Orly Plastix Collection

I am so super majorly pissed off at Orly after the crap they pulled with the Cosmic FX collection that it is hard for me to ignore my grudge and honestly post about their polishes. This is the main reason I waited so long to post the Sweet collection and now the Plastix collection. I'll get into all that when I review the Cosmic FX collection though, I'm just waiting for a sunny day to photograph them. 

As for the Plastix collection, it's a group of 4 polishes that are designed to dry to a "plastic finish". Honestly they are just mattes that don't dry as matte as normal mattes. The colors are just ok. Orly launched this collection with a LOT of hype with not much follow through. Two of the colors are ok but adding a layer of glossy topcoat reveals they are both dupable with other easy to find polishes. The other 2 colors in the collection are just down right ugly, and yes, they are easily dupable as well. 

The point of this collection totally escapes me. With all the matte top coats readily available these days, making a collection of matte cremes in basic colors makes no sense to me.  There is nothing unique about the colors in the plastix collection whatsoever. A couple seconds with a few common cremes and a matte topcoat can recreate these colors with equal if not better results.

 This is 3 coats. For a similar look try one coat of China Glaze Grape Pop plus a matte top coat.

 Here it is with a glossy topcoat.

This one didn't dry very matte at all. Also a 3 coater. (these are ALL 3 coaters) This color is just awful, I really cant see it looking flattering on anyone.

Here it is glossy. 

This polish was the worst of the bunch. It has a horrible orange cast in person that gives your hands a very grimy dirty look. 

As you can see this polish isn't red at all. Any dark pink polish plus a matte topcoat will be a good dupe for this polish.

American Apparel Peacock plus a matte topcoat is a great alternative to this one.

And now for a photo of it with a glossy topcoat. 

These polishes were really hard to work with.  They were thick and very streaky but still had a really bad tendency to drip all over the place during application. They all needed 3 coats either to get full coverage or to smooth out the streakiness.

Love, MM

Zoya Mattes

When it comes to matte nail polish there is one company that stands above the rest.  Zoya matte's apply smoother, are more opaque and LAST LONGER than any other matte I've tried.  Normally with other brands of mattes you can expect chipping within a few hours. Not Zoya.  I have worn them for over 48 hours with only the slightest of tipwear and no chipping.  This is all without base or topcoats. Zoya's mattes are just simply the best, people.

Here are swatches of the four colors pictured above, all pictures are 2 quick, no fuss, coats. 

A quick tip for matte polish: apply a coat of matte followed by a coat of clear, then another coat of matte.  This tends to help chippy brands of matte polish not chip so easily!

Love, MM

Matte te tat tat

I absolutely love the Orly matte polishes! Matte vinyl is my favorite, but the two polishes below are no exception to my lurve. 

 

 

  The formula on these is great. They aren't runny or gloppy unless you take too long to apply them because they dry FAST.   If you twiddle your thumbs while playing tic tac toe as you paint, thus taking forever to apply them, then YEAH they will get all streaky and gross. They are otherwise perfection. These swatches are both 2 coats which is typical for them to even out.

Oooops

I forgot one.

This is one coat.

Out of all the ChG Krome collection colors I have, millenium, 2030, robotika, and metallic muse, they are all one coaters, dry super fast and the application streaks mostly disappear as they dry. I LOVE them.

I keep seeing this style of mani circulating so I tried it out. I have no clue what it's called but I think it looks awesome!  I need to find my long lost french guides so I can try this again with a perfect line. I used metallic muse, and Orly purple velvet for this.

Say Whaaaaaat?

I got my first Illamasqua from a wonderful MUAer a few days ago.  It isn't just any Illamasqua.  It is THE Illamasqua, it is to me anyway.  I wanted this polish so badly I probably would have paid an E-bay scalper like $20 bucks for it.  Yeah. I know that's not a lot of money, because I'm BROKE fool.  Ok, not totally broke but I hate the idea of paying triple retail to some stooge on E-bay.

This is one of those rare as a hobbit, type polishes where I want it just as terribly for the name as I do for the color.  I felt so cool typing out the name while I was watermarking my photo. Propaganda...mmm I am a GANGSTA! Straight Up G from da hood yo.  Sippin' on Gin and Juice.  

Here it is in different lighting.  This is 2 coats.  Ahhhhhh, delicious U.K. exclusive polish.  I am such a jerk.  I LOVE getting polishes from other countries that you have to take drastic measures to acquire in the U.S. because I can be all, "na na na na na na, ha ha ha ha ha ha".

Here it is with matte tips.  Straight up playa pimp.  This polish is awesome yeah, but It did have some streakyness to it.  Nfu-oh 557 or 119 would be good alternatives.


In other totally unrealted news, Konad can SUCK IT.  I have completely given up on it.  I simply cannot move at the speed of light.  Not to mention I am pretty good at freehand nail art and I feel so much more bad ass doing it free hand.  So I went out and bought a huge set of awesome art brushes, which I shall use to create glorious nail art and torment and torture Konad with it until it begs for death.  Plus it just sounds WAY better to say, "I would rather do it freehand, I'm awesome" than it does to say, "I'm a looser that is too retarded to use a freaking STAMP that kids use all the time". 

 Still even more unrelated news.  St. Patricks Day is coming up folks. This may not be a big deal to you, but MY man is full blooded Irish. And I just have to do the most over the top, AWESOME, KILLER, SUPER COOL mani EVER.  I just have to!!!

 This is my first stab at it.  It's Nubar Forest with Zoya Envy tips and a white nail striper for the line.  I really like this but I can't use it for St. Patty's because I'm a dumb ass and I loved it so much I did a full mani of it and have been wearing it since yesterday.  Fail.

Ya Rly Giveaway Winner!

Last weeks give away was a bottle of Orly Enchanted Forest and a bottle of Matte Magic topcoat.  That post and comments can be seen here.

Out of the 44 comments, 4 people didn't want to enter.  So I used the number 40 in the random number generator so I would not decrease the odds of winning.  

Number 40 come on down...

Teresa said...

I told my girlfriends about it at dinner last night :) thanks!!  

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Congrats Teresa!!!   Email me at ManateeMama@live.com to claim your prize!!!   

Thanks to everyone who entered!    

Oh, yeah.  Don't think I didn't notice that a few of you shysters did not exactly follow the rules.  I let it slide this time because none of you won.  But next time when it's time to pick a winner I will be deleting the comments that did not pay attention to the freakin' protocol.  So there! 

Matte-tastic!

I spent my weekend nail polish hunting with my dear step daughters. It was seriously the best time I have had in months! Among a million other places we went to our very first Ulta and OMG! We squealed, and gasped, and giggled the entire time. The moment we walked in both the girls stopped dead in their tracks and they both locked eyes with me. Their eyes were HUGE people. You know the eyes I'm talking about here. The ones you make when the waiter places 1/3 of a cow on a platter in front of you instead of the "steak" you ordered. The taller child had this to say in her first Ulta moment, "I think we need a cart".  She actually whispered it like Ulta would disappear if she startled it.

I was a little put off by the sales ladies at Ulta at first because they kept "casually" walking by us and I assumed they thought we were stealing. But then it hit me! They were checking on us because with all the "OMG"s and shrieks and hyperventilating we sounded like we were injured! Seriously.

In other news, I finally got around to trying the Orly mattes this weekend. I haven't been into matte lately. At least not like I was when it first came out, but I have had such a blast messing around with these Orlys!

The formula is good. Not too thick, not runny, not gloppy. It also isn't as hard to keep it from streaking as I had thought it would be. I like 'em. They are cool on their own but I REALLY love them for frenchs. So here are the two I got. 2 coats each.

Here are all the different combos I tried with them. The base coats are all 2 coats with the exception of the China Glazes which were both 3 coats.

First up, matte vinyl and iron butterfly together. Love it!

Iron Butterfly with a glossy topcoat. Shiney!

Meh. I like the color but it just didn't pop for me.

Iron Butterfly tips. Now it's kinda cool.

Now let's smother it in Orly Prisma Gloss in gold. Pretty.

*GASP* I freakin love this, SO MUCH.  It's like China Glaze made this polish just for me.

Now with a matte vinyl chevon tip. *Faints* I wore this shopping  Saturday and I got a compliment! People never notice my nails. Score!

Very pretty. I really like this too. It's a bit darker in real life.

Added a matte vinyl tip. Awesome.

Here is Dorothy Who? On it's own. I usually layer this over a darker blue because it is blinding!

 

Slaped some matte magic on it. Pretty.

Hello Zoya

I adore Zoya polishes. I love everything about them. The bottle shape, the brush, the name, but most of all the polish! Did I mention the bottle? Zoya has the best bottle for my swatching. It fits perfectly in my hand and it takes great photos. Plus Zoya bottles look super cool all lined up in a neat little row.

Zoya mattes are by far the easiest mattes I have applied. They dont get globby and streaky. They dry fast. This is 2 coats

Thier shimmers also rock. These are 2 coats as well.

*sigh* Irene is so beautiful.

Holy Shit! Ibiza is glorious. I can't even explain the awesome that is this polish. It glows, it shines, it is killer. This is 2 coats, but if you are careful one will do.

Zoyas cremes leave nothing to be desired, except maybe more of them! I have been on a major creme binge lately. I absolutly love Zoyas cremes. These are both 2 coats.

Why does this color have to be so awesome? I just want to wear it constantly. I love that its dark but still on the yellow side and not too blue. 2 coats.