OPI ~ Diva of Geneva with Nfu Oh 062

OPI ~ Diva of Geneva

Deep shimmery red-ish purple with a golden tone to it

Diva of Geneva is from OPI’s Swiss collection from Autumn 2010 and is another OPI I couldn’t leave alone. It looks a little bit boring and brown in the bottle, but it really comes to life on the nails.

The formula was surprisingly good for an OPI ;) and the pigmentation is good too. It almost covered with one coat, and it was perfect at two. I’ll try stamping with this at some point. Drying time was on the fast side – which I must admit was a surprise, because that’s not my general impression of OPI polishes. But anyway – here is the pic of two coats without top coat:

I’m in love with this!

I wanted to stamp on it and took a while on deciding which colour to stamp with. I went for holo! I used Nfu Oh’s 062, which my friend Line let me have. I’m ever so grateful! It’s a very pretty pink holo. Did I mention that I love Nfu Oh’s bottles? They’re amazing little pieces of art!

So anyway, I stamped with Nfu Oh 062 and used a stamping plate from Mash called Mash-50. I sealed it all up with one coat of Catrice Quick Dry & High Shine top coat.

Here’s a picture taken in my light box. I think it looks alright, although not breathtaking:

But look at this picture, taken under a direct light bulb:

The polishes really pop, don’t you think? Here’s another one for you:

And the pretty polishes lined up for a photograph:

I love this! Sometimes it’s nice to make something relatively simple where you don’t spend all evening doing nails, you know?

So, what’s your verdict, sweet girls? Is this also a win in your book?

Opacity: 9/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Buy again: Yes

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

Electric pink with blue microshimmer

and

Nfu Oh ~ 51

Purple based jelly polish with shimmer and gold, red and purple flakies

Caribbean Temptation is part of the China Glaze Core Collection. It’s a vibrant pink with blue flashes of shimmer. The formula is in the usual great China Glaze style, and covers excellently in two easy coats.

This is one of the polishes that looks prettier on the nails than in the bottle.

 I love these kind of polishes.

Anyway – here’s a shot of it in the sun. There is no top coat involved yet:

And here’s an indoor shot. You can still see the blue shimmer:

I didn’t quite know what to do with this. I had both glitter and layering in mind, but decided on putting Nfu Oh’s 51 on top of it. 51 is almost impossible to describe. The base is a purple jelly, and it has got both shimmer and flakies in it. Let’s just say that it’s prettiness in a bottle. I’ve read some people call it Max Factor’s Fantasy Fire in a flakie version. I don’t know about that, but that’s just because I don’t own Fantasy Fire. :)

I applied two coats of the Nfu Oh. The formula is good and the flakies spread out nicely, but drying time is really tricky. Even though it feels dry, it isn’t. And even though a Seche Vite top coat makes it feel completely dry, it still isn’t. It’s almost needless to say that I dented this an hour after applying the top coat. Grrrr!!

Here’s a shot of two coats of Nfu Oh 51 over two coats of China Glaze Caribbean Temptation, all covered with a generous coat of Seche Vite. Pic is taken in the sun:

 

And here’s an indoor shot:

It’s amazingly vibrant! Did you ever consider layering a purple flakie over a pink polish? Do you like the effect?

China Glaze ~ Caribbean Temptation

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 7/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7/10
Buy again: No

Nfu Oh ~ 51

Opacity: 4/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 5/10
Overall: 6/10
Buy again: No

Funky Fingers ~ Chesire

Funky Fingers ~ Chesire

Creamy semi-matte purple

In my ‘100 followers giveaway’, some of you requested more hand painted nail art. I have to say that I can’t draw to save my life, but I want you to know that I do listen to your ideas and what you say about things you’d like to see. Perhaps you’ll regret that you even asked; who knows? :D

Anyway – I started out with two coats of Chesire, a blue-based purple, that surprisingly enough dried up semi matte. The formula is nice to work with, and that makes up for the brush being a bit too narrow for my likings.

Here is that step. There’s no top coat on the polish just yet – because we have plans for this polish, right?

On to the next step – adding some bling. I chose RL’s “Lilac Glam” from their Glam Rock series. It’s a pinkish purple glitter that spreads out perfectly and easily on the nail. It smells kind of weird, like glue or something, but I don’t mind that very much.

Here’s what that looks like. The glitter photographs more pink than it actually is. It’s definitely more purple than pink!

So far so good – no disasters yet. But wait, there’s more!

I saw a tutorial a while ago, where a girl made flowers on her nails. She painted one dot (the centre of the flower) and then five equally big dots around it, and then she had the most beautiful and well shaped flowers ever. And it looked so darn easy. Anybody could do that, right?

Anybody but me, that is.

I chose Essence Colour & Go “Passion for fashion” for the flowers, and Nfu Oh’s holographic silver 61 for the middle dot. And here’s where it all went wrong.

I’ll let the picture do the talking. The mani is shown with a layer of Seche Vite top coat:

And here are the polishes I used:

I’m not sure I’ll do another hand painted flower mani again.

Please be gentle when you comment! :D

Funky Fingers ~ Chesire

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: Yes

Jordana ~ Purple Glam

Jordana ~ Purple Glam

Purple with holographic glitters and bars

Purple is my favourite colour when it comes to nail polish, that’s a fact. Another fact is that I’m just so into glitter. Jordana combined two of my likings in this fabulous polish!!

The formula was fine – application was pretty easy. The glitter spread out evenly without much of an effort. It took two coats to reach the desired opacity. The only negative aspect I can come up with about this polish is that it dries up with a rather gritty finish.

Here is what it looked like without top coat:

I really like that purple – and the glitter is holographic and pretty. It’s too bad that some of the holographic bars are “hiding” under the polish.

I had to do something with this mani. I was not in the mood for stamping, and the polish had glitter in it itself. So I found my Nfu Oh #63, which is a beautiful pale pink holographic. I made three dots on each nail and sealed it all up with a layer of Color Club’s top coat:

Here's my dotting tool. :D

Later I applied a second layer of top coat, but the mani simply remained gritty. Oh well!  

Opacity: 8/10
Colour, prettiness: 8/10
Durability: 8/10
Value for money: 8/10
Overall: 8/10
Buy again: Yes

Nfu Oh ~ GS14

Nfu Oh ~ GS14
Holographic Black

I think that “holographic black” sounds intriguing. I’ve seen a couple, but haven’t been tempted to buy them until recently. When I saw Nfu Oh’s GS14 I knew that if there was ever a black holographic for me, this would be the one.

The formula was a bit on the thick side, but it was very easy to apply. Drying time between the coats was somewhat on the slow side, but I managed to sit still long enough not to dent it. :D

The holographic content definitely works for me. Tiny little stars twinkling on my nails – I can’t wait to see this in the sunshine!! She’s a total b*tch to photograph though. I didn’t manage to get any pics where the holo shows for real, so these will have to do:

The holo shows more in the bottle than on the nails, but it *did* show in real life. Anyway – these are two coats, no top coat.

This polish dries up pretty gritty, surface-wise - so it really does need a top coat. I wanted to stamp on this first though. I went for a design of moon and stars, since I thought it would fit my little starry night sky so well. I had such a design on a plate with no name on it other than B22.

Here’s a close up of the thumb, where the holo actually shows itself.

I stamped with Essence’s stampy polish: “Stamp me! Silver”



Opacity: 10/10
Colour, prettiness: 7/10
Durability: 6/10
Value for money: 7/10
Overall: 7.5/10
Buy again: No

Nfu Oh ~ 056

Nfu Oh ~ 056

A dark green flaky glitter that reflects blue and bright green. 

Here’s another one of my newly bought Nfu Ohs, the green one. I love green nail polish, especially the deep green, almost vampy ones. This one looked like such a colour.

After admiring the pretty bottle, I started applying the polish. I could tell right away, that this wasn’t going to be easy. The first coat was very sheer, so I kind of expected lots and lots of layers before being satisfied. I didn’t want to layer it over another polish until I had seen how it looked on its own.

Applying was easy. It did take forever to dry though. After three layers it started to look almost acceptable, and decided that four coats would be it. And then something happened. I ruined the nail polish on one of the nails. Oh no!

So I decided to take this pic:

And then take it all off again and try with a coloured base coat. I went for Wet n Wild 226, a dark green shimmer polish. It actually surprised me. It was so easy to apply, and it covered almost perfectly in two layers. Here’s how it looked:

And then to the real deal: The Nfu Oh! I applied two coats, and was satisfied. I must admit that I was somewhat disappointed with the flake. I mean, the green was gorgeous and all, but honestly, the green should come from the Nfu Oh, and not the Wet n Wild, right? But after having seen it in the sun…:

… it grew on me. I just love this! I just wish it was spring or summer so the sun was out more!

Nfu Oh ~ 056

Opacity: 4/10
Colour, prettiness: 6/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 6/10
Overall: 6.25/10
Buy again: Maybe

Nfu Oh 51

Nfu Oh 51

A dark purple jelly base with lots of shimmer and duochrome flakies

So, here's one of my beautiful Nfu Oh bottles. I absolutely love the shape of the bottle, it is sooo pretty! It was not easy choosing which colours I wanted out of the Nfu Oh collection, but when I saw this one, I knew it was a must have!

I must admit that I quietly admired it in the bottle for a while before applying it. I know it's silly, but when you finally get something that you've been wanting for a while, you enjoy it all the more. Impulse shopping is cool, but having something on the wishlist for a long time, and then suddenly getting it - that's just perfect.

So anyway - moving on!

I applied it, and it was relatively easy to get it to look good. I had a bit of a struggle with some of the flakies that simply wouldn't "lay down" on the nail, creating a lump instead. But a bit of maneuvering around with the brush soon solved that little challenge.

I ended up applying three coats because I wanted it to look its best. Two layers would probably have been OK too, but hey... :)


Here it is, three coats and a generous coat of Seche Vite top coat to even the surface out.

I have seen so many beautiful swatches of this nail polish, so I was a bit nervous that maybe I was putting my hopes up too high. But 51 fully lived up to all my expectations, and more!

It's hard to capture how beautiful it is in real life, but believe me, it's simply delicious and I've been staring at my nails for two days now! :D

The verdict is: 

Opacity: 7/10
Colour, prettiness: 9/10
Durability: 9/10
Value for money: 10/10
Overall: 8.75/10
Buy again: Yes

Nfu Oh and where not to shop

Nfu Oh. I am told that it's pronounced "En foo oh". :)

I've been fascinated by the brand for a long time. I've seen such beautiful swatches of the various colours and effects it comes in, and the bottle alone is stunning! I knew that I needed a couple of Nfu Oh's in my collection. 

Trouble is, that Denmark is not the best country to live in when it comes to nail polishes. What we have is *very* expensive (compared to what I see you pay for polishes in other countries), and the range of brands is limited. So most of my nail polish shopping is done on online. Next problem is import taxes. If I want to avoid big taxes then I have to shop from a country within the EU. I see what you guys can buy from US sites, and I tell you that I am envious! :D

Enough about that, I actually managed to find Nfu Oh on a German site, and I decided not to limit myself. I just bought the ones I found pretty, and here's the stash: 

The bottles are just gorgeous. I love the way they're shaped. So elegant and pretty. And the colours are stunning! I'm totally in love! <3

A bad thing happened though. When I opened number 61, it was all lumpy and thick and the holo effect was non existent. It was obviously a bad or old bottle of polish. Totally unusable. I took pictures of it - take a look: 

 It's easy to see that it's unusable! :/

I sent the pics to the website owner and asked if they wanted me to return the bottle, or if they would just send me a new one. Imagine my surprise when they refused to send me a replacement one, or any refund. They said that the reason why the bottle of polish was reduced in price was because it wasn't the same quality as Nfu Oh usually are, and that they specifically had been writing that on their website. 

I must admit that I hadn't seen that on their website. Whether it's because it wasn't there when I shopped or because I just didn't notice is irrelevant to me. Fact is that I received a nail polish that is unusable. Reduced quality (or whatever we call it) can possibly be OK, but totally unusable is definitely not OK.

So I won't bother trying any more to get them to send a new bottle of polish or a refund, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure that they would ultimately have to, according to consumer protection laws. I'll just send them a link to this blogpost, and then warn you all against shopping for anything at all on this site: www.glamournails24.de. It seems unlikely that you will get what you pay for, if you do. And no one likes to be cheated, right?

Thanks for your time.