Author: GingerlyPolished

Affordable nail polish + makeup blogger

Orly x NASA 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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What more could one need than NAILS and SPACE! You can truly never go wrong with a space themed nail polish, in my humble opinion. And if you agree with that humble opinion, well do I have the collection to show YOU. (Could you ever guess what the theme is here).

Orly recently collaborated with NASA (yes that NASA) and released a space themed (well duh what else) quartet of polishes! We’ve got 3 gorgeous full color shades and 1 topper, all inspired by various explorations and space travel. I was so excited when I saw this release, and couldn’t wait to try out the shades when they showed up on my door!

They also released 4 sets of nail wraps with various space imagery and the NASA logo on them as well, if you’re looking to step up your nail look at all. All of these are available on the Orly website, both in little bundles as well as individually!

These are so gorgeous, I don’t need to ramble on more, so let’s jump right into the swatches!

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China Glaze ‘Hey Sugar!’ Spring 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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We’re continuing right along with the spring posts with the BRIGHTEST and PUNCHIEST offering this season. This is from China Glaze, and their ‘Hey Sugar!’ collection. We have sweet themed names and shades for these 6 cream polishes. There are rich pinks, oranges and a yellow here to really brighten up your nails and it’s quite the change from the previous muted and vampy winter shades we’ve all been holding on to. It’s SPRING, time to let them GO.

With a name including “sugar”, I did also originally wonder if these might be textured, to mimic some sugary nails, but these are straight, smooth creams. No worries for you texture-haters out there. (I’m a texture-lover so I would have been on board, but fine, I get it).

As always, I purchased this set from my favorite, polishpick.com. Especially for China Glaze, they have amazing prices and I won’t ever be paying full price for a bottle.

Okay, I know those beautiful colors above are calling to you, and you’re anxious for swatches, so let’s dive in!

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OPI ‘Me, Myself And OPI’ Spring 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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IT’S SPRING here in the nail polish world, even if it wants to continue snowing here in Chicago. I do love a spring collection, with fun shades that brighten up the gray days that we’ll have for the next few weeks still. And it’s always most exciting time over here on the blog when we have a new OPI collection.

So if you haven’t guessed already, we’re looking at OPI’s newest seasonal release. Today we’re looking at the newest spring drop, and it’s the “#MeMyselfAndOPI” collection. This, of course, features 12 shades, and OPI describes it as a way to “Share who u r in a colorverse of ♾️ expression.”. If you can’t tell, or can’t understand that sentence, we’re going for a Social media, tech-y kind of vibe here with the names. (I’ll say in advance, not my favorite, but I get they have to try to keep hip with the times – but I do miss the location themed collections already). We’ve got a rainbow of shades, from pastels to bright creams and some interesting shimmers.

As always, I purchased this whole set from my favorite place, polishpick.com. Y’all know the drill, the best prices for OPI, fast shipping, we love it all around. I’ve ordered from there so many times for so many years and have never had a problem.

Let’s get right into the swatches!

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Orly ‘Hopeless Romantic’ Spring 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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Y’ALL, that label in the corner isn’t lying, yes I’m now officially on the PR list for ORLY. I believed in myself and reached out to sell myself, and they liked what they saw and have been sending over their products! This is a lesson to believe in yourself, and make the first move every so often. Sorry just had to talk about that because I was so excited and proud of myself.

NOW. Y’all also know the drill, the spiel if you will. Just because I’m now receiving these products for free will not change how I’m reviewing them. You can look back on this blog over the years and see that I purchased these Orly collections myself for YEARS. And if they had said no, I would still be purchasing them to review myself. If I hated a formula, and it was so hard to work with? I would absolutely still tell you. You would be able to SEE it in the videos, those aren’t ever edited to improve formulas, they won’t lie. Overall PR just helps me out in the way of freeing up some more funds in my polish budget so I can review other brands for you all. I’ll still continue to buy so much polish on my own and I would never give up your trust in my reviews. Nothing’s changing there.

OKAY I’M DONE, THIS WAS THE FIRST BIG MAINSTREAM BRAND SENDING ME STUFF, we had to go over it all.

NOW. Let’s talk about this little collection, shall we?

This is the ‘Hopeless Romantic’ collection and it’s Orly’s spring release. It features the typical 6 bottle release, with 3 shimmers and 3 creams. The color palette overall has a nice whimsical spring feel to it, spanning from some blues and purples, over to the pinks, peaches and reds. These are available on the Orly website, and I do always recommend their Color Pass if you’re so interested in trying out some shades at a discounted price.

Alright, let’s get right in the swatches!

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Glam Polish ‘Cutest Crellies’ Collection (5 Shades) – Swatches & Review

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It’s another month, and another Glam Polish release! Yes they release a lot of polishes, there’s always a lot to talk about, I’m glad I can at least show you some swatches to help you out with some decisions here. Your Glam Polish guide (for 5 of the shades). So let’s just talk about this one already!

This newest release is the ‘Cutest Crellies’ collection and it features 10 new crelly shades, all inspired by classic cartoons. We have squishy bases filled with various colors of glitter mixes all with cute names based off of quotes or iconic lines from classic cartoons.

If y’all aren’t familiar with a crelly formula – it’s right in between a cream and a jelly formula (cream + jelly = crelly). So they’re going to be more sheer, especially to allow pieces in the formula to layer and build up and peek through and create this dimensional look! Overall it’s about building up the base color, but there’s enough pigment to that base that it will build up to full opacity, rather than the squishy look of a true jelly.

As mentioned I have 5 of the new 10 shades to swatch up for you today! These are all available on the Glam Polish website. Let’s get on into the swatches!

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Essie Valentine’s Day 2023 Collection – Swatches & Review

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It’s another February, and so that means another Valentine’s Day collection from Essie (no you’re NOT reading this after Valentine’s Day is already past, idk what you’re talking about). China Glaze has us covered for Halloween, and Essie has us for Valentine’s. We’re slowly getting covered for every major holiday, and next up, I’m expecting greens for St. Patrick’s, thank you very much.

ANYWAYS, as always, Essie has blessed us with another 6 piece collection to help us celebrate love. Nail polish will always be #1 in my heart (and okay, fine I guess my boyfriend too) so of course I’m excited to have even more to put on my fingers. Let’s talk about these shades.

Since Essie has done many a Valentine’s release by this point, we’ve gone through quite a lot of pinks and reds. So for this one, they venture on down into some “non-traditional” Valentine’s shades, like rich blues, dusty purples and some gorgeous shimmers. AND I’M NOT MAD AT IT. I’m a lover of all colors, I welcome them all, and we’re here to celebrate Love Day with any shade. They also of course have the little bottle detailing – with some little flames and hearts wrapped around the bottom of the cap. Cute as always.

I purchased these from Ulta (and yes, dealt with their lack of padding for glass nail bottles again), and I’m sure you can find them at other various drugstores like Target, CVS or Walgreens. Ulta still has them in stock and shipping if you don’t feel like hunting them down.

Alright, enough talking, let’s get right into the swatches!

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Essie ‘(Un)guilty Pleasures’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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It’s TIME. It’s the start of NEW ESSIE collections for 2023. And if any other years are an indicator, we’ll have a LOT of collections and releases and I’ll do my best to keep them all straight and reviewed for you – at least with the regular lacquer. I can’t be throwing the Expressie and Gel Couture lines in there too, I’m not made of money. But regular lacquer will keep us more than busy, there are already 4 collections out that I know of, WE GOTTA GO, GO, GO. (Of course, I always say, choose based on your own preferences and budget and likes, no need to buy every collection like I do, I do it to review and help y’all out here).

So let’s look at this first one. This is the ‘(Un)guilty Pleasures’ collection. This one features 6 rich and saturated cream shades, all with a theme around self-care and relaxing. I’m never mad at that idea.

I purchased this set at a discount from Beyond Polish. It’s my go-to place to buy Essie at this point, as they have great prices. But of course, if you want to see them in person or grab a few shades without shipping, they’re also available at Target.

You’ll be seeing me so much for future Essie posts as well, so let’s get right into these gorgeous shades and swatches!

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KB Shimmer ‘Northern Exposure’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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I’ve been dipping my toes on into a few indie brands now (but I’ll still be reviewing mainly mainstream collections as it’s easier for me to buy those on a discount). I knew of KB Shimmer and had seen them around the Instagram community, and had their name in the back of my brain, just waiting for just the right collection. And when they released the promos and when I saw all of these shades together, I just couldn’t resist, and added them to my little cart. I mean, I’m sure you’ll feel the same once you see the polishes. It’s just been so gray and cold here, I had to treat myself with some nail polish, what else is new.

This is the ‘Northern Exposure’ collection and it features 9 gorgeous sparkly and shifty shades in more rich and moody colors. We have 3 shimmery multichromes, 2 magnetics and 4 reflective glitter shades, so you’re not getting any boring creams in this set. (I say that as a joke, I love cream polishes so dang much, but every so often I’m here to switch it up).

It’s available on the KB Shimmer website as well as on the Beyond Polish website.

These are all absolutely stunning, so let’s get right into the swatches already!

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ILNP ‘Trapped’ Collection – Swatches & Review

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Listen, this blog will always be mostly mainstream and drugstore nail polish reviews (and hopefully some more affordable makeup reviews again soon). The polishes are (somewhat) cheaper overall (though they do try to keep raising up in price), and also easier to buy discounted from supply websites (polishpick.com truly saves me). But I have been lucky enough, as I gain a little more of a polish budget each year, to slowly wade in and try out a few new-to-me indie brands. I do wish I had the time and money to review every single brand of polish, but at this point I still have to be selective. I just have to be patient and have self control and wait for the collection to truly catch my eye. (Not that every indie brand out there doesn’t release gorgeous collections all the time, but you get what I mean).

So this collection was one that truly captured my eye and pulled me in, and it was just the right time to purchase. ILNP had already been a brand that had been circling around the edge of my radar, from other Instagram friends posting previous shades and swatches, so it met all of my criteria and made the perfect jumping off point for my first full collection purchase.

This is the ILNP ‘Trapped’ collection. This was a Halloween release, and with that we have 6 vampy, shifty and sparkly shades, with a lot of dark bases and contrasting shimmers. (In my opinion, more brands need to release Halloween collections, thank you very much.)

I did originally swatch these up and post them on my Instagram in November (another shoutout to follow me there as you see swatches earlier most often), but you know, my whole 2023 goal of working to catch up and make sure every polish collection gets it’s matching blog post. This collection is still readily available on the ILNP website and not going anywhere soon, so you can also still get your little hands on them whenever you end up reading this post.

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ILNP ‘NYE’ 2022 Collection – Swatches & Review

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2022, especially in the later months, was a time where I was lucky enough to be able to expand out my roster of brands and dip my toes into more indie brands. One of those brands was ILNP. They fully grabbed me with their Halloween release, Trapped. After that, I had my eye on them. I did end up skipping on their Winter Wonderland release (though as I’m looking at it again, it IS gorgeous…). Now I won’t be reviewing every single indie brand (I wish I had the budget and time for that), and I’ll still be here for mostly mainstream and drugstore brands, but listen, we love to add some unique little indie polishes into the mix every so often. And ILNP has truly been releasing some beautiful shades.

For this newest review, we’re looking at the ‘NYE’ collection. This comes after their winter release, so it’s truly more of full New Years Eve release and look and theming. So with that it features 6 super sparkly and flashy shades perfect for watching the ball drop (hey that’s even a shade name!). We have 5 full color polishes and then one iridescent topper, and all of your glitter needs will be covered with this one, whether it’s for a celebration or when you’re reading this review in the middle of January.

These lovely shades are available on the ILNP website. Now I’ll let the sparkle speak for itself, let’s get on into the swatches!

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