Orly Royal Navy

Early today I was cleaning pictures out of my Daily Varnish folder and ran across this macro shot of Royal Navy from probably a year ago. I completely forgot how gorgeous Royal Navy is! When it came time to do my nails the choice was obvious. I needed to revisit Royal Navy!

This polish was originally released back in 2010 as part of Orly’s In the Navy release. It wasn’t really a collection….the display contained 2 repromotes (Star Spangled and White Tips) along with Royal Navy, a new release at the time.

Royal Navy is a cobalt blue jelly packed with aqua shimmer. The shimmer settles at the bottom of the bottle so you have to shake the bottle to death before using it but the result is totally worth it!

Because this is a jelly I did use 3 coats and there was still a visible nail line in bright light. That doesn’t really bother me.

As this polish dries it is a bit dull. A shiny top coat is definitely required! I used Rush 60 Seconds in my swatches. A word of advice: don’t use Seche Vite. It causes this polish to shrink. Badly. 

Honestly, if you are a fan of blue nail polish at all this is a must have. It is part of Orly’s permanent collection and easy to find.

Below the jump there are a slew of swatches including pictures of this polish in the sun. Completely gorgeous!

Alli

Orly High on Hope ( + JulieG Secret Treasure)

Sometimes I get so wrapped up in new polish releases and the latest trends I forget why I fell in love with nail polish in the first place. While OPI I’m Not Really a Waitress changed my perspective on nail polish, what really made me fall in love with nail polish was dark purple polishes. I have an obscene number of dark purple polishes but when I saw Orly had one in their Spring 2013 Hope & Freedom Fest collection I just had to have it.

As it turns out High on Hope is a rather complicated nail polish. The base is a grayish blue jelly and it is packed with pink shimmer that in certain lights has a bit of a duo chrome effect. All that mixed together gives the polish an overall purple look that is right up my alley.

Because of the jelly base I did need three coats to get full opacity. Otherwise the formula is fantastic.

As much as I liked High on Hope on its own y’all know me! I had to add something a little extra. I used 2 coats of JulieG Secret Treasure to add an accent nail. I was a little worried the colors would look strange together but as it turned out….I loved it!

There are additional swatches of High on Hope below the jump (including some shots were you can really see the duo chrome) plus watches of my manicure with Secret Treasure.

Orly Boho Bonnet (+ a gold leaf manicure)

As a brand Orly has been off my radar for the past year or so. None of their 2012 collections really caught my eye. But when the promo images for their spring 2013 Hope & Freedom Fest collection came out I knew I had to have a least a few.

Boho Bonnet is a dusty light blue creme. It’s a lovely color that reminds me of Orly Pixie Dust and OPI I Don’t Give a Rotterdam minus the shimmer. According to Orly the inspiration for this color was the blue California sky. Believe it or not it does remind me of a hazy California day.

The formula is a bit on the thin side. I used 3 coats in my swatches.

For some reason this polish just didn’t mesh well with my skintone. I really loved the color of this polish so I didn’t want to just take the polish off. Instead I decided to do a gold leaf manicure. For most of the nails I just did a DIY Gold Flake Top Coat. But on the ring finger I applied larger pieces of gold leaf (well…actually copper leaf). It had an interesting look to it but I’m still not entirely sold. There are swatches of that manicure, along with additional swatches of Boho Bonnet, below the jump.

Orly Pixie Dust (+ my snow day manicure!)

So…it snowed. Sort of.

Here in good old Charlotte, NC a flake of snow that has no chance of sticking to the ground causes mass panic. After living in the Midwest for several years (and living through a legitimate blizzard and several snow emergencies) my love for snow is a thing of the past. But, that didn’t stop me for reaching for my favorite nail polish that reminds me of a snowy day; Orly Pixie Dust.

From Orly’s Fall 2009 Once Upon a Time collection, Pixie Dust is a dusty steel grayish blue with glass fleck glitter. It really does remind me of a snowy day in Ohio. The color is just gorgeous and quite unique. The base color is similar to OPI I Don’t Give a Rotterdam but the shimmer is more similar to OPI I Have a Herring Problem. The closest dupe I could come up with is butter LONDON Lady Muck.

The formula has a of a jelly feel to it so it’s a bit on the thin side. I used 4 coats in my swatches.

To give my manicure an even more icy feel I topped it with NYC Starry Silver. The result was lovely. Along with additional swatches of Pixie Dust there are photos of my “snow day” manicure below the jump.

Please tell me I’m not the only one that matches their manicure to the weather on occasion! I’m realize writing this post it might be a bit on the crazy side…

Orly La Playa

La playa in Spanish means “the beach”…or at least that’s what my brother who is fluent in Spanish tells me. That’s kind of ironic since no matter how much I rack my brain I can’t come up with a way to relate this polish to the beach. But, funny enough, it makes me think of Malibu. I spotted Orly’s Summer 2010 Viva! collection not long before I left for vacation in Malibu and I wore this for the vast majority of my vacation (despite the fact I lugged 7 polishes all the way to the west coast…).

Anyway, onto the polish! La Playa wants to be a navy creme but doesn’t quite make it into navy, at least in my opinion. There are distinct purple undertones to this polish that navy lacks.

Application was just ok. I used three coats and you can tell in one of the pictures below the jump the polish is a bit uneven leaving a few bare spots. To be fair, they aren’t really noticeable unless there’s bright light involved, but still, just fyi.

Orly didn’t add this to their permanent line but it’s still available on Amazon. The polish that is the closest dupe to this in my current collection is Ulta Moody Blues.

There are more swatches below the jump!

Orly Star of Bombay (+ SinfulColors Faceted)

Sigh.

Once upon a time I remember really loving this nail polish. Star of Bombay is from Orly’s Fall 2008 Gems collection though it is now part of Orly’s permanent line. If I recall correctly I picked this up at Sally’s ages ago when I was on the hunt for the perfect Auburn navy. And to be fair, I’ve used this polish quite a bit in nail art. But it’s been awhile since I’ve worn it on its own.

Star of Bombay is a super dark navy with blue shimmer. Sounds like an awesome concept but fails to deliver on the nail. This polish basically looks black on the nail and the shimmer is undetectable. Sad face.

But, on a better note, the formula is rather fantastic. This can be a one coater though I used two coats in my swatches.

To salvage this manicure I immediately reached for SinfulColors Faceted. The two polishes look fabulous together! Below the jump are a slew of swatches 🙂

Nothing like using glitter to save a disappointing mani!

 

ORLY – Space Cadet

Last night I was in the mood for something interesting- and as I went hrough my stash, Space Cadet practically jumped right into my hands. I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed it yet! Space Cadet is from ORLY’s Cosmic FX collection from the Fall of 2010.

Space Cadet is a fascinating multichrome – copper, pink, purple, hints of green and blue – all there. Probably the nicest thing about Space Cadet is that it translates well from the bottle to nail. It’s a stunner!

Application was fine, the polish went on smoothly – but I did need 4 coats . However, you could probably get away with just 3.

The CosmicFX line was a bit pricier than normal ORLY collections, each polish retailed for $10. Alli picked up Galaxy Girl on clearance, and I also reviewed Out of This World from this collection. Overall, I think Space Cadet is the star of the collection.

ORLY – Nite Owl

I’ve had this polish for quite a while – it was a part of ORLY’s Birds of a Feather collection (which also included the much talked about Fowl Play). In fact, I tried to swatch it back in December but my cuticles were in such bad shape that I was embarrassed to show you (you can look at that picture here if you’d like).

This is a really lovely beige/taupe with very fine silver shimmer – it applies great: 2 coats and you’re ready to go. It reminds me a lot of butter LONDON’s All Hail The Queen/McQueen without the holographic shimmer. Lately, it’s been one of my go to polishes when I just can’t decide what I want to wear (along with Essie’s Meet Me at Sunset).

Happy Monday!

Orly Ingenue

Orly’s holiday 2011 Holiday Soiree collection didn’t really wow me. I saw it in stores countless times and passed each time. For once, I wish I had stayed strong and continued to pass! But of course, I was in Sally’s recently picking up a new bottle of Rush 60 Second High Speed Top Coat and spotted Ingenue on clearance.

Ingenue is a pink leaning purple metallic full of gold shimmer. The formula is a bit thin, but not runny. I needed four coats to get an opaque color.

Don’t get me wrong, this is a gorgeous color. It’s just so wrong for my skintone. Under artificial light, this polish looks copper on me. Not very flattering.  But on warmer skintones, I think this polish would look fabulous.

Ingenue is  not unique. OPI Rally Pretty Pink and Zoya Faye are both almost dead on dupes.

Make sure to check below the jump for a macro shot 🙂

 

 

Black Friday: ORLY – Androgynie

  Time for Part II of our Black Friday Blacks! If you haven’t already, go check out Alli’s BFB choice: Black Diamond.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned this yet, but so far – I’ve only grabbed one nail polish from any of the holiday collections so far – Androgynie  was my choice from ORLY.

I chose it not long after playing around with Facets of Fuschia and my hope was that this would be a multicolored version of FoF. I’m sad to say that it’s not.

Look at all of the sparkly hex glitter in the bottle: gold, green, blue, orange – surrounded by loads of gold and silver microglitter. Well, it looks great in the bottle but it doesn’t translate well onto the nail. Look at my nails. Go ahead! See much of the larger glitter? No? Me either! But guess what happens when I go to take it off? There will be probably about 10 pieces of the glitter on my nail (which would be perfect if you could see it…). The base is too thick and it covers up any of the larger glitter in previous coats. Sadface!

It’s still pretty overall, and we all know I have a hard time resisting sparkly blacks (we also know that I often seem to be disappointed by them…). I think when I wear this again I’ll layer it over a solid black- that should help. I do like the gold microglitter – most of my “sparkly blacks” have silver microglitter instead.

So… if you’re lacking in sparkly blacks, this is an okay purchase – but if you’re expecting it to look as awesome on your nails as it does is in the bottle, you’ll be disappointed.

So – how was everyone’s Black Friday? I went out for a few errands but stayed away from the big Black Friday stops.

Happy Shopping!