Kelli Marissa X Orly: Swatch & Review

Summer is about to start and I am NOT excited. Last week Southern Oregon decided to sneak in a few early 100 degree days, very thoughtful of it to remind me how much I don’t want this season to start. There have also already been some small wildfires in the area, yay. Luckily I have awesome nail polish to distract me from all of this. No matter how hot it is outside, my nails are always going to be cool 😎 I have barely talked about Orly on the blog, which is weird because they are probably one of my favorite brands. A shining example of how quality does not automatically mean expensive, I think they are very reasonably priced compared to some of the other mainstream brands. They recently collaborated with NailTuber (nail YouTuber… not sure if this is a term I’ve heard other people use or if I just made it up) Kelli Marissa. She does swatch videos for a variety of mainstream and indie brands, her channel is such a great resource! Her collaboration with Orly features some galaxy inspired shades that will work for a variety of seasons. These are so up my alley, it was a no-brainer to purchase them even though I’ve been trying not to buy so much nail polish. Truly, I think about it all the time. I may not act upon it, but I’m thinking about it. If you don’t want to buy more nail polish yourself, maybe stop reading about now because these are SO GOOD.

All of my swatches today are over Zoya Naked base coat and are topped with Seche Vite where noted.

Orly Kelli’s Galaxy, 2 coats plus top coat

Up first is Kelli’s Galaxy, which is the polish that got this collab collection started! It is described as “a vibrant royal blue base packed with violet shimmer, as well as a scattering of blue metallic flecks,” and I am happy to report that you can see all these elements in the polish! The purple shimmer looks absolutely amazing in the blue base, I thought this one was going to be my favorite but, spoilers, another polish took me by surprise.

Orly Kelli’s Galaxy, 1 coat

Kelli’s Galaxy goes on super smooth. The brush in my bottle was not cut quite right, but I was still happy with my application. I think that’s a real testament to the formula! It is a bit sheer after the first coat, there are definitely spots you can still see my nail through. And yes, I smudged my pinky on something.

Orly Kelli’s Galaxy, 2 coats

A second coat of Kelli’s Galaxy brings it completely opaque. The base color looks completely even and we have a good amount of shimmer. The purple shimmer does show a little stronger in person than it does in the picture, I think my camera loved the base color a bit too much.

Orly Kelli’s Solar Flare, 2 coats plus top coat

Kelli’s Solar Flare is my favorite of the collection! It is described as “cool toned purple base with a bright turquoise shimmer running throughout, as well as the scattering of blue metallic flakes.” I LOVE how vibrant the purple base is and how it contrasts with the shimmer, it is a bright summery nail dream! It is also, you may notice, basically the opposite of Kelli’s Galaxy: blue with purple shimmer vs. purple with blue shimmer. Love it!!! Normally the blue in the collection would be my favorite, but this one just glows off the nail, absolutely stunning.

Orly Kelli’s Solar Flare, 1 coat

The formula is very similar to Kelli’s Galaxy. It is super smooth but applies a tad sheer on the first coat. It’s a little streaky but you can’t really see my nail line so the opacity is decent.

Orly Kelli’s Solar Flare, 2 coats

I only needed two coats to bring Kelli’s Solar Flare completely opaque and get the base color all evened out. This polish does dry slightly matte, you will definitely want a top coat to get the most out of it, but even so I am impressed with how strong the shimmer is here on its own.

Orly Kelli’s Antimatter, 1 coat plus top coat

Lastly we have possibly one of the most unique polishes I have ever seen: Kelli’s Antimatter. It is described as a “black base packed with intense red shimmer and blue metallic flecks.” I think I described it to someone else as having goth 4th of July vibes. I really love it, such a cool polish.

Orly Kelli’s Antimatter, 1 coat

I fully expected Kelli’s Antimatter to need two coats like the others, but I got it opaque in just one thin coat! The formula was super smooth and the shimmers stand out so well against that deep base. I would probably wear it in two coats as a full mani, but if you’re using it for nail art or under a topper and have shorter nails like me you can get it done in one. Spectacular!!!

I don’t feature Orly enough here on the blog, that really needs to change! They are one of the more affordable mainstream brands and they are cruelty-free, which is awesome. Most importantly, I have been absolutely in love with their formulas recently, so creamy and smooth and opaque. Even their newer neons rarely need more than two coats. This collection is just wonderful, I’m into to galaxy-type polishes so these obviously appeal to me. I think they are going to look awesome with a scattered holographic top coat over them too, that’s probably how I will end up wearing them. This was an amazing collaboration, maybe we can see more things like this from Orly in the future!

xx, Ashley

Orly is cruelty-free. I got these polishes from Orly’s website, which you can check out here. These polishes are likely not going to be around forever, so if you are really into what you see, act quickly! As of this post, it looks like all shades are still in stock.

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