Orly Holo Jellies and Friends

Despite having a goal to continue buying less polish than I did in my stash expansion heyday, I'm still signed up for all sorts of brand newsletters and text alerts, including Orly's. I saw they were having a sale and went to look and noticed it included the shades from the Holo Jellies collection released this past summer. No better time then for me to share swatches of the bottles I bought a while back, along with two glitter toppers I ordered at the same time. Left to right: Party Animal, As If, Peace Out, Chill Pill, Like Totally, and Dancing Queen.

 

I first Skittled the Holo Jellies, doing three coats plus topcoat. They're not quite opaque at three coats, but close enough. All have a generous helping of silver holo glitter in a jelly base. As If is a soft orange. Peace Out is lime green. Chill Pill is a blue between turquoise and sky. Like Totally is purple, such a pretty purple, not too red and not too blue. I like these; the formula is good, with the jelly base being buildable, not too opaque so it hides the glitter.

 

 

 

I then reached for the glitter toppers, grouping them each with the Holo Jellies shade(s) they were most compatible with. Party Animal has pink, orange, and yellow matte hex glitter in various sizes plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. I layered one coat of it over As If, finishing with clear topcoat.

 

 

 

Dancing Queen has lime, purple, and sky blue matte hex glitter plus silver holo microglitter in a clear base. It seems made for the remaining shades of Holo Jellies. I did a gradient over a creme base that matched my skintone, then Peace Out on my middle finger, Chill Pill on my ring, and Like Totally on my pinky, topping the three non-gradient nails with one coat of Dancing Queen plus clear topcoat. This whole look made me happy. I really should take the time to do manis like this again because they do make me smile.

 

 

 

I don't regret getting these at all despite having more polish than probably all the nail salons in town put together. They're mood lifters for me. And I'm proud of myself for resisting the plain jellies that Orly came out with sometime after Holo Jellies. Maybe I don't have exactly those shades of blue, pink, and yellow in exactly that consistency, but I do have blue, pink, and yellow jellies in my stash. If you don't, those are also in the sale going on now on the Orly website. Five dollars a bottle is a deal. Dancing Queen and Party Animal are available still at full price. I'd pay it because I'm a fool for glitter still, even though the nail world has mostly moved on to other things for now.

Orly x Kelli Marissa Witching Hour

I have slowed my stash expansion quite a bit from the dizzying heights they once reached, yet I do still have my weaknesses. When an online ad for the new Orly and Kelli Marissa Halloween collaboration came across my screen with three glitter toppers, I pondered for just a while before ordering the whole set, glitters and jellies both. They came in a nicely decorated box with skulls and snakes and other spookiness.

 

As you might have guessed from the dimensions of the box, there are six shades here. Left to right: Wild Card, Mystic Jelly, Spellbound, Oasis Jelly, Wing It, Smoke Jelly.

 

 

I started with Oasis Jelly, a deep blue-leaning teal. At three coats, it's pretty much opaque, though definitely still squishy.

 

 

I used one coat of Wing It on top of Oasis then added clear topcoat. Wing It has black hex glitters, black bat glitters, and small silver and gold glitter in a clear base. The bats did mostly come out of the bottle on their own.

 

 

I thought the bats got a bit lost against the darkish teal, so I also tried Wing It over Orly Pink Chocolate. The bats did pop more against that dusty rose base.

 

 

Mystic Jelly, a cool vibrant purple, was up next. I used three coats of this jelly as well, and it seemed just slightly less opaque but equally squishy. Also shiny even without topcoat.

 

 

I topped Mystic with Spellbound, which has black, white, and orange satin hexes plus tiny silver holo glitter in a clear base. I did one thick coat of the glitter and didn't think it needed topcoat.

 

 

Smoke Jelly came next. Three coats of this one as well, and it was opaque and squishy and shiny.

 

 

Wild Card finally got its turn over Smoke. This is a clear base with black, lime, and vibrant purple hex glitters in various sizes.

 

 

Obviously the black glitter in Wild Card got lost on Smoke, so I tried it over Orly Color Blast Mulberry Madness.

 

 

I did also try Smoke over this last combination, to see if this would work for jelly sandwiches. If one is careful and does a thin coat over the glitter it could work, but there are other jellies better suited to the task, I think.

 

This is a fine collection overall. I love the glitters, can see using Wing It year round, just putting the bats back in the bottle. I do with the jellies were slightly less opaque so they were more versatile, but I have others I can use for sandwiches and other layering.

A Trio from SinfulColors Quick Bliss

About a million years ago, I ordered a set of SinfulColors Quick Bliss shades even though I already had half of them, just because the set included an exclusive purple shade, along with two other colors I hadn't yet seen. When I swatched the rest of the line back in August I was despairing of ever getting the set since shipping had been delayed twice, but thanks to a tip in the SinfulColors fan group on Facebook, I was able to cancel that order and get the set from a different supplier. The three shades of interest in it were Vvvroom, Speedster, and Fast Ride.

 

Vvvroom is a cool-toned light purple with pink shimmer.

 

I used two coats of Vvvroom for my swatch, and added clear topcoat for extra depth and shine.

 

 

Fast Ride is the online exclusive that I bought the set for. It's a blue-leaning purple shimmer. The shimmer has more blue in it than the base does. Depending on how the light hits it, it can look blue or purple.

 

Fast Ride was also a two-coater. I skipped topcoat with this one.

 

 

I happened to have a brief moment of sun when I was swatching this and that really brought out the difference between the shimmer and the base. You can see the shimmer glowing blue while the base around the edges shows a warmer purple hue.

 

The last color here, Speedster, is a red creme. As with the other two, it needed only two coats for full coverage.

 

 

I just had to see how this red creme compared to the other two Quick Bliss reds released earlier. Left to right: Cherry Chaser, Speedster, and Sweet Cheeks.

 

Left to right below: Speedster (2 coats), Cherry Chaser (2), Speedster, Sweet Cheeks (3). Sweet Cheeks is the odd one out here, being more sheer and pink than the others. Cherry Chaser is slightly warmer than Speedster. I like Speedster better with my skintone, but Cherry Chaser is also wearable for me.

 

Another angle:

 

I always used to look forward to the SinfulColors winter holiday display, but it appears that this year they didn't do any new colors for the season, just repromoted existing shades (I didn't see the display myself but read reports from those who did). I hope that's just a temporary thing for this year of the pandemic and by this time next year we'll see new stuff.

[NOTE to the 12 of you who saw the earlier version of this post in the three hours it was up: yes, I did take it down and re-do, as the photos in the earlier version had incorrect watermarking on them and Blogger was not cooperating with showing the corrected versions I'd uploaded before publishing the first version.]

SinfulColors Tricked Out Treats Spooky Candy-Inspired Polish

With Halloween tomorrow, I had to jump today's polishes ahead in my swatching queue: they're the two limited edition jelly glitters from the SinfulColors Tricked Out Treats Halloween display, Sour Apple Killer and Twisted Toffee.

 

Sour Apple Killer has a lime green jelly base with white skull and crossbones shaped glitters. I swatched it on its own; three coats was enough to convince me I wasn't going to wear this one by itself, as the green leans yellow enough that it looked like my nails were stained. Getting the glitter out of the bottle proved to be tedious, which is why there are so few of them in evidence on my nails. (Awkward bottle pose thanks to having to loosen the cap to get the sticker to face front then trying not to bump it out of that position as I held the bottle. Why I didn't think to just peel the sticker off and reapply I do not know.)

 

 

I would have played with layering Sour Apple Killer regardless, but seeing how little I liked it on its own, I was extra interested in trying it over a couple different bases. I put Lit-terally, the green shimmer from the SinfulColors 2019 Neon collection on all my digits except for my ring finger, which got SinfulColors About Last Night, a shimmery gold from the Vanessa Hudgens Festival collection from 2018. Then I added one coat of Sour Apple Killer. This I like so much more. The shimmer shines through the jelly base of the glitter, subtly in the case of Lit-terally and more assertively with About Last Night.

 

 

Twisted Toffee is a brownish orange jelly base with the same skull and crossbones glitters as Sour Apple Killer. I swatched it on its own at three coats, again having to fish for the glitter. Pro: does look like toffee. Con: I do not think translucent toffee looks good on my nails.

 

 

Of course I layered it. The base colors I used were SinfulColors About Last Night (on my index finger) and Hot Toffee, a warm brown creme from the new core colors released in 2019, on my other digits. Then I topped those with one coat of Twisted Toffee. As with Sour Apple Killer, I liked Twisted Toffee better as a topper.

 

 

If I were wearing either of these in a full mani, I'd have to break out the thick topcoat as the glitters are a bit wide for my c-curve, I think they'd catch on things if not smoothed over. I'm not sure I will wear them in a full mani, at least not with the glitter, which I think is a weird shape that most people won't recognize (I've seen them called "floating babies"--hah!). Without the glitters, though, they're nice layering jellies.