Orly (mini) - Rage

I love foils. This one was so thick with pigments, so grainy. It picked up every unevenness on my nail! Be sure to buff or use a ridge filler first.

I am not so fond of these mini bottles now. The caps are just hard to hold when they are that short and stumpy.

Rage is a beautiful, soft rose gold. It went on well and even with 1 coat it was fairly decent. The second coat makes it really brilliant.

Orly - Meet Me Under the Mistletoe

Oh this is the greatest green ever. It's sparkling, deep, reflective and festive. I suppose the girls call this glass fleck. There is silver glitter, green glitter and soft jelly base to house it all in. I did 3 or 4 coats for each nail. What I found was that it did chip easily after 2 days. I had top coat on one hand and that survived right through to when I took it off, except for tip wear. The other hand, it started chipping off at the cuticle end.

Lots of people commented on this colour. It is just really lovely. I couldn't stop looking at it either.

Scrumptious! Click for bigger!

Orly - Grape Glimpse

This one is in the mini range. It is a very transparent purple with gold glimmer. The formula is very runny. I've done five coats on each finger except the pointer which is only up to four coats. It is really barely there and maybe someone out there just wants the tiniest hint of colour. Is it a glimpse? Yes. Is it grape? I've never seen a grape this colour.  But I really do like how it goes on, and I really like to paint. As I go on I am getting better at staying within the lines and going faster. Can you imagine the fun I could have if I had 4 more arms? I want to add that Orly's famous grip cap is not on these minis. No, minis only get a hard plastic lid to deal with. But you know, that is not actually such a bad thing either. Yesterday I found a mini lip balm that I'd been given years ago that have this "rubberized" cap and it had gone kind of gooey with time, so it is really not the best. But hey, its nice to know that these things can actually degrade. Do you ever wonder about civilisation in 1000 years? Will they dig up fossilised nail polish bottles? Will they find in some landfill, a bottle that is covered in calcification and because of this airless state, scientists find the content is still as runny and useful as it was at the time of manufacture? Anyway, I have gone on a bit of a ramble not really associated with Orly. Tell you what, I have SOOOOO many nail blogs to catch up on. My inbox is a splattering of reminders.

Orly "Iron Butterfly"

Here's the other suede effect metallic I got from Orly. I applied it before bed time and in the morning it had cracked. It's a pretty frail polish and reacts badly to any flexing of the nail. Not sure how it would go with 2 or 3 coats.

I found it was so heavily pigmented that one coat was even coverage.

So perhaps you can call this pewter. It's charcoal black and has this great silver glitter in it. Again, it smoothed itself out as I painted and I really love the frosted bottle and the brush is AMAZING. I don't think I have ever been much fussed about the brush but I can tell you in my old age, that with the shakes, a good brush that flexes well, with all its bristles working together in the same direction and sticking together... it really helps to keep your paint within the lines.

I wonder if I can use this polish as an excuse: sorry, I can't pick that up/type that letter/get that stack of whatever... it will make my polish crack.

P.S. I just looooved touching this polish on my nails. I really love the texture of it!

Nicole (by OPI) "Dream Maker" (and Orly "Glam Rock")

Nicole is a formulation sold at a lesser price in chemists and so on, with colours targetted at the teen market. I mean, they have had a range for Justin Bieber and Gossip Girl (4 colours: Spotted! green; Too Rich for You blue; Scandals, Secrets and Sparkle silver, and Party in the Penthouse lighter blue.). 14 colours for Justin.

Aaaaanyway. I picked out Dream Maker because it has that crystally glitter that makes me think I dunked my fingers in sugar. The pink was a bits disturbing - I'm not much into cotton candy shades, and this was smack bang princess, lollies and fairy floss.

Fortunately, it seems to achieve the colour in the pot you would really need to paint on several layers. I've out on 3 and its not flagrantly princess yet. There is just that delicious gold and silver all through and its a really easy brush on polish. Nice and flowing, fantastic brush for a budget brand. Very pleased.

Sadly the first photos I took were not in focus and after a couple of days I got round to taking more, but only after I added the Glam Rock.

Orly had a range of metallic suede/matte finish. Glam Rock is copper, I guess. The glitter is also nice and chunky. I dries flat, I was amazed. You need to paint quick because it dries to the matte finish quickly, but I am impressed because it seems to level off by itself. It's not really my colour, but I wanted to see how this matte finish stuff worked.

Orly (mini) - Blue Belle

More than 5 years ago, I had a colour I really, really adored - Bourjois' #50 Bleute. It was iridescent, semi transparent with a vague milky base and looked like I had a sheet of plastic over my nails. It had a strange way of not looking like nail polish. I've been trying to replicate it for years. Lots do the iridescent baby blue look, but none have come near the effect this Bourjois polish did.

On Wednesday when I discovered Orly at a New Farm chemist, I decided to give Blue Belle a go, despite having been disappointed by other blue polish. Well, it is close, closer than other ones, but still not quite there.

But still, what can I say? This look evokes ethereal beings, angelic and blithe.

I wanted to know why it just wasn't working out for me. Under a fluro lamp I found the Bourjois has a faint amount of pink or violet iriscence. I wonder if I can replicate that. Grrrr. Anyway, for now, this is as near as I can manage.