Tag Archives: Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection

OPI Steady As She Rose nail polish review

Posted on January 3, 2012 | 4 comments

Aharrr me hearties! Yes, you’ve guessed it; I’m still slowly making my way through OPI’s Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection and today it’s the turn of OPI Steady As She Rose to join her mates Stranger Tides, Mermaid’s Tears and Planks-A-Lot on-board the good ship Through The Looking Glass!

The Pirates Of The Caribbean set is one of my favourite OPI collections… well, ever, really. I know a lot of people out there weren’t impressed that the colours were so un-Jack Sparrow like, but its range of dusty creamy pastels totally did the business for me – pirate-appropriate or not!

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Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, dusty pastels, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, O.P.I, OPI, pink, Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection, review, Steady As She Rose, swatch

OPI Stranger Tides nail polish review

Posted on September 29, 2011 | 3 comments

OPI’s Summer 2011 Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection has to be one of my favourites of all-time. A cohesive range of dusty pastels, it may not have exactly screamed summer… or indeed pirates… yet it totally floated my boat – or should that be galleon?! And Stranger Tides was no exception!

Stranger Tides is a greyed-out pistachio, a soft pale ghost of khaki, a murky sorbet sea-foam. It’s a dreamy creamy love of a dusky pastel and there’s something about it that feels really breezy and spring-like, yet it can also feel cool and autumnal too. It’s really versatile, neutral enough to work well with other nudes (and be office-friendly) yet also as a refreshing palette-cleanser to bright pops of colours (I wore it with Essie’s Your Hut Or Mine, a bright honeysuckle, and it looked gorgeous). In short, it’s one of those interesting trans-seasonal transitional shades that are always a winner.

Not that this was a view shared by anyone. Whilst I keep studying my glossy creamy talons and screaming AMAZING every few seconds, my boyfriend thought it looked ‘plain’. Admittedly, this is probably because his brain has been addled by my normally wearing polishes like this or this yet he just didn’t get the appeal.

The formula was a dream. After an initially worrying thin and streaky first coat, the second applied like butter, becoming richly opaque and (in what is possibly my favourite aspect of OPI polishes) self-levelled out beautifully. [In that respect, OPI makes application really easy, although as you all know by now, I still find their brushes to fat for my diddly nails.] Smooth, glossy, creamy, gorgeous – it’s no wonder that it’s the third time I’m using most of those words in this review. The finish was as perfect for a crème as you could ever hope for.

What I love most about Stranger Tides – and trust me, it was hard to decide on just one factor! – is how it’s simultaneously modern yet retro. These kind of grungy dusty shades are still edgy in the polish-world and I adored this pastel take on the trend, yet it’s also a colour that probably exists as a Formica table-top in some 50s diner. Which just makes me love it more.

So Stranger Tides makes it for three for three hits in the Pirates Collection so far. It’s super-elegant, super-fresh and super-glossy… just super really!

Looks good with: other dusty shades, neutrals, bright colours (i.e. everything)
Drying time: 5-7 mins
Coats required: 2
Chips: 3 days

OPI, Stranger Tides, Summer 2011 Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2

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Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, dusty pastels, khaki, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, O.P.I, OPI, Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection, review, Stranger Tides, swatch

OPI Planks-A-Lot nail polish review

Posted on August 25, 2011 | 2 comments

It’s been a while since a nail polish review right? Well, let’s get back on the Pirates Of The Caribbean galleon with OPI’s Planks-A-Lot.

Firstly, what a name! Fun and tongue-in-cheek enough not to feel like you got dumped with a huge side order of cheese.

Planks-A-Lot is probably the brightest colour in the Pirates Collection, which mostly specialised in muted muddied pastels that weren’t at all what you’d associate with the gypsies of the seven seas. It’s a medium perfect purple, veering slightly to the lavender side yet still bright enough to not quite sit at home amongst pastels. It does have a touch of dustiness to it too and is noticeably darker than the pale lilac of the bottle, but nothing near as greyed-out as the grurple explosion (best exemplified by all-time favourite, Parlez-Vous OPI). And obviously, I love it.

You know this. I love all purples. Grey purples. Matte purples. Flakie purples. Holo purples. Glittery purples. Rock star purples. Purple, purple, purple (thought I’d just say it a few more times to make sure). So it’s no surprise that I now love Planks-A-Lot, a fairly straightforward lavender purple crème, too.

What I didn’t love was the formula. I had similar problems with OPI’s Mermaid’s Tears and Planks-A-Lot was even worse. Thick, gloopy, uneven first coat… and once again, I tried to over-compensate, forgetting about OPI’s self-levelling properties, meaning I didn’t get quite the lovely smooth finish I hoped for. But even then, Planks-A-Lot is still super-glossy, lushly creamy and just a gorgeous dreamboat of a colour through and through.

So I know I’m not surprisingly anyone by declaring my outright love for Planks-A-Lot, but she really is a beauty. Yo ho ho and all that too.

Looks good with: muted crèmes, florals, grey
Drying time: 10 mins
Coats required: 2-3
Chips: +7 days

OPI Planks A Lot nail polish, Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean Collection, $70, Cher2

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Tagged Beauty, cosmetics, make-up, nail lacquer, nail polish, nail varnish, O.P.I, OPI, Pirates Of The Caribbean Collection, Planks-A-Lot, purple, review, summer brights, swatch

OPI Mermaid’s Tears nail polish review

Posted on August 8, 2011 | 2 comments

I’m usually a bit dubious about the current vogue for nail polish celebrity cash-ins tie-ins, yet OPI’s Summer 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean collection struck gold… or should that be pieces of eight?!

Overall, it was an unusual collection for summer, filled with murky muddied pastels that didn’t exactly scream adventures on the seven seas. Yet for that reason, it was probably one of my favourite OPI collections to date and I snapped up the whole collection quicker than you can say ‘Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum’!

I was instantly drawn to Mermaid’s Tears, a dusty turquoise (and you know how much I love turquoise!). Firstly, what a gorgeous evocative name! OPI are known for their cute-but-cheesy names so I was expecting this to be pun city but they actually managed to keep it classy – classier, in fact, than the film itself!

Unfortunately, I found this polish quite difficult to work with. It was gloopier than most OPIs and the first few coats went on thickly and unevenly – partly my own fault as I spent too much time trying to correct it, forgetting that OPI lacquers are actually amazingly self-levelling on their own. Consequently, drying time was longer than usual and the finish was a bit lumpy up-close.

What I can’t complain about is the colour. Gorgeous! It’s an almost vintage take on turquoise; classy but murky, delicately dusty, but still straight-up beautiful (although a shade darker than the bottle colour). You could well imagine it being the tears of a siren, prettily magical yet refined. There aren’t many turquoises that suggest sophistication, but this is definitely one.

Compared to my other top turquoise creme, Essie’s Turquoise & Caicos (on the middle finger), Mermaid’s Tears is noticeably less bright, dustier and perhaps more obviously green-leaning – a pale green tea, or pretty slate green rather than the tropical island turquoise of the Essie. Both, however, are creamily lush and look great on.