ORLY Fowl Play - Birds of a Feather Collection

Hey everyone! Today I have swatches of another polish from the upcoming ORLY Birds of a Feather Collection. 

Fowl Play is described by ORLY as a "purple sparkle" but what they should have told us is that it is a FLAKIE! This purple stunner has a jelly base and is packed with irregular flakie particles that flash orange, red, yellow and green, silver microshimmer and what appears to be smaller flakie particles (but maybe it is glitter??) that flash vivid blue/purple. UH-MAZING!

I had to use three coats to get an even finish, because there were still a few patches after the second coat, but as you can see, the final product is glorious! I strongly encourage you to click on the images and take a closer look.

Now, you are probably thinking "hey I've seen this polish before!" and that's because Fowl Play appears to be very similar to OPI's Merry Midnight from the limited edition 2009 Holiday Wishes collection. However, after comparing the two, I don't think they are exactly the same. I will try and do a proper comparison with photos in the next week, but the biggest difference I noticed between the two was actually wear time. Every time I have worn Merry Midnight it has chipped within a day of putting it on. However, Fowl Play is a completely different story and I got 4 days wear out of it without one chip!

So the verdict - this flakie polish is beautiful and wears like a dream. Formula wasn't 100% but as I said, three coats gives you a great finish. If you missed out on Merry Midnight you should definitely run out and grab Fowl Play when it is released because I can see it selling out fast!

Birds of a Feather will be available in June for $18.95AUD each. For stockists visit www.orlybeauty.com.au.

The items featured in this post were provided for review. For further information on GildedNails' Disclosure Policy, please click here.

1500 Followers, a Public Action List, plus other ramblings and an Award!

Hey everyone! If you follow on me on Twitter, you would have seen that over the weekend I clicked over the 1500 follower mark on my blog!! I am super excited about this and I have decided to organise an awesome international giveaway to celebrate this milestone! I know people normally celebrate 1000, 2000 followers etc, but since I did a 500 follower giveaway, I thought I'd stick to my unconventional milestones and celebrate 1500!

I was hoping to have the giveaway up for you today (as well as announce the winner of the BB Couture Giveaway) but I have had such a busy (and stressful) week at work that I haven't had a chance to get the giveaway together yet. But I promise it will be up soon! 

I have also made a lot of progress with organising the lacquers for my nail polish/makeup blog sale and I hope to have that listed soon as well!

Until I get my giveaway post up, I thought I would give you guys a sneak peek of some of the products that will be included in the giveaway! Those of you on Twitter probably have a good idea of what I'm giving away, but for everyone else, can you guess!?!?!

To motivate myself during this stressful time, I am creating a public action list for the next couple of weeks as follows:

* Orly Birds of a Feather - Fowl Play

* BB Couture Winner

* 1500 Follower Giveaway announcement

* Blog Sale 

* Essie Borrowed and Blue post

* Review of Nivea Hand Cream

* Ozotic Elytras post

* Picture Polish post

* Le Beauty post
* ORLY RAFW Dion Lee "How To"

If I'm slacking and haven't posted these things over the next couple of weeks, get on my case ok! :P Seriously, I get all these awesome ideas for posts and then I get busy and I forget to do them. (Like my second lot of China Glaze Anchor's Away swatches! I still cant believe I forgot those!). So hopefully this will help me stay on track!

I also wanted to thank Cristina from Let Them Have Polish, Amy from Gotham Polish, Cynthia from Nailsszone and Giuditta from Giuditta's Nails and Beauty for passing on the Kreativ Blogger Award to me! If I have forgotten anyone, please let me know and I will add a link to your blog as well!

I am going to be a massive slacker and skip the 10 facts about me, because I'm feeling rather crappy and very uninteresting at the moment :(

As I'm late to the party with this award, I won't pass it on per se, but I will list some blogs I'm loving at the moment.

The TraceFace Philes

Emily's Nail Files

Imperfectly Painted

Chloe's Nails

Oooh, Shinies!

That's all for tonight my lovelies! I'm off to bed to get some much needed rest!

OPI DS Original

Hey everyone! Today I made the long trip to the nail supply store where I got the China Glaze OMG's from last time. Today's visit was just as successful as the last one! I found a stack of HTF polishes including China Glaze Channelesque, OPI DS Sapphire, OPI DS Desire, OPI Glacier Bay Blues and the polish I'm showing you now, OPI DS Original.

I have been lemming DS Original since I first got into nail polish. Well I have been lemming alllll the old DS polishes, but I never wanted to pay the prices they were asking on evilbay. So when I walked into the store and saw those polishes selling for $10, I had to grab them (and a couple of backups!)

DS Original is a lavender holographic polish. I used three coats to get good coverage because I found the formula a little thin, but even with three coats it dried lightning fast. The holo effect is quite scattered as opposed to the linear OMG holos. In regular lighting, the holo is subtle but still visible, but in bright lighting and daylight, it is spectacular! I have included photos with two different types of lighting. Behold, DS Original holo heaven!

I am totally in love with this polish and I can't wait to try DS Desire and DS Sapphire now. I am officially holo-addicted!

On a side note, I took your advice and softened out the edges of my nails to make a more feminine squoval shape. They seem more manageable at this length and with this shape, so I'll give it a go for a while! Thanks for all your advice everyone! :)

Essie Autumn 2011 Comparisons

Hey everyone! When I posted my Essie Autumn 2011 swatches last week, a few of you asked about whether Merino Cool and In Stitches were similar to some other polishes. So I thought I'd do a quick comparison post for everyone to help you decided which ones to get. I also did comparisons with Little Brown Dress and Sew Psyched.

In Stitches Comparison

Left to Right - China Glaze Fifth Avenue, Eyeko Tea Rose Polish, OPI Kreme de la Kremlin, Essie In Stitches

In Stitches v. China Glaze Fifth Avenue. As you can see, Fifth Avenue has a subtle shimmer and is lighter and more pink than In Stitches.

In Stitches v. Eyeko Tea Rose Polish. I have no idea why I thought these two would be similar!!  Tea Rose is so much lighter and almost looks like a candy pink next to In Stitches! But I swear, Tea Rose is a dusty rose coloured polish! 

In Stitches v. Kreme de la Kremlin. These two are nothing alike either! Kreme de la Kremlin is a gorgeous nude pink cream that is significantly lighter than In Stitches.

Merino Cool Comparison

Left to Right - China Glaze Below Deck, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, Sephora by OPI Metro Chic, Essie Merino Cool

Merino Cool v. China Glaze Below Deck. To my eyes, Below Deck is a tad lighter than Merino Cool and leans more purple, where as Merino Cool leans more grey.

Merino Cool v. Sally Hansen Commander in Chic.These two are pretty close, but I would say that Commander in Chic is a little darker and browner than Merino Cool.

 Merino Cool v. Sephora by OPI Metro Chic. These two were also quite close. Metro Chic is a touch lighter, but if you already have it, you probably don't need Merino Cool.

Sew Psyched Comparison

Left to Right - Rescue Beauty Lounge, Essie Sew Psyched

Sew Psyched v. RBL Diddy Mow. If you can tell the difference between these two, you have better eyes than me! I feel like Sew Psyched is a touch dustier than Diddy Mow, but I could be wrong.

 Little Brown Dress Comparison

Left to Right - OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys, Essie Little Brown Dress

Little Brown Dress v. OPI Suzi Loves Cowboys. As I'm not generally a fan of brown polish, I only had Suzi Loves Cowboys to compare it to, and you can see that Little Brown Dress is darker and deeper than Suzi Loves Cowboys.

I didn't end up doing comparisons of Velvet Voyeur and Limited Addiction because, in all honesty, you can all probably think of a few dupes right off the top of your head for those colours!

I hope this post has been helpful! 

China Glaze - Island Escape Collection

Hey everyone! Last week, the awesome Jacie from You've Got Nail was kind enough to send me the China Glaze Island Escape collection to swatch for you guys! I missed out on getting samples of this collection, and I was super bummed about it, so when she offered to send them my way, I was over the moon! 

The Island Escape collection consists of 6 bright, summery shades with a few different finishes - creams, glass flecked, a frost and a FLAKIE!!

As you can see, I tried out different lighting for these photos. It is a lot brighter and I think it shows the colour more accurately. I actually ordered an OttLite to use for my pics and it arrived today, but it was broken so I have to send it back to Amazon :( So I will have to keep using this other light until I get a new OttLite.....

108 Degrees - Raspberry pink with fuchsia glass flecks. This isn't the most unique colour, but it is still beautiful! I love how the fuchsia flecks are so prominent. However, it was a little sheer so there was still VNL after three coats. As such I think it would look great as a top coat over an opaque pink or red.

Electric Pineapple - Chartreuse cream. I love this! Unusual colour, but I think it is just gorgeous. It applied like a dream and only needed two coats. I reckon this would be hot on you ladies with darker skin tones! I can't wait to wear this in summer when I have a tan.

Blue Iguana - Medium blue glass flecked polish. Like 108 Degrees, this was a little too sheer for my liking. But it sparkles so much on the nails, I got over the VNL pretty quickly! This was three coats, but you could probably do four to get a more opaque finish.

Papaya Punch - Super bright, almost neon orange cream. For some reason this one dried a little darker than the bottle colour which I found disappointing because I adored the colour in the bottle! This was two coats.

Cha Cha Cha - Frosty green with yellow micro-shimmer. Not a fan! It applied like a dream, but I can never see myself loving frosty greens. This was three coats.

Senorita Bonita - Purple glass flecked polish with flakies! This is the star of the collection, but the flakies were hard to capture, so I have included a third pic that gives you a better idea of how gorgeous they are! Make sure you click on the third pic! However, like 108 Degrees and Blue Iguana, it was a little sheer, so I had to use four coats for these photos. 

Overall, I would have to say that Senorita Bonita was my favourite with Papaya Punch and Electric Pineapple tying for second place. Except for Electric Pineapple, the colours in the collection aren't the most original, but the flakies in Senorita Bonita make it a must-have, and of course, it is hard to fault the China Glaze formula! 

Thank you again Jacie!!

That's all for today! I'm off to get some much needed sleep! x