Orly Feel the Beat Spring 2020 – Swatches & Review

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Hellllo from my apartment! I’ve been put on official “work from home indefinitely” status. Don’t worry, I’m fine, it’s all prevention down here and I’m grateful to be in a career that allows me to work remotely! Now we’re here for a distraction, so let’s talk about nails! This time at home will also mean less time commuting and more time for polish, so I’m hoping to get so many swatches out for you during this time!

Let’s continue right on with spring collections! And we’re looking at Orly’s, one of my favorite underrated brands.

I got this collection through my Color Pass subscription. As I’ve mentioned a million times, Color Pass is a subscription where you pay a 1 time fee up front and then you’re sent all 4 Orly collections throughout the year automatically. And you also get extra goodies in each box. It’s perfect if you’re already planning on buying the collections like me, but if you’re just looking for individual shades, they’re also up on head2toebeauty.com for a discount.

Spring2020Box

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Zoya Calm Spring 2020 – Swatches & Review

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My windows are open, the sun is shining, and it’s 60 DEGREES, Y’ALL. Yes, you’re going to keep hearing about the weather as it finally gets warm down here in the Windy City. It was a mild winter, but I still look like a crazy person just sitting in every patch of sunlight that we suddenly get. I don’t want to get too hopeful, but I think we just might be getting into spring down here.

So of course, we must continue looking at spring collections! Annnnnnd today, we have the new Zoya Calm collection for Spring 2020.

Calm is the perfect description for this collection. When I look at it, I just feel calm. It’s not going to be super crazy colors and textures, it’s 6 shades of neutrals and light pastels. Sometimes you just need a little palette cleanser and some soft shades.

As I said, this collection features 5 creams and 1 shimmery shade. We have 3 more neutral beiges, and then 3 softer colors. I picked these up when Zoya was having a BOGO sale, so I got all 6 shades for $30. I highly recommend following Zoya on Instagram, and their email lists! They’re constantly having sales and deals, so you can snag their shades at a lower cost, which I love to do. Of course, this whole collection is up on the Zoya website now!

Let’s look at the shades!

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Orosa Beauty Desert Garden Trio – Swatches & Review

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GIFTED

IT’S FINALLY GETTING WARMER HERE. Okay, it’s supposed to get up to 50s and even 60s this weekend, and that’s WARM for down here after this long winter. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited for a spring since I’ve moved down here. I don’t want to hear about you guys already hitting 80s and 90s down in the southern states there, KEEP IT QUIET. The sunshine is more precious up here in this Midwestern little bubble.

But since we’re finally actually getting sunshine, it’s time to continue looking at spring collections! Today we have the Orosa Beauty Desert Garden trio that they’re calling a ‘Pre-Spring’ set. A little transition set to pull us out of these gray days into warmer days. It features 3 cream shades!

Orosa Beauty was kind enough to send these on over to me to swatch up for you guys! I’m still always so thankful when I get polish from brands, and it’ll just never get old. But of course, I’ll always be honest about formulas and performance.

These are available on the Orosa Beauty website for $12 each, or $31 if you buy the set of 3! (And orders over $30 ship for free, just to enable further). But of course, let’s look at the swatches first, and then you can decide if you need them!

Now let’s get into the shades!

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Monthly Manis: February 2020

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One of my main goals in my 2020 Resolutions Post was to go through my collection and destash polishes that I just don’t love or aren’t adding value anymore. Now, I’m a person who loves lists and goals, (you should see my blogging notebook), so I gave myself a goal along with that to paint my nails in a full mani at least 3 times a week. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but with how I’m constantly swatching, I’m making a real effort to stop and actually give myself time at night to relax and paint my nails and watch a show. I’ve been enjoying it quite a lot and definitely want to keep it up!

And at the end of each month, I want to sum up the polishes I wore, and whether or not I’ll be keeping them in my collection and why. And you’ll definitely get some stories and old swatch photos with each one! Now, let’s get into this months manis!

***

Up first we have ‘Exposed’ from Essie. This came out in the Wild Nudes collection in early 2017. At that point in time, I was just about to graduate from college, and then head into adult life. So I definitely did not have the budget to buy the amount of collections I do now, and ended up passing on it. Looking at em now, of course it’s a lot of neutrals I already have in my collection. BUT, there were still 2 in the collection that caught my eye, and somehow they found their way into my cart when I was ordering a collection off PolishPick.

This is a stunning deep mossy, dusty olive green cream shade. It’s dusty, it’s muted, it’s a green, it’s all the things I love and want. It was a beautiful 2 coat formula as well, so of course it’s staying.

Exposed
Essie – Exposed

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Essie Flying Solo Collection – Swatches & Review

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PURCHASED

Listen here, I got duped. All weekend, it was up to the 50s and lovely, and so sunny. I had my windows open yesterday, I felt the Vitamin D flowing through me, I even believed for a hot second that maybe spring could be on its way. BUT I KNOW BETTER. I’ve lived in the Midwest all 25 years of my life now, and so I fully know about these ‘Fools Springs’ and I STILL FELL FOR IT. I had hope for a while! I pictured myself with windows open, fresh air flowing through, soaking up the warmth. And now we’re supposed to get snowstorms for the next 2 days. In my heart I expected nothing different.

So while I’m getting buried in snow, it’s fitting that we look at some warm, sunny and bright colors right! Pinks, oranges and yellows will always be there for me to pretend it’s spring.

Today we’re looking at the Essie Flying Solo collection! This is a collection of 9 shades that was officially announced about 2 months ago (where does the time go?). I finally grabbed them all, and am now even more in a mood for bright summery colors so it’s the perfect time to talk about them.

I snatched up all of these bad boys from my fav, polishpick.com. You’ve heard me talk about that place enough now, but as I’ve mentioned they carry the new Essie collections now as well, and I love being able to basically buy all of the new collections in one place at a great discount. (That discount is the reason I can buy all of these polishes and show them to you!) (And as always, if you do buy from polishpick, feel free to put my name into the dropdown at checkout – it’s not at all affiliated, I make no money, but helps to show the website where the traffic is coming from!)

Now let’s get into the swatches, shall we?

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OPI Mexico City Spring 2020 – COMPARISONS

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You can see the original review post here.

It’s another comparison post everyone! As mentioned before, one of my main goals this year is to really be better with my comparison posts so I can work on destashing and really curating my collection.

Listen, I’m still working on that. I know these posts can be slow posting up, but they also take me a while. I pull all the polishes, and the sticks and then do photos, and then all the swatches and edits. They’re a lot of work, but I know they’re so helpful to both me and all of you, so I’m so happy to continue doing them as well.

BUT, I’m figuring out a new process and it should speed up the process and make it easier overall. So that means you’ll get lots more comparisons more consistently! Thank you as always for being patient as I figure these all out and work out the kinks on new series and posts! Now, for the comparisons.

As I’ve done before, I pulled a whole range of colors on swatch sticks, so you can see at a quick glance how a color compares to a ton of different shades. And then I’ve taken the closest colors and compared them on my nails to further see if they’re dupes. (These are just the shades that I myself own in this collection, so you may know of different comparisons out there, but this is what I have personally).

Now let’s get into this always long post!

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Revlon Holochrome Collection – Swatches & Review

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If you read my 2020 goals post, you’ll know one of my biggest goals this year is going through my collection and destashing. I got too many polishes and I KNOW IT. And part of that destashing is going back to older collections I purchased and swatching them and seeing if I still want them at all. So there are definitely going to be some more “throwback” collection posts and reviews. I know it’ll be helpful to me to sift through and know the polish I own, but also to you in case you happen to run across these shades later!

The first collection in this series is this one, the Revlon Holochrome collection. These released in late 2017, and I snatched them all up when I saw them discounted at Walgreens. And then they just sat around in my collection until I glimpsed them again in my drawers and realized I never put them on my nails. It’s time they finally see the light and I see how I like them.

Now they may be harder to find, but I’ve seen them lurking at various drugstore such as Walmart and Walgreens, so you may be able to still snag any shades that catch your eye. They’re showing as being priced around $5.50 each.

I know they got some mixed reactions when they first came out – Revlon promised intense holographic and duochromes and chrome finish – I will say right away, that you’re not going to quite get that with these. Spoilers. BUT, I don’t think they can be entirely tossed away. I’ll let you see the swatches and decide.

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Essie Valentine’s Day 2020 – Swatches & Review

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Happy Valentine’s Day, all! I’m spending the evening curled up and cozy, finishing reviews, watching a movie and going to bed early (I’m starting to get sick, okay). But I can’t ever complain about a relaxed night in. I’m a very exciting person, I know. And of course, chocolate. I’m a monster when it comes to Reese’s, and my parents are constantly enabling my obsession. Are there candies that you can’t ever resist? I hope you enjoyed the day, no matter who you chose to spend it with!

And as with Valentine’s Day, that means we have a Valentine’s Day collection and polishes! Essie has once again come out with a 6 piece collection for the occasion, complete with the fun bottle wraps. (You do get the bottle wraps when ordering from Polish Pick). Each shade has a different wrap and design, and I would be lying if I said it wasn’t part of the reason I really wanted to buy this collection, okay.

Wrappers

As mentioned, there are 6 polishes! There are 3 cream shades, and 3 more metallic shades.

I grabbed these from polishpick.com. As if I don’t already talk enough about how much I love Polish Pick – they’ve now started selling Essie as well! So I can grab even more of the collections I review at discounted prices, and from one place. I really love it, and wouldn’t talk about it so much unless I’ve had great experiences. (And as always, if you do happen to buy from Polish Pick, you can put in my name in the dropdown at checkout. I don’t make any money from this, it just helps the site see where you all are coming from!)

Alright, enough blabbering, let’s get into the polishes!

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Orly ‘Birds of Prey’ Trio

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Listen, I was recently on a binge of polish buying where I just wanted to buy everything, and all of these new polishes were releasing that just caught my eye. You would think that’s what is going on all the time, but I promise sometimes I do hold back. But it was during this binge that I saw this little trio of polishes, and listen, they GOT ME. I have no excuses. My hand slipped, I added to cart, I ordered.

And I’m not sorry. “It’s for the blog”. It’s what I tell myself all the time, okay. But I know you guys love it, and I won’t ever stop, and trying new nail polish will forever be my love.

This is a trio of shades that were released in collaboration with the Harley Quinn ‘Birds of Prey’ movie, releasing tomorrow, February 7! I’m definitely interested in seeing the movie (I can only hope they do Harley Quinn justice after the mess that was Suicide Squad), so this piqued my interest as well! I also loved that based on the names, these seem to be newly released shades specifically for this movie, and not just permanent shades packaged up into a different set.

It’s only available on the Orly website, and it seems that you can only buy all 3 in the trio – not individually. It retails for $28 for 3 full size shades (for reference, all Orly shades retail for $9.50 each for 0.6ml).

It comes in this cute little box set, and there’s just something inside of me that wants to keep it for display. I told you I was a monster here. But it has Birds of Prey on the top, with Harley Quinn, as well as pattern going around the sides. Overall it was just really cute!

BOP-Box

Let’s get into the shades and swatches!

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Sally Hansen ‘Shine Like a Diamond’ – New Miracle Gel Shades

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PURCHASED

Sally Hansen is a brand that’s always been on the edges of my radar. Whenever they release new colors or formulas I’m always interested, and want to try them. They can be more expensive, so that has deterred me a couple of times from just grabbing from their permanent line, or buying ALL of the shades of a new line (exept for the incredible Crayola collaborations that I snatched up all of them -pls bring out more, Sally. And the Jelly Belly collab was also amazing and unique.) They’ve had so many different formulas and finishes and lines, from the Mega Strength to the Matte Metallics and the plant based polishes, and they seem like they’re constantly putting out new and unique products. Now I have been lucky enough to receive some PR from Sally Hansen but it’s been sparse, and I’ve purchased most of the shades I own at this point myself, and will continue to buy things I’m not sent. I know I seem like I’m blabbering and gushing over Sally Hansen, but I’m mainly here to say that they’ve come out with some cool things and I’m always excited to try out the new things they’re coming out with (which does fully include their new Plant Based lacquer – I will def be picking some of those up to try them at some point).

So when they recently released 6 new shades in their Miracle Gel line in a collection they’re calling Shine Like a Diamond, I was very intrigued. Half are entirely new shades, and half are ones that were previously released that they brought back by popular demand. I’m not sure if they’re all permanent to the line now, but they haven’t said anything about them being limited edition either. I decided to pick up 5 of the 6. The one I left behind was ‘Mocha Me Crazy’, a light beige cream shade. It just didn’t grab my attention, and I’m trying to be a *touch* more selective with my polish buying (outside of the mainstream brands I regularly review, okay).

Their Miracle Gel line is said to be their long wearing polish, that mimics a gel finish without a UV lamp. Now, I don’t ever wear my polish for long enough to truly test the longevity, so I can’t say if it lasts longer than normal polish – however, polish is definitely personal and it can vary from person to person how long certain formulas will wear.

I hadn’t found these in store yet (they were just announced recently), though they’re showing online at Target.com, Walgreens.com and Ulta.com – and I’m sure they’ll eventually be in each of these individual stores. I ended up buying these online off the Target website for $7.49 each (because I have no patience to wait). This was definitely the cheapest price for them, as they retail for $9.99 at both Walgreens and Ulta.  Target also has a low threshold for free shipping so they all shipped free – though I will say that I was thoroughly surprised that none of the shades were broken. Target, and Ulta, and other brands really need to be better at shipping polish instead of throwing it all in one bag with just 1 big air pack. My complaint for the day.

ANYWAYS, the polishes. They have the wide rounded Sally Hansen brush that definitely makes it very easy to just paint on easily and smoothly.  Now let’s get into the individual shades!

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