Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Orly Fantasea + Barry M Vivid Purple = Multidimensional Awesomeness!

There's something about the colour purple that I love so much, and I can't quite explain why. It could be that purple is a colour with enough oomph to not be boring, and yet still remains a colour that's pretty work-appropriate, or it could be that purple was the first colour of nail polish I tried, and fell in love with. Whatever the matter, I love purples, and I'm constantly trying to create more pretty purples to wear on my nails.

In one of my experiments, I tried creating a multidimensional purple on my nail, and I layered Orly Fantasea over Barry M Vivid Purple. Now both are gorgeous purples in their own right, and a quick google will turn up plenty of pretty NOTDs featuring one or the other worn alone, but I just had to try them together.

Here is the result:

Orly Fantasea Barry M Vivid Purple

Orly Fantasea, one of those hard-to-find but oh-so-gorgeous polishes, is a very pretty colour, consisting of multidimensional shimmer in a sheer purple base. It's the shimmer in Fantasea that's showing up on the nail and giving the entire layering experiment it's complexity. However, Orly Fantasea is quite sheer when worn alone on the nail, which is why I chose to layer it. I didn't want to waste my precious bottle of Fantasea trying to build up the colour by using 4 coats!

Barry M Vivid Purple, the base colour, is a purple with gold shimmer that's opaque in 1-2 coats, and one of the standouts in the entire Barry M nail polish lineup (in my opinion anyway). The gold shimmer doesn't really show through after the layering, but I'm sure it's in there contributing in some subtle way.

orly fantasea barry m vivid purple


I don't know about you, but I absolutely love the effect. The resulting purple is a gorgous deep purple with a certain multidimensional shimmer quality that I love. I can't quite describe it, but it seems to me to look like little flecks of shimmer just capture the light and wink at you. I can make out pink and blue, but I'm sure there are more colours in there I can't describe. It's not a duochrome, but it sure is pretty.

Application for both Barry M Vivid Purple and Orly Fantasea was smooth, and the entire combination lasted for about 4 days before chipping, which was average for me. I definitely love this colour, and I'm sure I'll wear it again soon!