Pretty Orchid Shades for lips, cheeks, and nails!

Since the 2014 Pantone colour of the year is Radiant Orchid, I wanted to show you some of my favourite orchid toned products.

Zoya Odette: Odette is a sultry orchid maroon cream polish from the Zoya Naturel Collection (see a review and swatches of the entire collection HERE). This shade is perfect to wear year round because it’s a classic orchid shade that’s rich in colour but not too bright.

Benefit Lollitint: Lollitint is an orchid lip and cheek stain from Benefit (see more pictures HERE). It looks more muted in the picture above than it does on the lips. This shade is perfect for brightening up a pale winter complexion or providing a fun pop of colour during the warmer months.

Tarte Fantastic Amazonian Clay Blush: Fantastic was released with Tarte’s 2012 Fantastic Foursome holiday collection (see the rest of the collection and a description of each shade HERE). This blush applies effortlessly and stays vibrant on the skin for hours. Its cool orchid tones give the cheeks a glow from within effect. I like to complement this shade by wearing a dab of Lollitint on my lips and a swipe of mascara on my lashes.

Zoya Rory: Rory is a bright, shimmery orchid polish that was released with Zoya’s summer 2012 Surf Collection (see a full review and more swatches of Rory HERE). This polish is a great shade to wear in the summer as its sparkly orchid tones look beautiful in the sunlight. It’s also a nice shade to add a pop of colour during the cooler, more cloudy seasons.
Which one of these orchid shades is your favourite? Which orchid toned products have you worn this year?

NOTD: Zoya Rory

After a long winter of dark, cream finish polishes, Zoya Rory is a breath of fresh, spring air!

At first glance, this shade appears as a standard pink with a hint of purple, but a little sunlight brings out its truly unique properties. Zoya describes Rory as a “medium mauve pink with lilac tones, gold and silver reflective metallic shimmer accents, and a foil-like finish.” As you can see from the photos in this post, this description is fairly accurate.

Rory was introduced to the Zoya family in Summer 2012 with the release of the Surf collection. The other five polishes in the collection have a similar finish. Despite being a medium shade, Rory is fairly pigmented and becomes opaque with two coats. Zoya gives this polish a 5/5 in terms of opacity.

I’m not sure if I agree with the Zoya site in its classification of Rory as a warm toned shade. I can usually only pull off cool toned shades, but Rory did not compete with my skintone. I think that the lilac tones neutralize the mauve and allow Rory to have a neutral base.

Also, while the finish is quite metallic, I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it is “foil-like”. I consider a foil-like finish to be smooth and reflective, or mirror-like (for example, the Sally Hansen Chrome polishes). The metallic-look of this polish is created by gold and silver shimmers which make the finish shiny and glossy but not quite reflective. Either way, the finish is unique and gives the shade dimension.

Overall, I feel that Rory offers a pretty pop of colour, and a surprising splash of shimmer with its metallic micro glitter formula. The formula is easy to work with and it took five days for minor chipping and tip-wear to begin. A perfect spring and summer polish!

Pretty Spring Nail Art

While I love seeing nail looks around this type of year that include rabbits, grass, and colourful Easter eggs, I like to wear designs on my nails that will be appropriate long after the egg hunt ends.
This year, I created a shimmery pink floral look with pearl accents. It was very quick and easy to create, and it’s perfect for spring.

Check out my video below to see how I created the look and which products I used. I also have a picture of last year’s look which uses more pastel shades.

Easter / Spring Nail Tutorial