Left side, ORLY Gel FX shades Melt Your Popsicle, Oh Cabana Boy, and Skinny Dip
In my Sally Beauty Haul a earlier this year I bought some new gel polish, including three ORLY Gel FX shades. I’d never tried ORLY’s gel formula before, so this was a trip into uncharted waters.
I am LOVING this formula! Regrettably, I do not have photos or swatches at the moment, but the first application of Melt Your Popsicle (a vivid orange) stuck around for TEN DAYS despite 1) a shoddy, kind of rushed application and 2) me being REALLY hard on my hands.
It’s a really sturdy formula! The only criticism I have for ORLY Gel FX is that, like Gelish, it is best to flash cure every nail or two so the product doesn’t go do what it wants (shrink, move). I ran into a little trouble trying to paint all of them and then do a full cure. It is minor, though, and I’ll take it for how awesome the color is.
As far as this color goes, if you want to really make it pop, apply two coats over an opaque white gel. I’ve done three coats of Melt Your Popsicle, Skinny Dip (bright, pool blue), AND Oh Cabana Boy (vibrant pinky fuschia with shimmer) on its own and my nail line was still visible (it’s kind of a jelly) though the color was pretty saturated. It still looked good, though.
I plan to follow up with swatches of the three ORLY Gel FX shades I own at some point, but I’m not feeling the neons right now. It’s I’m Not Really a Waitress season, after all.