Orly Summer 2009 Tiki Time Collection

One more summer collection, this time it's a collection of four bright cremes from Orly.

(And yes, I know that some of my pictures are blurry! My camera can't seem to focus very well anymore...)




Calypso Breeze. A dreamy bright blue creme. I don't have much to say about this- the picture says it all. It's beautiful. It is somewhat similar to Essie Mesmerize, but I don't have them to compare side-by-side at the moment.




Mint Mojito. Bright mint green creme. This reminds me of the color of mint chocolate chip ice cream! It's more of a bright green-yellow than I had anticipated. I thought it might be a match for MAC Peppermint Patti, but when it arrived I realized I was wrong! It is much better and brighter in real life. I am in love with this color. Right on, Orly!!




Sol Cabana. Soft yet bright orange creme. This is a lot softer looking in real life- these pictures seem to make it look almost neon, but it reminds me more of orange juice. It is quite bright and colorful but still has a soft, almost pale look to it- this seems to contradict itself, but once you see it in real life, you'll understand what I'm trying to say!





Teeny Bikini. Ultra bright red creme. Is there such a thing as neon red? Because that's what I would call this. This red is SO BRIGHT. It stands out so much against my skintone that you can't help but stare at it. This is definitely an attention grabbing sort of color.


The formula on these was wonderful. Thin, smooth, no runny/thick three free formula like a lot of other Orly polishes have. Drying time was much faster than I'm used to for Orly. Maybe they're working on their formula a little?

These pictures are all three coats of polish. They were a little sheer due to the thin texture of the polish, but they looked decent at two coats. I wanted to be absolutely sure they were 100% opaque, so I did three coats. You could probably get away with two.

Other than Mint Mojito, none of these colors are entirely unique. You could probably find matches for them from multiple brands- right off the bat, three of the colors are pretty close to three from the Misa Living On The Fast Lane collection. But still, they're gorgeous and if you don't already own similar colors they're worth having in your collection.

Overall, this is an awesome collection. I love every single color. I love brights, I love blue, I love green, I love orange, so I knew this would at least have three things I liked. The red was a total surprise. I don't normally like red, I find it boring, predictable and overdone, but certain shades of red appeal to me. There are a few reds that I really love- Maybelline Juicy Tomato, OPI Vodka and Caviar, OPI Keys To My Karma, Zoya America, Essie Russian Roulette, Essie E! Live From The Red Carpet, and now this.

It's also a nice small collection- easy on the wallet. Even better, this collection comes in a set of minis as well! It's a cheaper way to try out the collection and I really appreciate that Orly is making it more affordable to try their colors. Minis rock.

A few polishes from the Orly Spring 2009 Prepster Collection

I have mixed feelings about this collection. I love the colors, but I hate the name! It brings me back to high school. I think I will always have a permanent distaste for anything labelled "preppy".... Maybe Orly should re-promote Goth, the beautiful black polish with silver glitter, and put it on it's own display and set it all by itself off to the side of the Prepster collection... Ha!

Okay, that was random. Sorry. Heh. Anyway, I only ended up with the colors from this collection that appealed to me, so this isn't a complete set of swatches. I just have no desire for another sheer pink or sheer frosty lavender. I don't like them, I don't wear them and I don't like swatching them.


Here are my favorites from this collection:




Cashmere Cardigan. From the promo pictures of this, I had expected it to be more purple, but it's really more blue. I'm not complaining- I love this color! It's soft and muted but since it's such an uncommon color it still has a bit of edge to it.





Country Club Khaki. I was hoping that this would be like a Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge with less red in it, and it was! It's one of those unusual dirty-but-super-cool colors that always catch my eye. Kinda like Grunge, yes, but also 'mushroomy' like Butter London Fash Pack or Zoya Pasha. I can't think of any dupes for this.




OMG! This polish is way better in real life. My picture does it no justice. It's an ultra bright but not neon pink/red/coral creme with a near-jelly texture. You have to see this one in person, it's really beautiful.


Tennis, Anyone? This wasn't the color I was expecting but it's not too bad. It's a sheer nude creme. It's kind of sheer and hard to apply- this is four coats and you can still see my nail through it.


The formula on these is spotty. Cashmere Cardigan and Country Club Khaki were smooth, thin and easy to apply- no issues at all. OMG! and Tennis, Anyone? were on the thick side and I found it a little difficult to build coverage without the polish on the nail becoming too thick and stringy. OMG! was nicer to apply than Tennis, Anyone? but still thicker than the other two colors I tried.

The drying time on this is pretty long. I have worn each of these colors at least once (twice for Cashmere Cardigan) and I used my usual combination of Qtica Natural Nail Growth Stimulator and Seche Vite with them but they were still dentable after 24 hours. I have also had drying time issues with a lot of my other Orly polishes, so I don't think it's unique to this collection. Some people don't have a problem with them taking too long to fully dry, I do, your mileage may vary.

The bottles and brushes are perfect. The bottle sturdy, that's for sure- I dropped one on my ceramic tile floor and it BOUNCED. Didn't break. The handle is really nice. It has a natural curve so it's comfortable to hold and it has a rubberized coating so you don't drop it. The brush itself is average- bristles are on the long side but no defects. No complaints about the bottle here.


Other than the thickness of certain shades and the long drying time, this is a pretty good collection. I really love three of the four colors I have and I at least like the fourth color. They are all much better in person- especially OMG!.

Reader Request: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple Comparison

In all my time swatching and doing comparisons, I've almost never found a pair of polishes to be an exact match.... Until now! Extra-special-huge thanks to reader Gladys for requesting these polishes for comparison!

Index and ring finger: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple
Middle and pinkie finger: Orly Midnight Star

If there's a difference between these two polishes, I sure as hell can't see one. In my opinion, this is an exact match. If I didn't write it down, I would have had a hard time remembering which finger was wearing which polish!

Now, despite the color match, these polishes do have a few formula differences. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is quite sheer and needs three coats. Orly Midnight Star is fairly opaque and is perfect in two coats. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is old formula OPI, which contains the lovely "Big Three" and is slightly thinner than your average polish. Orly Midnight Star is Big Three-Free, which means it is a little thick and goopy and takes quite a while to dry. Application issues with both polishes were minimal- just keep in mind what type of formula you are trying to apply and you will have no problems.

Finding an exact match of OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is truly awesome. Originally released in 1996 as part of the OPI Rocky Mountain collection, OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is extremely hard to find, and to the best of my knowledge was only released with that collection and never again produced. OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple is über-discontinued and quite ancient, you would have an extremely hard time trying to track down this "antique" polish. Orly Midnight Star just came out a few months ago and is readily available at numerous retailers and etailers - I've even seen the whole Orly Gems collection display at my local grocery stores and CVS Pharmacies!

So, to sum it all up: OPI Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple = Orly Midnight Star.

Awesome.

Random Black Polish Swatches and Comparisons!

I've been working really hard on my swatching project lately and I feel like I'm finally making progress on the giant mountain of polishes I wanted to photograph. Yay!!!

I've actually been working on photographing my entire stash for quite some time, but the problem is my collection keeps growing. That, and I get distracted very easily lately... But wow! Progress feels awesome!

Anyway, here are a few swatches I wanted to share with you:


Zoya Suvi compared to China Glaze Gussied Up Green. Index and middle finger are Suvi, ring and pinkie are Gussied Up Green, thumb is (left) Suvi and (right) Gussied Up Green. You can see that while they're quite similar, they're definitely different enough to justify owning both. Love 'em!



Red glitters! Thumb to pinkie: China Glaze Ruby Pumps, New York Summer Fire Red Glitter, Hot Topic Red Glitter, Zoya Delilah, Zoya Jade.
All quite different! And all very pretty. I still haven't quite figured out the text thing yet, but I'll figure something out!

And there's recently been a lot of interest in black nail polish, so I've swatched a few.



Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Black Pearl. No, it's not pearly, it's creme.... Weird name lol.


Black Rose. It doesn't have a label so I don't know the actual name or brand, but I found this on the Fantasy Makers halloween display at Walgreens!


Wet N Wild Fantasy Makers Black Magic (over Black Pearl)


Orly Goth. My favorite black with silver glitter. The glitter shapes are somewhat random and it reminds me of snowflakes.


Petites Black Star. Gorgeous black and gold glitter!



Hot Topic Black Glitter. No label so I don't know what the actual name or shade number is, sorry!


Hot Topic Black Iridescent. This is one of the coolest polishes ever. It's full of little flecks of multicolored glitter- they change to all the colors of the rainbow depending on the light! It's unbelievable. If you like black polish, you MUST get this one- it's only $2.99!


Chanel Black Satin. If you're thinking of getting this, don't. Get Zoya Raven instead! It's identical and costs $6. Zoya's formula is better, too!



ManGlaze Black. I adore this.


Misa Wishing On A Star.


Misa I Will Survive.


These are just a few of the black polishes in my collection. If there's a specific black that I haven't posted and you'd like to see it, let me know and I'll be happy to post it for you!

I also took another taupe and dusty purple comparison picture with some new colors I got, but I think I somehow deleted it! I can't find it anyhwere in my photo library or my nail photo folder! :( Oh well... Guess I'll take it again. *sigh*

Stash organization before pictures

Already swatched!



Drugstore.

Reader Requests, Part 1!

Here are a couple of reader requests! Please ignore my broken nail in some of the pictures- I've been trying not to swatch until the broken nails grow out a little bit, but I got impatient!

In no particular order....

For lovely Karman, some comparisons. I've tried labeling them, but I'm not sure if it makes the picture too confusing. Should I keep doing comparisons with text, or ditch it?


Thumb to pinkie: Lippmann Bitches Brew, China Glaze Heart of Africa, China Glaze Metropolitan, China Glaze On Your Knees!, CND Dark Secret.


Thumb to pinkie: China Glaze Red Stallion, OPI Apple Of My Eye, OPI Never Lon-Done Shopping, OPI Red-y For Anything, Essie Valentine Red.

These two were a challenge! I thought there would be a lot of close matches, but after pulling pretty much every similar color out of my stash and lining them all up together, I only came out with a few close ones. Oddly enough, the nearest matches are all discontinued colors.... Maybe it's a sign? Then again, these are only dupes I have in my stash, I'm sure someone who has more of these types of colors would have more matches?

Another comparison, this one for the wonderful Grace:


Thumb to pinkie: OPI Espresso Your Style, Borghese Espresso Brown F, China Glaze Unplugged, Orly Golden Maharaja, Lippmann Brown-Eyed Girl.

I could do these brown comparisons all day. I love browns, and I couldn't choose just five.... I should do another picture! Anyway, these are all similar to each other, but different enough to justify owning them all. The shimmer in these are all different textures- some are more sparkly, more frosty, sparse, glowy... I love them all.

A purple comparison for the fabulous Tink:


Thumb to pinkie: Misa Fatal Affair, Color Club Electronica, Misa Forbidden Lust, China Glaze Drama Queen, China Glaze Coconut Kiss.

The request was originally just a comparison of Fatal Affair and Electronica, but these other purples were sitting in front of me and looked similar, so I included them as well. They all look much closer in color in the bottle- they're much different on the nail! All gorgeous, but an indication that sometimes bottle color can be deceiving.

A beautiful swatch for dear Tiffany:


Essie Starry Starry Night.

I think Starry Starry Night is a perfect name for this color. It's spectacular!

I'm working on editing the rest of the request photos, so I should have them up soon.

Thanks for the great requests, guys! I had fun doing these!

Orly Fall 2008: Gems Collection Swatches

This collection was a surprise to me! I heard nothing about it until I saw it online when I was ordering my France polishes. It's a good surprise, though, it's an awesome collection!

I realized that I don't feature Orly (YARLY.) very much on here... It's not intentional! I really do like Orly, they just don't seem to release new collections as often at the other polish companies. If you can't tell, I'm a sucker for 'new'. I'm always curious about new and exciting polishes, makeup, fragrance, hell, anything 'new'!

The only thing I don't like about Orly is that they take for-ev-er to dry. I always seem to ruin my nails when I'm wearing Orly because I can't wait for them to dry.

Anyway, on to the gems.


Here they are, all lined up. Look, they come with cute rings! They don't fit on my tiny fingers, but they fit the bottle nicely. Star of Bombay, Golden Maharaja, Mandalay Ruby, Sea of Light, Golden Jubilee, Midnight Star.


Golden Jubilee. Bright orangey gold shimmer. Very bright. Sparkly. Mmm.


Star of Bombay, Super deep dark blue with the faintest hint of shimmer. The shimmer is almost invisible on the nail, except on very bright light.


Sea of Light. A peachy-coral-pink kind of color with a blueish-purple shimmer overlay. Almost duochrome, but not quite.


Golden Maharaja. My favorite out of the collection. Gorgeous rich brown with golden shimmer. This bubbled badly seconds after applying. I'm not sure why. Must be an Orly thing.


Mandaly Ruby. Medium red creme. That pretty much says it all.


Midnight Star. Very pretty frosty deep purple. It's like a purple/silver fusion. This one also bubbled very badly just seconds after application. What's up with that?? I bubbled before I could even take a picture of it. Lame! Still an awesome color, though.

Hooray for nice surprises!

On a totally unrelated note, have any of you been having trouble with your China Glaze polishes lately? Every time I try to wear a China Glaze polish, it takes hours to dry. This is happening with old and new formula polishes. The other day I tried to wear Passion In The Pacific with Seche as a topcoat, and eight hours later I could still dent the polish. Same with Side Saddle on my toes. Is it just the weather, or do they really take that long to dry? I didn't have this problem with any of the Ink collection, but every other collection seems to be doing it now. Hmmm...

Silver Swatches, Part 2.

Here's a few more silvers. Some are glitters, if silver glitter counts as silver! There's still a few stragglers I haven't photographed, but I'll get to them eventually.


Cover Girl Boundless Color Disco Dazzle. These topcoats come in all different colors. This one is the silver and it has lots of holographic glitter. I actually really like this, despite not usually being a Cover Girl fan.


China Glaze Drenched In Diamonds. Very delicate light silver with microshimmer. This is three coats, it's pretty sheer.


Finger Paints Easel Come, Easel Go.


MAC $$$$ Yes. I love the satiny-smooth shiny metallic finish on this. Silver version of Metalist.



New York Summer Alpha Jewel Glitter. This is nice, inexpensive holographic glitter.


Sation Grey Opal. It looks silvery, but it's white with flashes of other colors- blue, green, purple... Very pretty and costs $1!


Nubar Holographic Glitter. Gorgeous and smooth as glass. This is very similar to Piggy Polish Sunshine on Snowflakes.


OPI Designer Series Shimmer. Holographic silver.


OPI Give Me The Moon. Grey with purple/blue flash. Looks silver, does it count?


OPI Gone Platinum In 60 Seconds. Looks slightly more shimmery and metallic in real life. It's a platinum silver that leans blue/grey.


OPI How To Jamaica Million. Metallic silver with purple duochrome.


OPI Mystic Moonshine. Metallic silver with smooth silver glitter.


OPI Paris Couture For Sure. It's described as a top coat, but the glitter is very dense. Dense, smooth and holographic. Perfect.


OPI Rinse Charming.


OPI SRO (Standing Room Only) Silver. More subtle than Designer Series Shimmer.


OPI Stars In My Eyes. Kind of a purple silver with shimmer.


OPI What's Dune. Looks silver indoors, when the sun hits it it's crazy shimmery. Love this one, but it's extremely sheer.


Orly Dazzle. Metallic silver with a touch of glitter!


New York Summer Party Time. Metallic silver with silvery glitter and purple duochrome.




Sally Hansen Hard As Nails Xtreme Wear in Showtime. Another holographic silver. I can never get enough holo!

That's all for now. Hope this helps!