Thursday 16 August 2012

OPI Holland Collection - Swatches and Review

I've been somewhat slack recently on posting for one reason and one reason only...the Olympics were in London! I've been glued to my TV firmly clutching my Team GB flag throughout and I’ve also been lucky enough to go to a few events, with appropriately themed nails which I will be doing a post on soon but I've been a bit of a slow coach catching up on my other posts.

Anyway making a tenuous segue to a post on archive polishes today featuring OPI's Holland collection for Spring/Summer 2012. The Holland collection is one of their traditional collections themed around destinations. If you were supporting the Netherlands in the Olympics you were royally spoilt for choice with this collection. They seemed to go with pretty classic (and possibly a smidge stereotypical?) Dutch imagery – it feels very wind and water inspired with nods to windmills, tulips, cheese, canals and errr...Amsterdam nightlife in shade and name selection.

 
OPI Holland - Edited highlights (taken with Instagram)

Overall I really liked the shade selection in this collection but I only picked up four shades ( I Have a Herring Problem, Dutch Ya' Just Love OPI, I Don't give a Rotterdam and Wooden Shoe like to know) which are swatched below the break. I've also added a little bit about what I look for when picking out which shades to get as I'm interested to see how you guys make your choices.



OPI I Have a Herring Problem

First up is OPI I Have A Herring Problem which is a muted blue-green with a good whack of silver and brassy gold micro glitter. The formula on this is very smooth, this is two thin coats and although I keep thinking you can see VNL in the photo you couldn’t on the nail so two is fine. It dries a little darker than the bottle to almost a denim colour. It makes me think of blustery seas and stormy skies which is suitably in keeping with the fishy theme!


OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI?

OPI Dutch 'Ya Just Love OPI? is a deep plum with coppery gold shimmer. The formula on this is thicker than Herring Problem but still smooth but it dries a lot darker than the bottle colour. This is two coats and that gives you perfect coverage. This is a lovely sultry purple but the thing I love the most about this one is the stunning coppery shimmer that runs through it. You can pick up highlights on the bottle and the nail. One of the things I like about this collection is the mix of finishes including the shimmer and the microglitter flakes. I'd love OPI to do a few more shimmers like this, it's like their version of the Chanel secret shimmer (i.e. Mimosa, Riva etc).


OPI I don't give a Rotterdam!
OPI I Don't Give A Rotterdam! This is a slightly dusty periwinkle blue base with lots of gold and silver shimmer flakes. I got this one as well as Herring Problem because they seemed just about different to justify it and I'm really glad I did because they have a very different feel on the nail. Although the formula for the two is identical with a smooth finish with the glitter flakes, Herring Problem feels like brooding skies and Rotterdam is its breezy, softer cousin. To really push the analogy Herring Problem is the heavy, cloudy period before the storm and Rotterdam is the washed clean feeling after the downpour. Rotterdam gives fractionally better coverage I think, this is two coats like Herring Problem but I can't see the same phantom nail line. For that reason I think Rotterdam edges it for me but you can definitely justify having both! 

OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know
 OPI Wooden Shoe Like To Know? is a warm chocolate brown with the same gorgeous copper-gold shimmer in as Dutch Ya'. This is another lovely year round friendly colour. Again the formula was great, two coats for this swatch. Just like Dutch Ya' it does dry darker on the nail but it's still a beautiful colour, it just loses some of the milkiness that's shown in the bottle.


OPI Wooden Shoe like to Know - Close Up
OPI Wooden Shoe Like to Know - Close Up
For this one I just had to do a better bottle shot to show you just how stunning that shimmer is. You can really get a sense of the true colour here. It doesn't stand out a mile on the nail but it's not one of those you need to be in direct sunlight to see. It's more of a subtle warming base note, very elegant twist on a standard polish. I'm a sucker for a purple (I think purple is the polish I have most of in my collection) so Dutch Ya' is my favourite of the two but if you like your classic browns this is a lovely polish.

Notes on the rest of the collection:
When this collection was first announced my first thought was that they had to include a bright orange because, well, you couldn't have a Holland collection without an orange right? Sure enough they delivered with OPI A Roll In The Hague which was a bright medium orange.

I didn’t bother to pick that one up at the time as I already had several polishes I was pretty sure were dupes but from the swatches I’ve seen it’s that perfect classic orange shade to rock as a Dutch supporting mani. Not that the Netherlands supporters need something as pedestrian as orange nails to show their support, on one morning during the Olympic fortnight I had a whole troop of Dutch ladies wander past me wearing neon orange tail coats and in the last two weeks I’ve seen pretty much every possible item of bright orange clothing including hats that you could imagine. You can see them a mile away when they’re in the venues so it really makes an impact. One final Olympic themed Netherlands note, if you haven’t seen Epke Zonderland win gold on the horizontal bar you must, must watch the video. Apparently he completed the most difficult release combination - a Cassina to Kovacs to Kolman (don’t ask me which is which!) - and it’s a truly great routine so check it out – Epke Zonderland wins gold  (video is UK only but you should be able to You Tube it if you’re in another country).
One of the nice things about this collection was that there was a bit less of the standard OPI six shades of pink or red to make up half the collection. They really went for more elegant modern neutrals with a dash of colour which made for a much more satifying collection overall, for me anyway. The other shades were as follows:
OPI Did You 'ear About Van Gogh? - Sandy neutral shade, OPI describe this as "bisque" which makes me think of the soup but I think they're referring to the Pottery here! Have a few of these and I don't have a great love for these kind of neutrals so passed here.
OPI Kiss Me On My Tulips - A hot pink creme, nice standard colour but not very unique.
OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes - Dusty terracotta Rose neutral, this looked to be the third polish in this collection with the shimmer finish and I was really tempted by this one. Ultimately the colour looked a bit to standard for me so I passed but may still pick this one up.
OPI Pedal Faster Suzi! - Light lavender toned pink with light silvery shimmer. This is the baby sister of Rotterdam and Herring Problem with the same smooth flaky glitter finish. Again was tempted but felt it was a touch too girly, it may still end up in my collection...
OPI Red Lights Ahead... Where? - Bright red creme with coral tones (according to OPI). The swatches I've seen reminded me of OPI Cajun Shrimp which I have (and love) so I passed. 
OPI Thanks A Windmillion - Dusty sea-green, I have both OPI Mermaid's Tears and OPI Stranger Tides so didn't really think I could justify this one.
OPI Vampsterdam - Vampy dark purple shimmer, again I have LOTS of shades like this so I passed but it's still a nice colour to have in your stash if by some random chance you're running low.

Overall a great collection with good formulas on the ones I have. I think Texas was probably the equivalent collection last year and there are definitely more craveable polishes in the Holland Collection.

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