Orly Rock-It

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I changed my mani to another of the Orly Mineral FX today, Rock-It, which is the kind of violet red one.  Like the other polish I've used from this collection, Stone Cold, it's really exceptional at two coats, which makes the higher than average price tag a little easier to swallow.

This was just a quickie color change with base coat, two coats of Rock-It, and one of Diamont.  As with Stone Cold,  Rock-It is very well pigmented and unusually easy to apply and control.  It has a nice sparkly finish and dried extremely quickly.  Here's Rock-It in the sunlight.

Orly Rock-It Nail Polish, Two Coats

I know it's not unique or out of the ordinary, but there's something about a good Fall red shimmer that makes my heart go pitter-patter, and Rock-It does the trick.

That's all there is to tell you, Dear Reader, so I hope you have a great Labor Day and until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Orly Stone Cold

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

I changed my polish today to one of the Orly Mineral FX shades, Stone Cold, the bright blue one.  I got it at Sally's, and they're definitely pricey at $9 on sale.  The quality of Stone Cold seemed worth $9 though - it's well pigmented and great in two coats, and the polish is very easy to control.  Still, it's in that giant 0.60 oz bottle, and I think I'd be happier if it were 0.30 oz for $5...

For the manicure, I used a base coat, two of color, and one of top coat.  After growing weary of my shrunken tips on the last one, I used Diamont here so it wouldn't shrink.  Here's Orly Stone Cold in sunlight after it dried.  There's no cleanup here at all - Stone Cold is that easy to control.

Orly Stone Cold Nail Polish from Mineral FX, Two Coats

I like it a lot, it's so vivid and sparkly.  Bright blues always ring some alarm bells for staining, so my hope is that I'll be able to take it off without leaving anything behind to remember it by.

That's Orly Stone Cold, so until next time, Dear Reader, love ans nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Givenchy Vernis Miroir Multiple 771

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I have a little something different to show you today, and interesting glitter top coat.  It is, as you might have guessed from the title, Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771.  It's an older one that's a clear base, but not perfectly clear, the slightly yellowish kind, with lots of really bright, very fine holographic glitter.

I tested it on a nail with the last manicure still on, and the glitter reflects really bright red, green, all the rainbow colors, so I was trying to decide what to put it over for today.  Black and navy blue seemed obvious enough to take the wind out of the Givenchy's sails, I considered a bright red and concluded that I too often use that as the backdrop for glitter top coats, then finally settled on white.  Since the Givenchy does have a tint to it (I doubt it's really tinted that way, some polish bases are not completely clear), I picked the whitest white I have, which is Orly White Out.  Every time I use White Out, there are a ton of comments asking if I mean the typing correction fluid, so I'll be really clear on this one.  White Out is an Orly white creme nail polish, Wite Out is a brand of liquid paper. They're two different things and it's the nail polish on my nails.

I did a base coat, three of White Out to make it non-streaky, then two of the Givenchy, which did add a bit of  a cast to the white, making it more of a pale ivory.  That's fine with me since it diminished the starkness of the white.  I left several minutes between each coat since I'd planned to layer, and I found that the Givenchy dried to a really exceptional high shine, far more so than most top coats.  Still, that's a heck of a lot of layers of polish, so I topped it off with China Glaze Fast Forward.  Fast Forward was just right - the fact that it's not terribly shiny wasn't an issue since it went over something very shiny, and it did a really nice job of drying all those layers.  I accidentally tested it a few times, with the first being fifteen minutes after applying Fast Forward. I knocked a nail into the side of my wire-framed glasses, which is noramlly a sure fire way to make a tear in the surface and take the polish all the way off, but it didn't even dent, which was really impressive.  About an hour after that, I used a nail as a tool for something and got a deep dent, which I figured I had coming, but it popped back out while I slept and I woke up with smooth shiny nails.  Here's the manicure in sunlight - the focus isn't the best ever, but that's intentional to show the glitter a bit.  All of it sparkles like the few pieces that show.

Givenchy Miroir Multiple Nail Lacquer and Top Coat 771

It would definitely be more vibrant over a dark color, but I was up for some variety.  Know what's really funny about that packaging here?  The stem on the Givenchy bottle  is super long, and the round bottle part is as tall as the Orly White Out 0.60 oz bottle, but the Givenchy holds only  0.27 oz.  I'd previously thought the 0.30 oz Estee Lauder bottle, that giant block of glass that would make an effective paperweight in a wind tunnel, was the most masterful job of deceptive packaging, but Givenchy topped them with this one.

That's Givenchy Miroir Multiple 771 and jst about all I have for you today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Orly Prisma Gloss Silver

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I thought I'd show you Orly Prisma Gloss Silver this morning because it's an exceptionally nice fine holographic glitter top coat, my favorite of the ones available in brick and mortar stores in this area, but I rarely hear anything about it.

I started out with base coat, two coats of Orly Pixie Stix, one coat of Orly Prisma Gloss Silver, then one of China Glaze Fast Forward.  This is the first time I've used Fast Forward, and it's pretty nice.  It dried all the polish thoroughly and quickly, but it's not very shiny.  Still, sometimes I'd rather just get a manicure totally dry in the evening so I can go to sleep without getting sheet marks, then just shine it up with a non quick dry top coat in the morning, so it's nice to know this works well for the drying part.

With Prisma Gloss, using one coat was good because I usually need more than one coat to get as much glitter as I like.  Since I only use glitters like this for layering, being able to shave a coat off the total count matters - the difference between two coats of color and three isn't huge, but beyond that I always have a sense of lots of question marks around whether a manicure will dry well, and I've messed up more than I could count waiting for a lot of coats to dry.  With a total of three coats of color on this one, it's dried really well.  Here it is in sunlight.

Orly Prisma Gloss Silver, One Coat, over Orly Pixie Stix Nail Polish

I have the gold version of this as well, but I don't recall ever trying it out.  I'll break it out this week so we can see if it's as cool as Prisma Gloss Silver.


That's what I know, so until next time, Dear reader, love and nail polish to you!



All Rights Reserved, Siobhan@The Nailphile. If you're reading this elsewhere, it's stolen from a real nail polish blog.

Konad Sky Pearl Special Polish & m63

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I did a manicure that came to mind the other day when I came across my Konad Sky Pearl Special Polish, and it turned out really well.  Not perfect, but I like it well enough that I don't especially care that it's imperfect.

I started out with Orly Frolic, the lovely two coat purple creme, which I thought would look really cool with Sky Pearl stamped over it.  For the pattern to stamp, I used the swirly one from Konad plate m63 that looks a lot like water marbling.  Since I liked how it was coming out off the bat, I used a coat of Konad top coat to prevent any smudges prior to finishing it off with Poshe.  Here's Orly Frolic with m63 in Konad Sky Pearl in the sun.

Konad Sky Pearl Special Polish over Orly Frolic with Konad Plate m63

You can see the the pearl finish in the Special Polish is very subtle - this is in sunlight, and the shimmer doesn't really show otherwise.  What I like about the Konad Pearl polishes (Black, White, Sky, Violet, ...) is that they don't seem to smudge anywhere near as easily as the cremes and they make exceptionally crisp stamps.

That's all for today, Dear Reader, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Frolic

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today's manicure is another from Orly's Happy Go Lucky Collection, Frolic, which is a gorgeous purple creme. It's very easy to apply, is so pigmented one coat is just shy of sufficient, and it's really shiny when dry.  This is Frolic with a base and top coat in cloudy sunlight.

Orly Frolic Nail Polish, Two Coats

I don't know what it is about the particular shade of Frolic, but I love it and keep staring at my nails.  This one  really should stay for another day to be enjoyed, and since it cries out to me for some black Konad, I'm going to add to it if I get a chance to today.  It's too good a creme to just wear plain and remove!

That's what I know about Orly Frolic, so until next time, Dear Reader, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Flirty

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I have Orly Flirty to show you from Orly's Happy Go Lucky Collection for Summer 2011.  It's the pink shimmer in the release, and it's perfect.  It's an almost neon pink that's extremely well pigmented with two coats going on easily and providing opaque coverage, it dries very quickly (when I started the second coat, the first was dry with no waiting around time in between), and the color and finish are fabulous together.  I only had cloudy weather for a picture, but Flirty was up to the task.  Please excuse the felt lint on my thumb which the proof read has revealed to me...

Orly Flirty Nail Polish, Two Coats

One sort of strange thing is that once the polish is totally cured, the surface of my nails feels kind of like they're coated in ceramic.  Flirty is not the first polish that dried to feel this way and it's not a problem in any way, it just feels funny in a not-bad way (not especially good either, more like interesting).

I think I'm so smitten with Flirty because it has a strong shimmer and this shade of pink makes me happy, so not everyone should expect to be as enamored with it as I am.  I'm aware that some find pink nail polish to be a bit boring and safe, but it's really high on my list of favorites just the same.  I guess some things are traditional because they work well...

That's Orly Flirty and the news of the day, so until next time, love and nail polish to you!

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Glam Rock

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I'm wearing OPI Turquoise Shatter over Orly Glam Rock, and I really like how it turned out.  It somehow reminds me of enameled jewelry of the 1970's.

Orly Glam Rock is their gold matte polish, and I picked that one both for the color and because it only needs one coat.  I actually had to take a do-over on this manicure - the first time, I did base coat, one of Glam Rock, let it dry, then Turquoise Shatter and top coat.  Turquoise Shatter didn't break up very much that way, but I thought the colors were really good together so I redid it, using top coat over Glam Rock the second time and it turned out much better.  Have a look.

OPI Turquoise Shatter over Orly Glam Rock

It's bright and it's fun.  I like it.

That's just about all I have to tell you about this morning, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Lunar Eclipse

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Today I have something other than an OPI Swiss because I got the Orly Cosmic FX and wanted to try one out. I chose Lunar Eclipse, a blue with a bit of purple duochrome and pink and blue microglitter.  It took three coats to be totally opaque, and has an unfortunately long dry time.

Orly Lunar Eclipse Nail Polish, Three Coats

The duochrome is a lot more visible on the bottle than the nail, which is a bit of a disappointment.  It's still pretty, I was just hoping for more.

That's it for now, Dear Reader.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Orly Viva! Collection

Good morning, Dear Reader!

Today I have swatches of the Orly Viva! Collection for you.  It consists of four shades, two cremes and two shimmers.  Three of the four were three-coaters for me, with the fourth being a two coater.  They applied well, and there are no changes in the bottle or brush to report.

Fiesta is a medium pink shimmer, a three coater.

Orly Fiesta Nail Polish from the Viva! Collection, Three Coats

La Playa was the two-coater, a really nice dark-but-still-blue creme.

Orly La Playa Nail Polish from the Viva! Collection, Two Coats

Bailamos is a light  blue teal shimmer, also a three-coater.

Orly Bailamos Nail Polish from The Viva! Collection, Three Coats

Ole is a coral-y orange creme, also a three-coater.

Orly Ole Nail Polish from The Viva! Collection, Three Coats

That's Orly's Viva! Collection for Summer 2010, and all I have for you this morning.  Until next time, love and nail polish to you!  

Konadicures

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I've been so busy showing you swatches lately that I haven't shown you too many Nails of the Day, so I have Konadicures from about two weeks to show to you.  I've been on a big Konad kick lately.  There's no real order to the pictures, they're just some Konadicures from recent weeks.

First up is Color Club Mrs. Robinson with the rose pattern from Konad plate M65, stamped in Konad White Special Polish.  I really liked this one because it had the old-fashioned feel of the fabric on Grandma's couch on a neon, and the contrast was fun.

Color Club Mrs Robinson Nail Polish with Konad M65 in Konad White

Next is Nubar Hot Pink with two patterns from Konad M59 in Konad White, topped with Konad Silver Glitter Top Coat.

Nubar Hot Pink Nail Polish with Konad M59 in Konad White & Konad Silver Glitter Top Coat

Today's Nails of the Day is Nubar Black with an accent nail in Orly Luxe, with the black stamped with Orly Luxe and the Luxe stamped with Konad Black Special Polish and Konad plate M63.  I stamp my left hand first, and the Orly wasn't dry yet so I squished it a little, then waited a while to stamp the right and took the picture of my rarely seen right hand.  I always have a hard time taking pictures of my right hand...

Nubar Black and Orly Luxe with Konad M63 using Luxe and Konad Black

The rest are all really bright.  For this one, I used Nina Ultra Pro in Solar Flare, which is brighter than the picture, and Bundle Monster plate BM12 using Konad Psyche Pink Special Polish.

Nina Ultra Pro Solar Flare Nail Polish with BM12 in Konad Psyche Pink

Although the polish for the next one, Nails Inc Lime Street, comes from the Kings of Neon Collection, it's not really neon.  I don't recall the plate number of the tip pattern I used, but I stamped it with Konad White.  The Lime Street, a mini, had a good brush and went on well, with one brushload covering a nail and requiring only two coats.

Nails Inc Lime Street Nail Polish Stamped with Konad White

Next up is another Nina Ultra Pro called Bubble Gums, which sounds like a very severe case of periodontal disease.  I used Konad plates S9 (the pattern) and M19 (the tips) in Blue Pearl Special Polish.

Nina Ultra Pro Bubble Gums Nail Polish with Konad Plates S9 & M19 in Konad Blue Pearl

Yet another Nina Ultra Pro (I went to Sally's...) is Grin and Berry It, which is a purple with a strong blue flash.  I stamped the butterflies pattern from Konad plate M32 on the tips using Konad White.

Nina Ultra Pro Grin and Berry It Nail Polish with Konad M32 in Konad White

That brings us to the last one, China Glaze Shocking Pink with Konad plates M74 (pattern) and M19 (tips).  I could have shifted the M74 down just a bit, and I double stamped my tips with M19.  When I do a Konadicure with Konad Black that I really like, I finish it first with Konad top coat, then Diamont to dry it, to avoid smudging the black.  I don't generally use Konad top coat, but I do have it handy for use over Konad Black.

China Glaze Shocking Pink Nail Polish with Konad M74 & M19 in Konad Black

Those are all the Konadicures I have to show you.  I'd saved a couple when I'd planned for the Sephora by OPI Chic Prints to last several days, and have shown you so many swatches in the last week that I ended up with a big bunch of pictures for you.  I hope you enjoyed them as much as I liked wearing them!

That's all for today, Dear Reader.  Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!  

Orly Foil FX & Nail Art Goodies

Good morning, Dear Reader!

I'd ordered Orly Luxe from the Foil FX Collection, and finally opened the box from Trans Design only to find some nail art stuff I'd forgotten I'd ordered, so I thought I'd show you both today. Also, I got an email from Jessica at WowSoCool telling me she's now carrying those nail art decals I showed you two of not too long ago, so I have pics of those for you as well. I'll start with the mani and then so the nail art stuff in case you don't care about it.

My grand plan for today was to use all three Foil FX colors (gold, rose gold, and silver). I started by using Luxe and Shine, alternating nails, as a base, and was going to stamp Rage over it. That totally didn't work out - the rose gold didn't show up on the gold. Plan B was to stamp Shine over Luxe and Luxe over Shine, which also didn't work out. These are just too foily and metallic for o to show up on the other. On to the bailout plan: stamp in Black Konad Special Polish just to get the manicure over with. I'd lost patience and interest at that point. This is what I ended up with.

Orly Luxe and Orly Shine Nail Polish, Two Coats & Konad M73

I don't love it, but it will get me through the day... On to the fun stuff. I'll show you the water decals first. Trans Design has a bunch of cool nail art stuff. I also got striping tape, but who want to look at a roll of striping tape?

Flower Water Decal Packet from TD

Butterfly Water Decal Packet from TD

Hearts Water Decal Packet from TD

That's it for water decals. On to the Konad decals, which are way over the top. The looks like ornate Korean nail art, only requiring the effort of applying a decal. They're $3 at WowSoCool. That's a link to them, and they're really cool.

That's what I have for today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Coach Nail Polish Set & Olympics NOTD

Good morning, Dear Reader!

A while back, Coach was giving away little freebie nail polish kits, and I got one for a few bucks on Ebay. I swatched those recently and have the pictures for you today.

My finding is that unless you really want them for the novelty factor, save your pennies. They all required at least three coats, and although pretty in the bottle, the purple is an absolute nightmare on the nail. They're unnamed, so I'll just refer to them by color. I did three coats of each, but you'll see that two of the four don't look right and need more, but I wanted to be consistent.

Since some might still want the set for the novelty factor, I took pictures of the packaging. Here's the box closed, and I left my hand in the picture for scale. They're minis.

Coach Nail Polish Box, Closed

Here it is open.

Coach Nail Polish Box, Open

They were a bit separated, but I just gave them a little shake and they applied fine. Since the application was good and the first swatch was okay, I had high hopes, but they were sooon dashed. Here is three coats of the pink, which was fine.

Coach Nail Polish, Three Coats Pink

The bronze was not-so-fine. It's still semi sheer at three coats.

Coach Nail Polish, Three Coats Bronze

The fuchsia was fine at three coats.

Coach Nail Polish, Three Coats Fuchsia

Brace yourselves for what you are about to see... The purple left uncovered spots and was just an overall mess. I'm showing it to you so you save your money!

Coach Nail Polish, Three Coats Purple

So these will have to find a loving home with a Coach fan who wants them for the novelty factor, because I sure as heck won't be wearing them.

Just so we end on a happy note, I thought I'd give you a peek at my completely unrelated Nails of the Day. Yesterday's Go U.S.A. mani was cheerful, so I thought I'd do another. The colors are Nubar Sensual Red, Orly White Out, and Barry M Cobalt Blue, with Konad M14.

U.S.A! U.S.A! U.S.A!

That's all for today, Dear Reader. Until tomorrow, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Shine & Konad M78

Good morning, Dear Reader!

This morning I have yesterday's NOTD, Orly Shine with Konad M78 in Konad Black Special Nail Polish. It didn't turn out perfectly, but you can see where I was going with it.

I started with three coats of Orly Shine, then used an all-over pattern from Konad plate M78 in black, double stamping the pattern.

Orly Shine Nail Polish, Three Coats & Konad M78 in Black Konad Special Polish

There was an unfortunate incident with my piece of acetone soaked felt right at the end of stamping, and I'm afraid it shows...

Today I think I might try to tackle the ol' airbrush (or maybe not!). Get this - it came with no directions for assembly, and the brush came in pieces. If I had an art background, I bet it wouldn't be a problem, but my math and philosophy training are really doing no good for me here. The best I can do is write a proof that I don't know what the heck I'm doing, and perhaps a dialogue about what that means in the grand scheme of things.

That's the update for now, Dear Reader. I'm not totally thrilled with the imperfections in this one, so I may have something better later. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!

Orly Foil FX Collection & Iron Butterfly Giveaway

Good afternoon, Dear Reader!

Orly sent me the Foil FX Collection to show you, so here I have it. Well, two thirds of it... They left out one color, a gold called Luxe, when they sent it. They also sent one of the Metal Chic shades, Iron Butterfly, which I don't believe I showed to you. I have it already, so I thought we'd do a random drawing for it. I'll tell you about that at the end.

The Foil FX Collection consists of three super foily metallics, Luxe (gold), Rage (rose gold, very cool!), and Shine (silver). The press release tells me they're intended to give a Minx look. I leave it up to you to decide whether they achieve that.

Each of the two shades I tried required three coats, but I did very, very thin coats. They did not leave brush strokes and have a great metallic finish - I think they really look like metal nails. They were easy to control and applied quite well.

Here is the silver, Shine.

Orly Foil FX Collection: Orly Shine Nail Polish, Three Coats

And the rose gold, the very unique Rage.

Orly Foil FX Collection: Orly Rage Nail Polish, Three Coats

I'm impressed with these, and will be buying the gold when they're released in March.

On to the Iron Butterfly Giveaway... As I mentioned, Orly supplied me with a spare Iron Butterfly from the Metal Chic Collection, and I have a picture of it from while I was away. It's a shimmery, metallic matte black - very cool.

This is Iron Butterfly.

Orly Metal Chic Collection: Orly Iron Butterfly Nail Polish, Two Coats

That's the prize, and here are the rules: one entry per person. That's it. It's open to all readers worldwide, I'll be taking entries for two weeks, and you don't have to enter your full name on the form. The only use of your email address will be to notify you if you win. Pretty simple!

So that's all for today, Dear Reader. Until next time, love and nail polish to you!