OPI Pirates Of The Caribbean On Stranger Tides Collection Spring/Summer 2011

OPI's pre-summer "Brights" collection this year actually consists of... pastels? Pirate-themed pastels, to be exact. The OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection is a set of six pastels plus a silver crackle topcoat and the release is intended to coincide with the release of the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, On Stranger Tides. I think the movie is in theaters tomorrow, so you can wear your matching manicure when you go see it! But I still can't picture Jack Sparrow in pastel pink nail polish. That would be kinda hot. Okay, better get to the review now.



Mermaid's Tears. Smooth, dusty turquoise creme. At first I thought this might look like MAC Peppermint Patti, but this is much more soft and faded/muted/dusty looking and a lot more blue toned.

Planks A Lot. Pretty much your standard medium blue-based lavender creme. I like this shade, and these types of pastel purple shades in general, but there's not really anything that sets this particular polish apart from any of the other eighty bajillion lavender cremes out there.



Skull And Glossbones. Ghostly light grey creme. This looks so spooky, I love it! It's like a nail polish a ghost might wear! It's elegant and edgy at the same time, but it's unexpected because it's light grey and not a traditional color. This shade of grey seems warmer / has less blue than other pastel greys I have and that makes it easier for me to wear. I'm going to call it neutral, though- it doesn't seem strongly warm or cool toned. Really, really love this.


Sparrow Me The Drama. A rather interesting pink. I think it looks different on the nail than it does in the bottle. I'm trying to think of how to describe this.... Antique bubblegum pink? It's a bright color but at the same time has that dusty dirty softened look that keeps it from being a clean bright. There's a bit of violet in it, which makes it easier for me to wear than other pinks. Didn't think I'd like this one as much as I do!


Steady As She Rose. Another fascinating color... This seems more purple in the picture, but in sunlight it seems more pink based. It's like a very, very greyed-out lilac with a slight warm undertone. Again, I didn't think I'd like this one as much as I do! Just goes to show... promo pictures can be deceiving.


Stranger Tides. A dirty grey-green creme. Ooh, murky! Murky greens are the best! This one does remind me of Essie Da Bush, but it seems like there's more color to it, like it's not as faded looking. I'll have to compare. I like them both. The green in this is stronger than the grey.

This release includes a brand new shade of OPI Shatter topcoat: Silver Shatter. It is gorgeous and it goes perfectly with all the shades in this set:

OPI Silver Shatter over Mermaid's Tears.

Silver Shatter over Planks A Lot.



Silver Shatter over Skull and Glossbones.


Silver Shatter over Sparrow Me The Drama.



Silver Shatter over Steady As She Rose.


Silver Shatter over Stranger Tides.

It doesn't look very impressive from the pictures because there's not enough contrast between the light base colors and the shiny silver, but these look awesome in real life. The silver is so sparkly, it looks like it's diamond-encrusted. Over the pastel shades it's just SO pretty, especially over Steady As She Rose. The silver shatter is one of the prettiest crackle colors I've seen.

The formula on these was excellent. I had no application problems at all. Not all of the colors were evenly opaque, so I did three coats of all. Drying time was good and they're shiny even without topcoat. The Silver Shatter applies well, but it has a tendency thicken in the bottle neck, so keep the bottle closed as much as possible- don't leave it open too long. The brushes still seem more blunt and square and a bit skinnier than the original Pro-Wide brushes.

Overall, I like this whole collection more than I thought I would. I've been really overloaded on pastels (and crackles, for that matter) lately but the murky, dirty, greyed shades in this collection are really pretty. I do think it's odd that the brights collection for this year isn't bright. My main complaint is that Planks A Lot looks too much like so many other colors... I wish they would have done a dirtier purple, or a completely different color altogether, like a dirty yellow pastel. Silver Shatter is fantastic, though... Looks great over anything. They did a good job on that one.



(This was sent to me for review.)