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.