OPI Skyfall - half a dozen

One of the most difficult births ever on this blog, may be this very post. Surrounded by nothing but darkness, I eventually succumbed to the use of the dreaded camera flash. The photos are accordingly.

Casino Royale. Three coats. Very red purple, almost beet colored, creme.

Live And Let Die. Two coats. Super pigmented, very dark green creme base full of gold fleck shimmer.

Moonraker. Two coats. Slightly semi-matte drying cool-toned silver chrome.

Skyfall. Two coats. Brown leaning red creme.

Tomorrow Never Dies. Three coats. Blue leaning purple with slight magenta duochrome properties. The bottom photo is really blurry, but fairly color accurate.

And the really special, but expensive, one:

The Man With the Golden Gun. One coat over Live And Let Die. 18 Karat gold flake topcoat.


There are five more polishes in this collection, that I haven't yet managed to swatch because of a broken nail, but hold on tight and I might get them up before Christmas?! I have already showed you two colors, and you can look at them again here.

This is indeed a Christmas or Holiday collection, and although very appropriate for the season, as well as incredibly classy, it's not that intriguing. There is only one color that I truly adore, but it's not in this bunch. Live And Let Die is a very nice one, but it doesn't make my heart skip a beat - or make an extra jump, for that matter. Despite the duochrome shift in Tomorrow Never Dies, it is not a very spectacular purple, neither is the barely-purple-at-all purple Casino Royale. However, I can see it sell well among the less lacquer enthusiastic general crowd, and the same goes for the sorta vampy warm red Skyfall. I love red cremes, and I like Skyfall, but it's just a tad too brown to really hit it.

I'm also a little sad to have seen Moonraker so widely misunderstood, as the most common description I have seen is that it has a frost finish. If anyone's still hesitant, let me calm you by stating that it is not a frost - it's a chrome. A cool-toned, barely blue-based, semi-matte drying chrome. Chromes are usually prone to brush strokes, and have to be allowed complete drying before evaluated. However, Moonraker would definitely benefit from a good ridgefilling basecoat underneath.

Most of all, I'm happy that OPI did not get to name these polishes in the silly manner we've gotten used to, but rather just after a bunch of more or less memorable James Bond movies. After all, it vastly increases the seriousness. And sometimes I tend to take polish a little too seriously, I admit that.

Last but not least, I'm sure you're already very aware of the increased pricetag on the special release The Man With the Golden Gun, the 18 Karat gold flakes suspended in a clear polish, meant to be put on top of any of the other shades. In Sweden it retails for a whopping almost 75 USD, which makes it immensely bourgeoise. Nonetheless, a desirable collector's item.

The Skyfall collection in its entirety is available in stores already.

All products were sent for review, except The Man With the Golden Gun which was purchased with own funds.

Swedish word of the day:

borgerlig -adjective bourgeois

Class-y?