Orly Halley's Comet

   *Looks around*  Ummm, where have the last two weeks gone?  So sorry about the disappearing act.  I blame loopiness due to evil tree sperm of death, aka pollen.  I swear I can barely remember what day it is half the time.  Of course Hockey Playoffs might be contributing too.....
   Halley's Comet is the second blue from the Orly Cosmic FX collection.  It is described as a Turquoise with green yellow fx.  It is definitely turquoise, and a lovely one.  But I did not get much of the green yellow to come through on the nail.  

   With Halley's Comet I used Orly Bonder as my base, 3 coats of polish on all fingers, and Orly Polishield as my top coat.  3 coats were sufficient for this one as it is more opaque, but still a little streaky so be careful with application.  

Direct Sun

Shade

Indoor

   Another thing to look out for is a removal issue I found.  With both clean up and full removal I had a big problem with Halley's Comet staining the skin around my nails blue.  You can see it in the above pictures if you enlarge them and look closely.  

   I like the color a lot, but I am not a fan of the staining.  It is also a familiar color and reminds me a lot of Zoya Charla, which you can see a swatch of here. 

Disclaimer:  The product(s) in this post were provided to me by the company for consideration.

OPI Femme de Cirque Collection

   Hello ladies.  I know it's been a while since I posted any swatches or reviews.  Sorry about that.  I've been a bit down lately and allergy/pollen season has knocked me on my ass this year.  Literally right now as I'm on day 2.5 of a sinus congestion migraine.   I do not recommend this condition.
   Today I have swatches and reviews of the entire Femme de Cirque collection from OPI for you.  Femme de Cirque is the newest Soft Shades release.  It consists of 4 polishes, 2 almost white cremes, 1 SHEER pink, and a glitter top coat.  For all of these polishes I used OPI Natural Nail Base and Diamond Dry Top Coat.  For the first three I'm showing you I used 3 coats of polish on my pinkie, middle finger, and thumb, but 4 coats on my ring and index fingers.  Formula was good and application smooth for these.  Dry time was a little slower than normal I found. 

In the Spot-Light Pink:

   This is the sheer pink.  And I really mean SHEER.  

   I felt like I had gel nails while wearing this polish.  Not in a bad way, more in a these don't look like my nails kind of way.  Too smooth and perfect almost. 

So Many Clowns....So Little Time:

    The first of the two whitish cremes is slightly more brown toned.  Still slightly on the sheer side, but less so than In the Spot-Light Pink.

   If you look closely, even after 4 coats there is still VNL, visible nail line.  And the polish almost matches my skin tone, yes I'm really that pale.

Step Right Up:

   The other white creme.  Step Right Up is more pink toned and more opaque.

   As you can see, there is almost no VNL left with this one.  But again it almost matches my skin tone, maybe more so than So Many Clowns.

   

   While these are not my normal type of colors, I can say they felt rather feminine and flirty.  But not something I would wear very often.  I do think they would work well for a French manicure however.  

   Now the 4th polish in this collection, I Juggle...Men, is more me.  It's a shimmery top coat that reflects a few different colors.

   I tried this over Step Right Up first.  It looked nice in person, but I could not get a photograph that actually showed the shimmer.  So I pulled a few different colors to show you.  I used 2 coats of I Juggle...Men over each of these colors with OPI Natural Nail Base and no top coat.

   Please click to enlarge this so you can see the different colors in the shimmer.  In case you're wondering what the base colors are my pinkie is Sephora Pure Plum, Ring finger is WnW Craze Nocturnal-a deep navy, Middle finger WnW Wild Shine Black Creme, my go to black, and Index finger WnW Wild Shine Red Red. 

   By far, I Juggle...Men is my favorite polish from this collection.  I can see myself using this over many different polishes. 

   My final verdict on these:  Grab I Juggle...Men to jazz up some cremes and create some fun layered looks.  But the other three I would give a pass unless you need some new French mani polishes.

Disclaimer:  The product(s) in this post were sent to me by the company for consideration.

Free Hello Kitty Nail Stamp Plate

   Have any of you ladies ever tried nail stamping?  I've never done any, but have seen some incredible designs that have made me want to try it.  So when an opportunity for a free plate with several designs, including one of Hello Kitty, came up I decided to order and give it a try.

Plate

Image from Born Pretty web store

   Now I just ordered the plate tonight, so I haven't actually been able to try it yet.  BUT, more are still available, I'm not sure how many.  So if this is something that sounds interesting to you, head over to www.bornprettystore.com

 or directly to the plate at http://www.bornprettystore.com/hello-kitty-nail-stamping-plate-available-p-932.html

 and add the plate to your cart.  Then at check-out, you will need to make an account if you do not have one, use the code BP299 to have the price of the plate deducted from your total.  The spot for the code is a few pages into the checkout process.  There is even an option for free shipping so this is a completely free item.  I believe they ship from Asia, so allow extra time for shipping and arrival.

  As I've said, I've never tried stamping nor have I ordered from this company before.  This is not the first time they have run this promotion and I have heard others receiving the plates.  But I thought some of you might be interested and wanted to share the opportunity with you.  If you decide to order, let me know how you like the plate once you get it in and get a chance to play with it.  If you've never done any stamping, you will need to order a stamper and scraper as well, but those can be gotten from Amazon.

We Now Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Programing...Or Orly Out of This World

   WOOT!  I have home internet again!  And just in time for my 100th post.  Let me just say it's a good thing I have some internet on my phone.  Otherwise I might have gone crazy the last few days.  Well....crazier.  I did resort to some cleaning that needed to be done.

   I have another polish from the Orly Cosmic Fx collection for you today.  Out of This World is a deep purple with pink silver Fx, or flashes.  Once again, I had a hard time seeing these flashes on the nail.  In the bottle the secondary colors are quite evident, but are very rare on the nail.  

   Application was a little streaky with this polish, but less sheer than with Lunar Eclipse.  I think this has to do with the minerals and crystals in the polish, but that is just a guess.  I used a base of Orly Bonder and a top of Orly Polishield.  There are 3 coats of polish on my thumb, middle, and pinkie fingers while my index and ring finger each have 4 coats.  There is not an overly obvious difference between 3 & 4 coats.

Direct Sun

Shade 

Indoor

   Out of this world is a lovely purple shade.  I wish the pink flashes would show up more though.  Without the pink, this polish reminds me of Zoya Valerie and the pictures of Julieanne I've seen.  So while I like the color, it is not overly unique.  If you already have a one of the Zoya polishes I mentioned, you can probably give this one a pass.

Disclaimer:  The product(s) in this post were sent to me by the company for consideration.

Technical Difficulties Update

   Hello everyone.  Just a quick update from the coffee shop.  I should** have internet at home again tomorrow.  That's when the cable/internet company is scheduled to come install a cable modem anyway.  So hopefully everything will get back to normal starting tomorrow and I can fully post again.
   In the mean time, which polish would you like to see first?  I have Teenage Dream and Not Like the Movies, both from the Katy Perry OPI collection, and all of the Nicole by OPI Liquid Metals swatched and waiting on editing.  Does anyone have any other requests of things they'd like to see coming up, if I can ever get through the spring collections? 
   I hope everyone has a great day and hopefully I will be back tomorrow.

Please Hold As We Experience Technical Difficulties

   Due to some bad pirates invading my apartment complex, I will be without home internet for an undetermined amount of time.  Previously internet access was provided by my complex.  However, as of sometime this afternoon this will no longer be the case.  So unfortunately I will be unable to post until I can arrange for internet service to be connected/installed.  I am hoping this will be accomplished very quickly, but cannot be sure of a time frame at this point.  Currently I am borrowing internet from David's school to post this.  I will post this way again if I can, but again, not sure if/when this can happen.

   Hopefully this will be a very short break.  Please don't forget me ladies, I love you all.  Talk to you again soon.

                                                                                                                                                            Michele