Entries for Wednesday May 25

Orly’s Lunar Eclipse

• Manufacturer: Orly Beauty
• Availability: originally released as part of the Cosmic FX collection
• Color Range: metallic deep violet-blue microglitter
• Staying Power: 3 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$10 for 18ml / .6 fl oz
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

I can see why this color disappointed people as much as it did: it’s a gorgeous deep blue microglitter, but in the bottle you see hints of purple duochrome that just don’t translate to the nail. I used four coats in a manicure, and while the blue is stunning, I saw no purple - not at the edges, not under daybulb or in direct sunlight, nothing. I also had to use at least three coats to get full opacity.

OPI’s Mauving to Manitoba

• Manufacturer: OPI
• Availability: originally released in 2004 as part of the Canadian collection
• Color Range: cool rose mauve shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$9 for 15 ml / .5 fl oz
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades: Zoya's Tess

I got this color a while ago, and forgot about it. It’s gorgeous, though! It’s a similar color to Tess, one of my favorite Zoyas; but Mauving to Manitoba has a slightly less metallic finish. Two coats of M2M gave me total coverage, with a clean surface (no brushstrokes or VNL.)

China Glaze’s Metallic Muse

• Manufacturer: China Glaze
• Availability: part of China Glaze's Khrome collection
• Color Range: metallic aqua-chrome shimmer
• Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
• Cost/Amount: USD$6 for 14 ml / .5 fl oz
• Would you purchase again: yes
• Similar shades:

This is a nice robins-egg blue. I didn’t have issues with brushstrokes, which has happened with about half of my China Glaze metallic polishes (most from the Romantique collection). I did have some smudging/dragging issues the first time I did a manicure with this polish, but the next time I used a little more polish on the brush so that I didn’t have to “refill” mid-nail.

I don’t know if this is because of the polish formula, or if I was just having a Partially Caffeinated Moment, but this polish got all over my cuticles. With most of the Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear polishes, and most of my OPI polishes (and some of my Zoyas) I don’t have this problem…but I definitely did with this polish. Some of my other China Glaze polishes have a messier application, some don’t; but I haven’t kept a cohesive record to see if it’s “all metallics”, or “all the Khrome polishes”, or “all polishes from 2008/2009”, or some other factor. (Or like I said, I simply might not have been caffeinated enough when applying this polish.)