Tag Archives: OPI Pirates of The Caribbean

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OPI Steady As She Rose

It feels like a very long time ago now since OPI’s Pirates of the Caribbean collection landed. I have to say that when I saw this polish at the launch event, I just passed it by. I thought it was another OPI style soft shade and one that I would really not be interested in.

However, I was wrong (not a sentence you’ll hear me say very often). I saw Steady As She Rose swatched on a few other blogs, and was rather taken aback by how much I actually liked it. Yes, it’s pink. Yes, its pastelly. But yet, like the rest of the Pirates collection, the colour has a little bit of an edge. It’s not blatantly greyed out, but it certainly isn’t a sickly sweet candy pink either. Hard to explain. It reminds me strongly of Illamasqua Jan, which I really do need to get some better photos of.

Application was pretty streaky and I needed to be careful. However, a layer of CND Air Dry evened it all out and I was really pleased with the finish. I ended up wearing Steady As She Rose for five days, which is practically unheard of for me but it looked amazing and wore really well. Seriouslyimpressive, I had no chips, and because it is a light colour, there was very little obvious tipwear either.

So there we go. A pink that I liked enough to wear for a week. Quite remarkable really.

What do you think? Did you buy this one?

Helen

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OPI Stranger Tides

So, who’s excited about the new Pirates of the Caribbean film coming out this week? I am. You can’t beat a good old pirate romp, and it never hurts seeing Captain Jack Sparrow either. I was watching Johnny Depp being interviewed about the film and could barely believe it when he said that the Pirates franchise is now eight years old. I suppose it makes sense when you think about it, but still…where does the time go?

No doubt you have been totally oversaturated with Pirates posts and swatches now but I wanted to let you know my thoughts on this, the namesake of the film. Stranger Tides is a total marmite polish. People really are loving or hating this one. Having said that, I just can’t decide. I was desperate to try it out as I don’t normally “do” green, but this looked murky and grungy enough for me to want to give it a go. It’s a very yellow toned green and thankfully that saves it from turning my hands the usual shade of lobster-red that happens when I try light greens or pastels.

What you see here is three coats. It does go on rather thin and up until the point of applying topcoat, I was concerned about how streaky it was. Thankfully a good dollop of Nubar’s Diamont sorted that out and it looks great. Smooth, and shiny – the perfect creme.

By the way, I don’t usually swatch on my right hand as my middle nail is all ridged and mis-shapen at the moment but I broke a nail on my left hand, so there we go.

What do you think? Are you a fan of Stranger Tides? Will you be picking this one up? And will you be watching the film?

You can see my other post on the Pirates of the Caribbean collection here. Yo ho, yo ho…

Helen

*PR sample*

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OPI Pirates of the Caribbean

It never fails to amaze me where this blog will take me next. I certainly never expected to be spending a (soggy) morning aboard The Golden Hinde, a replica of Sir Francis Drake’s famous Tudor ship.

The reason for this was the launch of OPI‘s new range, Ahoy Me Hearties, released as a tie-in with the new Pirates of The Caribbean film (On Stranger Tides), which is set to be this summer’s blockbuster. OPI are no strangers to movie tie-ins, and being a big fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, (and a huge fan of OPI), this is very exciting for me. These polishes will be available to buy from May onwards.

So, on to the pictures, after all, that’s what you’re here for, right?

Mermaid’s Tears. A gloomy mint green creme.

Planks A Lot. Love this name! Vibrant purple, reminiscent of Do You Lilac It?

Steady As She Rose. Probably the least interesting of the collection. Pale and delicate pink creme.

Skull & Gloss Bones. Grungy grey green. I applaud OPI for going there with something so unusual for them.

Sparrow Me The Drama. Pink creme. No doubting this will have an audience among the general consumer but I expect polish hoarders to pass this one by.

Stranger Tides. Named for the new film, I absolutely cannot wait to try this one out. Murky and mouldy and such a fascinating green. I’ve never seen anything like this before.

Silver Shatter. Looks like the shatter/crackle effect isn’t going anywhere just yet then!

I didn’t have a manicure as the queue was ridiculous, plus I wanted to swatch some of new polishes for you, and I’d have delayed doing that if I’d had my nails done at the launch. But here’s the look that Sara from Daily Polish had done. Mermaid’s Tears, with Silver Shatter on top.

And here are some swatches of the polishes I was given to take away. I think OPI may have been tweaking their formula again as not only does it smell slightly different, the cremes apply like an opaque dream.

Sparrow Me The Drama is one that you pink lovers are going to adore. Slightly duskier than the camera has picked up on here, this is all wrong for my skintone but it would flatter darker skins I think. A dusty mauve toned pink, this was opaque in two coats.

I would want Skull & Gloss Bones for the name alone, so it’s something of a relief that it’s a fantastic shade as well. A putty-ish gloomy grey, this has a whole heap of green in it. Perfect for corpse fingers. Not everyone’s taste but I love it.

Here’s the swatches of the whole collection – with silver shatter on the left and as-is on the right.

So, there we have it. OPI have surprised me. I was expecting jewel tones, pieces of eight, shimmery seas, dark rum, tropical sands and parrot shades. Pirates don’t make me think pastels, but I’ve got to say, this is the best pastel collection I’ve ever seen. I like the edginess and murkiness of some of the colours and cannot wait to get my mitts on the rest of them. Thanks to all at Lena White for arranging such a fun and original event.

Also, as a side note, it was an appropriate first outing for my Bones bracelet, fiiiiinally back from being altered by The Great Frog. Not polish related, I know, but still a Nice Thing.

NB – there were four new OPI Soft Shades on display at this launch but I am going to cover them in a separate post shortly.

The small print: Please note that although not watermarked, these photographs are my property. You may reproduce them on your blogs as long as you ask permission first and give full credit and link back. Don’t make me make you walk the plank, eh?

Helen