Orly Hot Tropics and Saturated

Neons were my thing when I was in high school and they were insanely hard to find back then.  Between eye-popping polish like Orly's Baked collection and the internet, I'm pretty sure it's better to be a teenager now than it was in the 90's.  I took a long break from neons, but I've been inching my way back over the past couple of years.  I've been eyeing this collection for weeks, months even.  When I found it at the nail supply I almost let out a squeak of joy.  Saturated had been tempting me every time I saw it and Hot Tropics looked purpley enough to wind up coming home with me too.  If Lush didn't have...ugh...bar glitter, I'd have bought it too.  Back to the two I did buy though....

Hot Tropics is a bright purple-toned pink with tons of gold microfleck shimmer.

Stunningly beautiful, but look how much pinker it is on the nail!  Drat.  I just can't do pink.  Nichole is clamoring for it though and I know she'll love it as much as I wanted to.  This is two coats and the formula is perfect.  It applies so easily, but the microfleck makes cleanup tricky because it likes to stick to skin.  If you're into pinks that extra cleanup is so worth it though.  I mean...

It's a bit purple-ier when it's mattified, but still too far over the pink line for this pink hater.  Gorgeous and splendid and beautiful...and pink.  Phooey.

Saturated is a very dark purple neon.

The. Stuff. Of. Dreams.  Glorious!  I...I can't even words.  Just...damn.  Hotness.  It's even more amazing in person too.  Redder, more intense, and "deeper" than my camera could manage.  Neons shouldn't manage to be dark, but it works!  Like all neons it dries to a semi-matte if not topcoated.  This is two coats.  The application wasn't as dreamy as Hot Tropics, but was still good.  And really...who cares?  HOT!!

Bottom line: Hot Tropics is gorgeous and a breeze to apply, but is much pinker on the nail than in the bottle.  I found myself wishing the whole collection had the microfleck shimmer from Hot Tropics, especially Lush.  I'd have been all about that.  Actually, Saturated is divine partly because it's so pristine, and photos don't even start to get its point across.  Instant brand top 5 for me.  You'll be seeing it again in my favorites of the year post, I'm sure.

I'm so far behind with these that the fall collection, called Smoky, has already been announced.  Want!!  If they live up to those promo blobs this might be the first time I buy a full Orly collection.  I love browsing posts about CosmoProf conventions and getting a tantalizing early look at my two favorite polish seasons.  Can't wait!