Blue roses, sunlit sky: H&M Bella's Choice

Hello ladies,

After experiencing the grey and icy weather of the past two days, I may have enticed the sun with my vibrant blue manicure. I walked to the park shortly before dusk and the clouds opened to form a circle around the sun. After I took my manicure photos, the grey consumed the light once more.

I stamped the rose duo from plate H10 with Konad blue special polish. I highlighted the leaves and stems with blue glitter, using a Migi nail art pen. I prettied up the blooms with iridescent circles from Bundle Monster and tiny blue pearls. With Nfu Oh #54, I painted a funky french at the tips.

H&M Bella's Choice is a bright blue creme. I really think there is some neon pigment in the formula. The color looks like an amped up version of For Audrey. The consistency of the polish is thin and fast drying. I used three coats for opacity. This color is super pretty. It was just what I needed as an antidote to the weekly onset of ice and snow.

Bella's Choice was a sweet gift from Nathalie at jellynat. Nfu Oh #54 was a present from Laura at Sawan. Such generous ladies in the blogging community!

Many thanks! I hope you enjoyed what I created with these much appreciated presents.

Design plate H10 was provided for my consideration. To explore the full line of nail art stamping plates, visit chez-delaney.com.

Happy painting, ladies!

Opalescent stripes

Hello ladies,

I intended to share this manicure with you last night, but I fell asleep while editing photos. If I were to create a blogging montage, I would have to include such a scene.

I've been wearing this look for a couple days and am in love. Nubar Stormhold, from the Fortress Collection, is a noteworthy deep grey creme. With the addition of Nfu Oh #50 and Milani Purple Outline, I feel like I am adorned with opals.

I love how Nfu Oh flakies appear in diffuse light. I am reminded of the glow of deep sea creatures.

Milani nail art striper in Purple Outline, Nfu Oh #50, Nubar Stormhold and Buddha.

I have been really enjoying the deep grey of Stormhold. The creme formula was opaque in one coat. I painted two in stubbornness and disbelief of such perfection. Nubar cremes are among the easiest to apply. I really appreciate working with the Nubar formula.

Stormhold was sent to me for review. This shade, along with the rest of the Fortress Collection, can be purchased from bynubar.com.

I have reviewed Nfu-Oh 50 before. The light purple base disappears over Stormhold. The green flakies become the focus. To create the look, I painted two stripes with Nfu Oh #50 and added a second coat to the line. Purple Outline frames the large stripe.

Purple Outline mesmerized me into a purchase. I was really taken with the sparkling violet and blue glitter floating in a purple base. While the other new Milani stripers seemed like classic nail art colors, Purple Outline was a unique temptation. The bottle has a retro flair. I could see it sitting on a 1940s vanity.

Despite the lure of presentation, I experienced some issues applying Purple Outline. I started with my right hand and the color applied smoothly. When I began forming the stripes on my left hand, the color was thicker. I gave the bottle a gentle shake and resumed. I ended up having to go back over the stripes on my right hand to have a match. I intend to use thinner on Purple Outline. I feel it's worth purchasing for the color, but the formula is too viscous to apply perfect, clean stripes with ease. My stripes are the result of patience of repetition.

Happy painting, ladies!

Atmospheric

Hello ladies,

Today I decided to revisit the idea of layering Nfu Oh flakies. On this occasion, the top coat was Essie Matte About You. The manicure reminds me of a view of planet Earth from space. Painting Nfu Oh 56, 50 and 52 over Essie Midnight Cami created a mesmerizing royal blue and emerald green duochrome. Matte About You made the color seem distant and frozen in time. You can click on any of these pictures to enlarge. The photos show the atmospheric manicure in every type of natural light I could capture, arranged from full sun to shade. 

The Nfu Oh flakie polishes are pictured in order of layering: 56, 50, and 52. 

Above shows Essie Midnight Cami in sunlight. The blue shimmer in the bottle is visible on the nail in moderate to bright light. I couldn't photograph it's full beauty on an overcast day. It appeared to be a deep navy in yesterday's post, but Midnight Cami offers lovely shimmer with the presence of sunbeams.

This is my first occasion using Essie Matte About You topcoat. I am wholly impressed with the formula. The topcoat self levels, creating a smooth, matte surface on the nail. The appearance makes me think of frosted glass. The consistency is thin and it dries quickly. I appreciate that the topcoat alters the look to a satin finish rather than a chalky matte. For ladies who want to experiment with the matte trend, this Essie topcoat can give you the option to create the look with favorite polishes in your collection. 

I would recommend doing cleanup of any excess color around the cuticle area before adding Essie Matte About You. Otherwise, the acetone can create a subtle halo of shine where it encounters the topcoat. For this manicure I used CND Stickey as a base, one coat of Essie Midnight Cami, one coat each of Nfu Oh 52, 50 and 56. I added a coat of CND Air Dry to harden the layers of color before adding Matte About You.

Happy painting, ladies!

Birthday delights

Hello ladies,

Thank you for all of your birthday wishes yesterday. It was so sweet to have your lovely comments waiting for me when I returned from the day's festivities. I will share my day with you and then delight your eyes with my celebratory manicure. I met my girlfriends, Lisa and Cassandra for brunch at Max Brenner, a chocolate theme restaurant. I ordered the Well Mannered Omelette with fresh spinach and goat cheese. On the side were spiced home fries and a sugared biscuit with chocolate dipping sauce. We chatted about Essie Fall Color and the Milani Black Magic collection over coffee and chocolate drinks. Lisa and I brought bottles to gaze at. After such a pleasant time, they made sure I took home a treat to remind me of the day: Max Brenner's Madagascar Vanilla Hand Moisturizer. I plan on doing a review for you ladies soon. The font in the birthday card Cassandra chose would translate well into nail art. It was perfect! After brunch, Lisa and I strolled to the garden for meandering and photography. 

My friend David took me to Longwood Gardens in the late afternoon. We initially were planning on seeing fireworks, but we discovered it was a ticketed event and was sold out. Neither of us had ever purchased tickets to see fireworks so it didn't occur to either of us to reserve them. We both felt the kinship of good company and were set to have a nice time no matter what the arrangements. We walked through the grounds for about an hour and a half, comparing the perfume of heirloom roses and getting lost in the saturation of color in the trial garden with the bees and the butterflies. We went for a country drive for much of the way to the waterfront in Delaware. I love seeing light reflected on the water at night. It was a beautiful walk. 

We journeyed back to Philadelphia for dinner at Bindi, serving modern Indian cuisine. David loves to explore as many offerings as possible when dining so he encouraged me to order whatever interested me on the menu. I had an amazing dining experience and a satchel of leftovers. For an appetizer, I had spring pea and potato samosas with mango-date chutney. I chose sweet goat cheese paratha for bread. It was stuffed with small pieces of coconut, dates, and pecans and was drizzled with wildflower honey. My entree was a vegetarian thali with saag paneer (creamed spinach and cubes of Indian cheese), spiced cauliflower, chana masala (chick peas, tomato gravy, spices), raita (a cooling yogurt sauce) and pulao rice with cashews and golden raisins. It was an absolutely incredible meal. I must say I was so thankful David had requested that we walk across town to Bindi in lieu of driving. It was one of the most beautiful days of the year weather wise. It was so pleasant to have the company of good friends on my birthday with so many treats for the senses. I am very thankful. 

I wanted to do a celebratory manicure for my birthday with an abundance of sparkle. Lauren from Dizzy Nails recently showed a look with layered Nfu Oh polishes. Inspired, I decided to build the flakies to resemble the start of fall leaf changing. Beginning with two coats of Sephora by OPI Dark Room over CND Stickey base coat, I then added one coat each of Nfu Oh 60, 51, and 56. All of the pictures below can be enlarged by clicking. Enjoy.

The variety of the dahlia above is called Peaches and Cream. How perfect!

Here's David making fun of me with his giant hand and similarly proportioned flower. I have been trying to get him to model a matte black or grey polish for you ladies, but he hasn't taken to the idea.

Above and below are the Nfu Oh polishes with different levels of sun brightening them. They are positioned in order of application: Nfu Oh 60, 51, and 56. 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the remembrance of my birthday. 

Happy painting, ladies!

Reflection with a green egg

Hello ladies,

I am very much besotted with today's manicure. The title comes from the combination of Nfu Oh #50, Borghese Campanula Bellflower and a swirly malachite egg. I would advise clicking on any picture to get a close up of the iridescent flakies in the Nfu Oh polish. Enlarging the flower ring photo will reveal a green hitchhiker!  

Like the majority of the flakie polishes, Nfu-Oh #50 is sheer. One of my favorite ways to layer is to recreate the bottle color on the nail. I enjoy attempting to match the base of the glitter polish with an opaque color in the same family. Borghese's Campanula Bellflower achieved the look I wanted. Two coats of Nfu-Oh #50 were painted over three layers of Campanula Bellflower. I used Creative Nail Design Super Shiney as a top coat with OPI Drip Dry drops to harden all those layers. I did have some minor bubbling. Weather wise, the air was festooned with pre-thunderstorm humidity. Were I to do this manicure again, I would add a quick dry topcoat over Campanula Bellflower, allow the polish to set and then apply two coats of Nfu Oh #50 and seal with a final topcoat. I wasn't expecting to be creating a layer cake of color when I began! 

Despite the large flakie glitter, Nfu Oh polishes are simple to apply. The flakies are thin and diaphanous. They mold to the shape of the nail easily with little texture when the polish is dried. They won't pop up or rise off the nail bed. Nfu Oh flakies have the brightest moon glow affect in low, natural lighting. They blur a little in the photos when not in direct sunlight. These can be purchased from Fabulous Street. See the shopping link at the sidebar. 

Borghese Campanula Bellflower is so pretty singly I had trouble painting over it! Were the Nfu Oh not such a worthy layering note, I would have abandoned the idea. For those not familar, Borghese polish is a drugstore brand that travelled over from department store make up counters. They offer the best wide style brush of every brand I have tried. I find Borghese brushes more consistent than OPI prowide. They direct the polish over the nail. They don't mop it on. Campanula Bellflower was from the spring line: Borghese Gardens. I saw it recently at Ulta. You may find a bottle tucked into a wall unit display at the drugstore. The leftover bottles from the seasonal collections tend to be mixed in with their regular line as the limited edition displays empty. It's a lovely pale purple filled with rainbow micro shimmer. 

I am currently waiting on an order from Victoria Nail Supply, which includes a bottle of my beloved CND Air Dry. I will be doing more Coraline manicures from Kit A to showcase the designs for the giveaway. I just need more quick dry top coat beforehand. If I get impatient, I may empty an OPI mini over ten nails. We'll see if I can hold out. Their customer service so far has been wonderful. I'm sure the order will be shipped quickly.  

Happy painting, ladies. I hope you all had a great weekend.

A nosegay: Nfu Oh Flower Oil

Hello ladies,

I wanted to review my bottle of Nfu-Oh Flower Oil before my nightly usage brought the product level any lower. It's the same corset style bottle as Nfu Oh polishes, but this time containing scented cuticle oil. Towards the bottom of each bottle, dried blossoms are suspended. Gazing inward brings the feeling of looking into a terrarium where tiny flowers can bloom under domed glass. It's enchanting. 

The design alone makes it a pleasure to use. I actually keep my bottle of Flower Oil on the cup holder that extends from the tile wall in my bathroom. It's vintage and ceramic instead of being the more modern style that's metal forming an open circle. I perch my bottle where I can enjoy looking at it.  

I have used Nfu Oh Flower Oil unfailingly for two weeks when other cuticles products have never garnered such loyalty and attention. CND Rejuvenator is in my medicine cabinet and CND Cuticle Eraser is toted about in my purse. The former I reserve for whims and the latter I use on the train once a week. I travel an hour and a half on the regional rail every Thursday. I commit to spend part of that span tossing things about in my purse for entertainment. Similarly, I apply Cuticle Eraser when I am a passenger on long car rides. 

What differentiates Nfu Oh Flower Oil is I genuinely enjoy applying it. The corset top twists off, bringing up a brush laden with rose scented oil. There are other options for fragrance: vanilla, banana, mango, orange, strawberry, bubble gum, peppermint, sunflower, plumeria,  lavender, and jasmine. The consistency of the oil is light and it absorbs into the skin easily. I am pleased with the results. Despite almost daily contact with 100% acetone during clean up after polishing, my cuticles are soft and moisturized. Click on any of my manicure photos to see my cuticles under magnification. 

I won't say Nfu-Oh has the best formula cuticle oil on the market. I will say they have the most attractive cuticle oil available anywhere and I like having my hands on pretty things. Nfu Oh Flower Oil can be purchased from fabulous street. See link at the sidebar.

A reminder: Please enter to win a bottle of N.Y.C. Molten Metal for yourself, a family member, friend or swap partner. The contest runs through August 16th and is open to followers/e-mail subscribers. 

Thanks ladies!