Pretty & Polished Opal Collection

*Press Samples*

Hi everyone! Today I have the gorgeous Opal Collection from Pretty & Polished to share with you! This collection consists of four jellies with multicolored flakies that are all inspired by gorgeous opals! This collection is launching on Pretty & Polished's website on November 14th.

I will start off by talking about the formula since it is pretty much the same across the board with these. These polishes start off sheer and then build up nicely in 3 thin coats. The flakies are very dense in these polishes, so the best way to apply them is by using thin coats so that they don't clump up (as flakies tend to do). Each time I dipped my brush into the polish, I made sure to wipe off the excess so that my brush wasn't holding a ton of polish, and they applied perfectly this way. As you build up layers, the depth of all of the flakies on your nail is amazing! The colors of these flakies is more muted and pastel looking (except for the blue/purple which shines pretty brightly) and it is extremely difficult to capture their beautiful iridescence on camera. The colors actually pop much more on camera when you add a matte topcoat (and they look amazing this way) so I've shown all of them with matte topcoat as well.

Lightning Ridge is a black jelly base with multicolored iridescent flakies. This is 3 thin coats. I've actually heard of Lightning Ridge before, which is famous for the mining of black opals. I used to want a black opal ring SO MUCH (still do, actually), so I used to look up opals on then web constantly. This polish seemed to have the most colors of flakies in it, and they really pop against the black base.

(Matte)

Aurora Australis is a deep blue jelly base with multicolored flakies in blue, purple, and green. This is 3 thin coats. Because of the dark base and because the flakies really blended with the color of the base, the color shift of the flakies was the hardest to capture in this one. In real life, they had a lovely colorful glimmer and depth that shone out of the base color (you can actually see more of the colors in the bottle). This polish was named after the most valuable black opal in the world.

(matte)

 

Boulder Opal is an inky purple jelly base with multicolored flakies in purple, green and blue (the blue is especially prominent). This is 3 thin coats. The base of this one is so dark that it almost looks black in some lights, but it is definitely purple. I just ADORE this one with the matte topcoat added because those pops of blue are stunning! Boulder opals are the second most valuable type of opals behind black opals.

(matte)

Flame Queen is a green jelly base with multicolored flakies. This is 3 thin coats. This is another one where the colors of the flakies were hard to capture on camera, but matte topcoat brought them out beautifully! The Flame Queen is another very famous opal that is an example of an "eye-of-opal" which has a very unique nested appearance.

(matte)

Pretty & Polished products are available from their website or from these international locations. You can also follow them on Facebook , Instagram, and Twitter to see updates on new releases! Don't forget to check out both the Opal Collection and the Winter 2014 Collection when they go on sale November 14th!