This review was fully intentioned to go up this past Sunday. But then I picked up a lovely chest cold for the whole weekend. And then my train going back home for Thanksgiving was delayed for THREE HOURS. These are all just excuses and ranting to say that I had a schedule and THEN SOMETIMES THINGS HAPPENS AND YOUR SCHEDULE IS BLOWN OUT OF THE WATER. But it’s here NOW.

Let’s just talk about the polish shall we? We’re continuing right on with the Holiday posts. Today we’re looking at the Orly Winter 2019 collection. This is the Arctic Frost collection, and features 6 shades, full of glitter and shimmer and sparkle.

But now here we go!

As always, I got this collection as part of my Orly Color pass. I’ve talked about Color Pass in every Orly collection review, but a quick rundown again: you pay once an upfront discounted fee ($119) and then throughout the year you receive 4 boxes, one for each season, containing a collection and various other goodies. As I’ve said before, it’s fantastic if you’re already planning on purchasing all of the shades like I am – otherwise the individual shades are always available for purchase on 8ty8beauty.com (that is the website I found them for the cheapest price!).

Now for the Winter 2019 box! It comes with the Arctic Frost collection, an Orly Dry brush, the Orly French Manicure White Tip Guides, and a perfume sampler set from Skylar.

The brush is a larger, flat paddle brush. On their website, they list this only as a Pro tool, for use with gel builders. Obviously I don’t work in that medium, and it seems a little too big for a clean up brush, so I’ll definitely have to experiment with using it. (If anything it can almost be an eyeshadow brush). Little weird that they gave us such a specific tool in a box of normal polish, but who knows! Hahaha I still always appreciate a good brush.

For the French Tip guides, these are little stickers that you can wrap across the end of your nails to give a nice even line when doing French manicures – or just for clean straight lines or blocks of color across the nail. These are listed as “Half Moon Guides” on the website, and you get 78 stickers. They originally retail for $5.

The last extra is the Perfume Sampler Kit. This includes 6 mini perfumes from the brand Skylar and retails for $20. Not a bad product to get for free! I can’t wait to test these out and see which are my favorites.

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Now into the polish itself!

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Up first we have ‘Snow Worries’. This seems to be a clear base with tons of larger shimmery white-silver shimmers all throughout. It’s definitely more sheer so it will take some building up if you want a full opacity look.

I showed it here with just 2 coats, so you can see, there’s still a lot of nail line showing through. However, I did end up liking this as a more sheer look on the nail! It’s so fun and sparkly and would be a great more simple nail look for winter.

And then here it is with 3 coats built up. As you can see, there will be some sheerness left over, but the base and shimmer is considerably opaque. It’s a super fun shimmery look that I definitely ended up liking more once I got it on my nails!

It reminds me a lot of snow and ice, so perfect for a winter collection.

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Up next we have ‘Gilded Glow’. This is a another with a clear base with lots of super small gold glitter. This will also have a more sheer look overall, but all of that shimmer is just beautiful.

This is 3 coats built up, and as you can see it’ll also show some nail line still. But it’s so sparkly that you almost won’t even notice.

From certain angles it’s going to look more opaque than others. But again, another fun holiday party look.

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‘Ice Breaker’ is basically the shimmery blue version of ‘Gilded Glow’ above. This is a glittery icy blue base with larger aqua blue glitters throughout. This is the most opaque out of the 3 so far, and is pretty well built up in 2 coats. This is 3 coats here, which just smoothes and evens it out even more.

This one especially reminds me of winter and ice. So perfect for a winter collection, and more unique to my collection than I thought it would be!

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‘Cold Shoulder’ is the deeper version of ‘Ice Breaker’. It’s a glittery deep blue-toned gray base with those same larger bright aqua glitters. This one was more sheer than I was expecting for the deeper base. But I did still get it opaque in 2 easy coats thanks to the deeper color.

This was definitely one that I loved even more on the nails. All of these shades hadn’t grabbed my attention as much in the bottle as they did on the nails.

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The 1 cream and deepest shade of the collection is ‘Below Zero’. This had a touch of crelly-ness to it, so it was a little more squishy on the nails. But it was still very pigmented, and almost opaque in just 1 coat. I did a 2nd to cover up any last streaks I had, and it was so shiny on the nails.

I will say I was a little disappointed at how subtle the shimmer is in it. In the bottle you get a glimpse of blue-silver shimmer, and on the nails I had to squint hard, even in my bright lights, to see anything. It overall just looks like a flat cream.

If you’re gonna put shimmer in it, MAKE IT COUNT. I just think with all of the rest of the glitter and sparkle in this collection, they could have gone bigger with this one as well.

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Last but certainly not least we have ‘Frost Smitten’. This is a clear base with larger metallic rose gold hexagons. It’s a dense enough glitter that I was able to build it up with 3 coats, which is pictured here. This is definitely a more chunky and bling-y look. You can smooth it out more with some coats of top coats, but of course it’ll still be a bigger glitter look.

But I’m fully here for being extra. Just look at that sparkle – will be perfect for a New Years look.

And of course, here it is as a topper. This is 1 coat over a black polish, and as you can see, it’s a dense glitter, and you get a lot of coverage even with just one coat. If you want a little less glitter coverage, would definitely recommend wiping off the brush. But overall, she’s a glittery look and I love it.

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Lastly, because all of these polishes were more sheer and glittery, I showed them as one coat over black as well, to give another way and look to wear them. As you can see, they definitely add frostiness to whatever base is under them, but overall they’re so fun and shimmery and sparkly. From L-R: ‘Snow Worries’, ‘Ice Breaker’, ‘Gilded Glow’, and ‘Frost Smitten’.

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And that’s the whole collection! I know this definitely might not be a favorite for everyone. They’re a more sheer glittery look that not everyone might love. They do take building up, and they will still be a little sheer after all. I ended up loving them more once I got them on the nails, but I do know they might not be favorites.

It’s a cool and different finish, especially for a winter collection, and of course I do always love when mainstream brands experiment with different finishes! I ended up liking them a lot and they remind me of winter so much.

What do you think of these shades?

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Upcoming Posts
Nails: Sista Chic Holiday Collection • Orosa Beauty Winter Shades • China Glaze x Sesame Street Holiday Collection • LA Colors Shimmer Gel Polishes

Makeup: BH Cosmetics Fairy Lights Palette • Colourpop California Love Palette • Revolution Pro All That Glistens Palette

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