Orly Rage

This is just a super fast swatch of Orly Rage, but I have worn it as a full mani ...

Orly Rage is a rose gold with silver metallic fleck polish from their Foil FX line which also featured a silver and a gold.

Outside, full sun

Indoors, natural light

Sooo ... I'm a little bummed about this one because the color just seems too bland for something called RAGE (Killing in the NAME of ...). I really wanted the copper/rose aspect to show through the most, like a brand new penny, but it's nothing close. As you can see in full sun, it's rather pinkish, but very pale and almost silver leaning. While, inside it looks like a pale gold. Other than the blandness of the color, I have very little to complain about. The formula is nice and thin, goes on evenly, and dries quickly. Shown is 2 coats with no base or top. It's got lots of oomph as far as the effect goes, very sparkly and eye catching. It does dry to a satiny finish though. It wears pretty nicely, I can get 3 or 4 days out of it with minimal chipping if I use a top coat and good base.

So there ya go.

Some Claire's bargains = NIGHTMARE!!! (pic heavy)

Sooooo, Miss M and I got the head's up that Claire's would be having their 10 for 10 clearance sale over the last weekend. Since she had a birthday giftcard burning a hole in my wallet (not a mistake, lol. Her gc, my wallet), we were in there bright and early Thursday morning when the sale was set to start. We hit the proverbial "jack-pop." She got about a gabuhjazillion pairs of earrings to play with once her ears heal from piercing, a neon orange "pearl" necklace (she insists it's her birthstone, just orange. Don't ask me! LOL), tons of crap with "Awwwww, kitties!!!" on it, lots of "lickstick" and of course mommy made a bee line for the polish ...


So, I thought I had scored BIG when I saw this set:



Cute, right?!? A set of 7 mini creme brights for a dollar?!? Weeeeelll ... maybe not such a hot deal ... When I applied the first one, I noticed an odd smell. Is that Elmer's Glue?!? But I stayed the course and continued with my skittles ... As the first coats dried, I noticed that even though they applied opaque and creamy, they dried sheer and had sparse glitter. OK. Whatever. It could be interesting. So I carried on. Three coats later, and still smelling glue, I wondered if maybe these are peel off polishes.

Here's the red, blue, orange, purple and pink.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

The next pics have the yellow and green on index and middle, but thumb, ring and pinkie have my other finds; Emerald City, Fire and Magic. I'll comment on those three later.

Inside, low artificial light

Outside, full sun

OK, speaking JUST about the 7 polish set, they *are* cute, but definitely weird. They would never have built full opacity. I was relatively certain by the feel of the finish that they were peel off paints. Sooo, I started peeling!

OMG!!!! WTF?!?!?! That shit STAINED!!! BAD!!!

Thank goodness, the stains have since faded (remover and acetone didn't touch it, but each time I applied another polish and removed, they got a little lighter. You know when you get gum stuck to your face after blowing a big bubble, and the only thing that can get it off is a larger wad of chewed gum, the bond between the bits of gum is stronger than the bond between skin and gum? I think it was like that concept), and I'm now just a little bit yellowed, but DAMN! That was the worst dollar I ever spent!!! I'm not passing these on, I'm throwing them OUT! BOOOO Hiiissssssss ...

Onto the other 3 ...

OK, this will be short and sweet because I don't have a lot to say about any of them, lol. Let's see the full sun picture again.




Emerald City (thumb): Foil/metallic style with bits of silver and green. Similar in concept to the Orly Foil FX line, but no comparison formula-wise. Thick, goopy application. Good coverage though (pictured is one coat) and it evened out fine. It's a nice color, just not my type. For a buck though, it's a win.

Fire (ring): Neon pinkish orangish red. Pretty sheer. 3 coats shown. Nice smooth application. My pic is no where NEAR coloraccurate, it's a neon. It's just not possible for a $50 camera to do, LOL!!! If you're used to looking at pictures of nail polish though, I'm sure you can see that one stripe of neony goodness on my ring finger and imagine this one stopping traffic. I want to wear this one as a full mani soon.

Magic (pinkie): Sigh. I don't really have anything *bad* to say about this polish, but I don't have anything *good* to say either. I know a lot of people really like this one, and some people even have it on their lemming list, so I feel bad for not loving it, but ... It's a darkish blurple jelly with golden shimmer. It's a fine color, but it's just ... not my thing, I guess. Here's a pointless close up indoors:







The end!

Swatch-O-Mania part 2!

I did the last 12 swatches a little differently ... 4 at a time. I was so over painting by this point, and they are collections, so it seemed right to show them side by side on the nail.


Avon's Mirror Shine collection (I am missing one color, a light pink, I didn't want it, lol)

From Index to Pinky: Peach Ice, Blaze, Polish, and Glisten

Avon Mirror Shine is a line of 5 metallic foils/chromes (I didn't buy the 5th color, Pink Ice). These babies apply great! The foils are usually thin, and these are no different. As long as you take care not to have too much polish on the brush, they are very easy to control. The great thing about foils/chromes in general, as well, is that they dry super fast and rarely need more than one coat! They also remove nice and clean. Wear is generally poor for this type of polish because it has a tendency to rub off, but I'm sure a good top coat would take care of that. I prefer not to use a top coat with these though because some of the coolness of finish is lost with the clear coat.


The next set is something special ... at least I think so.

I was in Ross the other day, just scoping it out when I ran across a set of 7 minis by Blush. I'm pretty sure Blush is just a kiddie type brand, as I have seen other sets of polish and lipgloss and fruity lotions and whatnot. All the other polish sets were just blah, but this one SCREAMED at me. I've also thrown in Cover Girl Candy Corn because there were 7 polishes in the set and 8 nails in the pics, lol, and Candy Corn really seemed to fit in. Check them out ...














How fantastic are these?!?! SQUEEEE!!! I LOVE THEM!!! Neon Jellies!!! None had names, so ... yeah, call them what you wish. ALL applied great. They started to dry right away too. In the first set of 4, both the purple and blue are 2 coats. Green and orange are 3 coats. In the 2nd set of 4, purple, red and Candy Corn (a creme, not jelly, not neon) are 2 coats and the weird yellowy greeny brown is 3 or 4 coats. That shade was the only disappointment because it looks super cool in the bottle, but kind of uck on the nail ... well, MY nail (it reminds me of some diapers I've changed during the kids' infant days, eww, lol). I bet it would look amazing on tan or brown skin though. I'll be getting a ton of use out of them over the summer for sure.

The best part about this set is that it was only 2.99!!! Well, Candy Corn I snatched up from Walgreen's for 1.89 or something like that on clearance ... The worst part is that they are minis and my Ross only had one set. :( I want a back up ... or 4.

Whatcha think??