OPI Bright Pair Collection with Paige Premium Denim: Brights 2009

In the previous post you saw some comparisons and duplicates from this collection, now here's the "real" post :)

There are also swatches of the collection at The Nailphile and Sterling Nails.

A Grape Fit. Rich lavender creme. This is my new favorite pale purple. The problem I have with the pale purples/lilacs/lavenders is that sometimes they're so pale they look lifeless. This one is soft but still rich and bright enough to be interesting for me, and it looks good with my skintone.


In My Back Pocket. A bright orange creme. Ooh, orange! For some reason we don't see oranges being released very often... I wonder why that is? They're so bright and happy and flattering on most skintones. This one is especially nice because it's a little softer than most of the oranges that I have. It's definitely not neon and it's a little softer than pumpkin.

No Room For The Blues. Bright sky blue creme. Not the least bit unique but still a beautiful color. I really can't resist these bright blues, they are just soooooo pretty that I'm always drawn to them!


On The Same Paige. Deep orange creme. I want to call this red-orange- it's definitely orange but has a much deeper red tint than the other orange in this collection. Maybe it's coral? Would you call this more coral or orange? Coral is extremely confusing for me.

Over The Taupe. Taupe creme. This picture came out a little warmer than the color looks on me in real life. This is another color I never thought I'd like, but it ended up being my favorite from the collection. It's the most unique in the collection and it has that soft, grungy, edgy 'mushroom' look that I love so much.

Shorts Story. Hot pink creme. I'm going to use OPI's description for this one: "Hot Pink. The end." Haha! It's to the point and pretty accurate. This is a nice cool hot pink though, so it doesn't make my hands look dirty. I have a hard time wearing pinks, but I can usually wear the cooler, more blue-violet toned ones like this and OPI I'm India Mood For Love.

This collection is supposed to pair with the Summer line from Paige Premium Denim. Admittedly, I had never heard of the brand until this OPI collection mentioned it, but then again, I'm neither a denim wearer nor fashion enthusiast. But since seeing the promo pics for this collection that feature Paige denim in all sorts of bright colors, I kinda want some now.

That looks awesome. Admit it. Except.... Those jeans are ridiculously tight. I'm betting they're those 'skinny' jeans that don't look good on anyone but Emo boys (wait, did I say it looked good on emo boys?)....

The formula on these was flawless. Smooth, thin and opaque in two to three coats depending on the shade. I had zero application issues and the drying time was very fast. The Pro-Wide brush in these makes application really fast for me as well- I was able to use one quick stroke on each nail!

This collection of brights is missing what made the previous OPI brights collections unique- fun shimmers! The original sets of brights had duochromes (like Electric Eel) and sheer crystal shimmers in fun colors (like That's All Bright With Me). The Night Brights collection introduced us to one of the greatest polishes of all time: My Private Jet. It gave me one of my most favorite purple polishes, OPI Ink. Unique colors with no duplicates to be found. Mod about Brights gave us green and yellow. The Bright Pair collection is really pretty and all the colors are nice, but there isn't really anything unique about them.

I do like this collection a whole lot. The colors themselves are gorgeous, the formula on them is perfect and they all look really nice together. I only wish there were six more shades to balance out the cremes. It would have been cool to have coordinated layering shades like the old collection. But, it seems like the polish companies are scaling back lately and not releasing as many shades as they used to.

So... OPI Summer 2009 is almost done (one more collection to go!) and then we get what looks like an amazing set of collections for fall and winter. Woohoo!!

Comparisons with OPI Brights 2009 Bright Pair with Paige Denim

This time I thought I'd try something a little different and put the cart before the horse, so to speak.

I do love this collection of brights, but they are very similar to other brights I own, especially ones by OPI.

Index and ring: OPI A Grape Fit
Middle and pinkie: OPI Do You Lilac It?

As you can see, they're similar shades of lilac purple but Do You Lilac It? is significantly lighter.

Index: OPI No Room For The Blues
Middle: OPI Just Groovy
Ring: Zoya Yummy
Pinkie: Misa Right Here Now, No More Later

There are minuscule differences between these colors, but can you really tell? I wouldn't know this was four different colors unless someone told me.

Index: OPI On The Same Paige
Middle: OPI Orange You Glad It's Summer?
Ring: OPI Don't Be Koi With Me
Pinkie: Misa Um You're Too Delicious

These oranges weren't as close as they appeared in the bottle. Similar, but I don't think I have an exact match yet.


Index: OPI Over The Taupe
Middle: OPI You Don't Know Jacques
Ring: Butter London Fash Pack
Pinkie: Orly Country Club Khaki

Hmm, no dupes here! Similar, but again, nothing exact.

Index: OPI Shorts Story
Middle: OPI I'm India Mood For Love
Ring: OPI D.C. Cherry Blossom
Pinkie: China Glaze Laced Up

I thought I had more pinks similar to Shorts Story in my collection, but I couldn't find a duplicate. I'm sure that one exists, but I'll have to keep looking to find out what it is.

Index: OPI In My Back Pocket
Middle: OPI Osaka To Me Orange
Ring: OPI It's A Bird, It's A Plane... It's OPI
Pinkie: OPI Orange You Glad It's Summer?

This one seems closest to my favorite orange, OPI Osaka To Me Orange.

Aside from No Room For The Blues, I haven't found an exact duplicate of any of these colors. In my opinion, they're unique and pretty enough to own all of them, but only if you really love the color. I happen to love them all even though they look like other things in my collection.

I only wish this year's brights had the matching crystalline shimmers like the old Brights collections, but I'll save my lamentations for the 'real' post :)

OPI Colección de España Fall 2009 and OPI Holiday Wishes Winter 2009 at P'ssion!

If you haven't seen them already, the lovely Emelie of P'ssion has posted promo images of OPI's upcoming fall and winter 2009 collections!

Colección de España Fall 2009

OPI Holiday Wishes Winter 2009

They both look amazing, but I'm most excited about España!  There's a GREEN!!!!!

Thanks for posting, Emelie!

Nic's Sticks By Nicole

I found one of these in the clearance bin when I was grocery shopping last week and decided to give it a try.

I am normally pretty skeptical of nail polish in pen form- I have tried to use them in the past with disastrous results.

I do trust Nicole to make good polish, and hey, it was on clearance! I had to see for myself.

The color I have is called "Baby Go Bye Bye." Ummm... Interesting name.


This is what a Nic's Stick looks like. It's a little fatter than an average Sharpie, but it really looks like a pen. I don't think anyone would suspect that it's nail polish if you had one at your desk. It has a cap that screws on so it can't come open accidentally and it has a little button at the opposite end for dispensing polish.


I was sort of shocked when I removed the cap. The brush is CRAZY!



Look at that. It's like a mop! It's huge and wild, bristles pointing in every direction. How am I supposed to apply polish with this thing?!


Despite all my doubts, that crazy brush applied polish extremely well. Near one-stroke coverage on every nail, no polish on the cuticles at all. It was like magic!

The color (Baby Go Bye Bye... I hate typing that... worse than ordering at Denny's!) is dispensed into the brush by pressing the button on the end. You hold the brush pointing downward and click the button three times. I couldn't see the polish coming out at first so I pressed it a few more times and ended up with a lot of polish. One click is enough to do all of your nails.

The polish itself is almost opaque in one coat. Almost being the key word. It is probably opaque enough for most people, but I needed it to be completely free of visible nail line.

This is where I had trouble.



Let's call that one and a half coats. You can see parts on the center of my nail where the polish isn't opaque.

Since the first coat was still a little sheer, I wanted to do a second coat. I had waited about three minutes since doing the first coat, so I assumed that would be more than enough time for the polish to dry enough to do a second coat.

I clicked the brush once to dispense a little more polish and then tried to paint each nail. The polish on the nail wasn't dry enough to not be disturbed by the brush. When the brush touched each nail, it wiped off all the polish that was on them! It's not soft or flexible enough to paint on wet nails like a regular polish brush would be.

I tried waiting for the polish to dry longer and tried again- I still had problems, so I just left them the way they were. That's what you see in the pictures.

The formula of the polish is very different than traditional polish. It's very thin and paint-like. It doesn't seem to dry on the brush and it flows very freely. It's almost watery, but not runny!

It took forever to dry for me. This is supposed to be a speedy, last-minute on the go type product, so I don't think the dry time is appropriate.

However, this could be a miracle product for a lot of people. For one, it's extremely fast to use. Click the pen, one swipe on each nail and you're done. If you want painted nails in a hurry and you don't want to deal with a messy bottle of polish, this is the way to go.

And maybe it's just the color I chose or maybe I'm too picky, but I can see this being a one coat polish. I think that if I had chosen a darker color it would have been. Maybe mine was just meant to be a sheer sky blue. I think red would have definitely been opaque in one coat. So, maybe bad color choice on my part.

Overall, I'm not totally impressed but I will still be keeping one of these in my purse for emergencies. I wouldn't paint my nails with this product every time I do a manicure, but I would definitely use it if I needed to paint my nails quickly and I didn't have all my 'equipment'. Perfect emergency polish. Keep one in your purse!

I do think the name is kinda funny. Nic Stick? Am I suppose to light one end of it?

Reader Requests

I am trying my best to catch up on my requests. Please be patient with me. Thank you :)



Essie Blueberry Crumb. Quite sheer, this is five coats.



Index and Ring: China Glaze Agent Lavender
Middle and Pinkie: OPI Done Out In Deco
Not dupes!


Index and Ring: OPI Louvre Me, Louvre Me Not
Middle and Pinkie: OPI Overexposed In South Beach
They looked more similar to each other in the bottle. Not dupes, I'm afraid.



Dior Bleu Poison. AKA Poison Blue. Very dark, looks nearly black in most lighting.


CND Plexi Pink. Sheer hot pink tint with blue/purple iridescence. Makes a great layering polish, especially over blue.


China Glaze Yell-O-Neil. A medium yellow with glass fleck shimmer. Beautiful color, painful application.


NARS Orgasm. Very sheer, needed five coats.



China Glaze Celtic Sun. Neon highlighter yellow jelly. This is a pretty bad picture of it- it's closer to the color in the bottle. It is the color of a highlighter in real life. Very, very, very bright.


OPI Think Merry, Pink Merry! You may want to view this beauty full size. Shimmering frosty pink metallic with silver microglitter. Ulta Exclusive, holiday 2008.


OPI Breathe Life- sunlight. It lights up with blue sparkles in the sunlight.

OPI Summer 2009 Colorcopia Collection - 20th Anniversary of OPI

Colorcopia is a special OPI collection- instead of being a set of twelve brand new colors, they have re-released the most popular or best-selling shades from classic OPI collections.

I absolutely can not think today so please don't mind my incoherent babble. I can't even remember my middle name right now, much less construct an understandable sentence! Also, another warning ahead of time: OPI picked the twelve most IMPOSSIBLE to photograph shades they could think of, so not all of these pictures are 100% color-accurate. I did the best I could, but pinks and reds do a number on my camera!

I have many thoughts about this concept, but I'll save that for last. Swatches first!





Berry Berry Broadway. Re-release from the New York City Collection (2000). A bronzed berry shimmer.




Cancun Fiesta. Re-release from the original OPI launch in 1989! A medium blue-toned pink with very subtle shimmer. This is not a very good representation of the shade- it's more saturated and leans a little more purple in real life.




Copper Mountain Copper. Re-release from the Winter Resort Collection (1995). A rich red-mauve near-metallic shimmer. Not really what I think of when I hear 'copper' but it's still a beautiful autumn shade.




D.C. Cherry Blossom. Re-release from the 9091 Collection (1990). A saturated blue-pink creme. This color isn't the most unique but it's really hot. On the rare occasion that I do wear pink, I love these nearly-purple bright pinks.




Florentine Fuchsia. Re-release from the International Collection (1991). A medium fuchsia jelly. This is also a fairly poor representation of this shade- it's nearly impossible to photograph. It's very jelly-like: squishy looking and nearly translucent but not sheer. It's more of a berry shade but it's not like Misa Push Upon It or Zoya Moxie.





French Bordeaux. Re-release from the International Collection (2001). A warm red with slightly magenta-hued shimmer. This color is a little more brown in real life. It appears a lot more brown in the bottle, but when applied it is a brighter shade of red than expected.





Kinky In Helsinki. Re-release from the European Collection (2002). Pearly metallic fuchsia with blue-pink duochrome. I love the name of this, it was one of the first OPI polishes I ever bought just for the name. This is a really glowy shade, it looks lit from within.




Mediterranean Moonlight. Re-release from the Mediterranean Collection (1994). OPI describes this as "a light shade of gleaming caramel" but it's so not caramel. It's peach... Deep peach. It's a little more faded looking in real life.




Purple-opolis. Re-release from the Greek Isles collection (2004). A light, shimmery red-toned purple. This looks really different in sunlight and indoors. The sunlight picks up on the warm tones in the polish, but in dim light the cooler more blue purple shade comes out. Very, very pretty. Although, I'm pretty sure this is a bit different from the original release, but I can't find my bottle to compare. I need to re-organize. Ugh.




Sahara Sapphire. Re-release from the Painted Desert Collection (1998). A metallic blue pearl. This goes on with heavy brushstrokes, but they fade a little bit as the polish dries. They don't completely disappear, but they're not too bad. It has the same texture as Pike's Peek-A-Boo Purple. This almost has a hint of violet to it in certain lights. Serene looking.





Shootout At The O.K. Coral. Re-release from the American Collection (1995). A bright coral with blue/pink duochrome. This was my go-to pedicure color for years. It is very bright but not quite neon.



Venus Di Violet. Re-release from the Collezione Italiana (2001). A soft lilac pearl with blue-violet duochrome. A very unusual color!


I think it's really cool that OPI re-releases shades from long discontinued collections. I love old polishes and I love that people will have the chance to be able to buy them again for a regular price. However...


... I think they picked the most bland, boring shades they could find! Okay, there are a few old favorites of mine in this collection of re-released shades, but three reds? Three pink cremes?? Cancun Fiesta isn't really a creme, but the shimmer is so subtle that it could pass as one.

OPI has released some *incredible* unique shades in the past and I would have loved to see them as part of this collection. I feel like the colors they chose are really playing it safe. It is stated that the colors selected for this collection of re-releases were past best sellers. I believe that. These are the types of colors that tend to sell really well. That doesn't necessarily mean they're unique, but they'll most likely be very popular.

If I had to choose twelve shades to re-release in my very own Colorcopia, they would be these:

1. Rainforest
2. Jasper Jade
3. I Get A Kick Out Of Gold
4. Black Tie Optional
5. Crim-Sun
6. Amethyst Abyss
7. Mystic Moonshine
8. La Boheme
9. Affair In Times Square
10. Vampire State Building
11. Real Teal
12. Home On The O-Range

Okay, that's just one possible set I can think of- there are hundreds of combinations of 'vintage' awesome colors that could be re-released. Those are just a few long-gone favorites and impossible to obtain wishes of mine.


Overall, not a terrible collection but not terribly adventurous. I love a lot of the colors- Venus Di Violet, Kinky In Helsinki, Shootout At The O.K. Coral, Florentine Fuchsia, Sahara Sapphire- that's almost half! I can't complain too much, but I would have liked to see some of their more unique shades in this collection instead of three uninteresting reds and three easily duplicated pinks.

And, just for fun, here are some very old pictures of me wearing the original versions of a couple of these colors:


Kinky In Helsinki.



Shootout At The O.K. Coral.



What would you have rather seen in this collection? Or is it perfect the way it is?