Friday, January 7, 2011

OPI Katy Perry and Serena Williams Grand Slam Collections (with Black Shatter Crackle Polish!) Spring 2011

These are technically two separate collections, but they really seem to go together and combined they make six polishes which is about the size of the average polish collection.

I don't know anything about Katy Perry besides the fact that she's cute, has really cool nail designs and blue hair. I do know Serena Williams, though; champion tennis star and brand new nail tech. That's one of the most interesting celebrity collaborations I've seen!

Katy Perry has four brand new colors plus Black Shatter crackle topcoat and Serena Williams has one color plus Black Shatter to go along with it. Black Shatter really is the star here, but all the colors are fantastic:

Katy Perry for OPI Collection



Last Friday Night. This is opalescent glitter with some tiny iridescent electric blue sparkles in a sheer blue tinted base. I know I have at least one other polish that's similar to this- it's either Sally Hansen or Confetti, possibly both even... But this one has that extra something to it. The tiny blue sparkles. They're amazing. They glow and shimmer and light up the whole polish. This is a very sheer shade. It's perfect for layering but you can also wear it alone and I think the end result is magical. Since it's so sheer it doesn't have the same depth as bottle color, but I think it still looks fantastic.


Not Like The Movies. I took a million pictures of this one because it's too awesome for just one shot! It's a purple/green duochrome with some really delicate shiny flaky shimmer in it. It's a little sheer and frosty but it totally works. This is one of the few metallic duochromes to incorporate glitter and actually have it work. Normally a metallic frost formula like this creates a lumpy, bumpy, bubbly look when combined with glitter, but OPI totally nailed it. No lumps. All the glitter shows up and it's absolutely perfect. It seems like a lot more care went into creating this frost/glitter shade than some of the ones from other brands I've tried lately. It's not too frosty, the duochrome is really strong and the glitter adds a really nice touch to it. This might be my favorite of the collection (aside from Black Shatter). I love the name, too.


Teenage Dream. This reminds me of the pictures I've seen of some of those really rare Japanese and UK exclusive OPI glitters I've seen, but I don't have any of them to compare! This is a light pink fine glitter mixed with some holo-opal medium sized glitter in a clear base. It's an opaque glitter and might be a little too dense for layering. It's so pretty and fairy-like. Am I getting sick? That's two pinks in a row that I've fallen for this year!


The One That Got Away. My pictures of this aren't the best- it's one of those crazy luminous shades that make my camera do that weird glowy radioactive looking thing... But if you'll take a look at the bottle color you'll get a better idea of how it looks in real life. It's a red-toned wine purple with some really shiny metallic flaky shimmer in it. You have to see this in person, it just glows!

This collection comes with the brand new Black Shatter topcoat. If you've been into nail polish for a while, you may recall some of the older crackle polishes- namely the Cover Girl Crackles. You apply them over a base color and as they dry they crack and give a neat two-toned cracked/shattered look. This is basically the same thing but with a much improved formula.

It is recommended to apply this over completely dry polish and I agree with that recommendation. You get the best shatter effect that way. When the polish is still slightly wet, the topcoat doesn't crack as much and you end up with larger pieces and not as much of the under color showing through. And, if the polish is too wet, the crackling action and fragmentation of the topcoat takes the wet polish with it, leaving bald spots in between the cracked pieces.

Black Shatter does dry a bit matte and it has texture to it, so I'd recommend a good coat of topcoat after it's done doing its thing. This smooths the texture but also helps keep the cracked pieces on- they can actually fall off when they're fully dry!

Here it is over the Katy Perry shades:

OPI Black Shatter over Last Friday Night.


OPI Black Shatter over Not Like The Movies.


OPI Black Shatter over Teenage Dream.


OPI Black Shatter over The One That Got Away.


Serena Williams Grand Slam Collection
Simply Smashing. This is a yellow-green "lemon lime" type of shade. It might just be the power of suggestion, but it reminds me of a tennis ball. Am I that impressionable? But it really does make me think of a tennis ball, especially one that's been used for playing fetch for a couple weeks. It's a little bit dirty, not quite neon green like a brand new tennis ball. It has a glass fleck type of shimmer- really bright shiny particles of shimmer. Slightly duochrome, too, there's a bit of orange reflect on this shade.

And here it is paired with Black Shatter:


OPI Black Shatter over Simply Smashing.


Isn't Black Shatter great? I'm a bit obsessed with it already. It applies so easily and shatters so quickly. With the old ones you used to have to wait a while and it would take forever to dry. The old generations of crackle polish were also a huge pain to remove. They stuck to your nails like cement and took forever to dissolve with acetone. OPI's Black Shatter crackle polish removes as easily as any normal polish and dries really quickly. It's really, really great and I kinda want to use it for every manicure now.

Just for fun, here's what it looks like over yellow:


I had China Glaze Lighthouse on when Black Shatter arrived and I had to play with it immediately. In my opinion, it's quite a stunning combination. I love the contrast between the creme black shards and the glimmery yellow brightness. I think Black Shatter looks amazing over sparkly shades.


This is one has a coat of OPI Last Friday Night over China Glaze Lighthouse and then a final coat of OPI Black Shatter. The pretty opal glitter might be a little hard to see in these pictures, but it added a really nice subtle something that made it just that much more interesting.

The formula on these was good. All of the shades were on the sheer side and needed at least three coats. I did three coats in all these pictures. Last Friday Night was unusually thick and I'm not sure if that's normal. It applied just fine, but it was almost jelly-like, I'm wondering if mine was a little dried out when I got it because it didn't look completely full, either. Anyway, application was good aside from the sheerness of the shades. Dry time was very good and removal was painless.

I love all the colors in this set. Nothing boring, nothing plain, it's 100% fun. I love the edgy and fun look of Black Shatter and it does look rather nice over all these shades. I think OPI did an excellent job on these. It's bright and shiny, glitter-heavy, sparkly, playful and includes an improved formula Crackle topcoat to make it even more fun. I'm absurdly happy to see that crackle polish, too. It's such a fun look and it really makes people stop and ask you how you did it!

My only complaint is that I wish there were more colors! But I am quite satisfied with the collections as they are. There's duochrome, glitter, a little holo, and an awesome crackle polish. Not finding any flaws at all. They didn't play it safe this time and I'm thankful for that!


(These were sent to me for review.)

63 comments:

  1. Not Like The Movies looks gor-geous! Reminds me of Nubar Purple Beach (beside the flakies). Great swatches :)

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  2. Gosh these are so amazing!!!! you're so lucky:)

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  3. I'm loving all of these! Can't wait to try Black Shatter myself!

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  4. I definitely want to try out the Black Shatter. It looks awesome!

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  5. Thx God you got this! I love how they looks, now i want them :D

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  6. I need Black Shatter!!! I can't wait for the e-tailers to get these collections in.

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  7. Not Like The Movies looks like frosty Zoya Ki. I prefer Ki :)

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  8. Dying to try out Black Shatter! I like all the colours but I'm kind of disappointed with Last Friday Night, I was hoping it wouldn't be quite as sheer:-(

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  9. It's not often i go mad for polish but these really float my boat. They all look so rich and different. Thanks for sharing xx

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  10. There are some great colours there - I like how the Black Shatter looked with them especially Last Friday Night.

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  11. Great swatches, Scrangie. Many thanks!

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  12. Love your swatches! Thank you! And darn you, OPI! Just when I swear I'm going to slow down on the nail polish obsession y'all just HAVE to team up with Katie Perry and create a line I love. *sighs*

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  13. OMG. I have to get all of these. LOVE the Black Shatter, and Not Like the Movies is AHHHMAZING. I cannot wait to wear it alone AND with Black Shatter!

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  14. Great colours, love the black shatter!

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  15. Oo, I need to get that Teenage Dream, it looks delicious! :D

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  16. Black Shatter over The One That Got Away looks really nice!

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  17. I am just in love with all of the Katy Perry colors. I'm still unsure about the shatter top coat, I need to try this in person before making up my mind.

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  18. I'm going to get the entire OPI Katy Perry collection except for maybe The One That Got Away...although I need to think about that one because I don't want to think later on that it really WAS the one that got away!

    Excellent swatches! I was excited about the collection before, but even more now.

    I may pass on Simply Smashing - not sure it'll look right with my skin tone.

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  19. I didn't think I was going to get any from this collection but I've fallen in love with glitters lately so I think I'll get the two glitters and DEFINITELY the Shatter. It's not something I'd wear often but it's a fun look to shake things up every once in awhile. I love that it's so quick, too! I've seen a couple videos and it really starts to shatter instantaneously.

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  20. I NEED that crackle! It's amazing! I think I'll also pick up "the one that got away" as well! Great post, glad to see them all w/ the crackle :)

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  21. Not like the Movie looks like a dupe for Zoya Adina, which I just ordered using Zoya's get 3 free promo.

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  22. OMG I love the katy perry collection!!

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  23. I'm just going to get Not Like the Movies, and call it a day.
    I heard China Glaze is coming out with crackle topcoat too, and I imagine it'll be less expensive than Black Shatter.

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  24. Last Friday Night looks similar to Sinful Hottie... not a dead on dupe, but very similar. The One That Got Away, Simply Smashing, and the crackle coat are definitely on my lemming list!!

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  25. Oh, man, I hate Katy Perry so much that it makes me physically ill, but I've been looking for a decent purple/green/silver polish since Urban Decay cruelly snatched Freakshow out of my hands. In The Movies looks pretty good... I'll just have to wait for China Glaze's crackles to avoid giving my mortal enemy any more of my money.

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  26. Is OPI's Not Like the Movies similar to Lippman's Wicked?

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  27. Oh my goodness. Teenage dream has got me SOLD. I just HAVE to get it!

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  28. I really like Last Friday Night and Black Shatter. Thanks for the swatches :]

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  29. *POP* That was the sound of my head exploding. XD LOL I NEEEEEEED that crackle.

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  30. Black shatter over Not like the movies is just amazing!!!
    BTW- I've seen swatches of these on several other blogs, but then I was just disappointed and didn't like any of the polishes. Your swatches are amazing and make the polishes look good, maybe now I will try a few myself...

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  31. Black shatter over Not like the movies is just perfect!
    I've seen some swatches of these on a few other blogs and none of those made me want any of these polishes. I don't know why your swatches are so different, but they make me want to try at least two of the polishes!

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  32. I loved it!
    I'm crazy about it!
    kisses to you

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  33. love, love, love Not Like The Movies

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  34. Oh gosh, this collection is going to be murder on my wallet.

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  35. Not like the movie is lovely, I want!

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  36. OMG! I NEED The black shatter polish like NOW!
    Time to go use my ULTA 3.50 off coupon lol. PRONTO!

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  37. I love the whole Katy Perry collection! Last Frday Night is super pretty on its own, but will be awesome, too, with layering! Black shatter is great over Lighthouse! <33

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  38. i love the entire collection, cant wait for mine to arrive! =D thanks for the awesome swatches scrangie ^_^
    i think, well i heard somewhere, that the serena williams collection will be released according to the days she plays or something equally confusing because i dont follow tennis =/

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  39. I've been waiting for Black Shatter swatches.. do you wear top coat on those pics or is the finish just shiny? thinking about the Barry M crackle and how it finishes sorta matte

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  40. I'm still a "nah" for these. I wouldn't say no to the blue (and the pink - gah what's happening to me?!) but I don't need them. Yet anyways. ;)

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  41. Love the Katy Perry colors and the blk. shatter top coat! Can't wit until these come out!

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  42. Love your photos of them! It shows the detail I've been looking for. I think your swatches just may have made me want to try crackle for sure.

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  43. All of these look absolutely GORGEOUS!! I think im in love :D

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  44. aah I got insanely jealous looking at the katy perry nail polishes cuz i want them so bad, but I can't get them from where I live. :(
    anyways, i loved the post! :D

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  45. I have Last Friday night & Teenage dream...mine are bouth almost jelly-like soo probablly must be like that :))
    I'm totally in love in thouse 2, other 2 didn't impress me much, the black one still didn't saw but will def. buy it & green one by Serena...btw this color as well remineds me to a tennis ball xD

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  46. I want the one that got away! It's beautiful!!

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  47. I am so excited for this to come out. I really like all the polishes on their own, but Black Shatter really makes everything just pop. I love it.

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  48. nice colors, but not so much my thing, I have to admit. I'm much more interested in the China Glaze Anchors Away collection and the new zoyas :)
    Also, in Germany we have a black and a silver crackle polish from the brand "P2" and several colorful crackle polishes, blue, pink, green, yellow from the brand "isadora" ... I bought the black and silver crackle polish and used them last halloween, it gave a nice effect, but I'm not a huge fan of them.

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  49. hey that looks great wish i had them its a big effect black and white is awesome good work

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  50. These are two collections that I'll be buying them all. Wish there were more shades! Also different colors of shatter polish would be nice.

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  51. Wow! I just can not wait until these polishes are out for sale! They look stunning!

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  52. Hi! I'm thinking, what would happen if the black shatter was underneath the polishes. They are pretty sheer right?

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  53. Like Amanda Huggenkiss I am *not* a KP fan and most of the colors are dupes for Zoya's that were FREE last week. I'm also not an OPI fan but the shatter is intriguing and since I wasn't into nail polish the first time the trend came around I really want to try it. Would love to see what's coming up for SW.

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  54. AmyGrace, ooh, I forgot all about Purple Beach, I'm going to have to wear that one again!

    Marina, slightly different color scheme though!


    Thenailphile, thanks! Hey, long time, how have you been? :)


    Danitra, nope, not really alike except that they're both duochrome!


    Adventures in Swatchland, you're right! I knew it looked familiar. The sinful doesn't have those pretty blue sparkles, though, so I need to have both hahaha

    Sofi-lee, kinda sorta but not really, they have a different finish and different colors

    Sara, I have topcoat on the black shatter because it dries matte, but the others are all without :)

    The Nerd, oooh, interesting... I didn't think of trying that!

    Katie, I'm not a KP fan either, but none of them are Zoya dupes really... Not Like The Movies is sorta in the same family as Ki but that's about it!

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  55. Somehow I got it in my head that today was the release date. When I couldn't find them anywhere, I broke down and paid twice the standard price to order a black shatter. I'm reeeeeeaaaaalllly hoping it arrives during the week so I can wear it to a nightclub event on Friday.

    Thanks for your review - otherwise I wouldn't have developed the obsession with trying this one!

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  56. How does Not Like the Movies compare to Orly's Space Cadet? Thanks!

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  57. Love your swatches, brilliant. How did you get such nice big shatters? Mine are smaller, which isn't bad, but I prefer your effect. Is it the pressure applied (little/much) or the amount of polish on the brush (little/much)?

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  58. Pinkelephant, they're not alike at all so they don't really compare, sorry!

    Mahoganyhues, are you putting it over completely dry polish? It doesn't crackle into really big pieces unless the polish is totally dry, but it is pretty random

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  59. As a person with an unhealthy fixation on blue polish, I have to say that I was fairly skeptical about Last Friday Night being *that* unique. I bought Black Shatter yesterday, amongst an opening crowd of pushy, grabby girls (no, really) and grabbed Last Friday Night just in case it was awesome and I'd regret it.

    It really is that awesome, pictures don't really do it justice. I'm wearing three layers under a coat of Black Shatter, and I can't stop staring at my hands at work. The opalescent glitter really glows, even indoors. I can't say I'd love it quite as much on its own - the contrast of the black really complements it. Yay, Scrangie! Thanks for making me buy (even more) polish.

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  60. Last Friday Night looks like Sinfuls "Hottie"

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  61. first i have to tell you scrangie - great blog! i am never disappointed =)
    i've got a question for you about "not like the movies" - have you heard about a second version of this color being shipped that isn't duochrome? (user gasps) (ala-MPJ) i've seen pics of the two on makeupalley., but don't know if the second version they're showing is real or a counterfeit. .. the labels are different?!...... . . hmmmmm.

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  62. I have seen the two versions of "Not like" too; there is definitely a plain silver version out there. If you're unable to find the duochrome version and you're in the UK, I noticed yesterday that Barry M have a dupe (or very near dupe at any rate: I had "Not like" on my nails and compared them to the Barry M bottle and it looked spot on, even down to the tiny glitter particles). It's called "Silvery Lilac". Barry M polishes are high street/drug store price but good quality and wear well.

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