Lacquer Slacker Liz: OPI

Showing posts with label OPI. Show all posts

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!

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

Thursday, July 7, 2016

OPI Olive for Green

Olive for Green was released by OPI as part of the Infinite Shine Spring 2016 collection. Infinite Shine is OPI's answer to long-wearing, gel-hybrid polish systems like CND Vinylux, Sally Hansen Miracle Gel and Revlon ColorStay Gel Envy. It comes in the familiar patented tulip-shaped bottle with a shiny silver cap to differentiate the line. You have to use a special Infinite Shine primer and UV-sensitive top coat to get the long wear benefits, but I bought this polish for the color.

Olive for Green is, as you will certainly guess, an olive green creme. It's a true dark olive, an earthy and robust shade with a bit of a military vibe, but not an all-consuming one. The color is rich and round, inclusive of the sort of darker olives that you see in nature with a corresponding liveliness. It is not so much of a sober hue as a resonant one. Olive green polish can often have a noticeable amount of grey in it, but this one is almost vibrantly green, even in very low light.

Application was a little squirrelly. I've read reviews of Infinite Shine polishes that praised the formula and others that found it annoyingly uneven and patchy. Now that I've tried one, I can see how both would be true. The consistency is very nice, fluid, full-bodied and extremely smooth with a medium viscosity and a buttery, mag-lev sort of glide over the nail. It sets up rather quickly, though, and there's a degree of translucence to the formula that together with the fast set-up can lead to streaks, patchiness and general unevenness to the coverage if you try to paint in thin coats. Better to use medium-to-thicker coats from a generously loaded brush, applied with a steady, deliberate hand. At two coats, I could still see some unevenness when I looked at it in the sun. I decided to add a third coat to my left hand and keep my right at two, to see if there would be a difference. Once I got topcoat on, I checked the color in the sun again and there was no difference between two coats and three at that point -- the patchiness that I'd noticed had disappeared. YMMV, take that for what you will.

Cleanup was startlingly easy -- no pigment travel or residual staining at all, even where I flooded a cuticle. Impressive! I did not wait for Olive for Green to dry naturally, with the thicker coats I'd used it was simply taking too long. Thank goodness for quick-dry topcoat!

Photos show three coats of Olive for Green over treatment and basecoat with a slightly bubbly topcoat of Seche Vite.

OPI Olive for Green

It's perfect! And strikingly sophisticated with a sleek glossy presence that flatters the hand and pleases the eye. Win!

ttyl,
Liz

Tuesday, January 12, 2016

OPI Let Your Love Shine

Let Your Love Shine was released by OPI as part of the huge 18-polish Starlight collection for holiday 2015 back in October last fall. There were three reds in this collection, of which this one is the darkest. It has a creme/jelly hybrid base in a magnificent deep carmine, a dark red subtly nuanced by tones of purple and deepest magenta, bearing superabundant yellow-gold microflake shimmers. The shimmers read as warm red and bright magenta through the base, blanketing this lacquer with gorgeous analogously-colored sparkle in direct light and providing a resonant warm red "lit-from-within" glow in low light.

Application was delicious. I always approach deep well-saturated reds with a bit of trepidation, but Let Your Love Shine has a fabulous formula. The consistency is fluid, smooth and dense, with a luxe, velvety glide over the nail and excellent self-leveling properties. If it weren't for my shaky hands, I'd like to think I'd be able to produce a completely clean manicure with this polish -- that's how wonderful it is to work with. Alas, though, I do have shaky hands, but hey -- that's what cleanup is for! The pigmentation here is outstanding. One coat will deliver wearable coverage, but of course you'll want two to ensure fullest, most even opacity and to make the most of the shimmer effects. Cleanup is kind of messy, I cannot lie. Pigment travel and trace staining are probably going to be troublesome if you've got substantial cleaning up to do, as I did. Just take your time and be thorough, it's worth it. Let Your Love Shine dries naturally in good time to a beautiful glossy finish.

Photos show two coats of Let Your Love Shine over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite.

OPI Let Your Love Shine

If the name of this polish seems familiar, perhaps you recall the lyrics from the 1976 Bellamy Brothers crossover hit Let Your Love Flow....

Let your love fly like a bird on a wing,
And let your love bind you to all living things,
And let your love shine and you'll know what I mean
That's the reason.

I loved that song! But that's not why I purchased Let Your Love Shine, although all things considered I think it's reason enough. No, I bought this after reading a blog post about it, and it's a shame that I can't remember the blog because the way that blogger wrote about it was so compelling that I immediately went to ebay to find it. It's actually even more lovely than I expected and more graceful and spellbinding than a still image can show.

Deep reds like this are not my typical fare, I tend towards brighter, more medium-toned shades, but this one has won my heart. It's not unduly prepossessing in the bottle, but on the nail it's rich and dimensional and utterly stunning.

love,
Liz

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

OPI Russian Navy

Russian Navy was originally released by OPI as part of the Russian collection for fall 2007. This collection was and continues to be a popular source for vampy cremes, blackened shimmers and red jellies, but Russian Navy may very well be the most popular polish to come out of it and has long since been part of OPI's core line. Officially described as a "deep-sea indigo," this is a very deep pthalo or ultramarine blue bearing abundant pearly microfine particulate shimmers in red and dark blue. In the bottle, where the shimmers tend to adhere to the glass, it does indeed have a shimmery indigo purple appearance, but transforms on the nail to an inky ultramarine. The shimmers give it a silky "creme rinse" look in direct light, where it brightens to a deep blue-violet, but in low light and shade it reads as near black. Sleek and sophisticated, this is a gorgeous polish! The shimmers, which are a little secret squirrel on the nail, work within the polish to produce a subtle glowing dimensionality that is just understated enough to be profoundly glamorous.

Application was lovely. My bottle of Russian Navy is not vintage, but the formula has a certain pre-toxin-free vibe, an oily well-balanced viscosity that makes it eminently paintable. It has a velvety, self-leveling glide over the nail and is easy to manipulate with OPI's flattened pro-wide brush. Pigmentation is very good with completely even opaque coverage in two coats. Cleanup is easy and straightforward, with a bit of pigment travel and some residual staining as you'd expect from dark blue polish. Russian Navy dries naturally in average time to such a glossy finish that it feels redundant to apply topcoat over it.

Photos show two coats of Russian Navy over treatment and basecoat with a topcoat of Seche Vite. Apologies for my cuticles, which look like they've been rode hard and put up wet. They're a little the worse for being manhandled with an orange stick. My intentions were good -- my execution not so much.

OPI Russian Navy

This polish is timeless. Hard to believe it will be a decade old in a couple of years -- it's as beautiful and relevant now as it's ever been.

love,
Liz

Sunday, May 10, 2015

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu and Lynnderella Snow Angel

Each spring OPI releases a special collection called Soft Shades consisting of sheers and/or neutrals plus the occasional topper-type glitter ostensibly targeted at the bridal market. Don't Touch My Tutu was released as part of the NYC Ballet Soft Shades collection for spring 2012. It's a sheer white jelly that is not meant to be opaque but to give a soft wash of white to the color of the natural nail. With my nails as polish stained as they are, I would never normally go for a sheer like Don't Touch My Tutu. But since my awesome personal trainer at the gym where I work out, Tory, is affianced with a wedding planned for this coming October, I had the brilliant idea to try and put together a few bridal looks for her. You know, just to give her some manicure input as she thrashes and flails her way through finalizing the finer points of her special day.

It's a fun idea, but the execution in this case left something to be desired. As you will see.

Staining isn't my only obstacle to wearing a sheer. As I frequently mention, my nail beds are rife with ridges. Some nails are worse than others, but suffice to say that none of them have a smooth bed, all are furrowed to a degree. I also have a few washboard nails. This is problematic because however sheer a polish may be, it does contain some pigment and is subject as are we all to the laws of physics. However slightly, nail polish inevitably thins over the top of ridges and pools in the furrows, creating streaks.

So I started my manicure with two coats of my current favorite ridge-filling basecoat, Pretty Serious All Your Base, hoping this would work to minimize streaking over my ridges. DENIED! I think I actually heard my ridges laughing at the doubled basecoat... oh well! Next time maybe I will try a slightly more pigmented ridge-filler like my previous go-to, Butter London Nail Foundation. In the meantime, I must live with the streaks.

Don't Touch My Tutu actually applies very nicely. The consistency is fluid and on the thinner side, but not so thin as to be runny unless you swipe a cuticle or sidewall. It has has a smooth, silky flow over the nail and is easily manipulated with OPI's pro-wide brush. The self-leveling properties are much better than you would think from looking at my photos. Of course I did swipe cuticles and sidewalls, but this sheer white cleans up in a snap. I used three coats of Don't Touch My Tutu to create a milky, translucent base for my glitter topper, Lynnderella Snow Angel. Don't Touch My Tutu dries naturally in fairly good time to a glossy finish.

Photos show three coats of Don't Touch My Tutu over treatment and a double basecoat. No topcoat since I planned to layer.

OPI Don't Touch My Tutu

Given the pervasive yellow staining, prodigious ridges and typically uneven hand at application, I'm pretty sure that I couldn't have chosen a more problematic manicure. What was I thinking? It certainly looks like hell in the photos, but to be honest I rather like it in person. The streaks are less distracting than I thought they'd be, and the wash of milky white (albeit quite muddied on me) feels fresh and tidy. Still!

And it's all downhill from here.

Snow Angel, the famous glitter crelly from Lynnderella, has been around since at least 2011 as far as I can tell. It's a timeless mix of satiny white hex and square glitters in various sizes from micro to medium suspended in a shimmering white base. While it's possible to build it to opacity on its own, it is at it's most lovely layered over another polish, preferably a delicate shade that showcases its serene, glistening beauty.

This is an easy polish to work with. The suspension base is surprisingly fluid and paintable. It has a lovely, easy flow over the nail with excellent glitter payoff and dispersion. You'd think it would be a simple matter to add a thin coat over the Don't Touch My Tutu manicure. It should be! But my application somehow took a wrong turn and I ended up with something that is much closer to a hot mess than any potential bride should ever be exposed to.

I guess I just ran out of steam and painted on Snow Angel willy nilly. In the process, my simple coat of Snow Angel morphed into a chunky excrescence. I tried to salvage it with Glitter Food and Seche Vite to no avail. View the evidence!

Lynnderella Snow Angel over OPI Don't Touch My Tutu

That whoosh you hear is the wind going out of my sails. Fail! I wish I could say that I plan to try again, but I'm not sure whether it's feasible to recreate the kind of manicure I had in mind on my nails. See Nailderella's post here or Lacquerish's post here for examples of what that is. Perhaps a more opaque white or a pale pink and a lighter, more carefully applied coat of Snow Angel would be less problematic. We'll see.

love,
Liz