OPI Holland Collection for Spring/Summer 2012 Swatches and Review

OPI's traditional destination-themed Spring/Summer collection is all about Holland this year. The color selection for this one is really interesting because it's an odd mix of saturated brights and faded soft shades plus one random vampy shimmer thrown in to mix things up. Take a look!


OPI A Roll In The Hague. Way to start things off with a bang, eh? If you think this orange looks awesome in the picture, just wait until you see it in real life. It's bright and super saturated and as close as you can get to neon without actually being neon. There is one weird thing about it, though... It changes colors. It applies very bright but dries nearly two shades darker. But, once you put topcoat on it, it lightens again and dries slightly lighter than before topcoat. Very strange, but also super crazy gorgeous.



OPI Did You 'ear About Van Gogh? A really nice creamy neutral putty shade. It's a dusty beige base with a lot of grey and maybe a tiny drop of green in there somewhere.



OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? This one is a vibrant red-toned grape purple with orange-red-pink shimmer. It dries a lot darker than bottle color. If you're thinking this looks familiar, it's because it's nearly identical to Zoya Tru.



OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes. OPI calls this rose, but on me it looks more like a dirty dark peach. I can see the rose in there, but it has a lot of peachy warmth in the base and in the shimmer. This has some red-copper duochrome shimmer, but it's very subtle.



OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam! This is a dusty slate blue base with chunky gold and silver shimmer. The shimmer looks really sharp and speckled against the creamy base.



OPI I Have A Herring Problem. This is basically a warm version of I Don't Give A Rotterdam!. It has some teal and green tones in it, whereas Rotterdam has more of a periwinkle-slate cool colored base. The green tones in this bring out the gold shimmer particles nicely.



OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips. A hot pink creme. Has a bit of blue undertone. Very pretty but I feel like I've seen this color a million times. It looks a bit like the Nicole shade All Kendall-ed Up that just came out for winter.



OPI Pedal Faster Suzi! A very delicate light pink with some coarse silvery-white shimmer. The shimmer in this is like the shimmer in I Have a Herring Problem and I Don't Give A Rotterdam, but it's all silver, no gold. It looks crystalline and rough and very shiny.



OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where? This is a very bright coral-red creme. We're seeing a lot of this color this season, aren't we? This and the bright Tangerine orange. I guess they are pretty close to the Pantone 2012 Color of the Year... And while you're looking at Pantone's color of the year, you should take a look at their Spring 2012 color trends. I think you'll find it interesting!



OPI Thanks A WindMillion. This one is a dirty seafoam creme. Kinda like a mix between OPI Mermaid's Tears and OPI Stranger Tides. It looks calm.



OPI Vampsterdam. Whoa... random! Doesn't this seem so out of place with the dusty pastels and the bright corals and oranges? This reminds me a lot of the colors OPI used to do back in the day. Rich color, very fine frosty shimmer, velvety finish. This one is a dark raisin color. Warm and with a touch of brown to it.



OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know? This is a chocolate brown with red-copper-gold duochrome shimmer. It looks like it has a tiny bit of purple to it in the bottle, but I can't really see the purple in it after it dries. This one also dries a lot darker than it looks in the bottle. The shimmer in it is very pretty, isn't it?

The formula on these was great. All of them were really smooth and even and didn't run or drip or bubble. The only one that gave me trouble was Pedal Faster Suzi! because it was sheerer than the other shades and it streaked. I did three coats of each shade and most of them needed all three. Dry time was great. The shimmers dry a little dull compared to the cremes, so be sure to remember your topcoat.

Overall, very nice collection. My favorite recent OPI Spring collection, right after India. Good balance of brights and soft shades. Nothing too sleepy or bland like some of the past Spring collections. What's really interesting about this collection is that there are a lot of familiar colors in it. It's like a mix of all the Spring collections we've seen so far. The orange, the coral, the speckled blue shimmers, the putty beige, the teal-green, the fiery purple shimmer... Do all the polish companies agree to do the same thing every year, or is there some kind of crazy corporate espionage going on each season? Either way, the colors are nice and the formula is perfect.

My picks are A Roll In The Hague, Did You 'ear About Van Gogh, Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?, and I Have A Herring Problem. Also, I think "I Have A Herring Problem" might just be my favorite OPI polish name ever now.

Holland Collection by OPI will be available February 8, 2012, at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for $8.50 ($9.95 CAN) suggested retail for each Nail Lacquer. For more information, please call 800-341-9999 or visit www.opi.com.

(This was sent for review.)