Entries for Wednesday July 04
Orly’s Rock Solid
- Manufacturer: Orly Beauty
- Availability: released in Fall 2011 as part of the Mineral FX collection
- Color Range: charcoal-pewter grey sparkle
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: USD$6 for 18ml / .6 fl oz
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades:
I purchased this on an impulse at Ulta. I hadn’t seen swatches of it on the web, otherwise…I may not have bought it. When I saw the bottle, I thought it was a black (or at least a darker) base color with multicolored sparkles. In actuality, the color is more of a charcoal grey with the multicolored sparkle. And the sparkle isn’t quite as evident as I thought it might be. The coverage is fantastic, application is smooth…it just wasn’t quite what I expected. (I bought two other colors from this collection, and they lived up to my expectations a bit more.) I also had to apply three coats to get the base-color depth I wanted and also get a decent showing from the sparkle. I like it better when polishes give me full coverage in two coats, but needing three coats means that this is still far from the worst polish in my collection.
Speciallità‘s Hera
- Manufacturer: Speciallità
- Availability: part of the Hits No Olimpo collection
- Color Range: holographic medium-dark teal sparkle
- Staying Power: 4 out of 4 stars
- Cost/Amount: approximately $12 for 14 ml / .5 fl oz
- Would you purchase again: yes
- Similar shades:
A really lovely teal-blue-green base color, this one caught my eye and went on my “must have” list the instant I saw the photos on Scrangie’s blog! While I like the different holographic collections that have come out - particularly the linear holographics - most of them have had medium or pastel base-colors, rather than lots of jeweltones. I love teal-blue anything, so a teal-blue holographic is definitely something that’s going to end up in my collection.
I got full coverage with this in two coats, but a third really deepened the teal shade and made the holographic effects that much more striking. With the smaller bottles that Speciallità has, though, I have to be careful not to do too many manicures or I’ll run out! (Even knowing that I have two bottles of Hera, Zeus, Apolo, and Dioniso, I’m still careful about using them when I think I’m going to be able to keep my manicure on my hands for at least four days, so that I don’t run out quickly.)