Orly Preamp

While fall is slowly creeping up on us, the fall nail polish collections are doing the opposite: lots of fantastic colors and finishes coming out already! Orly recently came out with a relatively tiny fall collection comprised of only four shades after that massive collection of glitters called Glam FX (22 glitters to, at least I think, rival the offerings of the indie nail polish movement). To be fair, they covered the usual fall colors, including a cobalt blue jelly and a medium grey. Now, if my fashion sources are to be believed, both are going to be huge colors in fall. That was a good call on their part. There was also a duochrome shade that I thought I wanted. But when I saw the display at my local Sally Beauty, there was really just one stand out shade: a shimmery pink. Yep, I passed on the blue (*gasp!*), grey and duochrome (which turned out looking horrible, really; sorry, Orly) to get a pink. I doubt that's ever happened before. This one's a special one for sure, just take a look:

The best part is that I have absolutely nothing like it!

The Quick Take

Brand/Name: Orly Preamp
Color: Cool-toned medium pink
Formula: Pink jelly base filled with pink, rose gold and gold glass flecks
Finish: Glass-flecked
Price: $7.99 CDN for 18mL
Seen at: Sally Beauty, Nail Polish Canada, everywhere else Orly is sold.
Note(s): Preamp is part of the Orly Electronica Fall 2012 collection.


The Fun Facts

Token bottle shot.

Back of the bottle.

Label at the base.

Standard Orly skinny brush.

It's a little trickier to see here, but I swear there's a glass-fleck party inside the bottle!

I have to say, this is a strange pink. It looks like it has a touch of blue/purple in it because this is one really cool-toned pink. It's so cool that if you take your usual medium pink, leave it outdoors for a good couple of hours in minus 40 degree weather, this is what you get. The glass-fleck party is another thing that takes this polish to a whole different level. I'll even go so far as to say that depending on the lighting, the glass-flecks can make this pink look warmer-toned, giving it a neat color changing effect. It's fairly slight though, so don't expect any major color changing going on. Oh, and these are loud and proud glass-flecks; you can see them clearly in all sorts of lighting, giving the polish a pretty depth to it, especially in lower light settings.
***All nail swatches were done with Nail Tek II Foundation Base Coat and two coats of Orly Preamp unless stated.

Natural light/No top coat/No flash

See? That pretty shimmer isn't a shy one!

Natural light/No top coat/Flash

Even better in bright light!

Sunlight/No top coat/No flash

Notice how it leans just a bit warmer in sunlight compared to the earlier photos?

As pretty as the color is, I have to mention that the consistency of the formula was a little on the thick side. This can lead to dragging and some bald spots if you're not careful. The trick is to let the previous coat dry before laying on another. Using thin to medium coats is also ideal. You'll probably notice that it starts out pretty streaky but it evens out nicely after a second coat. Other than the consistency, I had no other issues with Preamp. Dry time was average.

Natural light/Top coat/No flash

Top coat is just added protection, not so much shine.

Natural light/Top coat/Flash

Hammie says: Oh, what a wonderfully strange pink!

Sunlight/Top coat/No Flash

Hammie says: It sure makes the magpie in me very happy, indeed.

Seeing how innately shiny the formula is, top coat is more for protection that additional shine.


The Lowdown

Whenever I review a pink nail polish, I have this niggling feeling at the back of my mind that there has to be a duplicate of it somewhere. There has to be. After all, isn't pink one of the most prevalent nail polish colors (aside from red and those nude/your nails but better colors)? So it comes as a surprise that here's one pink that has no dupes. At all. Even the base color is something that I have nothing like. I did a quick check on the interwebs and came up empty handed. Nada. Now, isn't that something? This easily raises Preamp to prized pink status. It's a rare day to find a unique pink. The gorgeous glass-flecks that shimmer in just about any light scenario makes things even better. It might be a bit pricey but you do get more product per dollar so it actually turns out to be a pretty good deal. As for availability, it is my understanding that this collection is readily available everywhere that Orly is sold. I'm not sure if it is a limited release so if you really fancy this pretty pink, I'd suggest a quick trip to Sally Beauty is in order.

Hammie is quite pleased with the sparkle factor that Preamp brings to the table. The surprisingly unique color makes him one happy hamster. He wasn't too thrilled about the thicker than usual consistency so he decided to dock a point from Preamp's score. While he ponders the connection between this pretty pink shimmer and what the Collins English Dictionary defines as "an electronic amplifier used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio of an electronic device; it boosts a low-level signal to an intermediate level before it is transmitted to the main amplifier", let's tally Preamp's total score:

9 Hammie Points!

Happy Friday! I just realized how swamped my next week is looking, thanks to helping out at my sis's in law pop up shop at Fan Expo. If you're going, do say hi! We've got a whole bunch of toys on sale, some of which you might have seen on my Instagram feed last night (find me there as @polishedindulgence) or on Twitter. Truth be told, Hammie's spent the whole morning shooting Dolce the evil eye. I don't think he's very happy about having another cutie in the house. Anyway, we hope you have an awesome weekend ahead! Did you pick up anything from the recent fall nail polish collections? What's the most unique pink nail polish you own? Any idea why they named this pretty pink 'Preamp'?