Orly Infamous collection: Scandal

purchased by me

Scandal is a basic deep red crème, that is nevertheless quite pretty.  The formula is well-behaved, opaque in two coats and shiny even before top coat.

Orly Infamous collection: Frenemy

purchased by me

Frenemy is a black jelly with holographic glitter.  It's easy to use and pretty, but Zoya did it three years ago with Storm.

Two coats with no top coat:

Orly Infamous collection: Gossip Girl

purchased by me

Gossip Girl is a barely pink-tinted base stuffed with gold and pink and holographic glitter.  It's a wonderful top coat, not too thick and drying quickly.  It does need a thick top coat so it doesn't feel textured.  I layered one coat over Front Page and loved the result.

Orly Infamous collection: Makeup to Breakup

purchased by me

Makeup to Breakup is a gorgeous teal crème with a perfect one-coat formula that dries quickly and very shiny.  Those with longer nails may need two coats.

Orly Infamous collection: 15 Minutes of Fame

purchased by me

15 Minutes of Fame is a pinky-red jelly filled with holographic and pinky-red glitter.  I've shown one coat over Front Page and two coats on its own.  It looks beautiful either way, and the formula is easy to work with and quick-drying.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 18, Half moons

purchased by me

Yay, a challenge I can totally rock!  For this mani, I used a base of Orly Front Page, and then painted the half-moons with Orly 15 Minutes of Fame, a red jelly base with red glitter.  The gold base toned down the red so it's more pink, but it's so pretty I don't care!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 17, Glitter

purchased by me

My glitter nails turned out to be less glitter and more crème, but I like the way the glitter pops in contrast.  My base is Orly Makeup to Breakup, a dark teal crème, and the glitter is Gossip Girl, a clear base with various sizes of coppery gold glitter.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 16, Geometric

purchased by me

My geometric nails have a base of Sinful Colors No Filter, a dark indigo shimmer and straight (or as straight as I could get them) lines of Orly Front Page, a pale gold frost.  Front Page is part of the Orly Infamous collection, which I will swatch when the challenge is done.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 11, Polka Dots

purchased by me

I am really proud of this, because not only did I get my dots fairly even, it's my first negative space manicure!  I started with a base of Zoya Naked Manicure in Lavender Perfector, then used an angled eyeliner brush to dot Orly On the Edge over the base.  I finished by filling in the tips with On the Edge.

Orly On the Edge

purchased by me

On the Edge is a gorgeous, vivid summer indigo--never so dark it looks black, vibrant enough to pop on toes in even modest sandals, and with a smooth formula that is perfect in one thick coat or two thin ones.  It dried quickly and a little bit satiny, but it's not quite bright enough to qualify as a neon in my book.  Still, I love it and I love seeing it on my toes when I'm doing water workouts!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

On the Edge is part of the Adrenaline Rush collection, it's limited edition and I got mine at Ulta for $8.00 + tax.

Orly Fireball

purchased by me

For summer, Orly brings us Adrenaline Rush, a collection of six brilliant brights.  I got two of the six, the first of which is Fireball.  Fireball is a blue-toned neon red with a great formula--perfect consistency, vibrant color and opaque in two thin coats or one thick one.  It dries satin-matte and fairly quickly, like most neons.  There is some violet shimmer faintly visible in the bottle, but it doesn't show up on the nail.  Unfortunately, Fireball freaked out both my camera and my photo editing software, so all I can do is post the pictures which come closest and say that it's brighter in real life!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

The Adrenaline Rush collection is available wherever Orly polishes are sold.  I got Fireball at Head2Toe Beauty.

Ohio Wears Blue April 8, 2015

Wear Blue is a statewide awareness campaign that takes place on the second Wednesday of every April, Child Abuse Prevention Month. Ohioans are encouraged to wear blue that day - to work, to school, to a community event - to show support for preventing child abuse and neglect.

Since my outfit tomorrow will be a navy blue & white tweed jacket and navy pants, I thought I'd also post some blue nail polishes!

Tons more after the jump!

Walgreens Frozen collection: Ice-solated and Kristoff He Goes

purchased by me

Given that there is a foot of snow in my yard and that the temps have hovered around -6º to -10º F for the last month, you might think I'd be over winter.  And I am.  But I am not over the latest Disney and Walgreens collaboration!  For a ton of details and pictures, head over to Nouveau Cheap.  For swatches of two of the polishes, just scroll down.

Ice-solated and Kristoff He Goes were my first encounters with the Color Blast line, and I managed to pick two colors that hit the total best and total worst ends of the spectrum!

To spare you further suspense, Ice-solated was terrible.  For $6.99 + tax, I expect better from Orly than a formula which takes FOUR coats to become opaque and then remains dentable for more than 40 minutes.  Ice-solated is a super pretty color, a light turquoise with blue shimmer, which just adds to the insult.  I bought this on Saturday morning and returned it at noon on Sunday.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

On the other hand, Kristoff He Goes was glorious.  A deep teal crème, the formula was perfect--opaque in one coat, perfect viscosity, went exactly where I told it to go and dried swiftly and shinily.  One caveat--Kristoff does stain, so double up on the basecoat!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

I will probably try more Orly Color Blast polishes, because I really, really like Kristoff He Goes, but if you're in Walgreens and looking at the Frozen collaboration, save yourself seven bucks and keep going past Ice-solated!

Orly Smoky collection: Smoked Out

purchased by me

Smoked Out was my final choice from the Smoky collection, and it was definitely worth saving for last!  In the bottle, Smoked Out looks like emerald green glassfleck glitter in a black base, but on the nail it's a phenomenal deep teal.  It's opaque in two coats and dries satin matte, so my swatches have two coats of polish and one coat of top coat.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

In the sun:

Smoked Out is available at various e-tailers, including Head2Toe Beauty, where I got mine for $6.25 each + shipping.

Orly Smoky Collection: Darkest Shadow

purchased by me

Darkest Shadow is a black jelly base filled with deep pink glassfleck glitter.  It's opaque in two coats, very well behaved and dries to a satin matte finish, so my swatches are with top coat.

Indoors with flash:

In the sun: 

Darkest Shadow and the rest of the Smoky collection are available available at e-tailers, including Head2Toe Beauty, where I got mine for $6.25 each + shipping.

Orly Smoky Collection: Brush It On

purchased by me

For Autumn 2014, Orly has six shades inspired by smoky eye makeup.  I got three of the six, and today's polish is Brush It On, a clear base full of shiny fuchsia and copper glassfleck glitter.  On its own, it's not opaque even in three coats, but so sparkly it hides that fact.  Over black, the copper is lost and the fuchsia shines out.  I'm on the fence about this one, and I think I'll need to see if I can get the copper to come out more before I decide I'm not going to keep it.  I haven't seen these in stores like Ulta yet, but they're available at e-tailers, including Head2Toe Beauty, where I got mine for $6.25 each + shipping.

On the left, two coats over black, on the right, three coats alone.

Indoors with flash:

In the sun:

Indoors without flash:

Orly Angel Rain

purchased by me

Angel Rain is part of Orly's Surreal collection, and it's the only one I thought was worth shelling out for.  It's a very pretty sky blue frost with a faint purple duochrome.  It's opaque in three coats on its own or can be used as a top coat.  Angel Rain self-levels quite nicely, and the formula was thin but not runny.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

One coat over Zoya Song, indoors with flash:

One coat over Zoya Song, indoors without flash:

Angel Rain is available wherever Orly polishes are sold.

Sneak peek: week of 9/16-9/20

Orly Secret Society collection: Lavish Bash

purchased by me

The fourth polish I got from the Secret Society collection is Lavish Bash, a gold & holographic glitter mix in a clear base.  It's slightly thick, but packed with glitter, and can be opaque in three coats or worn as a topper with one coat.

Three coats, indoors with flash:

Three coats, in diffuse daylight:

One coat over What's the Password, indoors with flash:

One coat over What's the Password, indoors without flash:

One coat over What's the Password, in the sun:

Orly polishes are sold at Sally Beauty Supply, CVS, Ulta, salons and e-tailers.  The Secret Society polishes aren't available in brick & mortar stores yet, so I got mine at TransDesign.

Orly Secret Society collection: Macabre Masquerade

purchased by me

Macabre Masquerade is a beautiful royal blue glitter polish packed with rainbow holo particles in various sizes.  It's thick but easy to work with, dries quickly and is opaque in two coats.  It does need a thick top coat to smooth it out, but the result is worth it!

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

In the sun:

Orly polishes are sold at Sally Beauty Supply, CVS, Ulta, salons and e-tailers.  The Secret Society polishes aren't available in brick & mortar stores yet, so I got mine at TransDesign.