Back to nubs!

New year, new nails! Unfortunately my claws were getting stuck in the keyboard/mouse scroll wheel so I had to chop them off - one day they will grow clawlike again. On the flipside, I can finally stamp my full nail Konad designs again! 

I'm wearing OPI Yoga-ta get this Blue, my very first blue color (and my first 'crazy' polish color!) with mixed flakies on my ring finger as an accent.

Who else started new nails this year?

Delicious duochrome - layering with Nfu-oh 51 and Revlon Royal

Coming back to kickass duochromes - Nfu-oh 51. A purple jelly base with iridescent purple to green to gold flakies and a scattered pigment of the same nature. This polish colorshifts like nobody's business and it's great! I've shown it here before, but this time... I can show you the full range!

It's layered over Revlon Royal. 

Let's start with this:

Looks purple, right?

Wait a minute

You can see the gold in this

Oooh there it goes!

Nothing better than wearing a few colors at once, eh?

HITS flakies: Valsa and Lambada

Lambada

Valsa

I tried the new HITS Danca flakies over a light blue polish, Sally Hansen Insta Dry - Blue Away.

They don't show up very well on a light background, but I like the subtle look they give the creme polishes!

I liked the flakies themselves, the polishes are saturated enough, but not too chunky like the Nfu-Ohs (is there such a thing as too many flakies? Yes!).

I want to try these over black, Lambada being my favorite, as it is a mix of multicolor flakies and Valsa is blue-green flakies, which are nice as well. 

HITS Olympo holographic and flakie haul!

From left to right: Zeus, Hefesto, Poseidon, Artmetis, Valsa, Foxtrot, Lambada

Yesss my haul from Brazil is finally here!

Months later I can now enjoy and bask in the glory of these... the bottles are a little small but that isn't an issue for me.  The black holo, Zeus is something I've craved for a while, perhaps it might even satisfy my want for OPI My Private Jet! I can't wait to try these, I want the sun to come out so I can check them out! Have some bottle shots:

the holos

the flakies

Do you prefer flakies or holos? Which is your favourite? 

Sally Hansen - Very Cherry

Sally Hansen Very Cherry is an interesting raspberry red foil with a nice drying time and good staying power.

This is more pink than red, but it does have a reddish look to it. 3 coats, nice formula. I found this to be a total twin of SH Xtreme Wear Deep Blue Sea both in formula and finish. It's the same metallic shimmer suspended in a differently colored base. Here are the bottles side by side with comparison!

I also tried a few flakies over it, inter finger - nfu-oh 38 (iridescent flakies) middle and ring - Deborah Lippmann Stairway to Heaven, pinky - nfuoh 51.

Looks like flakies don't show up too well on foils! That was the end of my experiment.
What do you think? Which one do you like better, Deep Blue Sea or Very Cherry?

Essie Turquoise and Caicos and Nfu-oh 40

Essie Turquoise and Caicos has been something I've looked at and put back multiple times before and finally decided to pick it up a while back. I layered it with my new flakies, Nfu-oh 40, a blue to green and purple color shift.

TaC is a minty fresh light green creme, applies a bit streaky at the start but evens out very nice in 3 coats. It dries smooth and does not chip easily.  TaC is more blue-leaning than other minty greens I've encountered, so the green-ness did not clash with my skintone, no lobster hands! This is a plus. It's very airy and fresh, definitely a spring color for me.

When I layered it with nfu-oh 40, the flakies took a very green quality with a blue flash. This also has added a lot of green to the polish color itself, but it wasn't too drastic. Overall, I do like the combo and will be trying these flakies over other polish as well!

L'Oreal - Owl's Night and nfu-oh 38

L'Oreal Owl's Night is something I picked up on a whim, I really loved the way it looked in the bottle! A beautiful deep olive, chock full of slightly greenish golden shimmer...at least that's what it seemed like. On the nail, shimmer is much more subdued and it comes out looking more brown than olive. If you look closer, it's still that mysterious olive base with gold shimmer. Application is okay, nothing notable. Takes 2 coats to fully show up, but I used 3 for max opacity. It dries a little gritty, but a topcoat helps a great deal. I did not like the way it looked at first but then it grew on me a little bit. It's a very sophisticated color, subtle and neutral yet still edgy and dark. 

check dat color shift!

I decided to layer some flakies over it as well (nfu-oh 38) to give it a bit of flair. I find that the flakies work VERY well on this polish, since it gives way to the orange color a lot more than green. The combo reminds me of fallen leaves... very autumn-y!

Revlon Royal with Nfu-oh 38 flakie

I got too excited and swatched DS Sapphire on the pinky

left hand

I completely forgot about this mani! I had it on about a week ago. Revlon Royal is a jelly I didn't think I'd like, but I picked it up anyway, just to try it. The deep blue polish didn't look amazing in the bottle but I was surprised in terms of application and finish! Dries fast and glossy, looks great in 2 coats. A true indigo jelly, just transparent enough to look like the bluest bottle glass, but colorful enough to look absolutely stunning. I wanted to give it even more of a flair (looks a little boring from far away) so I layered some flakies on top! Nfu-oh 38 is a green to orange multichrome flakie and it tends to be invisible except for a bright flare of color, sort of like a flame. I really loved this combo since it looked like frozen fire and it was absolutely stunning... I ordered another flakie from Nfu-oh and I hope to experiment with it as well in the future.

Nfu-oh 51

Nfu-oh 51 is a BEAUTIFUL flakie suspended in purple jelly, with some glass flecks. The multichrome effect reminds me of opal actually. In the bottle, it looks like fire (bottle pic here) and on the nail, it turns a bit more blue/purple. I swatched this over black and the flakies turned red! The formula is smooth, the brush picks up enough flakies to how with one swipe.

 I did two coats over SH xtreme deep purple (which turned out a little sheer) and the effect is wonderful!

This lasted three days on me and didn't chip (with top coat) and then I just got tired of purple. This one is definitely a great polish to layer with, as well as fine on its own. It's like a pre-made jelly sandwich!

Layering with Nfu-oh 38

This is OPI done out in deco with Nfu-oh 38, which is a clear polish full of iridescent flakies floating about (bottle shown here)

It turned out so pretty! I'm going to need to try layering it on other polishes and try it matte as well.

What do you like to layer your flakies with?

Nfu-oh haul and holographic nails

I have finally obtained my first serious holo! The package from fabuloustreet came on my birthday...I ripped it open and my dreams came true. 

I ordered nfu-of 61, aquabase, as well as 38 and 51 (flakies).

Even though 61 is the new formula where it's more of a foily finish but not as holo (especially indoors, where it looks like silver) it still glows in the sun! I need more holo...more!

Here is a pic of the haul:

And a pic of nfu-oh 61!