Saturday, March 19, 2011

OPI Pirates of the Caribbean - chapter I

One of OPI's spring offerings, the collaboration with another huge movie company and a simultaneous release with the new movie this collection shares its name with, has landed in my mailbox: Pirates of the Caribbean. This collection consists of six pastel cremes and a new color crackle, or shatter, polish, this time in a sparkling silver.

Today I'll be showing you these:

Skull & Glossbones, Stranger Tides, and Mermaid's Tears.

All swatches are three coats, without any base or topcoats.



Skull & Glossbones. Beige-y bone grey.



Stranger Tides. Dusty, beige green.



Mermaid's Tears. 60's kitchen appliances dusty mint green on the cooler side.

Among these, the formula was a tiny bit inconsistent, but definitely far from the worst I've experienced with pastels. I needed three coats for all of them, even though I'm known to be one of those habitual three coaters I would say you'll need that to even out the surface - at least if you have longer nails. (However, this is as usual partly a matter of preference.) Skull & Glossbones had drying time that exceeded those of the others, and the one that gave me more problems with unevenness and patchiness was Stranger Tides. But overall, I didn't have any problems with these, and I had no issues with bubbling.

The other three lacquers will be posted by Cammi soonish, but I'll give you my thoughts on the collection as a whole. even though I'm normally not a pastel gal, I do like this collection a whole lot more than I did for example the recent Texas release. These go well together, and they fit both the season, and for those of you who care, at least partially the trends. Its overall impression reminds me of Essie's Resort collection from last summer, which makes me reflect upon the fact that OPI could seem like being one year behind, but on the other hand, I'm okay with that because I think these are really cute and at least one is unique enough for me. That being Stranger Tides, which ends up being my favourite.

Like always, I went on a pretty extensive dupe hunt, and although I do have some similar colors in my collection (which is of course not that large when it comes to pastels), I'm happy to report that the only close color to Stranger Tides I found was a discontinued polish from Make Up Store, Maria, which is still not a dupe. Mermaid's Tears feels like it has been done a fair amount of times, but once I did actual physical comparisons to similar colors in my stash, I wound up with no dupes for it. If you like this type of color a lot, you should probably get it. Additional information on comparison matters will hopefully be yours once Cammi has done her part, due to being the one of us who is into pastel colors. Let's put our trust in her!

Short summary for those of you who don't like large masses of text: I like this collection, it's nice, but I might not be jumping up and down over it. Out of six colors, I will wear three or four.

Oh, and the Silver Shatter? I will leave you hanging on that one, and post it separately in what I hope to be a wide range of variations.

Swedish word of the day:
ben -noun bone
but also
ben -noun leg
Some pirates may have only one.

32 comments:

  1. I love Mermaid's Tears (as I had imagines) but doesn't it look a lot like HM's Turquoise (the new Hello Kitty)?

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  2. I can't wait to see the rest. :) Great swatches!

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  3. schmut: This one is way more on the green side and more dusty. :) Not that close. The closest I came up with was H&M's Dollar Green LE from last spring, and american Apparel Office. But they're not that similar.

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  4. I am excited to see the rest :)

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  5. Omg, I love Mermaid's tears! Thanks so much for your swatches!

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  6. Ahhh I like broke both legs running in here, I am soo excited for this collection.
    And you did such awesome swatches! I'm definitely going to be getting all of the ones in this post.

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  7. Your nails are so pretty !
    Nice swatches ! :)
    Xx. S

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  8. Oh I am so excited for this collection! I have a serious thing for pastel cremes lately! I NEED Mermaid's Tear, its so gorgeous! Thank you for the swatches of these. I can't wait to see Silver Shatter and the other half of the collection!!

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  9. I just died a little in here.
    For some reason, I have been obessessing over light delicate shades and glitter... This collection is perfection! I think for the first time I will have to purchase an entire OPI collection lol!

    Lovely swatches Féline <3

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  10. Prefect swatches, I am really excited about Skull & Glossbones :).

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  11. amazing! how did you get your hands on these early? can't wait to see the rest!

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  12. I like them! I really want to see Mermaid's Tears next to Damone Roberts, pretty please? :)

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  13. These r soo pretty. I want!

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  14. I love what I've seen so far of the collection, and I'll probably get the all of them, but honestly... These colors do feel a bit odd, considering the name of the collection and the supposed pirate theme. I'm thinking tropics, treasures (jewels, precious metals, pieces of eight), pirates... In this part of the collection, the colors do bring on a sort of sea-y vibe, but I just think it's a bit out of place, that's all :P

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  15. Anne: I'll do my best. :) (Though they're not that much alike.)

    Evy: I'm with you on that. Copper pennies, turquoise, glass beads, blooming hibiscus... I don't know, maybe our thoughts aren't trendy enough. ;P Skull & Glosbones and Mermaid's Tears are probably the most Carribean in a pirate sense here, and if I'm really imaginative I'll think of Stranger Tides as some old mould on the ship deck. ;D

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  16. Thanks so much for posting these - I am really looking forward to this one, especially Mermaid's Tears. Really looking forward to seeing the lavender shade, too!

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  17. Omg I'm in love with Skull & Glossbones and Stranger Tides! Sigh and I thought my nail polish collection wouldn't be growing anytime soon

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  18. These are all very pretty, but I LOVE Stranger Tides! And I actually thought I wouldn't want any but the shatter...pfft.

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  19. OMG! I'm a sucker for the movies!
    and these shades are gorgeous!
    I think I'll have to get the entire collection!

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  20. I am in SO much trouble!! I know I'm going to end up wanting all of these. You make them look even better than I imagined! Gorgeous! I can't wait to see more! :-)

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  21. OMG! I really love this ones! Can not wait to finally buy these beauties! Where did you get this one?

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  22. I like them all! And when the promo pictures first came out I was like "eh" so that's exciting.

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  23. Wow, I've been thinking about these 3 shades from the first promo pics! Your swatches are great! Mermaid's Tears is beautiful!

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  24. I'm so happy to see swatches of POTC, this type of shades I cannot resist! Can't wait for part II :) I'm definitely going for Stranger Tides.. drooling..

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  25. Oh my god can't wait for the silver shatter!! Aaaaah :p

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  26. Stranger Tides looks soooo awesome! Will definitively be getting that one. Mermaid's Tears is a bit of a disappointment, surprisingly. Not sure if I'll get this one ...

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  27. great swatches, i love stranger tides sthe best :-D
    waiting for the rest of collection :-D

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  28. Then I guess I need to get this OPI. Too bad as I've said to myself no OPIs...

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  29. Oh man, Stranger Tides is fabulous! And Mermaid's Tears...and Silver Shatter. I may just have to get all four of these.

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