Battle Of The Unicorns - Clarins 230, Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Milani Totally Cool and Orly Out Of This World

First up a huge apology for the lack of blogging over the last few months, have been insanely busy, as well as making a huge switch from PC to Mac, it's taken me a while to adjust, but I'm just about getting there :)

What better way to return to blogging than by revisiting a nail fanatic favourite: Clarins 230 also known as "Unicorn Pee". As many of you are aware Max Factor caused quite a stir recently with their release of Fantasy Fire from their Max Colour Effects Mini line. The second I saw the little bottle on the Max Factor counter in Boots I could instantly see why. Fantasy Fire appears to have the same rainbow/oil slick multichrome effect visible in Clarins 230.

So here are some comparison swatches so you can see how Fantasy Fire shapes up against 230. I've also included Milani's Totally Cool and Orly's Out Of This World in the comparison swatches, these two dont have the same rainbow effect, but they are absolutely gorgeous duochrome polishes, onto the swatches:

L-R Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Clarins 230, Milani Totally Cool and Orly Out Of This World

L-R Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Clarins 230, Milani Totally Cool and Orly Out Of This World

L-R Orly Out Of This World, Milani Totally Cool, Clarins 230 and Max Factor Fantasy Fire 

L-R Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Clarins 230, Milani Totally Cool and Orly Out Of This World

L-R  Milani Totally Cool, Clarins 230 and Max Factor Fantasy Fire

L-R Max Factor Fantasy Fire, Clarins 230, Milani Totally Cool and Orly Out Of This World

As usual these proved extremley difficult to photograph, its really hard to capture the multi tone effect in these polishes, so the tones are quite a lot more dramatic in real life. Orly's Out Of This Worlds is definitely the most opaque of the 4 (opaque in 2/3 coats) followed by Milani's Totally Cool (opaque in 3/4) both Clarins 230 and Max Factor's Fantasy Fire took 4-5 and even then there is VNL, but they are both brilliant for layering polishes. 

Orly's Out Of This World is definitely the most subtle duochrome, at the right angle you will see some gold/green specks, Milani's Totally Cool has a slightly stronger duochrome effect, and you will see specks of green and even a little rusty red appear at the right angles. Now let's take a closer look at Clarins 230 and Max Factor's Fantasy Fire:

  

Close up Max Factor Fantasy Fire and Clarins 230

In the bottle both of these have a strong rainbow/oil slick effect, Clarins 230 has a stronger red base shade, whereas Fantasy Fire is more a deep lavender purple base, to be honest when looking at the two colours on my nails the oil slick effect seems as strong on both colours, but the photos definitely struggled to show off how great this effect is.

To conclude Max Factor's Fantasy Fire is by no means a dupe of Clarins 230, it is however one of the few polishes I've ever seen that has the same rainbow/oil slick effect and I absolutely love it! at £3.99 it's a good deal cheaper than the crazy prices you'll see Clarins 230 floating online at, but I'd definitely suggest layering it over a different colour, as it really is very sheer on its own!

Orly Cosmic FX Swatches Part 2

Here is part 2 of the Orly Cosmic FX Collection, which contains two of my favourite duochrome polishes of all time: Galaxy Girl and Space Cadet, as a result there is a multitude of photos to demonstrate their duochrome awesomeness :D

L-R Galaxy Girl, Space Cadet and Out of this World

Galaxy Girl 

Galaxy Girl is a dark brown/maroon foil polish packed with duochrome flashes in purple and turquoise, and possibly one of my all time favourite polishes ever created. The effect on this polish is simply stunning, and depending on what lighting you are around, you will always notice a different shade in this awesome shade. At some angles this one really makes me think of a beetle shell. Here come the pics :D

Also worth knowing that Mac Venomous Villains Formidable is almost an exact dupe of Galaxy Girl. 

Space Cadet

Space Cadet, another all time polish favourite, is one of the most duochrome polishes I have ever witnessed. The flash photo above just picks up the pinky grey foil shade, but the non flash photos that follow demostrate just how many awesome colours this polish reflects: golds/greens/orange pink/ brown, this one has to be seen to be believed :D you'll definitely need 3 coats to get the maximum effect, but application is wonderful so its more than worth it for this awesome effect polish

phew, I could literally stare at this polish all day, this polish also has a dupe out there, Mac's Venomous Villains Mean And Green is near identical :)

Out Of This World

At A first glance at the flash picture, Out Of This World looks like a standard dark purple Foil Polish, but on closer inspection you will see that this polish too has an awesome duochrome effect, though subtler than the first two. Out Of This World has very dark purple and a hint of gold in its duochrome flash, you'll probably have to click on the last few pics to really see this effect.

That was a lot oh photos :), but I really felt this collection deserved a bit more attention that skittles, it is simply stunning, and although the only set of Orly Polishes I own, by far one of my favourite collections every released. They all apply easily and build to opacity by 3 coats. I'm also in love with Orly's rubberized bottle top, really enjoy applying these polishes. I hope they bring out another great collection of duochrome polishes soon!

please click for part 1 of this collection

Orly Cosmic FX Swatches Part 1

I did some skittle swatches of the Orly Cosmic FX Collection a while back, but I really don't think that gave the attention these polishes deserve. This range is probably one of the best duochrome foil finish collections out there, so these posts are going to be very picture heavy to really highlight the different colour flashes each polish has, thats why I've split the 6 polishes into 2 posts :D Anyway here they are :D hope you enjoy :D

L-R It's Not Rocket Science, Halley's Comet, Lunar Eclipse

It's Not Rocket Science

It's not Rocket Science is an awesome gooey duochrome green shade, it flashes two different shades, the afore mentioned gooey green and emerald green, as an avid green polish lover I absolutely adore this one, it was opaque in 2/3 coats (depending on how fussy you are) and for some reason makes me think of China Glaze Zombie Zest (although that one is a glitter)

China Glaze Zombie Zest

Clicky to see the emerald green flash

Halley's Comet

Halley's Comet is a turquoise green/blue duochrome polish, which flashes both colours at different angles, this was opaque at 3 coats, and I recently did a comparison post of this polish and OPI's Catch Me In Your Net:

OPI Catch Me In Your Net

click for original post

Lunar Eclipse

 Lunar Eclipse was the most tricky to photograph out of these three, It's a navy blue polish with a strong purple duochrome effect, this purple was hardest to capture on camera, but I did my best to demonstrate the awesome effect in the following pics:

 The purple effect is definitely more apparent in the photos without the flash, this was 3 coats for full opacity.

bottle pic really shows the purple/blue duochrome

Orly Cosmic FX Collection is definitely one of my favourite collections of all time! The next 3 polishes from this collection will follow soon :D

please click for part 2 of this collection