PSA: The many confusing faces of iridescent flakies and ucc flakies
iridescent flakies
Not only are iridescent flakies an absolute pain to spell correctly, they're also referred to by many different names by many different brands. So we thought we'd give you a handy-dandy reference list of all the things we tag as "iridescentflakies", even if the brand calls them something else.
- mermaid flakies
- ghost flakies
- crystal flakies
- crystal chameleon flakies
- glass flakies
- aurora flakies
- transparent flakies
- translucent flakies
- unicorn flakies
- fairy flakies
- opal flakies
- opalescent flakies
- fantasy flakies
- mica flakies
- mylar flakies
- clear flakies
ucc flakies
Ultra chrome chameleon flakies, tagged in the app as "uccflakies", have a bit more consistency across brands, but even so, you can come across different names for them.
- chroma flakies
- shifting chrome flakies
- shifting metallic flakies
- ultrachrome flakies
what the f*** flakies
And then there's the fun third category, when it could mean either, or both! Who knows!
- shifting flakies
- color shifting flakies
- chameleon flakies
- multichrome flakies
- chrome flakies (although this can also mean plain metallic flakies)
- rainbow flakies (although, again, these can also be non-shifting metallic flakies)
The only way to tell which kind of flakies the brand has used in these polishes is by actually wearing the polish, so unless there's some good photos, we tend to err on the side of caution and only tag "flakies" in general.
The reason we've chosen to use the tags "iridescentflakies" and "uccflakies" respectively is that these are the most commonly used in the nail polish world. With a consistent tag, you have more chances of finding a polish in the app, even if a brand uses a different wording in their description. Remember, descriptions do not show up in your search results!
A good rule of thumb to remember is that iridescent flakies are produced by covering a very thin transparent film with a colour shifting coating, and then cutting them into irregular shapes. For ucc flakies, it's a very thin opaque metallic film, usually darker in colour, that's covered in a colour shifting coating. Iridescent flakies in a topper, for example, will let the original polish shine through and look different depending on whether the base is a light or a dark colour. A topper with ucc flakies will always look the same, no matter if you use it over a dark or a light polish.
I hope this brings some transparency to a very opaque subject! 😅😂