By March
I’ve been on a bit of a nail polish jag (more about that later), so I popped into Sephora to look at their exclusive line, Sephora OPI, where I was chagrined to discover that they’re selling off the remainder at $4.50, marked down from $9.50, to make way for new product in September. Okay, chagrin combined with delight at the price, which is also offered online until they run out.
Sure, the $OPIs were more expensive than Revlon, but they represented something important – a way for the huddled masses across the country to sample new and interesting colors without buying blind, as you had to do with Butter London (now stocked at Sephora), Rescue Beauty Lounge, etc., or ponying up for a Lippmann. I don’t know which $OPIs were dupes of existing shades, and which ones spawned their own, but I’ll miss them. I hope they’re replaced with something nice and a tad less expensive.
In no particular order, here are some $OPI faves of mine. Name yours in the comments! FWIW I started to paste in swatches for each, but nail blogs hate it when you steal mani photos (and I don’t blame them, considering the work involved). Plus if you google images, it gives you a ton of mani photographs so you can ponder the shade in different lights, etc.
Metro Chic – the purply greige that took the world by storm. It’s difficult for me to believe they’re really going to d/c this, although there are probably dupes now; maybe it’ll be in whatever line’s coming next.
Run With It – a gorgeous yet subtle office-friendly gold-silver shimmer.
Don’t Feed the Hand Models – stupid name, perfect crème for mannequin hands given my skin tone.
Traffic-Stopper Copper – large and small glitter the color of newly-minted pennies. Stunning over teal or turquoise.
Go with the Flow-er – That’s it in the photo. A bit of an orange snoozefest in the bottle, on the nail it’s an astonishingly bright orange/hot pink duochrome-ish micro-glittery thing of beauty. If there’s a dupe I don’t know it. It’s my pedicure right now, and my toes look like they’re ON FIRE. A reminder that you can’t judge a nail by its bottle.
Seriously, It’s a Naan-Issue (from their Indian Summer collection), yet another stupid name – a cool-toned deep purple creme that manages not to register as black. Lighter, warmer-toned, and/or shimmer/glitter purples are a dime a dozen, but purples like this are very hard to come by.
212 – originally an LE at the NY store, I believe. Off-black with tons of duochrome flakes and holo microglitter, with a base that (depending on the light) looks dark green, brown or almost black.
Your turn! What do you have and love from the line?
image: Go With the Flow-er layered over OPI Galveston (squeee!), from Death By Nail Polish. Those OPI Texas jellies are amazing, for sure. Anyway, GWTF looks like this pic with several coats (it’s sheer), or you can save some work and layer it like she did, over a pink, red, or gold.
Caffeine Fix! It’s a deep dark dark dark red that appears black. So much more flattering than a black black or purple black. This is the black part of black cherry. Perfect on my toes… Sad that it’s gone.
I have a MAJOR polish obsession going at the moment. My favourite upper-tier brand is Zoya: stunning colours, texture, effects etc. My favourite mid-brand is China Glaze which is also quite pricey where I live (not in the US), but less so than Zoya. Neither tests on animals – yipee! I like the OPI Bond collection but am not so comfortable supporting OPI.
Howdy, March! How lovely to see you again. Wowza — those are some gaw-jus nails up top! I never get into Sephora enough to see their OPI nail shades, but I think I recall some of those you mention. Overall, OPI does some great colors and you gotta love their fun names, too. My fave for summer pedicures is a nice coral-pink-red hue called Are We There Yet? I liked it so much that I got a back-up bottle, which for me, is saying a lot.
I should clarify — those aren’t my nails! Link’s at the bottom of the post … Are We There Yet is a stunning color but a bit too coral for my skin tone, which is too bad. A backup bottle of that makes sense!
My favorite OPI was always Deer Valley Spice. It had the perfect pink/red look with just enough shimmer. But they discontinued the bugger. Whyyyyyyyy?
I wish I had those beautiful nails with the long nail beds like you have. But no! Mine are like squares they never look as good in nail polish.
They d/c’d that? It wasn’t my thing but I know it had a huge fanbase, I am surprised.
My nails right now are ridiculous… eventually I roll my eyes and cut them down (or one of them breaks). My sister, who has very soft nails, discovered gel manicures and is thrilled with the results. I think the whole nail thing is mostly genetic and you have claws or you don’t. 🙂 Of course since I was born with them I don’t appreciate them as I should. I have learned not to pry things with my nails and ruin the polish!
Gah, they’re selling it for $30 a bottle! And now (of course) I want it.
Ooooh buy it, buy it! … like how I’m enabling you? 😛
Hm, they have one for $15, I think I should do it.
I love the OPI red…it’s on my toes & fingers right now, and I even found a red dress that matches the color perfectly!
That’s an awesome red. If you looked at my collection of reds you’d laugh in my face. My go-to red is Malaga Wine, which is definitely red (rather than wine) but darker toned.
I never tried the OPI Sephora line but love the OPI nail polishes when I do polish my nails. I fell in love with the OPI nail polishes when I did have fake nails and ordered the entire Russian collection.
The Russian collection was gorgeous, one of the first times I looked at an entire line and thought, hmmmm…. and I think for a lot of folks, for what the SOPIs cost, they’d rather have OPI. I bought SOPIs when the shade caught my eye.
You can still find the Russian collection on Amazon. I’m guessing that it is still a popular line. That reminds me to reorder An Affair in Red Square, a fabulous red.
I have this funky np/beauty store nearby. I think I saw some of the line there recently. I know I have the really dark ones (Siberian Nights, Suzy, Midnight in Moscow, etc.) which were the ones that appealed to me at the time. One of the reds is a great jelly, I want it, although I need another red jelly like a hole in the head. 🙂 I’m obsessed with jellies right now.
Hi, March 🙂 I’m with Ms Musette, $OPI isn’t a winner for me. Have you tried Zoya? They have great colors and finishes, are big 3 free, and the company has great customer serviceand sales. Wow, I sound like a commercial. Anyway, a limited line is at Ulta andtheir wwebsite is Zoya dot com. Nice to see you!
Heh, I just got three Zoyas in the mail, ordered online. I love their shine and jelly-like finish. Even super dark shades like Envy manage not to fade to black (something I dislike in polishes.) I figure if I’ve got a couple of those fade-to-blacks I’m good. Green, however… 🙂 Can’t have two many greens!
I never had access to a Sephora until very recently, but I’ve used OPI and China Glaze polishes for years. My all time favorites are Significant Other Color and Afterglow. Oh, and Breathe Life! I love the sheer opalescents and duochromes/multichromes from both lines.
Afterglow!!!! Cannot BELIEVE you mentioned that of all the colors out there, etc. It’s a dead-on dupe of a L’Oreal shade I adored and wore constantly in high school (when Afterglow was considered a weird shade). Makes me smile every time I wear it. It’s also what I throw on when I can’t think what color to wear — one or two coats and I’m good to go.
Haha! I’ve been wearing that purple with blue flash shade in anything I can get ahold of since HS. I incorporate it into most of my paintings, too (thank you, interference acrylics!). Like you, it makes me smile, everytime.
Are any of your paintings online? I’d love to see them.
A few are here. Most are too 3D to put online, but one’s coming out in a book in September, and it’s got lots of that duochrome/multichrome action! 🙂
http://society6.com/MarlaRobb/prints?page=2
Those are gorgeous…. I can’t pick which one I want.
Ah, thanks, March! You made my day.
They are discontinuing it?? I have and love Metro Chic and Call your mother.
I remember I had a ‘nail polish phase’ a few years back..I bought quite a few barielle’s based on your recs (and swatches of course..:))
Those Barielles! I still have most of mine… they used to carry them in our local CVS and I never see them anymore, which is too bad.
I meant barielles not barielle’s
Doll, I know what you meant, and I didn’t even notice.
haha…just in case..:)
by the way- I tried Marni and really liked it- wafers and incense is spot on! But I couldn’t believe how light hearted and girly it smelled (in a good way) and lots of incense..very nice! (though it might have smelled girlish because I was testing it after smelling Aromatics Elixir..:))
Uh…. pretty much anything except Mitsy after Aromatics is going to smell a bit twee. I’m delighted that a house would release a fun incense-rose instead of another musky thang.
True- I can’t stop wearing it..I thought I’d get over it but I’m liking it today too and am in danger of wanting (no NEEDING) a bottle..I wish it was stronger though- but it probably wouldn’t be as charming if it was. [Though I could smell puffs off it even at the end of the day yesterday- so pretty!!!]
I think it’s those little puffs that charm me.
None of the $OPIs grabbed my guts. Being a YNBB gal – and a profound lover of OPI’s Hopelessly in Love (though I hate the smell) – I came close with one of their pinks but it was Too Pink. Alas. I tried a greige. OMG. DeadManniHands. Ew.
You in greige — NOT a pretty mental pic. I have a sorta similar problem with those gorgeous, super pale colors like glass pink and mint. I fall in love with the photos and they look awful on me.
I see greige as the Anti-Musette Shade! Definitely give those a miss….
I painted a room in my house based on Metro Chic. The guy at the paint store thought I was crazy when I brought him the polish bottle and asked him to match it. I may need a back up bottle if they are DC’ing it.
Marie,
My bike painter thought I was batcrap crazy (trying not to swear so much:-p ) when I brought him a big ol’ piece of Pergo underlayment and asked him to match that for my Road King. Took him 3 tries (chose a gold overlay, which made it perfect). He hates mah guuuuts.
I think it makes perfect sense to take in a bottle of nail polish to match – sure beats trying to describe it, don’tchathink?
xoxoA
That’s such a great story! And I figure if you’re paying for it, they can work from whatever sample you bring in, right?
PS lol, good luck with the swearing thing. Who’re you gonna say “oh, for f*ck’s sake” to?
Gosh, I’d love to see a photo of that! And I bought a backup bottle myself. 🙂 There are a ton of similar shades, but none that looks exactly like that, at least to my eye…