OPI Touring America Collection Fall 2011 Swatches and Review

OPI's fall collection is a different take on their usual theme. Instead of focusing on one specific location (Russia, Spain, Chicago, et cetera), they're going on a coast-to-coast road trip across the States (well, I guess America is a specific place, now that I think about it). This is also a really different collection color-wise than their usual fall collections. I have mixed feelings about it, to tell you the truth... But let me post the swatches before I start rambling.


Are We There Yet? This is a really dusty light salmony-coral orange with a hint of shiny pink/gold duochrome shimmer. It reminds me of of a much lighter, less saturated Essie Brazilliant, but with less shimmer. The shimmer is extremely subtle and only comes out in bright light.


A-Taupe The Space Needle. This looks much more green toned on my skin than it does in the bottle. In the bottle it's a warm light brown, taupe really, and doesn't really look green. On my skintone (cool/pink undertones) it seems olive-based and the color does dry at least a whole shade darker than it appears in the bottle. I like this one, it's very camouflagey!


Color To Diner For. This is a murky-looking medium warm cranberry with some really cool shimmer in it. The shimmer seems almost holographic- it shifts colors a lot and it is very shiny. However, the shimmer is very fine and subtle and only really comes out in bright sunlight.

French Quarter For Your Thoughts. This is another one that seems to dry a whole shade darker than it looks in the bottle. In fact, almost every shade in the collection is like that. The color of this is a light smoky grey. In the bottle it seems to have a yellow tone to it, but on my nail it seems more neutral. Very cement looking.


Get In The Expresso Lane. 'Expresso'... I know it's supposed to be a pun (express lane, espresso brown polish), but that word bothers me! I know... irrelevant. The color is a nice one- a dark vampy neutral espresso brown with a distinct muddy/dusty/smoky look to it. Lighter than Zoya Codie.


Honk If You Love OPI. Another nice vampy fall shade- this one is a red purple creme. Too warm to be eggplant, too cool to be wine... I'm going to go with grape. Dark grape. It looks a little darker here than it does in real life; it looks distinctly purple and not black on my nails.


I Brake For Manicures. I'd certainly hope so... Because it's really tragic when you don't brake for manicures. In fact, I'd say don't mix vehicles and manicures at all! Anyway... This is not as similar to Honk If You Love OPI as it seems in my picture. It's a very dirty smoky purple. Very greyed out, dusty and faded looking. Reminds me a bit of Rescue Beauty Lounge Recherche.



I Eat Mainely Lobster. I have great memories of eating lobster in Maine, so perhaps I'm a little biased, but... This is the best of the shimmer shades. I'm really not particularly crazy about any of them, but this one is at least pretty. It's a bright coral (makes me think of My Chihuahua Bites) with duochrome pink/gold shimmer. Like the other shimmers shades, the shimmer in this one is super subtle and only comes out in sunlight. When it does, it's pretty, but otherwise it's nearly unnoticeable.



My Address Is "Hollywood". Ack. What is this? Dusty rose? Mauve-salmon? I can't even... It's just... Dare I say it? Ugly. Sorry guys. Please don't take that personally if this is a color you like. It's just not my thing. It's that sort of dated dusty rose matronly granny color that I thought we had abandoned for good in the 80s. In its defense, it does have a really pretty duochrome shimmer in it, but it's so subtle you don't really notice it. Next...



Road House Blues. Keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel... This color is so hard to photograph but it's so pretty. It's a dark dusty indigo creme. It appears pure blue in my pictures, but it's actually in between blue and purple. Perhaps what one might call "blurple"? It reminds me a whole lot of OPI Sapphire In The Snow and from pictures I've seen, perhaps even the super-rare OPI Madewell To Order.


Suzi Takes The Wheel. The name of this one cracks me up. The color is interesting as well. It's a very, very grey light green... Or is it actually a green light grey? It's blue toned and closer to Rescue Beauty Lounge Diddy Mow than it is to Essie Da Bush.



Uh Oh, Roll Down The Window. Haaahahahaha! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my juvenile sense of humor can't get past this one. Seriously. Excellent name. Good color, too. Murky, smoky olive green. Darker and more blue toned than Zoya Dree.


The formula on these was good but not perfect. Some shades were pretty streaky (the shimmers), some were a little thinner than I'd like. Otherwise, they were fairly easy to apply but not as thick and opaque as I expected. I used three coats of each shade; each one needed it. A couple had defective brushes with uneven bristles, but not as severe as they were back when India was released. Drying time was excellent, lightning fast. Another formula-related note: Lots of unmixed pigment in the camouflage creme shades. I had some streaks of pigment during application because I didn't shake them well enough.


Weird collection, right? I really don't like the shimmers- I think the pink and coral shades are boring and don't feel like fall to me. If they had more of that delicious duochrome shimmer, I might feel differently. But, they don't. Snore.

I do like the camouflage colors and the vampy purples. Smoky, murky, dirty, nasty muddy shades are some of my favorites and these are all excellent ones. They're edgy without being bright and obnoxious. Grunge colors. And vampy purple is always one of my go-to manicure shades. The only problem with them is that they're not unique. We've been seeing these colors all over lately and I'm sure there's probably a dupe for each one somewhere out there.

I like the names, I like the color selection on the creme finish shades and I like the theme... I'm disappointed by the choice of colors for the shimmer portion of the collection and I'm also a little bummed that there's nothing glittery or un-dupable here. Great names, though. Nothing too cheesy and I got a chuckle out of a few of them.

So, that's why I have mixed feelings on this collection. I like (most of) the colors and the names, but I think I expected something... different? But if you asked me, I couldn't tell you what I would have done differently! Maybe not chosen mauve-salmon-coral-cranberry shimmers, but that's a given. Oh well. Camouflage colors are cool.

(These were sent to me for review.)