OPI Soft Shades for 2010

I didn't actually realize how long it had been since I posted! We took the week off for my birthday and had a sort of pseudo-vacation, worked on some home improvement projects, went to a wedding... nothing too exciting. But hey, did you know that Minwax wood stain eats nail polish? Now I do.

Once again I'm totally behind on all the things I wanted to post... as if I ever caught up in the first place?

So... where to start... OPI Soft Shades? Had a surprisingly high number of emails asking me to review this, so here it is. And useless trivia? 3 of the 4 shades start with the letter 'i'. Confusing!



Isn't That Precious? Soft pink sheer. Has that kinda squishy-jelly-soft look that I like. It's a creme, no shimmer.



I Think In Pink. The darkest and most opaque of the bunch, but still not dark by any stretch of the imagination.



It's A Girl! Genius, OPI, genius. I can see this shade being super popular for the name alone. Think of all the baby shower gifts! It's A Girl baby pink nail polish! But now they need to do a stereotypical baby blue "It's A Boy" to match. It should come with bubblegum cigars.



Pink-a-doodle. Oddly, the only one that doesn't start with 'i' is also the only shimmer. It's very subtle and a little hard to see, but this pink sheer does have a soft shimmer to it. But I do have to say... Pink-a-doodle?? Huh??


The formula on these was a bit tricky for me to use. I generally find that pink sheers are thick in consistency- and these were a little on the thick side. They're all sheers, so I did four coats. Thick plus multiple coats rarely ends well, so if you're doing as many coats as I did, let them dry for a minute or two in between to avoid that clumping-globbing effect. They do excel in not being streaky on the first coat, so if you're into the sheer look, these will work for you.

Now you may ask, "What's the difference between these colors? How do they compare to each other?" And honestly, I have no idea. They look so similar to me that I'm having a hard time finding a way to describe how exactly they're different. I think in this case the idea is to pick the sheer that best suits your skin tone.

Honestly, I liked last year's Soft Shades collection better. Remember it? They were sheer pinks and whites but they had this really neat contrasting shimmer/flash. These are just plain old pink. A little milky and slightly jelly-ish, but still... plain pink. Not that they are ugly, though, cause I don't find them ugly. They're not streaky, not so sheer you need 97 coats and they're actually pretty flattering on my hands... They're just not my thing. And the collection is clearly labelled "Soft Shades" so it's not like we're getting surprised with sheer pinks instead of colors in a regular collection. So yeah, if you like sheer pinks, woohoo! Awesome for you! I'll be waiting patiently for the next collection ;-)

(These were sent to me for review.)