Friday, June 5, 2009

OPI Summer 2009: Sunbelievable Collection

A collection of four sunny, beachy shades for summer! Less talk, more pics!



Banana Bandanna. Say "yellow" to this sunny shade! This is a very soft, buttery pastel yellow. Less muted/whitish than Nubar Lemon Sorbet. It looks like a creme, but it has a hidden shimmer. If you look closely in the bottle, you can see the shimmer, but you can't tell it's there on the nail.


If The Fuchsia Fits. ...Wear it! This one amazing red-pink fits all. This is kind of a hot pink leaning fuchsia shimmer with faint blue flash. The blue flash is what makes it interesting, but it's not as strong as other similar shades.



I'm His Coral-Friend. And he loves me in this rosy orange. This is a sheer-ish medium orange coral creme. I'm calling it a sheer creme, but it does seem a little jelly-ish.

Sea? I Told You! That you'd love this aquamarine dream. The stunner of the collection. This may be my favorite blue polish so far this year. It is fantastic. It's shimmery and sparkly and has this fantastic metallic micro-flake shimmer in it. If you look closely or view the full size, you can see the little sheer silver flakes in this. It has a hidden duochrome as well! It's invisible in sunlight, but in low light or artificial light this polish has a pink-purple duochrome effect. You can start to see the purple flash in the bottom of the bottle on the first picture. It's awesome.

The formula on these is not so good. I had a lot of trouble with them. It's like they went back to the old three-free formula! They're thick and runny at the same time. They're very sheer, all pictures are five coats, except Sea? I Told You! which is three coats. Four coats would have probably been fine, but I still had visible nail line and wanted to see how five coats looked. The formula on Banana Bandanna was particularly difficult- runny, sticky and thick but not horribly streaky like other yellows. I wonder what happened? It seemed like they were improving the formula more and more with each collection. The brushes, however, are awesome. I am madly in love with OPI's Pro-Wide Brush. I love being able to have one-stroke coverage. It really speeds up the process.

I have mixed feelings about this collection. One one hand, I'm super excited to see them do a gorgeous blue and yellow, but I'm disappointed in the thick formula. I'm sure it can be fixed with a few drops of thinner, but I'd rather not have to thin brand new polish on principle. The coral and fuchsia shades aren't even remotely unique, but they are very pretty.

Sea? I Told You! is honestly one of the prettiest blues in my collection. It has so much depth and sparkle, it's positively mesmerizing to look at. It's so cheerful and serene. The 'secret' duochrome is also a nice treat. It looks awesome at sunset, that's when the light hits the color just right to bring out the purple flash.

Banana Bandanna is also a welcome change, it's been a while since OPI did a pastel yellow... In fact... I'm not sure if I've ever seen OPI do a pastel yellow! Am I mistaken? Have they done a pastel yellow before? Even though the formula is bad, I love the color. I know a lot of people have been wanting Maybelline to bring back Banana Puddin', but Banana Bandanna has a very similar feel to it, soft banana pudding yellow.

Overall, I think this collection is half awesome and half plain. They're all perfect summer shades, but kind of similar to other OPI shades. Sea? I Told You! is a must have for any blue lover, and I'm contemplating ordering a backup, I love it so much.

21 comments:

  1. Great pictures as usual! Thanks.

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  2. Beautiful pictures.

    Is Sea? I Told You! similar to Teal the Cows Come Home?

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  3. thanks for the beautiful swatches. I picked up Banana Bandanna and it is runny as you say. I love it though. This is the only yellow nailpolish I've ever tried that looks good on my nails.

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  4. So sad about BB :(
    Beautiful pics as usual!
    BTW can you rec another bright fuchsia polish that has a stronger blue flash then ItFF? Thanks!

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  5. Beautiful and really useful pictures as always, thank you! I really love the fuchsia and the blue ones, definitely going to buy those!

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  6. Oh I'm so torn! On one hand I want this collection. On the other hand. I'm not sure if I want to deal with sheer shades. That need 4 to 5 coats! But their all soooo pretty! Thanks for posting.

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  7. is sea? i told ya so! close in color to china glaze sexy in the city? the color is really pretty but if i remember correctly.. it looks a lot like sexy in the city. thanks scrangie!!

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  8. The fuschia one looks like "La Paz-itively hot" which is one of my faves ever!

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  9. I have to go back to Ulta and get Sea? I Told You. I've looked at it before, and it is so pretty. I am trying to scale back by nail polish purchases, but I can't resist sparkley blue!

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  10. i'm getting the yellow for sure tomorrow, woot!

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  11. That 'secret shimmer' you describe is in Essie Barbuda Banana as well! It took me about 3 wears before I noticed it, but I'm SURE its there...

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  12. Love the Sea? I Told You! Very pretty. Your pictures are always fantastic. Makes all polishes hard to resist.

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  13. Love your blog - I read it everyday! But I feel OPI have become boring with their colours in comparison to other seasons. It is very disappointing because I love new polish.

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  14. Your pictures are gorgeous as always ! But this collection...I haven't decided yet what I think about it - the colors are very nice, but there isn't any color that you can say "wow" on, or any special color...they are all very nice and pretty, but the sheer part you mentioned....I didn't like that part..

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  15. Half awesome, half plain...I think that is the direction OPI is going in general :). Perfect summary, Scrangie!

    BB looks a lot like NYX Carnation, which I have. The latter seems to have a good-ish formula, though. Yellow is so pretty, even with all the work it requires.

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  16. It's weird that you had application issues with SITY, mine applied like a dream! Wonder if it's different batches...
    Gorgeous pics as always

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  17. Marianna, have you tried OPI Flashbuld Fuschia? That's my favourite bright pink with blue. But I'm still tempted to get this one as well! They all look so nice on you Scrangie that I end up wanting ones that I wouldn't usually!!

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  18. Scrangie, how does Coral Friend compare to Collins Ave and Moji-Toes? I'm torn between these 3 but only want to buy one! What are the similarities/differences? Much appreciated x

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  19. Thanks again for great swatches - have ordered the pink, coral and blue with some paige denim collections. Love OPI. Looking forward to hearing more about their mattes.

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  20. Sprinkles, thanks! :)

    Anonymous, I'll have to go find my bottle of Teal the Cows Come Home, but from what I remember they are somewhat similar in shade, but I don't remember what the finish looks like.

    Shadowy Lady, I love it too so I can deal with the formula :)

    Marianna, I love Zoya Vivi! if you want one with more shimmer, Zoya Kiki is nice too.

    BeautyBabe, Thanks! :)

    Velvet, Sea? I Told You isn't so bad, but the others are definitely dupable :)

    Dudeuranoinker, I think Sexy in the City might be lighter, but they're both turquoise and sparkly! I'll have to go find my China Glaze to compare.

    Jess, I think that was the first OPI I ever bought!

    Deb, it's so pretty!!

    Kelliegonzo, woohoo! :D

    Enamelcoated, ah, how awesome! I want that one! Boo! lol

    Lucy, thank you :)

    Anonymous, I totally agree. However, Fall and Winter from OPI look really good so far!

    Tuli, thanks! I was surprised that they were so sheer!

    Melli, haha thanks! :D I almost got Carnation and then I changed my mind. Damn! lol

    Gymnastgirly, that was the only one that wasn't so bad, just a bit watery/runny... nothing like the glue-like formula on the other three!

    Andi, oooh, I wonder if I have that one... sounds hot!

    Anonymous, it's *very* similar, but Moji-toes and Collins are more opaque and more red. But they're all in that bright coral creme category, just a shade or two off from each other.

    Anonymous, thanks! :) I'll be sure to post 'em as soon as I get 'em :)

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  21. Scrangie you so need Flashbulb Fuschia if you don't already have it, it's gorgeous, you'd love it!

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