Orly Jealous Much

The name of this polish is actually "Jealous, Much?" However I have a thing about punctuated polish names -- I just hate the way the punctuation messes with the appearance of an otherwise grammatically sound piece of text. I routinely omit any punctuation in the names of polishes for the sake of my sanity.

Jealous Much was released by Orly as part of its Cool Romance collection for spring 2012. It's one of very few true pastels in my stash, a cool whitened minty green with a creme/jelly hybrid sort of formula. This color is prized by many polish enthusiasts for springtime wear and otherwise. Some even admit to having an obsession for minty blues and greens, imagine! *wink* I can see the appeal of this kind of shade, it's very clean and fresh but at the same time soft. There's some translucency to Jealous Much that gives it a little bit of that milky luminous look, sort of like Fire King jadeite tableware only not as bright a green. Very pretty!

This polish was kind of a PITA to apply. The consistency is ok, it's very thin and fluid but not really runny and likes to go on in thin coats. It's also very streaky, patchy and unkind to nail ridges. And it bubbles. Even a thin coat bubbled on me. But that was the least of my worries, the greatest being would I be able to apply enough coats to camo the ridges without it looking like a blob on the nail. As it turned out, I was able to do so in three coats, but the third was kind of thick and looks it. Waiting a bit between coats helped a lot with the patching. I gave each coat at least five minutes to dry before applying the next. One coat of Jealous Much dries naturally in average time to a glossy finish, but adding coats ratcheted up the dry time as they seemed to rewet the previous coat rather easily.

Photos show three coats of Jealous Much over treatment and basecoat with a thick topcoat of Seche Vite. Somehow in the process of setting up to photograph this polish my left thumbnail was ambushed by a dent gremlin. I didn't even realize it until after I'd taken most of the photos, d'oh! As for the grimy ring finger, well, I am just a dirty girl. *lol*

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Orly Jealous Much

Seche Vite is godlike it its power to soothe the savage bubbler. I applied it while the last coat was still wet, per standard operating protocol, and it dried down to the glossy shine you see here with no bubbling to be seen. Except, of course, where I accidentally churned in a bubble or two into the Vite itself. That too seems to be standard operating protocol around here, unfortunately.

There are comparable minty greens out there. American Apparel Office is one. From reading comparison posts on Spaz & Squee and Frazzle and Aniplosh, Office is very close, perhaps a touch bluer. I don't have it myself so I can't tell you if the formula's any better. Another near-dupe is China Glaze Re-fresh Mint, which is a tiny bit lighter. Again, I don't have this one and so can't speak to formula.

I actually am enjoying Jealous Much now that I've gotten through the drama of applying it. Despite what you see in the photos, it doesn't make my fingers look like they've been microwaved and it has a soft gentle presence on the nail that gives me calm, soothing feels. I can see how a body could develop an avid attraction toward minty shades. I could perhaps become smitten with them myself, if only they weren't so fussy to apply!

love,
Liz