In 1976, Jeff Pink created the French manicure to solve a problem on Hollywood sets. Actresses needed a nail look that worked with multiple costumes without spending hours changing polish between scenes. His solution became one of the most recognizable manicures in beauty history.
Fifty years later, the style is still everywhere. Yet an ORLY-commissioned survey of 1,037 US women found that 68% didn't know who invented it.
There's an interesting lesson in that disconnect. ORLY created the look, but nail artists made it their own, developing countless variations that carried the French manicure far beyond its original design.
Today, that same relationship between the brand and the people using its products runs through ORLY's creator marketing strategy.
From influencer-designed collections and personalized nail polish to women's sports partnerships and community-driven content, ORLY has found ways to make creators part of the experience.
Its most distinctive collaborations give people something to create, rather than simply something to promote.
ORLY Gives Creators a Say in What Gets Made
For many beauty brands, influencer collaborations begin with a finished product. Creators receive a package, demonstrate its features, and encourage followers to make a purchase.
ORLY has taken a different approach with several of its most recognizable partners, involving them in developing the products themselves. The distinction becomes particularly clear in its relationship with nail content creator Kelli Marissa.
Kelli Marissa Turns Her Creative Preferences Into Products
YouTube creator Kelli Marissa built her following around nail polish reviews, swatches, and creative manicures. Her audience knows her preferences, the finishes she gravitates toward, and the styles she enjoys creating.
ORLY used those preferences as the foundation for several collaborative collections. The brand's 2022 Witching Hour collection featured 6 Halloween-inspired polishes, including 3 translucent jelly shades and 3 confetti toppers.
One topper, Wing It, contained bat-shaped glitter. Others combined colorful confetti with darker seasonal finishes.
The collection reflected Kelli's established enthusiasm for jelly polishes, glitter toppers, and Halloween nail art. Rather than lending her name to an unrelated assortment, she helped create products closely connected to the aesthetic her audience already associated with her.
ORLY continued the relationship through additional Galaxy-themed collections and Kelli's Haunted House Advent Calendar.
The Halloween calendar went further than individual polish shades. It included 3 new full-size colors created by Kelli, 5 smaller versions of her ORLY favorites with personalized twists, and custom nail-art tools and decals.
Each product gave followers another way to recreate the kinds of manicures they had watched her make.
The marketing value extended beyond Kelli's ability to introduce a collection to her audience. Her involvement helped establish why those particular products existed and who they were designed for.
Kwame Onwuachi Shows Why ORLY Looks Beyond Beauty Creators
ORLY has also applied this approach to collaborators whose primary audiences have little to do with nail polish.
In March 2022, the brand launched a 3-shade collection with chef Kwame Onwuachi, known for his culinary achievements and distinctive personal style.
Onwuachi already wore nail polish as part of his personal expression. The collaboration allowed him to extend that creativity beyond cooking and into a product category he genuinely enjoyed.
For ORLY, the partnership introduced its products to an audience interested in food, culture, fashion, and Onwuachi's wider creative identity.
The results were measurable.
According to Tal Pink, speaking to Glossy back in 2022, the collection exceeded ORLY's sales forecasts, with more than 50% of its inventory selling within the first 2 weeks. The company began arranging additional inventory and was developing 3 more shades with Onwuachi.
Tal explained that ORLY deliberately sought collaborations outside conventional beauty categories, especially with people whose accomplishments deserved greater recognition.
Other partnerships followed a similar principle.
The brand worked with Laverne Cox on the Celebrate Yourself collection and with Adam Lambert on the High Drama nail collection, connecting products with each collaborator's personal identity and audience.
These arrangements differed in execution, but shared an important characteristic. ORLY wasn't relying exclusively on the visibility of a familiar face. The collaboration gave consumers a product connected to something they already valued about the person behind it.
Color Labs Makes Customers Part of the Creative Process
ORLY's co-creation philosophy isn't restricted to influencers with established audiences.
Through ORLY Color Labs, the brand has given everyday customers an opportunity to participate in product creation themselves. The experience grew from an idea ORLY had already been experimenting with years earlier.
In a 2017 interview with NAILPRO, creative director Shanee Pink described taking custom-color carts to events at Coachella, SoulCycle, and The Zoe Report headquarters.
Guests could choose their own shades, add finishes, and name the resulting polishes. Tal Pink explained that the appeal was leaving with a personalized color and a story worth sharing.
Creating the Product Becomes the Experience
In 2019, ORLY developed the concept into a dedicated Los Angeles location.
At ORLY Color Labs, customers could use an app to develop personalized shades and watch mixologists create the finished products. The space also hosted nail-art classes, artist residencies, educational activities, and collaborative events.
Shanee envisioned Color Labs as a community space where people could explore individual creativity through nail color. The experience changes the usual relationship between a beauty brand and its customers.
Someone purchasing a standard polish chooses from colors the company has already developed. At Color Labs, the customer participates in deciding what the final product will look like. The process also provides a natural reason to document the experience.
A TikTok creator shared the process of developing her own ORLY shade before visiting a nail salon to have the color applied. She showed the finished manicure, examined how it looked under different lighting, and talked enthusiastically about how personal the experience felt.
Her reaction focused as much on the opportunity to create something individual as on the finished color.
A Custom Experience Gives Creators More to Talk About
The model also proved suitable for established content creators. In November 2019, YouTuber and social media personality Safiya Nygaard published a video making her own nail polish, featuring a visit to ORLY Color Labs with fellow creator Cristine Rotenberg.
The pair developed individual shades and experimented with combining multiple polishes into another custom creation. The video gave viewers the entire creative journey, from choosing colors and finishes to revealing the results.
ORLY provided the environment and materials. The creators supplied their personalities, preferences, experimentation, and reactions.
Rather than interrupting the content with a product message, the brand became part of the activity the audience had chosen to watch. Color Labs also created opportunities for smaller, community-focused collaborations.
In 2019, ORLY partnered with Los Angeles nail studio Dime Nails on a charitable event at Color Labs.
Elina Gitig, then ORLY Color Labs' community manager, explained that the partnership developed from a shared appreciation for Dime Nails' creative approach.
Their relationship moved from an informal visit into an event bringing customers, artists, and the local community together. Color Labs illustrates a different way to generate creator content. ORLY makes the experience itself interesting enough for people to want to share what they made.
ORLY Uses Partnerships to Connect With Communities Beyond Beauty
Some of ORLY's collaborations involve creators developing products. Others bring nail culture into communities where beauty isn't necessarily the primary interest.
The brand has explored entertainment, nostalgia, food, music, and professional sports, often using those partnerships to introduce products and experiences that reflect an existing community's identity. Its relationship with the Los Angeles Sparks offers one of the clearest contemporary examples.
Bringing Nail Culture Courtside With the LA Sparks
In August 2025, ORLY announced a 3-year partnership with the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks, becoming the team's first official nail partner. The collaboration connected 2 Los Angeles brands while bringing greater attention to the role beauty and personal style play in professional sports.
The agreement included custom player manicures, behind-the-scenes content, and an ORLY Nail Check Cam designed to spotlight nail looks during games.
Fans could also purchase Game Day Glam kits featuring Sparks-inspired nail colors and complementary nail-care products. These activations were designed to make the partnership visible beyond logos and sponsorship announcements.
A player could express her personality through a custom manicure. Fans could participate through their own nail designs. ORLY could introduce products within moments already relevant to the team's audience. The collaboration continued into the 2026 season.
But rather than simply appearing alongside the team's content, the brand helped shape how that content was presented.
The relationship also shows why collaborations with established communities can offer a different opportunity from individual influencer endorsements. ORLY gains access to the team's cultural identity, athletes, and fan experiences, while the Sparks gain another way to celebrate the individuality of their players.
Nostalgia Partnerships Invite Fans to Recreate Familiar Worlds
ORLY has used a related approach with entertainment and consumer brands. In 2021, the company partnered with Lisa Frank on a colorful nail collection exclusive to Ulta Beauty. The products incorporated familiar Lisa Frank characters, bright polish shades, glitter finishes, and nail wraps, which represented a new product category for ORLY.
The collaboration allowed consumers to express their attachment to Lisa Frank's distinctive visual world through their manicures. ORLY expanded the partnership in October 2022, introducing additional glitter toppers and gel nail strips.
According to ORLY, the original collection had experienced repeated sellouts, prompting the expanded release.
A similar idea appeared in the brand's 2026 collaboration with Yo Gabba GabbaLand. The collection introduced 6 mystery-bag combinations, each pairing a character-inspired polish with a coordinating topper.
The launch also included a planned Color Labs event featuring character appearances, mini manicures, and opportunities for fans to engage with the products in person. Elina Gitig described the collaboration around creativity, surprise, and nostalgia.
Licensed partnerships aren't the same as influencer collaborations. Their audiences, commercial arrangements, and distribution models can differ substantially. What connects these examples to ORLY's wider creator strategy is the opportunity they give audiences to participate.
A fan isn't simply being asked to recognize a character or support a team. They're being invited to translate that connection into something personal through nail art, customized looks, or an experience they can share.
ORLY's Everyday Nail Community Extends Its Reach
The creator-designed collections and major partnerships attract attention, but ORLY's wider online presence also depends on a less centralized group of nail enthusiasts.
Some are professional nail artists. Others specialize in swatches, reviews, tutorials, or creative experiments. Their content doesn't necessarily involve a formal collaboration with the brand.
The scale of that activity becomes clearer in HypeAuditor's Instagram analysis.
What ORLY's 2026 Influencer Data Reveals
In the past six months, HypeAuditor identified 174 influencers publishing 488 Instagram posts mentioning ORLY. Collectively, the activity generated an estimated $520.4K in earned media value and an estimated reach of 1.9 million.
HypeAuditor classified 92.6% of mentions as organic and 7.4% as likely sponsored. None were definitively classified as sponsored.
The distribution offers useful insight into the creator ecosystem around ORLY. Nano influencers accounted for 67.6% of accounts with an identified size category, while mid-tier influencers represented 17.9%.
The content appeared in different formats, with carousels accounting for 43.9% of posts and Reels another 43%.
Rather than being concentrated entirely among high-profile celebrities, ORLY mentions appeared across a broad range of smaller accounts creating specialized nail content.
Creators Find Uses for ORLY Products Beyond Their Intended Purpose
Some of the most interesting posts weren't conventional product reviews.
Instagram creator @pretty_little_lens used ORLY's Harry Potter Dark Arts Crackle Polish in a macro-photography experiment.
Instead of applying the product to nails, the creator tested how crackle polish behaved on glass, exploring the resulting textures through close-up photography. The post received approximately 28.8K likes and 135 comments.
The content introduced ORLY's product to an audience through visual experimentation, rather than manicure advice or a direct purchasing recommendation.
Another creator, @nailjob, featured ORLY Clear Builder alongside several other brands in an intricate nail-art design that generated 417 comments. ORLY was one component of a larger creative process.
These examples matter because brand visibility doesn't always depend on being the primary subject of a post. Products can become useful materials within content that audiences already enjoy.
The same behavior appears on TikTok.
One nail polish collector created a detailed video showcasing 10 discontinued ORLY shades from the 1990s that they wanted the company to bring back. The creator discussed the finishes, original collections, similarities to other shades, and the difficulty of finding certain colors today.
The video was effectively a product-development wishlist created by someone with detailed knowledge of ORLY's history.
The collector wasn't simply revisiting an old purchase. They were identifying gaps in the current collection and explaining why specific discontinued products still held appeal. For a brand with a 50-year history, content like this reveals a form of customer involvement that conventional campaign reporting can easily overlook.
Product Gifting Gives Creators New Reasons to Talk About ORLY
ORLY also continues to work through more familiar influencer marketing activities.
On TikTok, activities are more centered around PR packages. Creators are receiving collections they can turn into viral hits, such as Nail Retouch, pH Perfector, and various themed collections.
One Nail Retouch recipient discussed why the product appealed to her after moving away from long acrylic nails. She wanted a more practical, low-maintenance manicure that would still look polished. Rather than focusing exclusively on product specifications, she connected the launch to a personal change in her nail-care routine.
Another creator received pH Perfector as part of ORLY's 50th anniversary celebrations, introducing the product through an unboxing experience.
These posts illustrate how gifting can introduce new product stories into creators' existing content.
In a May 2026 interview with Glossy, Gitig reported that Nail Retouch sold 10,000 units in its first 3 weeks, followed by another 6,000 units shortly afterward. The brand experienced 2 stock sellouts, and Gitig said sales had reached approximately 2,000 units per week across ORLY's direct-to-consumer site and Amazon.
Together, these examples reveal the range of ORLY's online community, from formal partnerships and gifted launches to nail enthusiasts producing content around products they choose to use.
What Other Brands Can Learn From ORLY
ORLY's creator marketing strategy has an interesting connection to the product that first made the company famous. Jeff Pink created the French manicure, but generations of nail artists transformed it into something much bigger than its original design.
Fifty years later, ORLY continues to find ways for other people to contribute to its products and experiences.
Kelli Marissa brings her creative preferences into new collections. Customers create their own shades at Color Labs. The LA Sparks introduce nail culture to basketball fans. Smaller creators discover their own ways to use and reinterpret ORLY products.
Each relationship serves a different purpose, but they share a valuable principle.
Creator marketing can do more than distribute a message. It can give people a meaningful role in developing the products, experiences, and stories that make a brand worth talking about.
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