ABC Challenge: P - Orly Pixie Dust

Self-purchased

Orly Pixie Dust is a sheer, light grey with microflakie-shimmer. I bought it as an alternative to Illamasqua Raindrops, and I'm not in the least disappointed! Pixie Dust is super pretty and calming. I used 4 coats. The formula was great and applied nicely even though it was sheer. It dried with a nice shine, but I still used top coat.

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

ABC Challenge: N - Orly Nite Owl

Self-purchased

Orly Nite Owl is a medium taupe creme packed with silver shimmer. It's quite pretty, but I don't like the color on me as much as I thought I would. :( While it's more opaque than I thought it would be, I still had to use 3 coats. The formula was great - so easy to apply and control! I really think Orly should get more love for its consistent formula. I used top coat.

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

ABC Challenge: L - Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake + Orly Decades of Dysfunction

Self-purchased

Black Cat Lacquer Let Them Eat Cake (middle and ring fingers) has small pastel light green, baby blue, and petal pink matte hexes and silver holo micro glitter in a clear base. I love how delicate it looks! I used 1 coat over Orly Decades of Dysfunction. The glitter doesn't suspend well in the base so I had to set the bottle upside-down before application. The formula was really good - no fishing was required! I was able to get a lot of glitter onto the brush, though I did have to manipulate them on the nail to evenly distribute them. It dried just a wee bit bumpy so I used top coat to smooth it out.

Orly Decades of Dysfunction is a pink-toned off-white creme. I used 3 coats. The formula was very pigmented, but a bit thin and runny so I had to apply it slowly and carefully. It doesn't level well either. It dried shiny, but I still used top coat.

Thanks for looking! See you on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Orly Miss Conduct

Orly Miss Conduct is a gorgeous magenta/red-violet/berry with holographic glitter-flakies. The base closely resembled a crelly, and was already very pigmented on the first coat. I used 3 coats for swatching purposes, but I think it could have passed with 2 coats. The color became deeper and richer with each coat though. The formula was wonderful - smooth and easy to apply and control. It dried to a nice shine. The only complaint I have is that top coat dulled the holographic effect of the glitter-flakies a little. (The plus side is that the base appeared to have even more depth.) I used 1 coat of top coat here.

What do you guys think? I'd love to know!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Orly Glitz and Glamour

Orly Glitz & Glamour

Glitz & Glamour is a very shimmery, reflective flakie-foil yellow gold. I had a really fun time admiring it in the sun! :D I used 3 coats to make sure I covered up any patchy areas, but you can get away with 2 coats. The formula was really nice; I had no trouble applying Glitz & Glamour at all. However, it had a slow dry time. I purchased this to kill my OPI Goldeneye lemming. Judging from swatches online, Glitz & Glamour is a warmer and much denser gold flakie-foil. Spit & Polish has a really nice comparison post of the two polishes!

There won't be any more posts this week. :( I cut my nails too short so some of my fingertips feel a bit sore. I was hoping to swatch more of my untried polishes, but I guess it'll have to wait until next week!

See you guys on the other side of the day!

Michelle

Orly Space Cadet

Orly Space Cadet

First of all, I need to get this out of the way.

Do you see that gorgeous color shift?! I'm warning you, if you continue reading this post, you will go out of your way to find this stunner! You have been warned!

Actually, for some suspense, I'm going to post the rest of the pictures after my review! ;)

Space Cadet is a multichrome and is opaque in 3 coats. It flashes rose-pink, orange, yellow, golden green, pink-purple... I'm actually not sure. It flashes so readily that I don't even know how many or what colors there are. One thing is for sure is that the teal base peeks through. Anyways, the formula was great! It applied SO well! The polish was packed with pigments too! As always with Orly, the brush handle was very nice to use and rested comfortably between my fingers. Dry time was quicker than average.

...YOU NEED THIS POLISH. YOU NEED IT. End of story.

Now here's the rest of the pictures, which shows the beautiful color-shift. Have you guys died of suspense yet? :

In the shade:

Bottle shot! :

I believe a part of myself just died and went to nail polish heaven. R.I.P.

Anyways, I wanted to swatch this beauty for you guys because I have some pretty sad news. I got in organic chemistry lecture and lab this summer. It lasts 10 weeks and covers one whole year of ochem. I'll be much too stressed and busy to post often. :( Posts will, hopefully, be here and there until the class ends. ...At least you get to see this treasure before I'm on temporary leave, right? 

See you guys on the other side of the day!

- M

Orly Fowl Play

In direct light:

Shade:

Orly Fowl Play

Fowl Play is a very complex polish. It is a reddish-eggplant jelly loaded with silver shimmer, blue glitter, and flakies that flash red, orange, yellow, and green. It takes 3 coats to become opaque and dries with a nice gloss and smooth, albeit a little bumpy, finish. Formula was good, though it dried a bit slowly and was a little thick. This, however, keeps Fowl Play from being another Androgynie because the thickness keeps the flakies and blue glitter well suspended in the bottle and well dispersed on the nail. I'll let the bottle close-up pictures do most of the talking. Fowl Play is one polish you definitely need in your collection!

The blue glitter is more dense, though not packed, than pictured here.

Get ready for some nail art Saturday! See you guys on the other side of the day!

- M

Orly Androgynie

Orly Androgynie

Androgynie is a black jelly loaded with silver, gold, and multicolored hexagonal glitter. It takes 3 coats to become opaque and dries quickly with a nice gloss, but feels a little gritty when touched. Formula was great and was easy to apply. Though I find it BEAUTIFUL in the bottle, Androgynie has three major problems: the hexagonal glitter is hard to get out and onto the nail, some of them are covered up as you apply multiple coats, and all the glitter tends to settle near the bottom of the polish bottle. You can solve this problem by placing Androgynie one day (for best results) upside-down; the glitters settle towards the top of the bottle and are easier to get out. A bonus is that you also get more of the hexagonal glitters than when you just vigorously shake the bottle and hope for the best. I used this trick for these swatches. Still, Androgynie really needs a suspension base, a thicker base, or something else to "stabilize" the glitter. The other problem is probably due to the base color; the black covers up all that pretty hexagonal glitter (but not the finer gold and silver glitter). I feel Androgynie would probably be best layered over a black creme base. I'm going to try that next time I wear Androgynie in hope of achieving its appearance in the bottle.

On another depressing note, it seems that I will be posting on Fridays and the weekends since my online class really does take the whole week to study for. :( Some summer! Hopefully, though, I'll be able to swatch a lot and take pictures to save time during the next school year.

I hope everyone has a good, well-rested weekend and awesome summer! (Well, it's summer right now for me at least...).

See you guys on the other side of the day!

- M