Saturday, February 5, 2011

OPI Ulta Exclusives Holiday 2010

Every year around Christmas, OPI does a set of three holiday-themed polishes exclusively for Ulta. Last year's collection raised the bar so high, that I was super excited to see what they did this year.... But I was sadly disappointed, after hearing from a very reliable source, that no one knew anything about them and there probably wouldn't be any this year.

Then, imagine my surprise, when everyone on Twitter was, well, atwitter with excitement over this new OPI Ulta exclusive gold glitter polish. I immediately drove to Ulta and returned home with these safely in tow.




All The Berry Best. A medium berry toned red shimmer. It's rather washed out here because of the lighting; it's a couple shades darker in real life. Regardless, it's my least favorite of the collection. It has some really great gold duochrome in the bottle, but on the nail it's just an average looking red shimmer. It does have a really nice velvety looking finish, though.



Gift of Gold. Now THIS is a glitter. Amazing. It's so ridiculously sparkly. It's a lighter gold mixed with some darker gold and even a bit of what looks like copper or bronze glitter. It's very opaque, too, needing only one to two coats depending on how thick or even you do your coats. It's still rough and hard to remove like other glitters, but it's just soooooo pretty. The best one in the collection for sure. OPI really knows how to do glitter and I'm really glad they've been doing a lot of it lately.


Plum Full Of Cheer. The flash picture shows the base color of the polish and also shows the pretty multi-colored shimmer, but in real life it looks more like the top picture. This is not a bad color at all, it's extremely pretty, one of my favorite types of purples, but it's just so common lately that it doesn't feel special to me. Shimmery, glowy, red-based dark purples are great, I think I'm just a little burned out on them. I had hoped for something really special like last year's Visions of Sugarplum.

Wait a minute... Wasn't last year's Ulta Exclusive holiday collection a gold, a berry-red and a dark purple? What was the year before that? I only remember the gorgeous pink microglitter one.

The formula was good, so no complaints there. The Gift of Gold shade was really thick, but that's part of what makes it so opaque and dense. I only needed two coats of each color (and that's what I'm wearing in these pictures) and the drying time was very good. They were a little dull without topcoat, so I am also wearing topcoat for these pictures.

They're nice, and Gift of Gold is very nice, but they didn't knock me over with awesome like last year's set. Maybe they'll do something more unique this year!

14 comments:

  1. They're so gorgeous!!
    I love the two first ones!!
    You're so lucky!

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  2. WOW that plum full of cheer looks AMAZING

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  3. Gift of Gold is amazing, too bad I won't be able to get my hands on it :(

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  4. will you be doing swatches of the OPI Texas collection? There are no good swatches out there right now so I'm afraid to purchase online without seeing proper photos!

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  5. If we are asking for swatches can you please please swatch tronica?

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  6. oh i love the purple. its hard for me to find the perfect purple.

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  7. I love plum full of cheer! I really don't have enough purples in my collection lol! Looks like OPI did a good job with gift of gold as well:)
    If everyone else is mentioning future swatches, do you think you'll be doing any on the China Glaze Crackles? :)

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  8. I love all things sparkly and glittery and OPI is the gold I want right now. Thanks for the swatches..

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  9. Gift of Gold was my fave. I love it! And I wasn't even gonna get it!

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  10. Wow. I love them all!

    Thanks for the swatches. :)

    Fiona

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  11. Like them all but... Loving Gift of Gold and Plum Full Of Cheer most. You are so lucky in the US, Wish OPI would treat us here in the UK :o(

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  12. I LOVED last year's Ulta OPI holiday exclusives - they were/are all incredibly beautiful. I agree that this year's stand out was Gift of Gold - the glitter is dense, sparkly, and a gorgeous shade. I love the tiny pin point sized drops of red-copper glitter that run through the base color. It's such a delicate and lovely touch to such a wonderfully bold gold glitter polish. Plum Full of Cheer is a great shade and at eye level has a subtle gold duochrome. I would have loved to seen the duochrome be more pronounced and obvious instead of having to look for it. Still, I love the polish and am happy to have gotten it. All the Berry Best had the same very subtle gold duochrome as Plum Full of Cheer. Again, I wish the duochrome was more pronounced. All the Berry Best was also my least favorite in the collection but I'm still happy to have it in my collection. I'm very happy to have all of these pretties in my collection though. Ulta OPI holiday exclusives are never to be missed! :)

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