a fast-drying top coat and haven't had any problems. Base coat, 1-2 coats of coloured polish and 2-3 coats of Nfu Oh dries in a good 5 minutes with Seche, which I think is pretty decent.
China Glaze Beauty and the Beach is pretty much an exact match for the flakies in this. Applying the polish on top of that makes the aqua blue look more textured and kinda glittery, but you can hardly see the flakies at all!
Time for some swatches!
On its own: three coats of Nfu Oh #54 over Trind Nail Repair as a base coat Sparkly Zombie Polish. Alright, so it doesn't really show in the sun. And in this photo in the shade (top one), it doesn't really show either, but it really was a brownish/greyish colour.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #54 over three coats of China Glaze Beauty and the Beach (whoa, this shade is way more sheer than I expected from the look in the bottle). Top: shade, bottom: sun.
Two coats of Nfu Oh #54 over one coat of Midnight Ride. (Yeaahhh you've seen this one before in my original Nfu Oh post. I'm kind of cheating here :P)
New nail stuff!
Last Sunday, a friend alerted me that an online nail store I hadn't heard of before, had a 25% off everything sale. So of course I couldn't resist and had to get some more nail things! :D
Three new China Glaze polishes. Beauty and the Beach, which is a really nice aqua blue. I also finally hopped on the For Audrey bandwagon, and finally on the right is a bottle of Outta Bounds.
And a bottle of Konad stamping polish (in dark purple, actually, though it looks black in the photo) and two image plates.
Can't wait to try all this out :D