Monday, October 4, 2010

OPI Burlesque Collection for Winter/Holiday 2010



This is the collection we've all been waiting for.... And now that I've swatched it, it hasn't let me down! It is glitter heavy and super sparkly, exactly what I was hoping for.

These are too pretty to capture in just one photo so I tried to take more pictures to show every detail. Still, they're much nicer in real life- hard to show just how shiny and pretty glitter look in photographs!

As always, I encourage you to click the images to enlarge and view in detail. Enough talk, on to the sparkles!


Ali's Big Break. One of the hardest to capture colors in the collection. It's a red, medium depth, cool toned, sort of pink looking actually, but instead of being plain and boring, it's packed with tons of iridescent and gold broken flakes. You can see the flakes really well in the right side of the bottle in the indoor picture. See how cool they look?






Bring on the Bling! This polish shows a lot of different tones depending on the lighting. In bright light it's almost beige and green but in soft lighting or at night it looks more warm and golden. This is a glitter made up of mostly light gold, but also has particles of varying sizes in shades of blue, red, orange and pink.






Extra-Va-Vaganza. First, I just have to say, what on earth does this name even mean? It's bizarre. Every time I've typed it I have to double check... It always looks like I've typed something else, if you know what I mean! Moving on! This is about 50/50 orange and gold glitter. The color scheme reminds me a lot of China Glaze Spellbound, but I don't think there's any silver in this one. It sure looks silvery in the sunlight, though. I think I also see some pink and maybe a couple blue particles in there, but I can only catch glimmers of them every now and then.







Glow Up Already! In sunlight this does look a bit like Bring on The Bling, but it's more similar in theme to Rescue Beauty Lounge Locavore. Not a duplicate, but it has a lot of the same colors of glitter. The main color seems to be a light green and there's also quite a bit of gold. There's orange and blue and even a little purple.







Let Me Entertain You! Okay, now this color REALLY didn't photograph right. It is very washed out- in real life it's a lot darker- it's a dark magenta and not a light red like it looks here. I do think these pictures show the different colors of sparkle pretty well, though. It reminds me very much of Zoya Alegra, which also doesn't photograph well. So, dark magenta pink, glass fleck and nearly foil shimmer with violet, gold and hot pink colors flashing throughout.






Rising Star. Isn't this pretty? It's a really warm orangey gold. Gold with copper? It has a really nice metallic glass-flecky sparkly finish, too. A little bit like those metal Milani ones, but much nicer. Smooth, opaque. Very rich and flashy looking.








Show It And Glow It! Mainly purple and silver glitter. Some of the particles are super fine microglitter and some are larger 'normal' glitter, the combination ends up being extra sparkly because of that. Like the other glitters, there's some other colors mixed in in smaller amounts- I can see orange and blue- just not a whole lot of it. Interesting to note, my bottle settled weird and I had all purple glitter the first time and then all silver glitter after that, then I shook it really well and it came out like this! Whichever way it applies for you it's going to be beautiful, plus it layers really well.







Simmer and Shimmer. Awe, it's Absolutely Alice's baby sister! It's not much like Absolutely Alice other than the blue and gold combination, though. This is a much lighter blue with lots of silver, gold, red/pink and orange glitter mixed in. It's not as rich and bright as Alice but this one has more of a festive party confetti appearance.







Sparkle-iscious. I think this might be my favorite of the glitters in Burlesque. It's so colorful and happy looking, it makes me smile to look at it. It has yellow/gold, pink/purple and blue. It reminds me slightly of something like Finger Paints Wicked Glitter with how colorful it is. It also reminds me a little of craft glitter... yes, I said it, craft glitter. Makes me want to get some Elmer's Glue, popsicle sticks and construction paper! Not to say it looks kindergarten-ish, but it does give me happy memories of arts and crafts. Maybe that's why I like it so much. Very wearable, though, and great for layering as well.







Take The Stage. Glorious reddish copper. Such a fall colored polish! It's fantastic! Really smooth metallic finish, NOT FROST! Yay! Has that kinda glass-flecky pearly shimmer too, but really fine and smooth and even like Rising Star. Brings back flashbacks of one of my old favorite OPI shades- Music Hall Curtain Call. Not a dupe, just reminds me of it.







Tease-y Does It! At first I thought this might look like Zoya Valerie, but once I put it on my nails I was totally wrong. Someone mentioned to me that it looked like Nubar Raspberry Truffle and it does look quite a bit like that one. It's a purple-brown base with very duochromey red and gold glass fleck shimmer. Red/pink is the dominant color of the shimmer but it turns gold at an angle. In the bottle you can see a little green, too. This has a dusty faded look to it.





The Show Must Go On. This one is a deep pink, perhaps more of a coral than a pink, and it has gold duochrome. I tried to capture as much of the duochrome as I could- can you tell it's there? It's pretty evident in real life. This has the same glass-fleck like metallic large particles of shimmer as the rest of the polishes and it makes for a really sparkly looking polish. This has been tossed around as a dupe for MAC Bad Fairy but it doesn't look like one to me. I haven't swatched them side by side yet, but Bad Fairy looks really different.


Since these glitters are so nice for layering, I thought I'd show you a couple examples of what they look like layered:


Left to right, all one coat of OPI over one coat of Illamasqua Boosh with Seche Vite
Index: Show It and Glow It!
Middle: Extra-Va-Vaganza
Ring: Bring On The Bling!
Pinkie: Sparkle-iscious

They look really great over black. One coat is perfect. They're pretty dense so you can wear them alone without doing a million coats so I thought they would be too dense for layering, but no, they're just right at one coat.

One coat of glitter over two coats of base color with Seche Vite
Left to Right
Pinkie: Sparkle-iscious over The Show Must Go On
Ring: Show It And Glow It over Let Me Entertain You
Middle: Bring On The Bling over Rising Star
Index: Extra-Va-Vaganza over Take The Stage

Looks pretty fantastic layered over the other colors in the collection, too. It amps up the sparkle to an insane amount and the colors all mesh well with each other. Layering also keeps them smoother, less glitter on the nail.


The formula on these was excellent. Very smooth, even, good pigmentation and glitter concentration. This is three coats of all plus one coat of topcoat. You'll want a good thick topcoat for the glitters as they tend to be quite bumpy/textured when they dry. Great drying time- three coats dried really quickly. No defective brushes in my batch, either. The removal of the glitter isn't exactly a picnic, but isn't much trouble with the foil method or one of those scrubby jars.

I'm ecstatic about this collection. OPI really knows how to do glitter. They don't do it often, which is a crying shame, but when they do I know I'm going to love it. Remember Absolutely Alice and Mad As A Hatter? I'm convinced they either saw how much everyone loved them and wanted to sell more, or at least saw how much people have been buying glitter the past few years. Whichever it was, or even if it wasn't like that at all, I'm glad they made these. I am a glitter fiend. These are so shiny and sparkly you'll have to see them in real life to get the full effect.

The non-glitter shades are great as well, all of them are very sparkly without being glittery. This is a very 'happy' looking collection. Lots of bright, gleaming metallic holiday colors and lots of sparkle. Makes winter seem not so bad. Not that they're strictly winter or holiday colors, all of these could fit perfectly into any season. And who cares what season they're meant for, anyway? They're hot, I plan on wearing these all year!

Also.... Thank you, OPI, for not doing the horrible frosty trend that seems to be plaguing polish collections this time of year. *whew* What a relief.

Thought I should mention that these are supposed to tie in with the movie Burlesque (with Cher!) that's releasing later this year. I probably won't see the film but I do rather like Cher, so that's cool.

These are available now at some beauty stores and online, but I don't know what the official release date was/is/is supposed to be... I'm still scratching my head on that.

(These were sent to me for review.)




41 comments:

  1. i'm really happy i only got two from this collection (teasy and sparkleicious) but your photos are all amazing. thanks for these!

    ReplyDelete
  2. These are all really pretty! I was really hoping that Glow Up Already was more green on the nail...but oh well. I also really want Rising Star and Take the Stage...guess I am in the mood for pumpkins and apple cider...or least that is what those two polishes bring to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tease-y Does It! and The Show Must Go On look gorgeous to me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I read on the OPI FB fan page it was supposed to be officially released oct 1st. These have been rocking my world for the past few days. Just amazing! They need at least one glitter bomb per collection lol. They really do excel at glitter.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just bought Tease-y Does It and Sparkle-icious, they're both AMAZING!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love theeeem!
    I'm like squinting now after looking at them. They're just so bright and so glittery [for some].
    I really like Show it and Glow it, not sure which red I like more. I'm hoping that when they do show up here they won't be really expensive so that I can afford them on a student's budget. =D

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, these are all gorgeous! Thanks for the amazing swatches!

    As for "Extra-va-vaganza", I think it's a combo of "extravaganza" and "va-va-voom"? They both seem like expressions that would relate well to the theme of the collection.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you sooo mucht for swatching these! Your swatches look amazing and I can't wait for my order to finally arrive!

    ReplyDelete
  9. There is so much bling in that collection! There are so many of those that I want, but Zoya's Fire & Ice collection has my heart.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I like how the glitter looks over black! <3

    ReplyDelete
  11. It's beginning to look a lot like Bling-mas! :) Wow, between these, China Glaze, and Zoya, it is going to be a sparkly winter! Thanks for the lovely swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I LOVE most of them! And yes, thank goodness no frosts!

    ReplyDelete
  13. *waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah*


    Did you hear my wallet screaming there? I decided that I wasn't getting any of these.. Trying to hold back and all that, but now I've seen your swatches.. And they make me wanna buy every single one of them :o

    I already thought/knew there was a dupe for raspberry truffle in there (I believe I was the one mentioning it on twitter) so maybe I'll just skip that one haha. Thanks for sharing, your pictures are awesome as always :) x

    ReplyDelete
  14. i have sparkle licious and the show must go on ! GORGEOUS :DDD ! and seeing this post i must pick up 2 more :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. ohhhh my goodness! those glitters look SOO delicious! I need alllll of those. gorgeous gorgeous!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Tease-y Does It! Is officially on my wishlist. I like the glitters but they aren't very "me". Where would I wear them? However I enjoy looking at the swatches- they are flawless !

    ReplyDelete
  17. Beautiful swatches. I like most of the non-glitter ones (I think I'm glittered out) but not enough to actually go find one. Now if they were available at my favorite Etailers...

    ReplyDelete
  18. I haven't wanted to buy a whole OPI collection is a long while. I believe I'll be buying all of these. I especially love the glitters.

    ReplyDelete
  19. This collection further proves why I heart OPI! My fave is Rising Star! Can't wait to get my hands on it! :D Thanks for the swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thank you for swatching those beauties (though I have already yielded to temptation and orderer sparkle-icious and show it & glow it. I don't have them yet, thanks USPS snail international mail :p). I had seen on the web some swatches saying that Sparkle-icous was a dupe for Mad as a Hatter, but even on pics, I don't agree, Sparkle-icious is more yellow orientated than purple as is MAAH. What's your opinion since you have both?
    As for the collection being available in Etailers, it is, I've seen it at TransDesign, and some other webshops had it on pre-order since August.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Thank you for the great post! I really appreciate the pics of the glitter polishes layered. I was wondering how they would look over black.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I need to unsubscribe from your blog lol. I've seen two other people swatch this collection and until I saw your pics I was very underwhelmed. Now I want them all -__-

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ahhhh I'm not your friend anymore!!!
    Why do you make these things look so good?! Up until this instant, I was so sure I only needed two glitters and two shimmers.
    Now I want like all the glitters... :(

    ReplyDelete
  24. This is a wonderful post. Love all the pics and different layered ways to wear them. Thanks for sharing. Love your blog!

    ReplyDelete
  25. I bought 5 of them. Left the foils and most of the glitters out this time.
    I really loved the flecky shimmers!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Those OPI Glitters look FABULOUS! I think i need them ALL!

    ReplyDelete
  27. I love the glitters! I ordered all of the glitters except Bring on the Bling, and they're supposed to arrive tomorrow...I can't wait! Thanks for the fabulous swatches!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I was thinking the same this as Diance with Extra-Va-Vaganza being extravaganza & va-va-voom... especially with it being the Burlesque collection I see the va-va-voom.

    If I wasn't sure before, I'm DEFINITELY sure now that I will need to own every single one of these polishes. Thank you for your always amazing swatches & reviews!

    ReplyDelete
  29. You always have the best photos. Sometimes I swear I hear the crystal *ding* when I see the light hitting the glitter just so. lol

    ReplyDelete
  30. I saw these out as early as last Friday at my local Planet Beauty. They also come in 2 mini sets, 4 each. I picked up Sparkle-icious initially but I went back today and got Glow Up Already and Bring On the Bling because they were stuck in my head!!! I'm so glad I did! Absolutely Alice hooked me on OPI glitters, these are a great addition! I also plan on wearing Sparkle-icious for my birthday at Disneyland this year! It's a Disney Celebration type polish! SO fun!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Could you possibly do a comparison of Glow Up Already! and RBL Locavore? Pretty please? Your pics of this collection are all amazing, BTW!

    ReplyDelete
  32. hello, may i ask.. in ur opinion, is Sparkle-iscious suitable for a dinner event like a formal one when u want to look formal and well-dressed.. bcos what i see from the pic is that it looks FUN! :) What do u think, thankies!! :)

    ReplyDelete
  33. Love your blog. Just did Tease-y Does It over last year's All A-Bordeaux the Sled. Definitely a winner.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Oh my gosh my best friend gave me two of these for Christmas (I'm actually wearing Let Me Entertain You right now) and I just MUST have the rest of this collection!

    ReplyDelete
  35. I'm having a really hard time keeping these heavy glitters to stay on. I did a base coat, 3 layers of glitter (because for some reason it didn't come out like yours with only 2 coats) and a top coat. I let my nails dry for HOURS and the second I went to wash my hands they started to chip. I did the last night, and most of them have chipped and I'm going out tonight. What do you suggest? I'm a licensed cosmetologist, so I have access to Professional beauty supply stores... :o(

    ReplyDelete
  36. Extra-Va-Vaganza is a play off of the phrase "va-va voom" :) I love these colours, I have 2 and plan to pick up 3 more soon.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Let me ask you--how do the glitters in this collection compare to OPI's TeenageDream (Katy Perry collection) and the glitters from the Serena Williams collections?

    Your pix are FABULOUS, my blog has blog envy ;) I just noticed that when I got Teenage Dream, then one of the Serena glitters (can't remember if it's Spark or Servin'), the glitters are very similar--just the base is different (ie TD is pink).

    I LOVE the Burlesque collection but hate to use my polish money on a bunch of glitters that are pretty much the same, depending what you layer it over, kwim?

    Thank you SO very much!!!

    ReplyDelete

Please be respectful. Refrain from using my comments for unsolicited advertising. If you would like me to check out your blog or product, please email me. Thank you!