OPI Ski Teal We Drop is from the new Swiss Collection that's just come out. This was the only polish of the 12 that screamed out at me, and that's only because I'm a hardcore teal lover. If you love OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui, RBL Teal, or Color Club Gossip Column, you'll love this one. It's very similar to RBL Teal but a bit lighter and more blue. I forgot Gossip Column in this comp picture, but I'll do one later and put it up on Twitter or something. Anyway, this is typical OPI application, two coat coverage that's ever so slightly streaky on the first coat. It all evens up beautifully, though and looks great on. The wear is pretty typical of most OPI as well. If you'd like to see a comparison between Ski Teal We Drop, RBL Teal, MAC Blue India and Illamasqua Muse, read on!

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OPI Russian Navy Suede - $5 at amazon.com

This is the first OPI Suede I've tried, and I'm pretty happy with it. While this is nothing like the original Russian Navy, it's quite pretty. It's a dark-but-not-vampy blue with loads of silver shimmer. It reminds me of a matte version of China Glaze Midnight Mission. The application is really smooth and while it dries faster than traditional polishes, it doesn't dry mid-application which can lead to lumps and streaks in a matte polish. The finish is definitely pretty much matte, but the shimmer in the formula gives it almost a satiny look. The texture and finish almost remind me of a rose petal, delicate and silky, but not glossy at all. The wear isn't great, but we all pretty much know that matte polishes don't wear very well. Some wear better than others, but this is neither worse or better than the average. You can get it for a decent price online, or about $8.50 which is retail at Trade Secret and Ulta and the like.

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Index to pinkie (top to bottom): Illamasqua Rampage, Claire's Kelly Green, Sally Hansen Going Green, OPI Jade is the New Black

Illamasqua Rampage: This obviously isn't kelly green, but the application of Claire's Kelly Green reminded me of the jelly deliciousness of Rampage. One coat of Rampage equals two coats of Kelly Green, so if you like that one-coat color but not the streaky look, Kelly Green is a nice choice.

Claire's Kelly Green: This is a true kelly green in my book. It's got a jelly texture that reaches full saturation at about two moderate (three thin) coats. It dries fairly matte, but with a topcoat it's genius.

Sally Hansen Going Green: Before Kelly Green I thought this was the closest thing to kelly green I'd find, but now against the Claire's polish, I see that it's somewhat soft and washed out in comparison. The shimmer is very beautiful, and I liked the polish fine till Claire's Kelly Green came along, now I'm not sure I care.

OPI Jade is the New Black: Another that isn't a Kelly Green, but I threw it in for comparisons sake. It's a muted rich green, and it's gorgeous. I've reviewed it more in detail here.

A couple days ago I posted swatches of the Nubar Pastel Fever collection with the promise to do some comparisons... Well here they are. I had a difficult time finding polishes in my stash that are similar to Green Tea and Pink Cream, but otherwise there are pretty close polishes for each of them, though none had dupes (in my collection anyway). So If you'd like to see the comparisons, keep on reading!

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Index and ring: SinfulColors Innocent, Middle and pinky: OPI Who the Shrek Are You?

SinfulColors Innocent: The difference between the two in the bottle is miniscule, but you can see on the nail that Innocent is a bit brighter, lighter, and yellow. It applies slightly more opaque than Shrek, but the Sinful bottle always leaves something to be desired. It always finds a way to leak polish into the cap, even when stored upright it seems, and it makes it hard to open. It is only $2 at Walgreens, though, which is quite a savings over the $8.50 you'll pay for the OPI.

OPI Who The Shrek Are You? - This is a bit more sheer, and slightly deeper in tone. It's got a bit more green and strikes me as quite a bit warmer than Innocent. This one is my favorite for a Shrek green though, it is a little more "off" and interesting, but Innocent holds it's own as a unique bright.

OPI Who The Shrek Are You - $8.50 at Trade Secret

I originally was going to pass on this entire collection. I am a big Shrek fan, but my favorite character is Puss in Boots, and before this collection was released I thought I might get a polish if it were named after him. What's With the Cattitude just didn't excite me. Much though I love light blue polishes, I do have a ton of them, and the name doesn't explicitly refer to Puss by name, so I passed. This Shrek-inspired green is one of those polishes that you either love or you hate, and I love it. I always thought that "off" colors like this looked horrid on me, but after my experience with the very similar SinfulColors Innocent, I thought I'd give it a try. Seeing it in person in the store pushed me over the edge, I snatched it up immediately. Innocent is definitely in the same family, but slightly lighter and softer in tone. It's got a bit more yellow as well.  If you like the Shrek shade but it's just a tad too warm or green for you, the SinfulColors might be a better, and cheaper, alternative.

This polish applies very nicely; pretty standard for the newer OPI formula. The first coat can be a bit streaky, and make the nails showing underneath have an orange sort of tone. Coat two evens everything out nicely, but it still seemed a bit warmer than bottle color, so I applied a third coat and that brought it up to the wonderfully vibrant Shrek-y green you see in the bottle. I apply thin coats, so take that into consideration. I think with two moderate coats it would be fine. I added a coat of Seche Vite topcoat to the top, and I am absolutely in love with the results. The first two photos are with flash, the other two are in natural light near a window.

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What's better than metallic silver? Metallic silver with glitter! This was a mani I did this week and I loved it. It looked awesome in the sun. The photos don't really capture the blinginess of it all. It's two coats of OPI Rinse Charming (discontinued, but similar polishes can be used, like Zoya Trixie), with two thin coats of China Glaze Shooting Star and two thin coats of China Glaze Techno. Shooting Star is a clear base with lots of tiny holographic microglitter and larger translucent glitter. Techno has a clear base as well, with holographic microglitter of a slightly larger size than Shooting Star and it also has some large silver-based holographic glitter. Both of them together are utterly blingtastic. There are a ton of photos after the jump...

L-R - OPI Rinse Charming, China Glaze Shooting Star, China Glaze Techno

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Here's a festive mani I did for my daughter's kindergarten picnic. Their school colors are blue and white, but I was in the mood for holo, so here we are. I used Nfu Oh 61 ($12.50 at fabuloustreet.com), aka the greatest silver holo ever, for the base. Then with Konad plate m51 ($6.99 at wowsocool.com) and OPI DS Fantasy ($9.90 at amazon.com) I stamped the swirly design. I really liked the overall look. For my daughter, I did a Bobcat paws mani for school spirit, which you can see after the jump.

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OPI DS Mystery - $7 at transdesign.com

I adore the OPI Designer Series line of polishes. While it's true that most of them are holographic, even if it's just a bit, there are a few that aren't holo but are just plain cool. DS Royal is one of those, and Mystery is another. I've been debating over Mystery for some time and I finally just bought it off eBay. I got mine for about $10 total including shipping, so basically less than retail if you were to get it at Ulta or some such place. The polish is a bit different than I imagined from the bottle, and I haven't seen (or really looked for online swatches for) it so I was a little surprised. It's a lot more opaque than I thought it would be with all that shimmer in the bottle. The first coat reveals that the base is a very deep blue-toned purple with some translucent large shimmer particles. The weird part about this polish is that inside in indirect light the shimmer is gorgeous! It's like lots of autumnal green-gold and brown shimmer running through the base. Then you go outside and half the shimmer disappears and blends into the base but there's a little bit of copper-toned shimmer peeking out. I only really like this polish when it's not in indirect light. I think this would be a lot better for the winter months when there isn't much sun. This polish didn't blow me away, but it's got some nice qualities.

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OPI Have You Seen My Limo

This is one of my top 5 OPI polishes of all time. It's from the 2007 (has it really been that long??) Holiday in Hollywood collection and it appears to still be available on amazon.com but I can't vouch for the seller. It's also available elsewhere online, so I recommend doing a little research before buying. That said, GET IT. It's one of the most under-appreciated OPI of all time in my opinion. People squawk about Rainforest, Black Magic Mountain, Vampire State Building, etc... and I've been sadly underwhelmed by most of the OPI hard-to-finds I've been lucky enough to find, but this, THIS polish is squawk-worthy my friends. It has a plummy charcoal base with minty shimmer and a rose flash. Heavenly. I bought a backup for this back in the day, and that doesn't happen often. I don't have much else to tell you about this, so on to the spam!

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