Kiko - Sparkle Touch - 237

I decided to add a little sparkle to yesterday's manicure by applying two coats of Kiko Sparkle Touch 237 over the top of the 238 I was already wearing.  Sparkle Touch are a range of shimmery, glittery topper polishes by Kiko.

 

 

237 is packed full of golden pink mini flakies which give your nails a lovely shimmer but not much of a colour change, they do however reflect lots of different shimmering flakie shades.

 

I'm not sure if the Sparkle Touch range is still available from Kiko but if you do see them they are very pretty and worth picking up, particularly if you like a polish which adds a little bit of shimmer without being too over the top.

 

 



Orly Fowl Play - Take 2

After last week's disaster with Fowl Play it was languishing on the top of my Helmer, pleading with me to give it another go, so I gave in and tried again with it.

 

This time it worked out rather more successfully... (we're ignoring the tip wear, ok?)

 

 

Fowl Play is a lovely dark wine sort of coloured polish packed full of multicoloured flakie pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

 



Nail Disaster 2

After yesterday's post highlighting my failed stamping I decided to go for something simple but a bit sparkly on my nails, just regular old polish to save any more problems and leave me with nice, pretty nails with as little effort as possible.

 

I decided to go for Orly's Fowl Play, a lovely purple based polish jam packed full of flakies.  Unfortunately the nail gods are clearly against me this week...

 

As I was applying oil to my cuticles half of the polish on my index finger seemed to slip right off!  Now, technically I could have repainted the one nail bur Fowl Play is quite a sheer polish and needs 3 good coats to get it fully opaque and I have never successfully repainted just one nail before.  So instead I decided to whip it all off and start again.

 

I can only assume that Fowl Play needing three coats and then a couple of coats of topcoat meant that the polish wasn't perfectly dry as I applied the oil and for some reason it cause the polish to lift right off, whatever happened it was most annoying not least because it was looking pretty nice before the incident and I'd like to have gotten a day's wear out of it!

Nfu Oh 51

I usually wear this polish over a darker base but I decided to try it out over a lighter shade this time.  This is two coats over yesterday's Pearly Queen.

 

In natural light you can really see the lovely jelly consistency of this polish.

 

 

Annoyingly there seems to be quite a bit of shrinkage with this polish which hasn't happened before so I'm not sure what has caused it.

 

Under bright light you can see the glittery shimmer of the polish.

 

From certain angles you can also see the lovely hidden green flash.

Nfu Oh & Nail Pop Flakies

Nfu Oh Flakies or Opal Series as they are officially known were the first set of polishes I went above and beyond usual means to track down.  To cut a long story short I had them sent over from Estonia by Viis Ilusalong after spending weeks hunting them down and translating pages with Google. 

 

Sadly Nfu Oh now has a UK stockist (http://www.nfuoh.co.uk/) who charge hugely inflated prices for the polish while also having rubbish customer service, so although technically easier to get hold off they are much, much more expensive and not a site I would be happy to use. 

 

I'm very glad I managed to get a stash of them from Viis Ilusalong while they were allowed to sell to the UK, as they were not only great prices but also utterly lovely to deal with.  If you live somewhere they are allowed to ship to I urge you to use them for your order and UK ladies I'd stay away from the site serving the UK if you can.

 

Now, on to the gorgeous polish, today's manicure is a mixture of Nfu Oh 39 (a green turquoise flakie) and Nail Pop 20 (a blue purple flakie) which you can pick up in Superdrug.

 

 

I layered 2 coats of each over Kiko 244, a dark aubergine purple.

 

I LOVE how these polishes look, they shift and change colours in different lights and change depending on what angle you look at them from.

 

Here is a bottle shot of them:

 

Even in lower lights these polishes are gorgeous and they really live up to their Opal name, looking like precious stones.

 

They have a lovely layered look because of the multiple coats which really seems to make them glow from within, so pretty.

 

Of all the special effects nail polishes I have tried I think flakies are my favourite, they are so pretty on the nail and can be used with so many colours to create different looks, every time I wear one of mine I wonder why it's been so long.

 

 

Mavala Orion

Another little filler post while I continue to fill myself with Christmas cheer. Today I have a flakie to show you, not one of my favourite flakies or one of the more in your face ones available but a pretty one none the less, Orion by Mavala.  I think this might have been part of  a limited edition collection as I haven't ever seen it in shops or anywhere online really. I am wearing a base coat of Barry M Grapefruit under this polish as it's pretty sheer.

With a flash or under bright artificial light you can really see the very fine shimmery glittery through this polish, and some of the flakies.

In bright light it takes on a very jelly-ish finish, looking really juicy, depending on the angle you have your hand at you can also see the flakies pretty well.

Although it's a subtle sort of flakie I like this polish, the juicy finish and pink colour are pretty and feminine and a little different than just a regular pink polish.

Nfu Oh 51

I LOVE this polish, it's so difficult to show just how beautiful it is in pictures (or it is when you have my photography skills!).  It's a glittery, shimmery, flaky filled, duochrome jelly - what's not to love?  The colours in this polish change depending on what you wear it over and range from red, bronze, orange and deep purple through gold, yellow and green. 

 

Today I have it on over Kiko 244, a deep aubergine cream but it also works beautifully over other dark purples, reds, dark greens, dark blues and black, each giving a slightly different take on the polishes many shades.

 

 

 

Now, on to the polish shots!  As I said I find it impossible to photograph, so to give you some idea I've included a lot of photos.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Frostbitten Flakies

Considering how much I love Frostbite by China Glaze and how much I love Nfu Oh flakies, I was a bit disappointed with this:

Flakies fix the Fail!

I decided I couldn't live with my unsatisfactory manicure for going out tonight, so I stuck a coat of Nfu Oh 52 over the top, flakies make everything better:

Caramel Flakies

Another Diet Coke promo polish here, this time Caramel with Nfu Oh 50 over the top:

Flakie Overload

I decided to copy a look I'd seen online today, which was layering several of my flakies over a black base, here's what I used:

So Laque by Bourjois, number 17, Noie de Chine (2 coats)
Nfu Oh, number 50 (1 coat)
Nubar, 2010 (1 coat)
Nfu Oh, number 39 (1 coat)
Another coat of Nubar 2010
Sally Hansen Insta Dri top coat



And here are the results:







The pictures aren't great but they give an idea of the gorgeous foily jewel look created by layering the flakies. I think next time I might just go for two coats of flakies as the lower ones barely show in the finished look and it will take an age to dry this many layers properly.

Nubar 2010 - More Flakies!

Nfu Oh - Flakies!

Number 56:


Number 51:





Number 52: