The nail polish fiend in me pretty much leaps for joy when I try out a new nail polish brand, especially when I'm impressed with the brand and wonder why it took me so long to give it a try. Orly is one of those brands that I just never got around to trying out, and you can imagine how excited I was when I found out that Fragrance Direct had added Orly to their website at a fraction of the price.The RRP for a full size 18ml bottle of Orly nail polish is £10.95 but you can pick them up for just £3.99 on Fragrance Direct. Bargain or what?
Over the past year I've been a regular on the FD website and have ordered far too many of the £1.99 bottles of Essie nail polish, so I felt very lucky to be asked if I would like to try a few of the Orly shades. Fragrance Direct have a massive 42 Orly shades available on the website so there's plenty of choose from, and in the end I went for Kiss The Bride, Cotton Candy, Rage and Charged Up.
Swatches L-R: Kiss The Bride, Cotton Candy, Rage & Charged Up
Kiss The Bride*: a white-toned baby pink shade that is almost on a par with the very popular Essie Fiji. One of the reasons why I chose this shade was simply to see how similar it was to Fiji, and also because of its name as I've been a bit wedding obsessed since getting engaged. I'd say Kiss The Bride is slightly more pink than Fiji but is still a very close dupe and great at almost half the price. The only downside is that this shade does take quite a bit of building up in order to give your nails an opaque covering, and I managed to get this in 3 coats when I painted my nails with this shade last night. It's not the best shade to reach for when you're in a rush, but it's a gorgeous color that is very much worth the extra effort if you've got the time!
Cotton Candy*: a peachy pink shade that is another close Essie dupe, this time for my absolute favorite shade Van D'Go. I'd say Cotton Candy is more pink toned than Van D'Go which is more of a true peach, although I still love both colours and can't wait to get plenty of wear out of them next summer. Cotton Candy has a very creamy finish which is lovely and you can get an opaque color in 2 coats which is great (or even 1 coat if you apply your nail polish a bit heavier like me).
Rage*: a beautiful rose gold metallic shade. Rose gold seems to be everywhere these days and when I saw that Rage was available on the website I had to snap it up. I'd say Rage isn't your standard metallic finish as there's very small glitter in there too which gives the polish a gorgeous finish on the nails. It's a great nail effect for this time of year when there are so many parties to go to, although I can see myself wearing Rage all year round as it's just that special. You can get an opaque color on the nails with 2 coats which is good, and Rage is also perfect for jazzing up a solid color with a ring finger manicure.
Charged Up*: a vibrant blue-toned purple with a jelly formula. This darker purple shade is something I wouldn't normally go for as I tend to stick to my lilacs, but I just couldn't say no to Charged Up because it's such a stand out color. I can see this color being great for this time of year as it's on the darker side of purple and it makes a lovely change from my go-to lilacs. 2 coats wil give you a good covering but I found that I needed 3 to make sure that the color wasn't patchy in any areas.
All in all I'm so happy that Orly have been added to the Fragrance Direct website and that I've finally given the brand a try. The 18ml bottles seem huge in comparison to your standard Essie or Models Own nail polishes so they will certainly last you a long time, and the wide color range means that there's bound to be something for everyone. I was also impressed with the brushes from the Orly polishes as they're big enough to give your nails a good covering without being huge. These Orly polishes are such a bargain at £3.99 so I think you should be quick before all of the favorites sell out! You can find Orly nail polish on Fragrance Direct here.