I'm kinda disappointed. I mean, the flakies are "interesting" polishes (and I still want Ginger Bells and Sapphire in the Snow) but the cremes in the mini kit were "eh" and the flakies weren't as beautiful as I thought they were going to be. Merry Midnight was my favorite and was my Saturday NOTD.
OPI Merry Midnight
Opalescent bronze-gold-red flakies and bright blurple glitter suspended in tyrian (hi, Erika!) jelly. Indoors, the jelly looks eggplant but it becomes more translucent in the light. This is what I mean by polishes with depth and dimension: the flakies are suspended within these three coats and they reflect light differently depending on which coat they were brushed on with. Ditto with the blurple microglitter. It's a great effect: when you look at it from a distance, it glows red and sparkles blurple. :D
Close-up of Merry Midnight
While I was putting Merry Midnight on, it occurred to me that I was probably putting on the dark purple equivalent of $OPI 212 (except instead of holo glitter, it's highly reflective blurple microglitter). I don't usually associate $OPI with OPI because they seem like totally different lines to me but it seems obvious to me that they realized how popular the combination of glitter and flakies in a dark pigmented jelly was in 212 and sought to recreate it in this holiday collex. Their bronze-y shimmer version fell a bit flat though...
OPI Shim-merry Chic
I'm just not fond of this in between bronze-brown-gold color against my skin and I didn't think it was that impressively sparkly in the sun. Also, the shimmer kind of obscures the flakies and gives it (IMO) a lumpier look without the depth. Kudos for adding a dash of green and blue microglitter though -- it's a nice, unusual detail.
Close-up of Shim-merry Chic
OPI Comet Loves Cupid
Bright red creme. The mini brush might've made application harder than it had to be though.
OPI All A-Bordeaux The Sled
Highly glossy brown-wine shade. (OMG, I hate those mini brushes.) Appears more brown than wine in most lights. Nice vampy if you don't have this shade. Nothing special if you already have a full vampy collection.
OPI All A-Bordeaux The Sled with CND Scarlet Shimmer Effects on top
Obviously, the CND Effects can be used with any polish. Scarlet Shimmer gives off a nice rich burgundy shimmer when layered over All A-Bordeaux.
OPI Holiday Glow
In my opinion, the most interesting shade in the collection (mostly because I consider Merry Midnight a version of 212). As far as I can tell, it's bright gold microglitter and bronze and red shimmer suspended in a burnt umber jelly. Burnt umber is more brown than maroon but because the bronze and/or (?) red shimmer is visible through the dark jelly, it glows maroon. To top it all off, the gold microglitter just sparkles on the surface (while also adding to the maroon glow from the other layers).
Close-up of Holiday Glow
My only gripe with this polish is that looks kind of dull indoors but I'm okay with that as long as it looks awesome outdoors. I may end up trying to get a full size of this one eventually.
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7 comments:
flinty - you always pick the exact colors from a collection that i'm lemming. :)
Holiday glow is the only one from the collection that looked interesting to me. It's quite pretty. How different would you say it is from non-holo MPJ?
Holiday Glow looks very pretty. Thanks for the swatches. :)
I have to order all the glitters. Maybe even more than that! All these glitters lately are making me very happy! All of those swatched look gorgeous. The vampy color is really pretty on you.
Ahh I'm so excited for this collection. I just ordered from Aveyou on Friday-- I got Merry Midnight, Sapphire in the Snow, and Holiday Glow (uggh and DS Mystery for $12.50 waa). I briefly considered the minis, but I was swayed by a certain NBer's description of Shim-Mery Chic as "poo" colored (ahahaha) and the lack of Sapphire in the Snow. I hope SitS cures my lemming for either OPI's Madewell to Order or L'Oreal Emperor.
And good call on comparing MM to 212-- I love 212 and I love purple, so I think I'm going to be pleased here.
Oh! And I just saw your question from my last comment about how I came to know the word "tyrian." I actually study literature, not art, but the word is used in Jane Eyre, which I recently read for a Victorian lit class. Ever since I learned the word, I feel like I see it everywhere to describe that shade of purple, ha.
Oh and just FYI, I'm swedishfishing on MUA-- I just commented here once while I was logged in with my google account and decided it would be weird if I changed it.
Kind of disappointed in these. I've been dying for flakies from a reasonably priced company, and these are just meh.
I definitely want Ginger Bells, though.
xfoxglove: I won't for awhile, what with this no buy I'm on. :(
D: It looks very different to me: new MPJ is charcoal and doesn't have bright glittery bits like Holiday Glow.
awesomevegan and Lucy: thanks!!
Erika: Gilded poo. Thanks for ID'ing yourself. I was wondering if I knew you on NB. :)
Melissa: honestly, me too. They sounded so good in theory and look nice in the bottle but I'm not overwhelmed with how they look on the nail.
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