Reprise: Orly It's Not Rocket Science

I did a post featuring this polish a little over a year ago, here, and felt like it was time to revisit it with some length on my nails, slightly better picture poses and a few, only a few, less of them. I can't say I have a fresh eye, because when I look at it now it's with the same open-mouthed glassy-eyed delight as I did then. Still a magnificent glass fleck shimmer and one of my very favorite greens, here we go again with Orly It's Not Rocket Science.

It's Not Rocket Science was released by Orly as part of the acclaimed Cosmic FX collection for fall 2010. Described by Orly as "green with gold blue FX," this polish has a deep murky swampy brownish green jelly base packed with golden glass flecks that shimmer through the base in all sorts of shades of green: chartreuse, olive, grass, lime. There is some green/aqua color shifting pigment in this puppy also, which you can see most easily in the bottle but does show on the nail in certain indirect lighting circumstances and viewing angles.

Application was lovely. My bottle's been aging in my rack for a bit but is definitely no worse for it, the consistency is the same fluid, slightly thick in a good way, easy to work with formula that I remember. It can get a little sticky and pull patches if overworked, but it goes on so nicely that I didn't have much of a problem with that. Likewise, allowing it to dry a bit between coats helps keep things smooth and even. Speaking of which, It's Not Rocket Science has excellent self-leveling properties, hooray! As a glass-fleck jelly shimmer, pigmentation is not a strong point of this polish, but it doesn't suck either. You can achieve bottle color and full opacity in two medium coats, although I did three because MACRO. Cleanup is easier than you might expect -- glass flecks seem to be much more accommodating that other types of shimmers to remove from cuticles and skin. It's Not Rocket Science dries naturally in fairly good time to a smooth shiny finish, which you definitely want to topcoat to make the most of the glass flecks.

Photos show three coats of It's Not Rocket Science over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Glisten and Glow HK Girl.

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

Orly It's Not Rocket Science

It's a green lover's paradise of a polish, I tell you! Especially if you happen to like yellow greens. I know a lot of people say this is one of those so ugly it's pretty, goose poop, slime greens, but to me it's a sumptuous mosaic of delicious natural greens, a "green thought in a green shade" (tip of the hat to British poet Andrew Marvell) polish if there ever was one.

From what I read, China Glaze Zombie Zest and SpaRitual Optical Illusion are both similar enough to It's Not Rocket Science to be declared dupes. I don't have either of those two so I can't tell you from personal experience if that's true, but enough folks out there agree that it is to make me believe it. So if you're more of a China Glaze or SpaRitual fan than you are of Orly, you can find this look in your favorite brand. The Orly Cosmic FX polishes are still available on ebay at least, and perhaps on Amazon as well. 

love,
Liz