Orly Stone Cold

Stone Cold was released by Orly as part of the Mineral FX collection for fall 2011. It's a vibrant rich sapphire blue shimmer polish, with a medium-dark sapphire blue jelly base filled with irregularly-shaped flaky shimmer platelets. In indirect light, the shardy flakes give it a rippled shimmery look that reminds me of looking into a deep Florida freshwater spring, while in direct sun it is a dazzling radiant sapphire blue.

Application was very nice. I've read reviews with negative reactions to the formula of this polish as being thick and goopy, but the consistency of my bottle was fluid and thin, but not runny. With a translucent jelly base, coverage is buildable over multiple coats. After two thin coats, there was still some unevenness to the coverage and color so I applied one more and was happy with that. I noticed, though, that despite wrapping my tips with each coat, the polish there was still a bit sheer. You'll see what I mean in the photos. Cleanup was easy and non-staining, a big plus for a blue as saturated as this one is. Stone Cold dries naturally in slightly longer than average time to a smooth shiny finish. Topcoat enhances the color and pops the shimmers, but care must be taken to envelope the entire polished surface or a slightly discolored corona will appear at the edges missed by topcoat. 

Photos show three coats of Stone Cold over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Mortification du jour: a lovely CAT HAIR slyly inserted itself at top knuckle of the pinky finger on my left hand for the pictures. Sigh. I didn't even see it until I had them up on my imac.

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

Orly Stone Cold

The tip sheerness is worrisome, it leads me to anticipate tipwear as imminent and noticeable. Tipwear is a fact of polish life and to be expected, but I don't usually start thinking about it before I'm finished with the manicure.

Stone Cold is a beautiful vibrant blue, but it doesn't really resonate with me for some reason. Perhaps my blue aesthetic is developing more particular parameters. Stone Cold feels very primary to me -- I guess I was hoping for something a little more uncommon. I have two other polishes from the same Mineral FX collection in my swatching chute, hopefully they'll have more of the kick I seem to be craving at the moment.

love,
Liz