Orly Blush 4pc Mini Kit Review

Last month I spotted the Orly Online Only Blush 4pc Mini Kit at Ulta when I was doing a little unnecessary shopping, and I thought ooh, that is the perfect collection to swatch for Valentine's Day! And here we are.

The full Blush Collection actually includes 6 creme and shimmer shades released for Spring / Summer 2014. Those shades include: Naked Canvas, Cheeky, First Blush, Dare to Bare, Classic Contours, and Flawless Flush. The two latter shades are not included in this quartet; but can be purchased in full-size bottles separately.

Naked Canvas is a Nude Creme with Iridescent Purple Shimmer. This is such a fun take on basic nude. In the shade, Naked Canvas looks like a milky-meets-nude creme; but then you go outdoors, or stand under fluorescent lighting and these gorgeous iridescent purple shimmer streaks appear {I only wish they were more discernible in these photographs}. It's a total shape-shifter in terms of color - over a period of two days I had the same person ask me what color nail polish I was wearing three. separate. times. It looked like a different shade each time she saw it! The formula is slightly thin, and can be streaky if you don't allow each coat to dry before moving onto the next. This is 3 coats.

Dare to Bare is a Taupe / Nude Creme. This shade was used on all of the models at the Spring / Summer 2014 Meadham Kirchhoff show at London Fashion Week. I find this shade to be incredibly similar to Deborah Lippmann's Modern Love in that, while a nude, there are dusty rose / mauve undertones that make it a very interesting, unexpected neutral. The formula was beautiful on this one - the perfect consistency and opacity. This is 3 coats {I likely could have gotten away with 2 coats}.

Cheeky is a Coral Creme with Gold Shimmer. China Glaze's Mimosa's Before Mani's is more peach in color and has less shimmer; CoverGirl's Bahama Mama leans more pink and is laced with silver shimmer. Pictures do not do this one justice. Cheeky is an orange-leaning coral with subtle neon tendencies. Cheeky's formula was nearly identical to Dare to Bare in terms of consistency; however, while Dare to Bare could have been perfected with 2 coats {I did, in the end, use 3}, that wasn't a possibility with Cheeky, as VNL was still quite apparent after the first two. This is 3 coats.

First Blush is a Neon Red / Hot Pink Creme. My favorite of the set! If you were to bottle Valentine's Day, I imagine it would look something like First Blush. This. Color. Is. Incredible. Looking at the bottle you think oh, another pink...great. Then you start applying it and it's just mind-blowing. Is it pink? Is it red? No! It's a neon mix of both! The formula here was similar to that of Naked Canvas - a little thin, yet manageable. Being a neon hybrid, it doesn't have as much natural shine as the rest of the colors in this quartet; but the stellar color more than makes up for that! This is 3 coats.


FINAL THOUGHTS:
I'm not sure if Orly intended to make this mini quartet for Valentine's Day; but, the 4 colors included definitely make it feel like they did {the 2 colors excluded from this quartet - Classic Contours and Flawless Flush - fit more with a Spring theme as opposed to a VDay theme}, which only makes me love it more {I'm such a sucker for novelty beauty sets}.

I can do nothing but rave about this collection. While the formula was somewhat thin on most of the shades, it was not difficult to work with, and the end result for all was absolutely beautiful. Though this is technically a spring collection, Dare to Bare and Naked Canvas are year-round essentials due to their relation to the neutral family; and Cheeky and First Blush are such fun and flirty shades for summer {I can't wait to use them for pedicures!}.

Unexpected is the word that most accurately describes this mini collection. And I mean unexpected in a very, very, very good way. This is a collection that proves that you cannot judge a polish color by how it looks in the bottle. Each one of these shades had a special element {hidden shimmer, surprise undertones} mixed in that was undetectable until on the nail; but truly made all the difference in putting each shade in a class of its own. If Blush is any indication of what Orly has in store for the rest of 2014, I will definitely be buying it all.

Which one would you wear for Valentine's Day?

xx

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