Orly Flash Glam - Be Brave and Mermaid Tale

Being on the other side of the world, Australia always receives polish collections several months later than the USA or Europe, I'm assuming so that the colours match our season.  I first saw the Orly Flash Glam polishes on The PolishAholic in early June, but now these polishes will be available in Australia from 1 December 2012.

There are a total of 22 glitter polishes in this collection, although five of them appeared in US stores before the others.  The five that I know will be available in Australia are: Mermaid Tale, Spazmatic, Can't Be Tamed, Be Brave and Sashay My Way.  The five polishes are being released here with Orly's black shade, Liquid Vinyl. I have two of the five polishes to show you today.

Be Brave - Pink holographic bar glitter in a clear base.  If you don't like bar glitter then your gonna hate this. I like bar glitter (except if one hangs off the tip of your nail and scratches the bejesus out of you), and I especially love holo bar glitter.  

This is two coats layered over a pink creme.  I would love to have been able to make this polish opaque on it's own, but the base is pretty thick so I would have ended up with 5mm thick gloopy nails that would have just slid off.  I'm not a pink wearer, but I really do like this polish.  I would like to try layering this with another pink holo polish too or over black.  This is definitely one polish that looks better in real life than in my photos

Mermaid tale - This one has a lovely combination of glitters. I can't actually tell if it has green and blue glitters, I think they are actually green holo glitters, which means they reflect blue.  There are at least three sizes of hex glitter in this, and the macro shot below shows the interesting print on some of the glitters.  This was three coats of Mermaid Tale on its own.  I really wanted to wear this without a base colour and get it opaque.  But looking back at these photos I see my nakedness, I really should have put some undies on.  This would look stunning over black too.

The glitters in this were good and all lay flat with no curling.  The formula was thick, but workable.

There are some other amazing polishes in the rest of the Orly Flash Glam range that were available in the USA. See Let them have Polish to see swatches of some of the others or Orly.com to see all 22. I really hope we get all 22 of these glitters released in Australia.

Polishes provided for review.

A little change and some neon spam

Hey everyone.  I made a small but significant change to my blog today.  Can you spot it?  If you think you know what it is, please write it down in the comments below. I'm going to giveaway a bottle of Picture Polish Kryptonite to the first person who correctly identifies the change to my blog in the comments.

As a distraction, here is some seriously bright neon spam.  While you northern hemisphere gals are getting jiggy with those warm autumn/fall colours, the weather has made that awesome turn towards summer down under and I'm so ready for it I've pulled out some neons.  Yeah, I know spring time is all about pastels and I promise I will get on board as soon as I find that damn Ulta3 Spring Pastel collection. Stupid Canberra is always so slow to get things.

I was recently given the opportunity to try Orly Beach Cruiser. It is an amazing neon pink, which is less orange and brighter than my pictures show.  This is two coats over a white base topped with Seche Vite.  This was a little thin and I didn't wipe my brush properly for the first finger and I promptly flooded my cuticle, so I started again.  I just ensured I was more careful loading my brush after that.

I've had this one for a while, Picture Polish Citrus.  I bought it cause it was the perfect orange for my husbands baseball team. Citrus is a fabulous neon orange creme. This is two coats over a white base topped with Seche Vite. This applied beautifully.

I recently received Picture Polish Lime Lite and I have to say that while isn't probably a colour I would normally wear as a full mani, it is perfect for nail art.  And I don't mean it's one of those polishes that you put into your nail art pile cause it's icky, its just that its a shade that is more versatile as a nail art colour than a colour you would wear regularly.  This is two coats over a white base topped with Seche Vite.  Despite that comment, I'm really digging how this looks.

  

This is another Picture Polish I recently got, crazy.  Holy Crap!  This is definitely the most neon highlighter yellow polish that I own. This is two coats over a white base topped with Seche Vite.

Now get to those comments to win a bottle of Kryptonite! - And yes, I will send it internationally.

Orly Magnetic FX

Today I have a couple of the Orly Magnetic FX polishes to share with you.  I was very excited when I first saw pictures of the Orly magnetics because the first thing I noticed was they had unique magnets that I had not seen on any other polishes.  I've already expressed on this blog my compelling need to own every style of magnetic design available, which lead me to creating my own magnetic designs.   So when the opportunity arose to try these out, I was waiting with grabby hands.

First is Paint on Electron.  This is a dark metallic gun metal grey.  After the magnet is applied the grey gets darker and sparklier.  As you can see from these photos, Paint on Electron comes with an interesting 'S' design.

Unfortunately, as you can also see from these pictures, there is the straight line at the top of my middle and ring fingers where the magnet stopped.  I'll explain that in a bit more detail below.

I decided to also try out some of my other magnets with this polish which I have detailed both here and here.  The 'grid' design on my index finger (which this time I turned around to make it like the fishnet design).  My 'Aztec' design (which I didn't do very well this time) on the middle finger.  My 'concentric squares' on my ring finger. And my 'Flower' design on the pinky.

The second polish I have to show is called Force Field.  It is a rich pinky purple that goes quite dark and burgundy when the magnet is applied.

The magnet supplied with this polish is slightly curved lines.  This is another unique magnet for me.  I have tons of straight lines and quite a few chevrons, but this one is a gentle smooth curve.

Again I also tried the same lineup of my magnets on this polish.  This polish did seem to show up the designs much better than Paint on Electron. (and can I just say how much I love the fishnet version of the grid magnet)

I've read in other reviews of these Orly Magnetic FX polishes that girls were a little unsure how to position this magnet, specifically relating to the plastic lip or nail guide part  I've seen some photos of it being balanced on the cuticle end of the nail - which really doesn't work because it means the magnet is too far from the nail.

When I saw the magnet design it really reminded me of my L'Oreal Star Magnet.  The little lip (which I have drawn an arrow to), is design to rest the free edge of your nail tip on.  The good this about this is that it positions the nail the exact right distance from the magnet meaning a good design whist not touching it.  The bad side is that you wont be able to wrap your tip as it will get wiped off, and if you have longer nails, it makes it difficult to position the magnet anywhere but at the tip of your finger. For example, I would have liked to position it more in the center of my nail so the gap at the top was less noticeable.

Pros:

• Unique magnet designs not seen elsewhere.
• Polishes colours are nice and seem well magnetised - there is also a blue which I will have to get my hands on.
• Strong magnets pull the designs out quickly, you only need to hold it there for a few seconds.
• Nail guide makes it easy to keep your nail in the right position without moving it.
  

Cons:

• The magnets are very small.  I do admit that I have long nail beds.  My nails aren't that long here, only about 1mm past the tip of my skin, but even at this length the magnet is not long enough to match the length of my nail bed.
• While I considered the nail guide a 'pro' because it helps with positioning the magnet.  I'm also listing it as a con because a) you can't position the magnet exactly where you want it on your nail and b) you can't wrap your tips. 

The magnetic nail polish craze this year has been huge, but I will never tire of  magnetic polishes, I think they are pretty, fun and a little bit nerdy.

These products were sent to me for review.

Merry Christmas 2011

Merry Christmas everyone.  It's the end of Christmas day here and the kids are exhausted from 100% play all day. We've had a lovely day at home with the family, and will be off tomorrow to visit the rest of the family. 

Here is my Christmas day mani.  The gold base is Orly Luxe, I then painted holly leaves using a fine brush and the dark green holo polish I showed here.  I highlighted the leaved with China Glaze L8R G8R and black and then added red gems for the berries.  The accent finger is a pimped up bottle of Ulta3 English Rose, which I added a little extra red and gold micro glitter to.  It's such a totally awesome red polish now.

I love how the red gems glowed golden orange in the light.

I totally loved this mani, and because I pressed the gems into the outer edge of each nail I hardly even fiddled with them, which means they lasted well.

I hope you had a great day, or if your Christmas day is just beginning, I hope it is wonderful.

The day I looked "very nice"

14 years ago, after reaching the end of the aisle, like any bride, I just wanted to hear my future husband say I looked beautiful.  He kindly said I looked "very nice".  WHAT!  He quickly corrected himself outside after the service mind you, but I've never let him live it down.

Today is our 14th wedding anniversary.  Hubby has taken the day off work and we are off to do some fun things with the kiddies today.

I quickly did an anniversary mani last night.

I used Orly Luxe and Ulta3 Crystallina on the ring finger, with what are suppose to be two gold rings linked.  (although hubby thought the rings were a gold zorro mask - Doh!)

And for a quick trip down memory lane...

Sorry for the poor quality photo, our wedding was taken back before we had decent digital cameras, so I just took a photo of the picture hanging in our lounge room.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Lunar Eclipse

So here is it, my favourite.  So pretty and sparkly and blue.  Apparently is a dupe of OPI Designer Series Magic and Sally Hansen Ultra HD Laser, but I don't have either of those, so I just love it.  I know it doesn't have the same multi chrome, or even duo chrome thing going on as Space Cadet, but sometimes you just put a polish on and fall in love with it, and that is what happened with this one.

The above shot was taken in full sun, and it was so sparkly that this picture doesn't do it justice.  Below shot was taken indoors, and you can still see the glossy magic of the polish.

Here it is up close.  Just look at all those rich blue sparkly flecks.  It reminds me of the sun reflecting off the rippling water on our pool. I feel like I could just jump in.

So there you have it, the magnificent Orly Cosmic FX collection.  Go now and get it.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Space Cadet

WTF I hear you say, are you serious, Space Cadet is only your second favourite polish in this collection?

Well, yeah.  I seriously love this polish, in fact I'm wearing it again right now. Last night I wanted to make sure I was happy to put this is second place so I put on a full mani of it again.  But I'm sure, I'm a sucker for blue polish and I just love Lunar Eclipse more.

This polish is a bright and foily multi chrome polish. My photos of this polish make it look more bronze than it does in real life.  On me, I see much more purple and pink tones.  But there is orange and gold and blue as well. 

Here is the up close shot.

If you don't own this polish then you MUST get it. I can see this becoming hard to find in the not too distant future.  Everyone is raving about it on their blogs, and deservedly so, it is truly unique, there is no other polish like it.

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Halley's Comet

Ohhhh, isn't it pretty.  This is Halley's Comet and its my third favourite in the collection.

Now I've read on other blogs that this is a dupe of Zoya Charla or OPI Catch Me In Your Net.  But as I don't have either of those, this is totally unique in my collection.

It's a turquoise/aqua base, with the same coloured metallic flecks and a gold duochrome finish.  I think Scrangie said it has that mermaidy feel, and I totally get what she means.  This is exactly what you expect a mermaids scales to look like. Shiny, aquatic looking and reflecting different colours at different angles. Again you can see the gorgeous flecks in the close up pic below.

So I'm getting right down to it now, will it be Space Cadet or Lunar Eclipse that will be my favourite.  You might just be surprised!

Orly Cosmic FX Collection - Out of this World

My fourth favourite from the collection.  And this was a hard call.  Now just because I have it fourth doesn't mean I don't love this polish.  It is spectacular.  It s deep blue toned purple, with purple micro flecks.  There is a tiny gold duo chrome that you can see in the bottle, but I couldn't see it on my nail.

Here is the close up of the amazing micro flecks that create the metallic purple finish of this polish.