Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Orly Flash Glam FX Swatches

I think I mentioned in my last store report that I bought all of the glitters from the Orly Flash Glam FX display at Sally's. Even if I didn't, I'm sure this comes as no surprise to any of you who read my posts even just semi-regularly. Here they are (left to right): Be Brave, Can't Be Tamed, Spazmatic, Mermaid Tale, and Sashay My Way.



When I pulled these out to swatch, I noticed that they coordinated quite nicely with the Essie Bikini So Teeny collection, which I hadn't yet put away in my Helmers, so I grabbed those to serve as base colors for my swatches. I knew based on looking at the swatch cards in the store that all of these Orlys had clear or nearly clear bases and so were not the kind of thing I'd be likely to wear alone.



Be Brave is chock full of pink prismatic (or is it holographic?) string glitter (or maybe it's bar glitter; I never know how long and floppy bars need to get before they're strings).



I paired Be Brave with Essie Off the Shoulder. These swatches (like all the Essie/Orly combinations to follow) are two coats of the Essie plus two of the Orly, no top coat. The way the glitter was catching the light, I saw a lot of lilac tones in it.



Can't Be Tamed has medium purple and small gunmetal hex glitter.



This one got a base of Essie Cascade Cool.



I don't remember why didn't take an individual bottle shot of Spazmatic—could be because it looks the least interesting of the five, with glitter that's all one size (medium hex) and color (blue). On the nail, over Essie Bikini So Teeny, I finally saw the blue shimmer in the base of Spazmatic, and it's really pretty. (Bikini So Teeny does have some shimmer of its own, but it's very subtle and silvery; the blue shimmer you see here is all Spazmatic's doing. (The pinkish yellow pops of light you see aren't coming from the polish but are a reflection from a lamp; I wasn't in my usual swatching space for this session and didn't notice that until I pulled the photos off my camera.)





Mermaid Tale has medium and small hex glitter in shades of green and blue with a few holographic pieces, too.



I loved how well Mermaid Tale coordinated with Essie Mojito Madness.



Sashay My Way has golden toned holographic hex and string glitter. This is the one I thought the hardest about getting, because gold and I often don't get along but in the end of course I couldn't leave it there in the store when I brought the rest of its friends home with me.



Since I had two Essies left at this point, I used them both for a base, with Fear or Desire on most of my digits and All Tied Up as an accent nail. I ended up quite liking this combination.



I wanted to keep playing with these glitters, so I did a couple more swatches over Wet 'n' Wild Wild Shine Black Creme.

Here's black plus one coat of Spazmatic, one of Mermaid Tale, and one more of Spazmatic. Mmmm, layer-y goodness.







And here's black plus one coat of Can't Be Tamed and one of Be Brave.





Being a glitter lover, I was inclined to like this collection before I even saw it in person. Now that I have tried these first five (of twenty-two, I think it is), I really really like them. I appreciate the variety; the mix of glitter shapes and sizes is different in each one, not just the colors. I also like how smooth they are even without topcoat. I'm really looking forward to seeing the rest of these as they're released.


24 comments:

  1. I love, love, love the layered mani. Darn, that's beautiful, and right up my alley!

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  2. Great post! I have Spazmatic and Be Brave and love them both! The second wave is supposed to come out soon! Already have Sally's setting them aside for me when they get in! Can't wait!

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  3. Mermaid tale is gorgeous! They look a million times better layered over each other :D

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  4. Super great layering, I love it.
    And even if I'm not a great glitter fan myself, these ARE gorgeous LOL

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  5. Great layering choices! They all look great :)

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  6. My favorites of these are Mermaid Tale and Sashay My Way. Your layering combinations are really pretty!

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  7. love those combo!!! and i cant take my eyes off mermaid tale,,,

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  8. Your swatches make me want more than the ones I already picked up! I'm dying over the Mermaid Tale and Sashay My Way combo!

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  9. i love all of them! great swatches!! :)

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  10. I loved the layering combos over the black. Gorgeous! There's going to be 22? Wow! Thanks for letting me know!

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  11. I also bought all five and was hesitant about Sashay but since I got the other four I figured why not. I actually don't have a gold glitter like it so it worked. I just know I'm going to end up getting all 22. I've seen swatches of Monster Mash and Sunglasses at Night and they're both gorgeous!

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  12. These are so pretty! Haha I love the picture with the Orly and Essie bottles!

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  13. i love Mermaid Tale the best... but those layered manicures are divine *.*

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  14. Oh I love that layering with Spazmatic and Mermaid Tale. I'm sad that I passed on these when I saw them at Ulta the other day.

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  15. Fantastic swatches! I love the layered combinations. The Spazmatic + Mermaid Tale combo is my favourite- kind of reminds me of DL Across the Universe.

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  16. Oh, I like your layering combos, Karen!

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  17. Glitters: I like them but hate to remove them :-P I think this is a pretty collection for a glitter lover, these would be great for sandwiches mani (your layering on black is stunning).
    I'm not surprised my fav is Mermaid Tale!

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  18. First of all, I am a week and 1000+ of posts behind. As you know, I am not a glitter fan, but I do think I like bar glitter. There is a Sephora polish called Silver Rain that is a clear base with holo bar glitter and I really like it. Is there one like that in this collection of 22? If so, can you let me know????

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    1. Fingers, I don't see one like that on their site. :(

      http://orlybeauty.com/flash-glam-fx.php

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  19. I really like all combos that you made with this glitters! :)

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  20. That string glitter reminds me of the 90s, lol! But I so love it... definitely need to pick up a couple of these. Great swatches... can you tell I'm finally catching up on blog comments?;)

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