Swatch My Stash! OPI #15: More Whites, Metallic, Misc. Glitter … And the Stragglers

** A Note About Swatch Photos: I am coming in to edit this in October of 2020. (Hello from the Future!! Without upsetting the space-time continuum, I think I can safely give the following advice: Buy masks and hand sanitizer! Lots of hand sanitizer!) In all seriousness, I want to note that my photos from many of these earlier posts are going to vary widely. Over the time that I have been learning how to swatch and doing photos for my blog, I feel my photo skills have improved. As I take new swatch pictures and update them here in the blog, you will see a mix of older and newer photo styles in some of my older posts. I update and add newer, better photos where I can. Unfortunately, if I already destashed a polish, we all have to make do with my original swatch photo. In most cases, these are not as good. For that, I apologize.**

This is gonna be a long one, folks! I’m wrapping up the last of my OPI whites (and others, as you can see from my extremely creative (not) and LONG post title — ha, ha!). And I decided to toss my few stragglers into the end of this post, too. I debated over giving the stragglers their own post, but I decided I was ready to jump into my China Glaze polishes starting next week. So … grab a snack and a soda or cup of tea and get ready for some major nail polish picturage! I know “picturage” isn’t a word. But, really, it should be!

Make Light of the Situation is from the 2015 Soft Shades Collection. It is a clear base with scads of white, pearl, and iridescent shimmer and glitters. The formula is good. The base is neither too thick nor too thin, and it is easy to apply. I can get this one opaque in 3-4 coats on its own, but it is fabulous as 1 coat over a base color.

I absolutely adore this polish. ADORE it!! It has a beautifully delicate look and shimmer on the nail. I love it over darker colors, but it’s also amazing over a sparkly white. In the winter and around the Christmas holidays, this topper combined with OPI Chiffon My Mind is one of my favorite manicures. It reminds me of newly fallen snow. Needless to say, this one is a definite keeper!

Glitzerland is from the Fall 2010 Swiss Collection. This is an “old”/antique-looking gold metallic. I feel it leans a bit toward being a foil. The formula is good. It is opaque in 2-3 coats, depending on whether or not I am too heavy-handed with the brush. This polish will show some brush strokes.

I’m a sucker for gold polishes. I like this one. It is lovely and bright, but kind of glamorous at the same time. I also like the finish, even though it shows some brush strokes. This one is a keeper.

You’re So Vain-illa is from the 2014 Coca-Cola Collection. It is a taffy or light khaki color that falls between a very light brown and a very dark off-white. It looks much darker on the nail than it does in the bottle. The formula is decent, overall. It is creamy, but I had trouble with the brush leaving some low spots. I needed 3 coats for full opacity.

First off, apologies for my horrible swatch picture on this one. It’s definitely not my best work, but we can’t hit a home run every time, I guess. This polish probably should have gone into last week’s batch of whites and off-whites. Or, maybe, in my browns. But it somehow ended up on the list for today’s post. And it has ended up here amid the sparkles, which makes it seem even more out of place. What can I say? Sometimes, a color makes a break for it.

From looking at this one in the bottle, I expected to love it. And … I don’t. Womp-womp. Part of me wants to hang on to it just because it’s from the Coca-Cola Collection, and I was so excited when I randomly found it in my parents’ hometown last summer. But I don’t think I will wear it. I remember feeling quite underwhelmed when I wore it as a manicure right after I purchased it. And, looking at my swatch picture leaves me feeling underwhelmed, too. I think this one has to go onto the destash pile.

Take a Right on Bourbon is from the Spring 2016 New Orleans Collection. It is a silver metallic. I find the color to be similar to older, slightly tarnished silver. The formula is not bad, application-wise. It is easy to apply and opaque in 2 coats. But it shows every single brush stroke because of the finish.

I really, really want to love this polish. I love New Orleans, and I actually love the color tone of this one. It’s not a bright silver, and I like how it is rather muted and a little bit dirty. But this polish is a hot mess. It looks awful on the nail. There is no other way to say it. This one has to head for the destash pile, too. *sadpanda*

Five and Ten is from the Holiday 2016 Breakfast at Tiffany’s Collection. It is a metallic silver-gold with a foil finish. The formula is good. It is opaque in 2 easy coats.

I love this polish. It is a pretty and delicate mix between gold and silver, and I really like the foil finish. I love wearing it in the winter and around the Christmas holidays. She is a keeper!

Worth a Pretty Penne is from the Fall 2015 Venice Collection. It is a coppery, rosy metallic. The formula is good. It is opaque in 2 easy coats.

I like this one. A lot, even though I haven’t worn it very much. I love the color tone because it strikes a lovely balance between coppery and rosy. It shows some brush strokes, but not too badly. I think this one is a keeper for me. I want to try to wear it now that Fall is approaching!

Superstar Status is from the Holiday 2015 Starlight Collection. It is a silvery base with medium to large gold glitters. The formula is good. It is opaque in 2 coats.

I love this glitter. It has a good mix of smaller glitters and chunkier, larger ones. It is sparkly and pretty and perfect around the holidays — or any time I need a little sparkle pick-me-up! I haven’t tried it in a jelly sandwich manicure, but I bet it would be great for that, too. This one is a keeper.

Sunrise … Bedtime! is from the Holiday 2016 Breakfast at Tiffany’s Collection. It is a topper that has a clear base with small pink holographic glitters. The formula is good. The base isn’t too thick. It might be opaque on its own in 3-4 coats, but I prefer it at 1 coat as a topper.

This is a pretty glitter. It is sparkly and has a delicate look on the nail. It also looks great over a variety of base colors. She is a keeper for me!

Pink Yet Lavender is from … some collection somewhere. Really, I have zero idea where this comes from. I did a bit of internet sleuthing some time ago, and it seemed like this might be a re-promote/re-name of a previous shade. But I’m not even certain about that. It is a pink/purple (pink yet lavender … get it? Har, har, har) jelly base with silver and pink glitters. The formula is good. It is opaque in 2 fairly easy coats. But this is a smelly polish. As in, “You stink, pink!” EDIT (Nov. 7, 2017): Thanks to the eagle eye of Else, who left me a sweet comment, I am now pretty sure this particular polish was mislabeled. I think it is actually Excuse Moi!, from the Holiday 2011 Muppets Collection. It looks exactly like the Excuse Moi pictures that I saw online, and nothing at all like the Pink Yet Lavendar pics linked to me by my nail bestie. Thanks so much, Jenn and Else for helping me out with this info and polish mystery!

So … why, you might ask, is this polish in here? It probably should have gone into my pinks section. Aaaaaaand the answer is … I have no idea! It just ended up here, and, at this point, I’m going with it. This is sort of an ugly-pretty color. It’s an odd tone of pinky-purple. It’s kind of obnoxious because of the weird, cough-syrup-colored base and all the glitter. And yet, I find I really like it. I particularly like to bust it out during the Christmas holidays. It reminds me of China Glaze’s Ugly Sweater Party, which is another obnoxious polish that I love. And so, this lady is a keeper for my stash!

Petal Soft is from the 2015 Soft Shades Collection. This is a topper that has a clear base with pearlescent pink hexes of different sizes, white dots, and white flowers. I find the formula a bit “iffy” on this one. The base is thick, and it can be difficult to get the flowers out of the bottle without fishing for them.

I like the look of this one on the nail, particularly over a darker color, like a black or a deep purple. I don’t mind that the white flowers don’t make it onto the nail easily or often, because I like the look of this topper with just the smaller pink hexes and the little white dots. It has a very sweet and delicate look to it. But … the base! Ugh. I think I’m going to keep this one, at least for now. I can always sponge it onto my nails to get around the heavy base, and I like the look of it.

Polka.com is from the Spring 2013 Euro Centrale Collection. It is a clear based topper with blue glitters and blue and magenta metallic hexes. The formula is not the greatest. This base is soooo thick, and it is hard to get any of the glitters out onto the nail.

This is a cute glitter. It is colorful and playful, and it looks great over both light and dark colors. But I don’t like the glitter mix or the final look enough to deal with the overbearing base on this one. She is heading to the destash pile.

THE STRAGGLERS:

As I was be-bopping along through this series, I continued to purchase polish. I mean, hello! This is me we’re talking about, here. There is virtually no way I would go for months and months without purchasing any nail polish. I wish — and, really, so does my sweet husband. But, especially with Fall and Winter colors coming out, polish abstinence was not meant to be for this obsessed and addicted gal. Of course, this means some of the newer polishes didn’t get swatched or included with their color families. So I decided I would tack these little left-overs at the end, just for the sake of trying to be as complete as I can.

These are all polishes that are new releases or new to my stash. None of them will be getting destashed at this time. I have likely talked at length about these fairly recently in haul posts or collection reviews, so I won’t go into much detail about them now. But here are the pictures …

Aurora Berry-alis, from the Fall 2017 Iceland Collection.

Check out the Old Geysirs, from the Fall 2017 Iceland  Collection.

Turn on the Northern Lights, from the Fall 2017 Iceland Collection.

Eurso Euro, from the Spring 2013 Euro Centrale Collection. This isn’t a new release, of course, but it is newish to me. I believe I found this one during my summer vacation to Texas. It is a gorgeously dark and moody blue creme. Or, maybe, more like a crelly. It goes on more like a creme, but I feel like it has a jelly look on the nail.

Russian Navy, from the (I think) 2007 Russian Collection. This is another new-to-me polish I randomly found during my summer vacay. Locating this beauty was a good surprise! I love the shimmer that seems to wink out at me from deep down in the base. This one is delicious.

Number One Nemesis, from the 2012 Amazing Spiderman Collection. This is yet another summer vacay find from this year. I had some pretty good luck hunting up polishes during my Texas trip!

This Isn’t Greenland, from the Fall 2017 Iceland Collection.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Whew! This has been a long post … and a long series, too! I can’t believe we are at the end of all of my OPIs. I’ve had a lot of fun going through my whole stash. I have a large collection, so things get lost in the mix. It’s kind of the nature of the beast that you tend to forget about polishes that might have been in your collection for a long time. This series has been great for letting me delve deep into my stash so that I can rediscover those old loves. Along the way, I’ve discovered some old favorites that no longer hold that special place in my polish-loving heart. If nothing else, it’s great to take a look at my collection with fresh eyes. I buy polish on a fairly constant basis, so my collection is always changing and growing. I think it will be a good idea for me to consider going through it on a regular basis — maybe once a year or so — to make sure I still love and want to wear everything. I won’t necessarily swatch my stash every year, but it will be a good housekeeping exercise for myself.

I started out with 127 OPI polishes, total (before destashing, but including the new and new-to-me polishes that have straggled in over the last few months). I ended up destashing 23 polishes during this series, so I am left with just over a hundred OPIs in my stash. Part of me wishes I could have gotten rid of a bit more. It would be pretty neat to get my OPI collection down under 100. But, overall, I’m happy with the number I managed to destash. It can be hard to let go of polish, particularly if it’s something I’ve had for a while.

Next week, I will start on China Glaze reds. Woo Hoo!