New OPI Designer Series Shades for Fall 2009

A little while ago, OPI released two new gorgeous shades to the Designer Series line. The OPI Designer Series is known for being holographic, so that's what I was expecting. I was surprised to see that these two shades were not holographic, but holo or not, they're beautiful.

Since I couldn't get one good picture of either of them, how about a bunch of crappy pictures of both?

Glow, outdoors, overcast.

Glow, with flash.

Glow, indoors, ambient light.

Glow, dim sunlight. OPI Designer Series Glow is a copper-gold-bronze metallic fusion. It's made up of lots of little metal platelets, all of different shades and they combine to make a super-sparkly warm-to-neutral light gold and copper shade. It can take on some orange tones depending on the light, as seen in these pictures. It can also look more neutral and golden. It all depends on how the light is reflecting off the metallic particles. Even though it's not holo, it's ridiculously beautiful. It sparkles like crazy. As a bonus, it behaves like a glitter but it's not a glitter so there's no difficult removal process.


Mystery, outdoors, overcast.

Mystery, with flash, blurred to enhance shimmer.


Mystery, indoors, ambient light.

Mystery, dim sunlight.

OPI Designer Series Mystery is a deep translucent or jelly-like purple base with tons of gold shimmer flakes. It's not glitter circles- they're tiny, super thin little flecks of gold. Irregular shapes. Smooth, not bumpy. On the first coat you can see that the base is a vibrant blue-toned purple with glistening gold dust. I like the way it looks with one coat, but I hate visible nail line so I do two. With two coats it becomes a deep vampy purple jelly with a large amount of gold flakes. This is unique in my collection and it's beautiful to behold.

The formula on both of these is consistent with previous Designer Series shades. Thin, smooth, very quick drying, easy to apply. These are very opaque, pictured above are two coats of polish. Some of the previous Designer Series shades needed three or more coats depending on the shade. There really don't need more than two but would probably look even better with more. I had zero application issues.

While I am a little disappointed that OPI didn't release two new holographic shades, I still love these. They're unique and sparkly and are both something I would actually wear. I think they would even look good together, either as a mani/pedi combo or with some nail art. In fact, I think I'm going to try that. Maybe a funky french.

Maybe OPI will do some more holos next year. OPI, if you're listening, I want the smooth linear holographic effect of the original Designer Series polishes, and this time I want darker shades. A dark purple, a bright yellow (not gold), a true red (not coral or pink), a dark green and possibly a true orange (also not coral or pink).

What? A little wishful thinking never hurt anyone ;-)