Orly Holiday Soiree 2011 Swatches and Review

 
Au Champagne, Ingenue, Oui, Ma Cherie, Le Chateau, Androgynie




Au Champagne, Ingenue, Oui


Ma Cherie, Le Chateau, Androgynie


Au Champagne, Ingenue


Ingenue, Oui


Ma Cherie, Le Chateau


Le Chateau, Androgynie




Androgynie deserves another pic

Hope you're all having a fabulous weekend (a long one, for my U.S. readers)!!  Okay, I just got all 18 Orlys from the Birds of a Feather, Holiday Soiree, and Mineral FX collections! I am super stoked about these new Orly collections. I feel that Orly's been stepping up their game this year, I am loving these new fall and holiday collections so much. Apparently, more and more people have been noticing Orly's nail polishes lately and I feel that the brand is becoming more popular. That is a good thing because Orly has been so underrated for the longest time. They are not as popular as OPI or China Glaze, but they have bigger bottles with more product, and cheaper than most salon brands.

This time, I will be posting wheel swatches of the Holiday Soiree. Please pardon the nail wheel swatches, this is a long weekend and we have guests staying at our house for the holiday, so I didn't have time to swatch these on my hand. However, I will be posting swatches of these via my Nail Look of the Day blog posts. I also took photos of the nail wheels with my fingers so you'll see how the colors look like on my skin.


Au Champagne, Ingenue, Oui, Ma Cherie, Le Chateau, Androgynie


Au Champagne, Ingenue, Oui





Okay, pardon if I did not post a wheel swatch with my finger for Au Champagne- it looked so much like a naked nail on my nail wheel, that I forgot that I actually swatched a color there! A pretty white with silver shimmer. I don't usually wear whites, but this is great paired with a different color, maybe a crackle polish or some Konad images, or a great flakie glitter top coat for some added dimension.


Ingenue


Ingenue

Ingenue and Oui are the Orly counterparts of OPI Rally Pretty Pink and It's My Year. Ingenue (and Rally Pretty Pink) are in this plummy, mauve-ish base with a fantastic amount of gold glass-like flecks. The shimmer is out of this world. They have a pink-ish base with more gold sparkly glass flecks as opposed to Oui and It's My Year that have a more purple base. I will be posting comparison swatches of these four polishes so stay tuned! As for Ingenue, it is such a breathtaking color which changes at every angle, and it is one of my absolute favorites in this collection.


Oui


Oui

Oui is another gorgeous shade that is the fraternal twin of Ingenue. If you like a darker purple base with less noticeable gold shimmer flecks, this is for you. As I said, the OPI counterpart of this product is OPI It's My Year from the Miss Universe collection (swatches and review of this are also coming up).


Ma Cherie, Le Chateau, Androgynie




Ma Cherie


Ma Cherie

Ma Cherie is a nice vibrant fire engine red. It's a jelly. I think this is my first time to have a fire engine red jelly instead of a cream, which is a good thing.


Le Chateau


Le Chateau

Pardon the scratch on the swatch. My least favorite of the collection. Wish I didn't get it. A blah-looking dark blackish green that really looks black even under direct sunlight.


Androgynie


Androgynie



The obvious star of the collection. A black base with tiny shimmering gold flecks with blue, green, gold, orange hexagon glitter. I am not liking it too much, though, because although the glitters are pretty, the base was TOO dark, too black, that it just ate most of the brilliance of the glitters. The glitters are also too sparse to be seen. My experience with glitter is that the more dense they are in the base, the better so that their beauty shines easily, otherwise, having too few glitters kinda defeats the purpose, especially if the base is too dark. It's beautiful in the bottle, but the execution is meh.

Formula is great; these are opaque in 2 coats, but I used three coats for the swatches so the color will translate better against the glare of the sun.  Very easy to apply and no brush strokes at all.

All in all, this collection is a nice addition to your collection if you want sparkly ones for this fall and for the upcoming holidays. I was disappointed in Androgynie, and Ma Cherie, Ingenue and Oui are not the most unique shades I've seen. Nonetheless, I like this collection because Ingenue and Oui are both gorgeous, and Androgynie is okay despite the too dark base. Not my favorite collection out of the new ones I've tried, but the cute packaging with the lace-backed nail files attached to the polishes are too good to pass up.

The Shades Of U Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

Watch out for more Orly polish swatches and review from the Mineral FX and Birds of a Feather collections.