OPI Infinite Shine Summer 2015 Collection: Part II {swatches & review}

[This post features press samples]

Ha. Ha ha ha. This post is like, a month after Part I but ya know…life happens. And, in truth, the biggest reason I delayed this post is because I only liked two of these shades (and one of these I liked A LOT, but not enough to make up for the rest). Anyway, let’s just get this over and done with, shall we?

Enter the Golden Era

While not the worst shade of gold on my skintone, Enter the Golden Era is a bit brushstroke-y, has a less-than-stellar formula application wise and is just not really my bag. I think you can find better gold options out there.

Left to right: OPI Enter the Golden Era, OPI Dazzled by Gold

As I rarely wear gold polish, I only really had one shade to compare it to (OPI Dazzled by Gold, sadly LE) and Golden Era pales SO much in comparison to the fabulousness of that shade. On my skintone I NEED that richness of color and depth for gold to be interesting.

Bee Mine Forever

Although I like yellow polish in theory, I’ve only ever found one that really DID it for me (and MAN I do love that shade!). Though this is a nice yellow as they go, the formula was

Left to right: OPI Bee Mine Forever, butter London Jasper, OPI Life Gave Me Lemons

Bee Mine Forever is quite similar in color to butter London’s Jasper, but the latter is a bit more buttery (both apply like crap though). Life Gave Me Lemons is way more saturated.

S-ageless Beauty

Sorry the color is so intense on this, it was super-sunny when I took it and I couldn’t seem to color adjust enough to fix it. In person, S-ageless Beauty is a bit more muted and a hint more green. As a non-green lover I actually didn’t hate this…but I didn’t love it enough to keep it either. And the formula was quite thick; you can see on my index finger it smudged because it took a while to dry.

Left to right: OPI S-ageless Beauty, butter London Bossy Boots, OPI That’s Hula-rious!, China Glaze Re-fresh Mint

Here is a better representation of the color. It’s more yellow-leaning like butter London Bossy Boots but not as dusty, which works in it’s favour (on my skintone anyway). The other two, OPI That’s Hula-rious! and China Glaze Re-fresh Mint are more blue-leaning.

Silver on Ice

BLERGH. Brushstroke DISASTER of a formula. DISLIKE! The actual tone of Silver on Ice isn’t bad on my skin, but it’s nowhere near good enough to bother trying to smooth out the application. ICK.

Left to right: OPI Silver on Ice, Revlon Sterling, OPI Centennial Celebration, OPI This Silver’s Mine!

I can’t get over how much more I like OPI Centennial Celebration than any other silver I’ve encountered – it’s the sparkliness, I think. Silver on Ice is very similar in tone to Revlon Sterling, but even the cheapy drugstore option applies miles better. OPI This Silver’s Mine! has that pinkish hue that sets it apart from them all.

…To Be Continued

I live for periwinkle shades like this! I kind of want to own ever one I come across, but I resist (which I think it’s pretty damn amazing, considering). …To Be Continued has a good formula that’s fairly easy to apply but does require 3 coats to ensure everything is perfect. And with a shade like this, you want it to look perfect, yes? *As a side note, this length of nail is my absolute favourite on me, just hitting the tips of my fingers. I find it makes every polish look so much nicer!

Left to right: OPI …To Be Continued, Essie Bikini So Teeny

I thought this was going to be exactly the same as Essie Bikini So Teeny, and it IS quite close, but it’s a bit lighter and less blue leaning than the former. I was SO tempted to keep both, but I decided that I had to choose a favourite *pale periwinkle* since owning two to similar goes against my attempts at streamlining my collection. I kept the Essie, only because I’d rather give away a full bottle of polish rather than a 3/4 full one. They’re both awesome.

Wild Blue Yonder

I also quite like blue shades like Wild Blue Yonder – they’re so punchy and fun! This has a great formula, 2 quick coats, no issues at all. I don’t find these as pretty as periwinkle’s like …To Be Continued, but I still like these for spring/summer.

I paired this with Bee Min Forever, and while it was nice enough, it wasn’t my favourite pairing – probably would have looked softer and more complimentary with …To Be Continued (clearly I have a major bias for that shade, huh?).

Left to right: OPI Wild Blue Yonder, Zoya Robyn, YSL Bleu Majorelle

When I first saw Wild Blue Yonder, I thought it’d be identical to Zoya Robyn, but once again I was foiled! Robyn is lighter and has a touch of green in it. Bleu Majorelle really isn’t a contender either but I wanted to show it for comparison purposes. Again, I felt like I had to choose between Wild Blue and Robyn to fulfill my bright mid-tone blue quota…I haven’t ben able to choose just yet. I will though, I promise!

And that, as they say, is that! I debated even bothering to post these at all as the weeks past and it seemed like posting about a summer collection was silly at this point, but I feel better about doing so now regardless. I think these are all still available so if you’re keen to pick any up you still have the chance (though really only …To Be Continued and Wild Blue Yonder are worth it in my opinion).

You’ll be happy to hear though that I have all my swatches done for the OPI Fall/Winter Venice collection (which is mostly excellent), so I hope to have those up this week! I’m determined to do so, as we’re moving this weekend and I don’t know how much posting I’ll be able to get done for a few weeks after that. But THEN….once we’re settled in the new place I’m going to be able to do SO much more! A real house, guys!!!!! I can’t freakin’ WAIT 😀 😀 😀 😀

OPI Infinite Shine Soft Shades 2015 {swatches}

[This post features press samples]

I’ve been feeling majorly bogged down by outstanding posts I need to write so I’m putting my butt in gear to get them all out in the next week. Most of these are PR samples I’ve received, so I feel particularly guilty that I haven’t posted on them yet; though I feel no compulsion to write GOOD reviews, I do feel a responsibility to WRITE a review when I receive products for ‘free,’ at least as much as possible. I don’t have to, but I just think that it’s good practice to do so.

So, today I bring you OPI’s Infinite Shine Soft Shades spring release, which I received back in July (which is after spring as it is, so I don’t feel TOO bad). I’m not going to write too much about these, as if you were interested in them in the first place you probably bought them already! – but they’re still available for purchase, and neutral shades like these are season-less, really, so just in case you missed them, here they are!

OPI Non-Stop White

Non-Stop White. For a white polish, this is actually pretty good – after three thin coats your good to go, with not too much hassle, and the shine is high. I wore this as a full mani and surprisingly liked it a lot – I was never keen on stark white on me but this one somehow worked. It’s almost exactly the same as Essie Blanc though, color-wise and also application (though the brushes are different, so you may prefer one over the other), so if you have that one you can skip this.

OPI Beyond the Pale Pink

Beyond the Pale Pink. I thought I’d really like this after falling for the pale tones in the OPI Infinite Shine summer collection, but for some reason I didn’t feel the same way about this. Still a pretty shade, but maybe too close to white to make it stand out? It also was a tad streaky even after several coats.

OPI Pearl of Wisdom

Pearl of Wisdom. Nope, not a fan of this one – streak city, even after 3 coats. I really hoped this would be great, I’m forever looking for a good shimmering white shade, but this like all the others I’ve tried fell flat for me. It’s very similar to China Glaze Dandy Lyin’ Around (including it’s streakiness) except it’s slightly cooler.

OPI Eternally Turquoise

Eternally Turquoise. Very pretty aqua shade that is perfect for late summer on tanned skin. The formula however was just OK – can you see how it weirdly showed a ridge in my big toe? This was 3 coats and more effort than I felt was necessary for a shade like this.

I paired Pearl of Wisdom with Eternally Turquoise – ET stayed on my toes for a week+, but I took Pearl of Wisdom off the next day. Conor-wise a nice, ethereal combo though!

OPI The Beige of Reason

The Beige of Reason. This was a better sheer than most other sheers I’ve tried lately – not too streaky at all – but it didn’t do anything shade-wise for my hands IMO. See the small chip in the top of the bottle? I have another Infinite Shine shade that has a chip in the neck of it’s bottle – are they made of weird glass or something? Bizarre.

OPI Go to Grayt Lengths, in sunshine.

OPI Go to Grayt Lengths, in shade.

Go to Grayt Lengths. I knew I wasn’t going to be down with this shade, silver not being easy for me to wear, and this one is quite cool leaning (especially in the first photo). It’s also sort of a creme-shimmer hybrid somehow; it actually looks better in these swatches than I felt it did in person. Formula was good though, and it has a lot of natural shine.

You can probably tell, I wasn’t super wowed by this collection – I thought the color story was very appealing, but most of them fell flat for me for one reason or another. Probably another reason why I took so long to post about them! I do appreciate that these weren’t just a collection of stock-standard nudes (especially throwing in the pale aqua shade), but on the whole I actually prefer the regular formula of OPI to the Infinite Shine – I have better application with the original formula, strangely enough, and I don’t find that these wear loads longer either.

I have the fall Venice collection to show you guys in the next couple weeks (I hope) and so far I’m impressed, so don’t lose hope for OPI yet!

OPI Infinite Shine Summer 2015 Collection: Part I {swatches & review}

Summa, summa, summa’time! How’s everyone’s summer going? It’s been kind of great for me, we had awesome weather for most of June, July was not bad – we had a long stretch of rain for a couple weeks which sucked (especially with a little one who loves the outdoors and needs constant stimulation!), and now August has been pretty grand, though it’s been hella hot here the past week. Today I took Elena on the ferry which was a nice way to enjoy the sun and keep cool…she seemed to dig it 😉 I try and do water-related things with her most days as she was a fish in another life I swear! I *just* signed us up for parent & tot swimming lessons starting in September – should be fun!

Today I have half of the OPI Infinite Shine summer collection – honestly, I feel like all I do lately is swatch nail polish, which is my own fault as I have to request the samples when they’re available… Anyway, I quite liked a lot of these shades so I ended up wearing them for a few days each, instead of swatching them all at once, which means I’ve only gotten through the first handful (I also have the Infinite Shine 2015 Soft Shades to show you, of which I’m 2/3rd’s through – so I’ve actually done about 10 swatches total). I should probably quit wasting time and get to it, eh? All swatches are without top coat, FYI.

Lavendurable is a super-pretty pale lilac creme that looks awesome with a tan. I’m actually a fan of wearing pastels at the height of summer, and wearing brights more toward the tail-end of spring/beginning of summer when I need to fake the illusion of sunkissed skin (yes, I know I’m always brown lol…but sometimes I’m a watered down milk chocolate and I need a little oomph, OK?). The tricky thing with pastels is that the white base can be streaky if you’re not careful in your application – I had to use a steady, quick hand and apply 3 medium-thick coats as it tended to get patchy otherwise. I don’t mind if a polish is finnicky though if it’s this lovely!

OPI Lavendurable, Zoya Marley

You couldn’t see the differences in the first shot so I took a second at a different angle…you can see that Zoya Marley is a bit deeper in tone. Marley is a much-loved polish, but I think Lavendurable has it beat – I really love the way it’s both pale and bright! A bit less demure than Marley, shall we say.

Patience Pays Off is another great pale shade, this time in a sort of soft pinky-clay hue that again looks awesome with a tan. As with Lavendurable, it required 3 quick coats but the finished product was totally worth it.

OPI Patience Pays Off, OPI Beyond the Pale, OPI The Beige of Reason, OPI Act Your Beige

I didn’t have a comparable shade to Patience – everything else was too beige or too light to be considered a contender.

You’re Blushing Again is a bit deeper in tone, but this creamy pale peachy-pink is another stunner in my opinion. I think it’s really feminine and looks great with my skintone. Yet again, it required 3 coats to avoid patchiness, and yet again I don’t care! It has pretty great shine on it’s own too, eh?

OPI You’re Blushing Again, Essie Muchi Muchi

The only remotely similar hue I could find was Essie Muchi Muchi, and it’s not even close. This is a really unique shade as it’s not peach and its not pink – I’m loving it!

Follow Your Bliss is kind of a pepto-pink shade that isn’t normally something I gravitate toward, yet I love the look of it in this swatch. It’s very girly, eh? This is 2 coats, but its still got a fair bit of white in it so I had to be careful when applying and I used thicker coats to avoid streaks/patchiness. The shine on this one was really something!

OPI Follow Your Bliss, OPI Suzi Shops and Island Hops, RBL Oh Slap!, Chanel Sweet Lilac

This shade also didn’t have an equal in my stash, though Suzi Shops is close, just several shades lighter. I though Oh Slap! would be very similar but it’s not so vividly pink – I prefer the latter, as it’s more wearable, but man, every time I look at the swatch above I waver – it’s so fabulously in-your-face-PINK!

The Sun Never Sets is an orange cream-sicle kind of shade…the shine was killer on this one (it seems to be a bit of a jelly/creme hybrid?), but these yellow-based oranges clash hard with my skintone. The first coat was very patchy, but it leveled out well with a thicker second coat.

OPI The Sun Never Sets, OPI Is Mai Tai Crooked?, Essie Resort Fling

This one was tricky to show shade differences – Is Mai Tai Crooked? looks quite similar in the first shot, but in the second you can see it’s even more yellow-toned and a hair lighter. Resort Fling is much more peach in comparison (and hence why I like it a lot more…has less yellow and more pink).

I swatched Purpletual Emotion on my right hand because I NEVER use my right hand for swatches and I just felt like it for once (plus, it meant I could do two swatches in quick succession lol). My right middle nail isn’t as nice as it is on my left hand (since I’m a righty), but my nails were super-long for these swatches so you can’t tell as much. This shade is a creme/jelly hybrid that was a cinch to apply – two easy flowing coats – and has shine for days! I’m not generally a fan of bold purple polishes, but the shine on this one and the intensity is kind of getting to me….I might have to keep this one!

OPI Purpletual Emotion, OPI Dutch’ya Love OPI?, OPI Lost My Bikini in Molokini, RBL Mismas, OPI Hello Hawaii, Ya?

I thought for SURE that this shade was super-similar to Dutch’ya Love OPI?, but it’s not in the least! The latter is way darker (and that’s not even taking into account the shimmer). The other 3 shades are also nowhere near in tone – they’re all much cooler. Every single one of these purples I’ve passed along, but I might actually hang on to Purpletual…as long as I never have to say the name again (tongue-twister!).

I was pleasantly surprised with this half of the summer collection, many of the OPI polishes I’ve received have been lacklustre for me, but I really liked almost all of these! I will say that though the shine on a lot of the Infinite Shine polishes is pretty good, I find a lot of them have application issues (patchiness mostly) which is a bummer. I’m applying them on the Infinite Shine base coat too so it’s not that. In any case, while I don’t like to mess around with polish too much I really didn’t mind much with these as they were so darn pretty. That’s saying something!

Have you tried the new(ish) Infinite Shine polishes? Will you tough it out for a shade you love, if the formula is subpar?

 

 

Lavendurable

 

OPI Infinite Shine {review and swatches}

Delinquent blogger alert – I’ve had these photos done for a month; I have to post about these polishes already! I just received the OPI Brights 2015 collection today so I really need to catch up (I also have OPI Soft Shades 2015 collection and Nicole by OPI Coca Cola collection photos / swatches ready too, sooo…yea. I’m a bit behind).

Today, however, we’re talking about the OPI Infinite Shine polishes, of which I have 3, plus the Primer base coat and Gloss top coat.

OPI released the new Infinite Shine formula back in the fall; it’s claim to fame is up to 10 days wear with a hi-def shine similar to gel nail treatments, but without the need of a light, nor the hassle of soaking off the polish. The 3 shades I received are: Maintaining My Sand-ity, Staying Neutral and No Stopping Me Now. Let’s look at the swatches first (note that I’m wearing the Primer and Gloss base/top coats in each swatch) and then I’ll get to the formula and wear time.

Maintaining My Sand-ity is a work-friendly, putty-toned nude that I thought I liked at first, but after wearing for a while found it’s slightly greenish hue made my hands look red. I think on the right skintone this would be a great, chic neutral shade but on me it’s just not entirely flattering. Formula was lovely with two smooth coats for opacity.

Left to right: OPI Maintaining My Sand-ity, Zoya Cho, OPI Glints of Glinda, OPI Do You Take Lei Away?

Left to right: OPI Glints of Glinda, Zoya Cho, OPI Maintaining My Sand-ity, OPI Do You Take Lei Away?

I have a few shades that compare with Maintaining My Sand-ity, but they’re either a touch too light (OPI Glints of Glinda [which is also a sheer], Zoya Cho) or a bit more pink (OPI Do You Take Lei Away? – which I prefer over this shade).

Staying Neutral is classic greige shade that is much more up my alley. It contrasts with my skintone just enough to make it stand out without being unflattering. Again, formula was stellar – two easy coats are shown above.

Left to right: Essie Master Plan, OPI Staying Neutral, Sally Hansen Commander in Chic

It looks a bit cool-toned in the hand swatch above, but in the comparison swatches, particularly against Essie Master Plan, you can see that it’s actually got a bit of warmth to it so it doesn’t look too stark against the skin. I thought it would be really close to Sally Hansen Commander in Chic, but it’s much lighter, which I actually prefer as well.

Finally, No Stopping Me Now is a bold orange-red that isn’t quite as searingly bright in the swatch above. It almost has a touch of coral to it as well – truly, a perfect tropical shade. I feel colors like this look good on almost anyone because they’re such a chameleon and can lean one way or another depending on the lighting/skintone/wardrobe etc. Formula, like the other two, was essentially perfect.

Left to right: Essie Meet Me At Sunset, OPI No Stopping Me Now, Essie Come Here!

Shades like this are SO EFFING HARD TO PHOTOGRAPH. It was impossible for me to clearly photograph the differences in tone between these 3 shades. Essie’s Meet Me At Sunset is more orange (absolutely no coral/pink at all), while Essie Come Here! is decidedly more pink. NOT THAT YOU CAN TELL IN THESE PHOTOS, though. Damn.

So, the long-wear, über-shine claims. I wore Staying Neutral for a full mani, employing the 3 steps by using the Primer (step 1) as my base, followed by 2 coats of color (step 2), topped with a coat of the Gloss (step 3). I had high hopes as a long-wearing glossy mani is hella-appreciated at this stage in my life; unfortunately, my nails chipped within a few days, and I didn’t particularly feel like the glossiness has retained it’s full-power shine. I read a great review of these polishes by Beauty Geeks, in which Karen notes that these polishes still likely require several minutes to ‘cure’ in natural UV light (aka THE SUN) for them to be truly long-wearing. I haven’t had a chance to try this, but I intend to – normally I could care less about long wearing shades as I tend to change my polish frequently, but I could really benefit from not having to worry about chipped nails for a week plus.

Ultimately, I’m more about the shades than the wear with polishes, so no matter what the case I’d still try more of these shades, especially if they all have formulas like these – smooth, glossy and oh-so-easy to apply.

Is wear time a factor for you when choosing a nail polish?