Wednesday, September 6, 2017

OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!

Turn On the Northern Lights was released in July by venerable mainstream polish maker OPI as part of the twelve-piece Iceland collection for Fall 2017. It's been over a year since I last featured a mainstream polish on this blog -- indies are my jam! But there are some great colors, deep, dusty greys and blues, in the Iceland collection, and Turn On the Northern Lights is one of them.

OPI calls this a deep purple. To my eye, the base color is a dark ultramarine kind of blue with a certain delicious denimy softness to it bearing fine particulate shimmers that have a pink/gold/green shift, somewhat similar to unicorn pee but much more subtle/less shifty. You can see the shift spectrum fairly easily in the bottle, but on the nail you have to do a little finger yoga and be looking for it. By and large they read as reddish pink, and combine with the ultramarine base to give the polish a deep indigo appearance with a transparent pink sheen. They light up in the sun, creating a lovely misty flush of twinkly pink particles along the axis of light. 

Application was quite agreeable. The consistency of Turn On the Northern Lights is fluid, light and smooth with a medium viscosity and a pliant, buttery, self-leveling glide over the nail, a great OPI formula in a creme/jelly hybrid style. Pigmentation is very good, slightly sheer and streaky on the first coat but building to evenly opaque coverage with the second unless you use very thin coats, in which case you may need a third. Cleanup is straightforward with a bit of pigment travel but less trace staining than I expected from such a deep color. Turn On the Northern Lights dries naturally in good time to a smooth, glossy finish. Topcoat accentuates the presence of the shimmers.

Photos show two coats of Turn On the Northern Lights over basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!


OPI Turn On the Northern Lights!

A beautiful, classy deep blue, a great stand-in for navy and not your typical mainstream shimmer polish. The effects are more sophisticated and indie-like, with the carefully translucent crelly formula that allows light to penetrate and create the inky indigo color, the pink sheen and twinkling flush of pink in the sun. The consensus among reviewers seems to be that Turn On the Northern Lights is a very welcome surprise from OPI and the star of the collection. Definitely worth checking out!

love,
Liz

3 comments:

  1. Looks almost like Channel's Taboo! Will keep an eye out for this one.

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  2. Ugh, Chanel's, thanks autocorrect.

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    Replies
    1. *lol* Who needs enemies when you have autocorrect?

      I didn't know Taboo so thank you, lasoti, for introducing me to that incredibly beautiful polish! From what I've seen, it seems to have more oomph than Turn On the Northern Lights -- richer, slightly more purple color, better opacity and more abundant shimmer -- that's what you get for $$$! But you're right, they are similar. I wish I'd done three coats of Northern Lights here, the jelly formula really needs three.

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