Orly is one brand of nail polish I had never tried, but someone (who is quickly becoming one of my favorite people) gave me an Orly Epix polish and topcoat for my birthday. I figured I’d share my first impression with you guys.
Step 1 is called Orly Epix Flexible Color, and this shade is called Casablanca. Step 2 is called Orly Epix Flexible Sealcoat. It isn’t exactly a quick dry, but the dealio is, if you smudge your nails while it’s drying, this magical topcoat smooths itself out before it dries. It says it dries completely in eight minutes. Which is oddly specific. Not five, not ten, eight.
I have to admit, I did not smudge my nails during the dry time. I kind of wanted to purposely whack them and see what happened, but I didn’t have the heart to. So I honestly cannot attest to whether that works or not. Besides, I don’t tend to smudge my nails much. What I tend to do is chip them. I was more concerned with how well the polish held up over time.
The system does not include a base coat, and the polish is clearly called “Step 1.” So, my results might have been different had I not used a base coat. I just couldn’t do it. I used my Nailtiques Formula 2 Plus as a base. The polish goes on super nicely, and it actually covered fully in one coat. But the directions said to apply two coats, so I did. This is how it looked on day one.
Day two had just the tiniest bit of tip wear. The instructions said to reapply the top coat after three days. I decided to reapply at the end of day two. Again with the not following directions stuff.
By day three I had a real chip. Grrrr… I stopped taking pictures from then on, because I was touching up nightly. I will say this much, it seemed like the special self-leveling top coat made my touch ups smooth into the rest of the polish better, so they were less noticeable than with other polishes I’ve used.
All in all, it was a win, for sure. I really need to try it without a base coat, and I need to smudge it to test out whether that really works. But as far as application, looks, and general wear, it performed as well as my OPI or Essie.
As for the person who bought me the nail polish. You guys. He bought me nail polish. He gave it to me as a birthday gift, even though technically he hadn’t even met me yet on my birthday. He bought me good nail polish, good nail polish that I didn’t already have (which let’s be real, is saying something).
I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.