Orly frequently launches new collections, and for spring 2016, the theme is Melrose. I know Melrose best from the glorious soap series Melrose Place which is set in West-Hollywood, LA, and I guess I can see how that may have translated into this collection: funky, free spirited and versatile. Orly is an LA brand, which means they got their inspiration for this collection close to home. The Melrose collection boasts neon brights, a holo glitter, a muted teal and a pearlescent/duochrome polish. Let's check those out in detail.
Oh Trendy, you and me could have been so good together, but there is something completely off about your formula. Trendy is a beautiful neon bright pink/coral shade which is super hard to photograph right, as most neons are. The polish also contains silver microglitter, and if you hear that description, you can barely imagine a way in which that might not result in a homerun. Well, sadly, the best laid plans of mice and men oft go awry. The polish is too thick, takes forever to dry, has a gritty and bubbly finish, and you can barely see the pretty glitter. Until you start removing the polish, then the glitter comes out to shine.
Another issue is that the polish starts to develop tiny little cracks
along the sides of your nails where the nail bends, because the polish
is so thick, and it's super visible on a pale colour like this one. Not pretty. It's really sad because the colour is gorgeous, it makes you look super tan, and the glitter looks so lovely in the bottle, but the formula just doesn't work on the nail. Too bad!
This is the only dud of the collection though, I figured we'd best get it out of the way. Moving on to the pretties!
This is two coats of Hip & Outlandish, a beautiful teal-blue shade. As you can see, my nail line is every so slightly visible through the polish, but this is enough opacity for me. The polish dries quickly and it's easy to work with, so you can easily go for three or more coats if you want it to be perfectly opaque. The wear is OK, without a base- and topcoat I can easily stretch this to about four days of wear with minor touch ups at the tips. Again, the colour is much brighter in real life, neons are just a pain in the ass to photograph.
Ah, Beautifully Bizarre, my favourite! This beautiful polish is pale lilac/pink with a light blue shift, it reminds me of mother of pearl, and it's opaque in two to three layers like the others. This one wears best of all the polishes, virtually chip-free well into the fourth day of wear. I love how this is sweet, but also kind of weird, tacky and futuristic in the best possible way. I could see Rihanna rocking this in the second part of her Work video (I'm obsessed with those visuals, she's the babeliest).
Orly Vintage is a neon bright minty shade that dries almost matte on the nails. It's beautifully opaque in two layers, and the colour is as bright and punchy as can be. The formula is a bit thicker, which also makes it more chip prone than the others, but a colour like this is worth touch ups. Perfect for summer! Vintage is my second favourite, although I have to say it's tied with the last two for that place because they are all completely gorgeous.
How can you choose a favourite when you throw a holo glitter in the mix?? Feel the Funk is a beautiful purple base with multicolour holographic glitter in it, and you can use it as a top coat (I used one layer on my ring finger as an accent nail) or build it up in about three layers for opacity. It's a true stunner and it works very well with the other colours in the collection.
Finally, Window Shopping. This colour seems a simple bright red, but it is by far the hardest to describe and photograph. In the bottle and in real life, it looks more like a red leaning neon raspberry, but in pictures it is BRIGHT maraschino cherry red. This polish is the thinnest, but I prefer a thin formula because it dries quickly and you can easily build it up. Even though the formula is thin, the pigmentation is great - this one is opaque in two coats. Window shopping also wears very well, lasting four days with minor touch ups.
In short, this is a lovely spring collection that smacks of summer, and apart from Trendy, all of these polishes are lovely. The Melrose collection is sold in the Orly webshop or at Di, at €12.95 a bottle.
No comments