The fall blitzkrieg is mostly over and now we’re barreling towards the winter collections. The OPI Holiday in Toyland collection is composed of 6 very unique colors and 6 reds. I’m splitting this collection up into two posts accordingly. The Nailphile has swatches of the whole collection up right now in case you’d like to see the reds as well. (As a side note, I apologize for the lack of posting lately, this is my last year of law school and I’ve been swamped with the job search, etc.)

OPI You’re A Doll is a sheer muted pink with silverish frost-shimmer finish. The unique aspect of this color is the multi-sized reddish copper flecks that run throughout. This color is fairly sheer, I used 3 coats to get full coverage and bottle color. This is what I would like to refer to as a ’sneaky professional color’, like Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge. It’s definitely professional and work appropriate but you can have the personal satisfaction of knowing you’re operating outside the status quo with your little coppery flecks. That might be something that only amuses me though, I know, I’m weird.

OPI Baby, It’s “Coal” Outside is probably my favorite from this collection. It’s slightly more gray than a pure black and it’s infused with silvery glitter. The glitter is potentially multi-sized. It’s hard to tell because the glitter is so small. This is 2 coats. The image above is without flash, below is with flash.

OPI Brand New Skates is silvery charcoal with irridescent glitter that flashes green and copper tones. This shade applies sheer but is buildable. This is 3 coats.

OPI Glamour Game, my second favorite from this set, is a gorgeous, chic… um… that’s where my powers of description end. It’s a very light champagne gold sheer with a finish that is both shimmery and frosty. Glamour Game has green to copper toned flecks of glitter similar to the ones found in Brand New Skates. This swatch is 3 coats. The image above was taken in indoor lighting, the image below was taken in direct sunlight.

OPI Play ‘Til Midnight is a deep blurple (more purple than blue, my picture is inaccurate as always) with blue and purple shimmer throughout. I used 3 coats because I tend apply very thin coats of polish – I think most people can get away with 2 coats. The ‘me’ of yesteryear would have loved the daylights out of this color but I think my collection has reached critical mass when it comes to purples. I can’t believe my fingers just typed those words.

OPI “Sheer” Your Toys! is another sheer, simultaneously frosty and shimmery subtly pinkish gray with multi-sized reddish copper flecks. This is 3 coats as well. I like the creative thematic design scheme present in this collection, the repeated use of green to copper toned glitter, combine frost and shimmer finish, and reddish-coppery flecks gives this collection that extra… oomph of uniqueness. I really love this set of colors.

This collection is up for sale now on transdesign.com.

Thanks to everyone for the kind birthday wishes.

I, of course, wore OPI Birthday Babe for the big day – rather the really uneventful day. The boyfriend and I had tickets to the worst production of Hamlet ever. This Hamlet was even more emo than Shakespeare intended the character to be. The actor wore his hair in the quintessential emo style (parted, slightly over the eyes) and skinny pants. His rendering of Hamlet involved a lot of screaming.  It was basically a lame attempted Baz Luhrmann rip-off. We had to leave at the intermission. There definitely was something rotten in the State of Denmark.

Enough about me, let me tell you about the polish. OPI Birthday Babe, a light silver with a frosty finish from the 25th Happy Anniversary Collection, was sadly disappointing. It’s not sheer but it’s pretty thin so I needed 3 thick-ish coats to get rid of VPL. No doubt, it’s a gorgeous color but it was fairly hard to apply. As expected of a frosty finish, the brush strokes were abundant. Even worse, it showed all the imperfections on my nail bed. Next year, I’ll probably have to wear it over Barielle Nail Camouflage to resolve the imperfect magnification issue. Yes, despite the fact that it didn’t ‘wow’ me, I’m going to continue wearing it on my birthday every year until my bottle runs dry. I’m stubborn about my polish names, can you tell?

I only wore this color for 2 or so days. The day after my birthday, I had an extremely important job interview. Consequently, I trimmed my nails to the nubs, removed the flashy color, and dawned the ultra chic professional OPI Tickle My France-y. Little did I know, my interviewers had a fine appreciation for cool nail polish and long nails. The ultra conservativeness was completely unnecessary. I was under the impression that half my collection would be on the bench next year after I start my legal career, so it makes me absolutely ecstatic to know that successful female prosecutors can have fabulous nails if they so desire.

What is a frankenpolish?

Basically, you take two more polishes and combine them to create a new color. That’s just the beginning: girls use clear polish, make-up pigment, glitter, etc., to create new looks. The possibilities are pretty much endless.

So, how does this contest work?

(1) Create a frankenpolish using any Color Club polish or product. You can use other brands as long as you use at least one Color Club product as a component of your creation.

(2) Post a swatch of your polish, it’s name, your recipe for the color, and a little blurb about your creation in the comments section of this entry. Your entries will be judged by myself and 2 other mystery nail polish bloggers. Judging will be based on creativity of color and design and, of course, the judges’ personal tastes.

(3) You will win extra points if you take a picture of your best mad scientist pose, holding up your franken bottle, screaming “it’s ALIVE! ALIIIIIIIIVE!”

(4) The last day to submit an entry will be October 15th.

Prizes?

Yup! The winner will receive the entire Color Club Glitter Vixen Collection. 1 runner up will receive the Color Club Best of the Best mini set (contains Honey Bee, Just Chill, Special Effects, and Killer Curves). I’ll have swatches of these colors up before the contest is over!

Franken away! *evil cackle*

Side note: This is my 100th post! Wooo.

I just want to remind everyone that the last day to enter The First Ever Polish Addict Giveaway for the Color Club Musique Collection is today. The winner will be selected tomorrow. : )

With that said, I’m pretty smitten with the new Lippmann Collection Holiday releases. What I particular like about this collection is that there is one color that is absolutely perfect for every major category in nail polish preference. There is a color for dainty lovers, the shimmer reds/pinks lovers, the vampy lovers, and the bling lovers. (Guess where I belong?)

Lippmann Collection Icing on the Cake is the light pink version of Lippmann Collection Rhapsody in White. Unfortunately, it has the same brush stroke issues but it is very pretty and delicate. I’ve come to the conclusion that nothing can be done about the brush stroke issues inherent to frosties. *Sigh*. This swatch is 3 coats.

Lippmann Collection Holiday is a red jelly with red and fuchsia microglitter. The shimmeriness is much more obvious in person than in my image above. It adds depth and glow to the bright base red. Holida is very color-appropriate moniker. Of the four releases in this collection, Holiday is definitely the most traditional Holiday-type color. I foresee this one being pretty popular during the Winter. My swatch is 4 coats because I’m not a fan of VPL. However, the application is *perfect* so if you don’t hate VPL, this color is definitely wearable at 2 coats.

Lippmann Collection Maneater. I’m the idiot that will buy a color just because I like the name. So I really LOVE it when an awesome color meets a badass name. A deep dark vampy brown called Maneater? Ummm…. I’m all over that one. Maneater has a jelly quality too it but it’s such a rich brown that it’s almost black on the nail – still gorgeous though. This swatch is 3 coats.

Lippmann Collection Superstar is hands down my FAVORITE from this collection. Copper Glitter in jelly brown base, it’s almost like Deborah Lippmann peeked into my dreams. Superstar has fairly chunky glitter in it but I got pretty good smoothness with 2 coats of Seche Vite. This swatch is two coats.

Scrangie has swatches of this collection on her site too. Lippmann Collection is available online or at some Bath & Body Work locations.

I can’t take it anymore! Zulu is being scalped on ebay again. Two weeks ago it sold for $76! It’s never going to stop and Zulu is the lemming that is never going to die. The Polish Addict hereby declares war on Nars. We’re launching a guerilla style campaign for the re-release of this god forsaken color. As a part of the ‘Give Us Zulu’ (G.U.Z.) campaign we ask that you guys sign the petition! Email nars! Link them to the ridiculous ebay auctions! Give them a piece of your mind! Hopefully they will finally appease their loyal customers by giving us what we want! GIVE US ZULU!

If you have a blog, site, facebook, anything please spread the word! Also you can read my previous tirade on this subject here.

Nail polish is one hell of drug. I’ve been lemming Clarins 209 Ocean Bleu Abysse since time began. I had just about given up hope when someone (who I am now forever indebted too) alerted me to this weird nail polish e-tailer. I say it’s weird because the site carried several discontinued Clarins colors for half price – absolutely shocking. This site also had Dior Liquorice in stock. That definitely raised some red flags because Liquorice was supposed to be a Nordstrom exclusive. But I figured, whatever, I’ll take the gamble. I’m glad I did – I mean, sure, my bottle of Liquorice has the serial number shaved off with a dremmel but it’s all good. Now I own the coveted Clarins 209 *and* I got to stick it to the man. As a side not, The Nailphile is planning to post a comparison soon as well and according to her, Sparitual Solitude is dead on for Clarins 209.

For those of you who want Clarins 209 but don’t have access to it you can try L.A. Girl Flare Bedazzle which is still readily available online.

It’s not an exact dupe but definitely good enough. 209 is darker and more pigmented. In fact, I’d say that 209 is borderline too thick especially when compared to Bedazzle that needed 3 coats to reach opacity and bottle color. Bedazzle can also potentially cause a good bit of cuticle drag so it’s going to require a longer wait period between coats. Finally, 209 dries glossy and Bedazzle dries matte like a neon. Of course, I think it’s worth it to own both. ; )

When I initially heard that China Glaze was putting out a whole collection of blues I just about died on the spot. Of course, I’m not completely satisfied – well I mean I am I with this collection… but now that I know China Glaze is open to a whole collection of one color, I want a whole collection of greens!! Ooh, I can dream, can’t I?

Now on to the commentary:

Scrangie has posted about issues with China Glaze’s application lately. I can honestly say that I didn’t have the same application problems with Rodeo Diva and Operation Colour. I did however encounter some application issues in this collection. Since the application issues aren’t occurring consistently, I don’t think it’s China Glaze’s formula that is the culprit. I can only imagine that there is some other explanation, although I’m not sure what that explanation would be.

Unfortunately, none of the new dark blues are exact dupes to other dark blues that might already be in your collection. The girls on the nail board believe that Calypso Blue might be dupish to NARS Midnight Express. I don’t own that one, but from the images I’ve seen, it looks much much darker than Calypso Blue. Nars Midnight Express seems closer to something like Color Club Naughtycal Navy.

As you can see above, China Glaze Calypso Blue is dark but visibly and obviously blue, as opposed to being ‘almost black’. This shade had great application, no issues. This one is my absolute favorite color from this collection, hands down.

China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway is my second favorite color from this collection. Oh man, it’s just flat-out gorgeous. It has the same jelly-like quality of OPI Dating a Royal. Actually, I would say it’s the darker cousin of OPI Dating a Royal. I also didn’t have any application issues with this one.

This is a pretty true to life representation of China Glaze Bahamian Escape. However, it’s not as close to Color Club Blue Light as it looks in this image. They are similar but Bahamian Escape has a greener tinge to it. One of the girls on the Nail Board asked me whether Bahamian Escape is dupish to China Glaze For Audrey – not at all similar. Which can be either good or bad news depending on who you ask.

China Glaze Bahamian Escape was impossible to capture accurately. I’ve decided to start photoshopping colors that my camera fails to capture accurately. This is the closest to true life color that I could get it but it’s not grayed out in real life. As I’m sure you can tell, the image above is very different from bottle picture. That’s because the color dries several shades darker on the nail than the actual bottle color. The formula was chalky and a little thick. I got nearly full coverage with one coat. One coat coverage can be a double edged sword because most of the time it can also cause bubbling. I did get a few bubbles so I used 3 drops of thinner. The application was perfect after thinning.

China Glaze Caribbean Blue is a sky blue with flaky sugar glitter. Anti-glitter girls, don’t be alarmed. The glitter gives more of a subtle shimmer than full on bling. It’s definitely not ‘too much’.

China Glaze Blue Paradise is a frosty dark blue. This one was really thick and bubbly but, again, 3 drops of thinner made it perfect. My bottle may very well be a fluke, it’s possible that it might not be representative of all the bottles of this color. Let me know if you have similar application issues with Blue Paradise, but I don’t think anyone will.

China Glaze Blue Island Iced Tea is probably my third favorite from this collection. I’m really into these foil-y finish colors like Zoya Rea and Zoya Trixie. This foil-y light blue was fairly sheer. This swatch was 3 coats. This one has major bling potential as you can see below.

This swatch is Blue Island Iced Tea in full on sunlight – very pretty, very blingy.

We didn’t expect this Collection to be out until October but it’s actually available as of today on head2toebeauty.com.

I think I’m just going to stop raving about Rescue Beauty Lounge because I’m starting to sound like a broken record. These colors are just so disgustingly gorgeous – it’s almost overwhelming. I’m starting to suspect that the nail polish gods have bestowed Ji Baek with the logos. This collection is so perfect, I practically started speaking in tongues when the FedEx guy dropped it off. ¹ So now I’m spreading the gospel to you guys – *cue the trumpets* – behold:

Rescue Beauty Lounge Teal is tough to describe. Is it blue, is it green? It does look green in some lights, blue in others. It’s not really teal… is it? I’m not sure. I just know that it’s drop dead gorgeous. As always great application – almost complete coverage in one coat.

I’m wearing Rescue Beauty Lounge Bruise right now. Like Teal, it’s tough to pin down in one color category. It’s a purple-y muted maroon-ish brown. Those colors don’t even seem like they are part of the same spectrum but Bruise looks like all three at same time. On short nails and in non-conservative offices, I’d say this one is work appropriate. Also, great application.

Rescue Beauty Lounge No More War is the controversial color from this collection. People either absolutely LOVE it or absolutely HATE this olive green, there doesn’t seem to be an in between. I’m sure this won’t be shocking to anyone but I’m in the ‘f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g love it’ camp. Plus, the tiny little dirty tree hugging hippie inside me loves the name.

So does this collection have anyone else speaking Glossolalia, or is it just me?

________

EmpressStephanie is me and xkeinmitleidx is Scrangie. : )

*******************************************************

EmpressStephanie: Soooorry
EmpressStephanie: lol
xkeinmitleidx: Hehehe :D
EmpressStephanie: I went to the mall to pick up some hot topics for Colorsgalore
xkeinmitleidx: I just ordered a crapload of Hot Topic polishes, I had 20% off code
EmpressStephanie: they’re pretty awesome
xkeinmitleidx: I recently got the Kelly Green, Iridescent Purple and yellow/green neon, I’m impressed
xkeinmitleidx: I had to get 2 backups of iridescent purple >.>
EmpressStephanie: when you say iridescent purple – is that the glittery purple?
xkeinmitleidx: Yep, it’s glittery purple with sort of… duochromeyness
EmpressStephanie: that one is GORGEOUS
EmpressStephanie: okay I need to pull out my sterilites
EmpressStephanie: I’m going to be updating the spreadsheet too
EmpressStephanie: do you keep you?
xkeinmitleidx: Sweet.
xkeinmitleidx: I don’t have a spreadsheet but I keep a text list
xkeinmitleidx: haven’t updated it since… march?  lol
EmpressStephanie: lol
EmpressStephanie: so then you have like a million to add to it then
xkeinmitleidx: Yeah, it’s gonna take me a while =/  And I only had Essie, OPI and China Glaze on it lol
EmpressStephanie: I have about 100 to add to mine
EmpressStephanie: I’ve been getting carried away
EmpressStephanie: the nailboard market place was the worst thing that ever happened to me : P
xkeinmitleidx: Yeah, I went a little crazy this week…
xkeinmitleidx: Ooh, I haven’t been there…. Afraid to look!
EmpressStephanie: sometimes you can get really good deals
EmpressStephanie: I got Wyatt Earple Purple for 4 bucks
xkeinmitleidx: Nice!
EmpressStephanie: yea I’ve been lemming that one forever
xkeinmitleidx: I’m going through my Orlys right now…. I think I’m missing a few!
EmpressStephanie: :O which ones?
xkeinmitleidx: The two dark purples I just bought and one of the sparkly ones that came with the little rhinestones… Turquoise Charm?
EmpressStephanie: ah from the new collex?
xkeinmitleidx: Nah, old ones I think.  I’m pretty sure Turquoise Charm is discontinued
xkeinmitleidx: Haven’t seen it anywhere in a loooooong time

More after the cut!

(more…)

As you all can see The Polish Addict has a new layout and domain complete with syringes and all. The concept and design are the brain children of my very good friend Nina. I *really* love it and hope you all do too.

The new domain is www.polishaddict.com, please update your links. The old site will redirect to this one for a while but eventually it won’t anymore. Now that I’m on my own domain I have a lot more flexibility with the content and structure of the site so if you have some blog feature or whatever that you would like to see implemented on the Polish Addict drop me a comment about it.

And finally, Scrangie and I are planning to live blog on both our sites while we reorganize our stashes this Saturday starting at around 1pm EST. Join us to participate in the shenanigans, get to know us better, and peak at our collections (hers is waaaaay more impressive than mine!). We’ll also be taking requests and answering questions. : )

Thanks to the wonderful people over at Color Club the Polish Addict is hosting its very first giveaway, ever!

Fill out the entry form for a chance to win the entire Color Club Musique Collection including the 3 liquid lipstick shades. The winner will be chosen on September 23rd (which just happens to be my birthday : P). You can check out my swatches of the Musique Collection here.

This contest is actually the first part of a sort of two-part ordeal. My initial idea was to host a contest for the best franken made from Color Club polish but I realized that a lot people don’t have access to Color Club or have never tried the brand, so I decided to start off with a straight-up giveaway first. On the 23rd, I’ll launch the Color Club Frankenpolish Contest. The best Dr. Frankenpolish will win the Glitter Vixen Collection!

Anyone excited? I am! : )

Generally, I tend to associate work apropriate polishes with creme finishes, but every once in a while I encounter a good shimmery polish that can pass for work appropriate. Zoya Deidra is exactly that – a gorgeous mauve with glowing fine gold shimmer. I’m calling it a shimmer but the finish is probably more akin to a frost. This mani is 1 coat of Zoya Anchor, 2 coats of Deidra, 1 coat of seche. I had no application issues and it wore very well.

What I particularly love about this color is that it’s stunningly chic despite the fact that’s it’s fairly subtle. It’s refreshing when I find colors like this in my stash. It helps to stave off the plague of the work appropriate polish purgatory.

This picture is an accurate depiction of the color but there’s a good bit more shimmer in real life. In the shade, it’s sort of a borderline grayed out mauve but in the sunlight it just gleams gold. This color is probably too much for really really consversative offices but I think it would be a great color to wear just about every where else.

P.S. I recently had a bad break so this is one of the last long nail pictures we’ll have here on the Polish Addict for a while. Boooo.

The title of this post is somewhat misleading. Adorée doesn’t release collections per se – they tend to respond to consumer and market feedback and release new colors accordingly. These new polishes coincide with Fall but they aren’t necessarily Fall releases. In any case, there are seven new nameless colors. Five of which are glitters, so I’ve grouped them together in this post. The other two are deep luscious browns which I’ll post about in the very near future.  *crosses fingers in hopes that they’ll actually look good on me*

So without further ado, here are the Adorées:

Adoree 242 is a tyrian purple with multi-toned glitter. This swatch is 2 coats plus 1 coat of Seche Vite. Unfortunately, this polish dries bumpy because of the glitter. However, a coat or two of Seche satisfactorily takes care of the bumpiness.

Adore 245 is a tamer version of Orly Goth. 245 is solid black with small silver glitter, no bumpiness issues with this one. The black isn’t jelly but it does apply very thin so I needed 3 coats for opacity.

Adoree 244 is a jelly-ish light blue with multi-toned light iridescent glitter. The finish, which is like a mixture of frost and shimmer, reminded me a lot of Adoree Peony’s finish. This swatch is 3 coats, no bumpiness but there is visible VPL.

Adoree 243 is tough to describe. It’s a very dense pink, silver, and possibly gold glitter suspended in clear polish. This swatch is 3 coats. It did look good with 2 coats though. I just really loved it so I got a little carried away during swatching.

Adoree 246 is a jelly red with multi-sized orange toned glitter (similar to the glitter in Adoree Riding Hood.) Let me assure you that it’s a lot prettier in person than it is in my image. The formula is a little on the thick side but still workable. It also looks good over black which can be seen at the bottom of this post. This swatch is 2 coats.

Adoree Capri Sea is actually not new but I wanted to group it in with all the other glitters. My nails are very badly stained yellow so it’s throwing off the base color of this polish. (I’m too chicken-sh*t to try using bleach and nothing else I’ve tried has worked. Booo.) Capri Sea is duo-chromish (green to blue scale) glitter suspended in green tinted polish. It practically glows on your nail. I couldn’t photograph it properly but the duo-chrome quality of the glitter is really apparent over black, see below. Capri Sea, like 246, is a little on the thick side. This swatch is 2 coats. (Please excuse the typo in image above, the polish is named ‘Capri Sea’ not ‘Seas’.)

I apologize about the sloppiness of the these swatches. I was in a bit of a hurry but wanted to show you guys what these two colors look like over black. I used two coats of Milani Black Magic and 1 coat each of Capri Seas and 246 respectively. Capri Sea blew me away, really amazing.

Adoree is available from Esther’s Nail Center in the U.S. and Pro Nail Store in Europe, specifically Sweden.

I am appalled by the size of the bottle of the limited edition (of course) Givenchy Dandy Moiré. Every other company on earth sells this amount of polish as a ‘mini’. The size itself actually isn’t the issue, I love minis. The problem is the size to price ratio.

Seriously? A 15 dollar ‘mini’?

It doesn’t even apply well. The fomula is too thick and it chips fairly easily. At 15 dollars per .18 fl. oz., it needs to apply perfectly. It needs to apply like Jesus himself is doing my nails. Not only that but it needs stay on my nails, unchipped, for the rest of my life.

Why did I buy this? Am I really such a blind consumerist that I can’t resist buying something I know isn’t worth the amount of money I’m spending?  Ugh, I don’t really have an answer to that question, there’s just something about this color that drew me to it. It’s not as impressive in real life as it looks on Sephora’s website. (Of course. Oh man, how I abhore Sephora.) However, I admit that the blue and green shimmer is mesmerizing even though it’s not as blingy as advertised. What was really… just… bizarre… about this color was other people’s reactions to it. I wear nail polish every single day of my life. No one cares. I hardly ever get compliments, comments, anything. But, Givenchy Dandy Moiré was a topic of conversation with almost everyone I encountered for 3 days that I wore it.

I broke my professional color vow and wore it last Friday during my office’s casual day. The female attorneys loved it. So much so that yesterday, one of the victim advocates asked me where she could buy it or something like it locally. I told her that she should skip the unreasonably priced haughty Givenchy and check out OPI Yoga-ta Get this Blue which is basic and readily available in our nail polish deficient little town.

Then Friday night at dinner, my friend’s boyfriend and his friend noticed Dandy Moire. They thought it was black and stated that it “didn’t suit my skin tone”. Even though I knew that they were teasing me in response to me mocking college football, I launched into a tirade about the merits of navy shimmery nail polish on dark skin. I’m sure they regretted mentioning it at all after I imparted more information about nail polish than they ever wished to know.

Saturday night, a very drunk boy awkwardly hit on me at a bar by complimenting my ‘black’ nails. Even my male roommate who only discusses nail polish in the context of taunting me, commented on Dandy Moire. He also thought it looked black. The strange thing is that I wear black and ‘almost black’ polishes all the time. No one ever notices or says anything. So what was it about this particular color that made people feel the need to comment on my nails? I’m completely baffled. I guess there is just something intangible about this color that makes it more strikingly noticeable. I still think the 15 dollar price tag is absolutely ridiculous, but I guess I like Dandy Moiré.

I’m a little late to the party (check out Scrangie’s swatches) but, of course, I have to give you guys my take on one of the biggest collections to hit us this Fall. I wasn’t all that excited for OPI France when I initially saw the promotional images. OPI has a proclivity for releasing several reds and ‘almost blacks’ in just about every collection and, frankly, it gets old. The promos of France made it seem like more of the same. Consequently, I wasn’t expecting to like these. I was pleasantly surprised to find that this collection is actually pretty cool.

Sure, a few of the colors were fairly run of the mill OPI type stuff. I’m not doing back flips for OPI Louvre me Louvre Me Not (ducks to avoid thrown stones, tomatoes, assorted rotting vegetables), but there are several solid gorgeous, unique colors in this collection. There have been a few complaints about colors in the France collection being thick and difficult to apply but I didn’t have any real trouble with them.

As a side note, I really feel like OPI did a good job of designing colors that are representative of French culture and fashion. I say that because I felt like they could have done more with the Indian collection, it’s good to see that they were spot on with France.

*Dies* OPI You Don’t Know Jacques is my absolute favorite color from this collection. Seriously, every once a while an amazing color like this comes out and renews my passion for nail polish. The color is tough to describe, grayish, brownish, dirty, mushroomy? This is my current NOTD, 2 coats, love it. I’ve said it a million times and I’ll say it again, love these grayed out mushroomy colors. I just can’t get enough.

OPI Yes… I Can-Can! is a shimmery eggplant type color. The base color seems similar to OPI Lincoln Park After Dark. The shimmer seems multi-colored, I see flashes of green, silver, and violet in the bottle. On the nail, it’s silvery and serves to give Yes… I Can-Can! depth. This swatch is 3 coats but with careful application good coverage is possible at 2 coats.

OPI Tickle My France-y is my second favorite color from this collection. It’s a grayed out subtle nude pink – it is chic and sophisticated perfection. Earlier last week, when I went back into the professional nail color purgatory, Tickle My France-y was the first color I chose for the big switch. This color was so beautiful, so flattering that I didn’t even care about being forced to wear professional colors. This mani was 3 coats.

OPI Parlez-vous OPI?, another stand out color, is a grayed-out (or smokey as OPI puts it) plum. The application was slightly troublesome, my bottle was chalky and thick but it’s workable. This is 2 coats.

OPI Louvre Me Lourve Me Not is my least favorite color from this collection. Sorry guys, I know I’m completely alone, everyone else loves this one. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this color but I have a predisposition to disliking shimmers and I’ve just had my fill of shimmery mid-range purples this fall. You can’t really see it in my image but Louvre Me Lourve Me Not has blurple and violet shimmer. This swatch is 3 coats.

OPI I’m Fondue of You is a reddish light chocolaty brown with reddish brown shimmer. I don’t love this one. It’s pretty but not special. This swatch is 2 coats, I think the color would look better with 3.

OPI Eiffel for this Color is an ‘almost black’. OPI says it’s wine but it looks dark purple with violet shimmer to me. It’s similar to Yes… I Can-Can! but they’re different enough to warrant owning both if one is so inclined to do so. Normally, I would say boo to an almost black but I, surprisingly, like this color. This swatch is 2 coats.

Scrangie called OPI Crepes Suzi-ette a ‘mom’ color… it is – but – it’s hot. I think this one ventures into the realm of work appropriate. I’m actually surprised that I like this color too. I probably wouldn’t have batted an eye at this creamy reddish caramel in a store, but it’s actually very flattering on the nail. I would even dare say that it’s unique. This swatch is 2 coats.

There will always be reds in an OPI collection, shockingly there were only two in the France Collection. One of which, OPI Bastille My Heart, is a deep burgandy with violet shimmer throughout. Pretty, but standard.

OPI Baguette Me Not, a creamy salmon, is another shocker. Totally didn’t expect to like this ‘mom’ (haha) color but I love it. Very chic, very work appropriate. This swatch is 2 coats.

OPI A Oui Bit of Red, the other red in the France Collection, is a mid-range bright red. I love reds and I would have loved this one too, but for the shimmer. The saving grace is that the fuschia shimmer is very subtle, hardly noticeable. This swatch is 2 coats.

Finally, OPI We’ll Always Have Paris. Love. It. This is the color that I wanted the annoyingly almost black OPI Lincoln Park After Dark to be. I love LPAD but I always wanted it to be more noticeably purple and vampy. OPI granted my wish with We’ll Always Have Paris. Strangely, OPI says this color is dark coffee… definitely looks dark reddish purple to me.

Special thanks to OPI.