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Orly’s Space Cadet review

Posted on Wednesday, at • bought • 840 views

  • Manufacturer: Orly Beauty
  • Availability: originally released as part of the Cosmic FX collection
  • Description: metallic green with magenta and bronze duochrome shimmer
  • Cost/Amount: USD$10 for 18ml / .6 fl oz
  • Would you purchase again: yes
  • Similar shades: MAC's Mean and Green, Accessorize's Aztec
Orly’s Space Cadet

This is my first Orly polish - and will probably be my only Orly polish. Not because they're not good, not because they're more expensive than China Glaze (at least through etailers), not because they're less easy to get ahold of…but because I don't know that much about Orly polishes in general, and am kind of loathe to start buying lots of a new brand unless the polish in question is something extra special.

This polish is extra special.

I'm late to the party on this one - beauty bloggers and nail polish enthusiasts have been singing about it for nearly a year at this point. I held off…actually, I'm not quite sure why I held off. I just did. At any rate, I have it now. I tried getting a bottle of Accessorize's Aztec, but it was always out of stock on their web site - and rather than have poor Sirvinya go scouting to find a bottle, which I'd have to wait until August to get, I broke down and got a bottle of Space Cadet.

Photos that show how the product actually performs...! See how I create my swatches

Close-up photo of the middle three fingernails of the left hand, showing the nail color applied. The left hand holding a bottle of nail polish and displaying all manicured fingernails, with 2 coats of Orly's Space Cadet Four fingers in a row, resting on the thumb, with all nails displaying 2 coats of Orly's Space Cadet
<p>Orly's brush is not my favorite in the whole world ever. It's rather thin, so there's no "three strokes and the whole nail's covered." I actually counted: six side-by-side strokes to put a single coat on my index/middle/ring fingers, eight on my thumb (broad + ridged). The first coat was thin, nearly sheer, and kind of watery. I saw a faint blackened-looking green tinge, and flecks of magenta glitter...but not much else. Oh no, I thought. I'm going to be disappointed. Still, a second coat might bring out the color. That's how Ki works. That's how Adina works. To an extent, that's how the Sally Hansen Nail Prisms work, though since just about everything from Sally Hansen was watery, it wasn't that much of a surprise. Okay then, second coat. I got a bit more color depth, saw the beginnings of the plum foiling, and began to be relieved. Three coats gave me the full quad-chrome effect (I see plum, gold, and pink in the foil with a moss-green undertone.)</p> <p>The polish is amazing and gorgeous, but it was still pretty uneven after two coats. Even with three coats, there were still some less-fully-covered spots. I'm not in love with that.</p> <p>Other bloggers have noted that Orly's formula chips easily, and I can't really attest to this since I've only been wearing the polish for one day at this point (just under 24 hours, as a matter of fact.) I was almost afraid to put a top coat on this, because top coats dull all holographic and most duochrome effects - but wearing Zoya's Armor didn't mute the holographics.</p> <p>I'm also contemplating wearing this under a crackle polish, which I think may border on heresy. I've ordered some of the crackles from Born Pretty off of their Ebay store (I like the way those crackle, as opposed to the OPIs which look more "shredded") so when those arrive we'll see how this one looks under the purple.</p>

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