OPI Holiday 2010 Burlesque Collection Glitter Swatches & Review
OPI partnered with the upcoming film Burlesque, starring Cher & Christina Aguilera, to create a set of blingtastic Holiday shades and six of the twelve polishes are all glitters.
No doubt the madness that the Alice In Wonderland glitters caused played a role in this collection’s creation. To this day I still get emails from readers trying to locate Mad As A Hatter and Absolutely Alice. Hopefully their needs will be satisfied with the OPI Burlesque Collection. I don’t know how many of you are movie musical fans but I am a proud fan so I’m definitely excited to see Burlesque. The mere fact that ALU Mom ingrained a love for Cher into me from birth is enough to get me in the theater regardless of who else is billed though I do think Christina Aguilera is extremely talented. I am sure the film’s music style will suit her voice quite well. |
Formula and Application: OPI is a 3-Free brand. They made the switch to 3-Free in 2008. You can identify an OPI with the 3-Free formula by the green lettering on the label. Bottles with black lettering have the old formula. Always check the labels to be sure. The OPI Pro Wide brush is flat, wide and medium in length. It’s of average stiffness and easily spreads out on the nail when pressed. The only downside to the Pro Wide brush is that it can be too wide for slim fingers or little toes.
This half of the collection is all glitters so they are all made up of a clear base filled with multi-colored micro hexagonal glitter. They all take three coats to become opaque though that all depends on your application technique. The thicker your layers, the less coats you’ll need though that can lead to chipping.
Because these polishes are formulated like the Alice glitters, you should refer to my Mad As A Hatter Wear Test if you have issues with chipping. Your fellow Fanatics gave some great advice as to which products work best with the OPI glitters.
The glitter particles are all metallic and highly reflective so in person the polishes really glow. Because there is no pigment in the base they are great for layering over other colors, wearing opaque or mixing to create a frankenpolish.
Removal: The downside of glitters is most definitely the removal. I always feel like I need to take a shower after removing a glitter because I end up with chunks of glitter all over my skin, on my face and sometimes even in my hair. It’s the price you pay to sparkle. Patience is key with removing glitter. Soak a pad in remover and hold it in place for a few minutes. You can always wrap the pad in aluminum foil or plastic wrap to keep it on the nail and allow you to soak multiple nails at once.
About The Swatches: All swatches are shown with top coat to avoid a bumpy finish. You may need two coats to get the finish completely smooth unless you use a thicker top coat like Seche Vite. I applied one coat to the pinkie nail, two coats to the ring nail and three coats to the middle nail so you can see how the glitter builds to opaque.
All the polishes contain a multi-colored glitter blend with one or two dominant colors. It has a very confetti-esque feel.
Bring On The Bling is a yellow gold glitter. It’s a pale blonde but it’s rich enough to look gold and not yellow.
Extra-va-vaganza is an coppery orange. The blue glitter really stand out against the orange even though it’s not the primary color in this polish.
Glow Up Already! looks very green in the bottle but on the nail it’s more mellow. It falls somewhere between meadow green and gold.
Shimmer & Simmer is a mix of turquoise and electric blue glitter. The overall effect creates a more subdued blue than Absolutely Alice. AA was almost entirely electric blue glitter with sprinkles of gold and in S&S the multi-colored glitter tones down the overall punch of the color.
Show It & Glow It! is a fuchsia pink glitter with a lot of silver pieces that the other colors lack. All of the polishes have some gold glitter in the mix but it takes a back seat in this one.
Sparkle-iscious would look like Mardi Gras on the nail if only there was green instead of blue in the mixture. This is the lone color in the collection with only three colors in it; purple, gold and blue. The purple & gold stand out as the key colors while the blue is more of a highlight.
Bottom Line: What surprises me is that OPI didn’t create the collection to be layered, with six matching opaque polishes. I know they’ve done that in the past. The thing with glitter is, it’s a love/hate thing. People who love glitters and don’t care about the hassle with removal will love these. Everyone who died over the Alice glitters will die over these as well. My personal faves are Shimmer & Simmer, Sparkle-iscious and Show It & Glow It! What, the green didn’t make the list? As much as I love green, this one didn’t do it for me.
The OPI Holiday 2010 Burlesque Collection is slated to launch November 2, 2010 however I’m hearing that salons already have it out in some cities so the release date may have been pushed up. You can find OPI at professional salons including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and Ulta. OPI nail polishes retail for $8.50/ea for a .5oz bottle.
Also, OPI Axxium fans, OPI is releasing these glitters for a limited time in the Axxium range so you can get your bling on with an extended manicure as well. Ask your local salon if they have the Showstoppers Collection.
Okay glitter girls, are you over the moon or what? How many of you are scooping these up? Which colors are your faves? Do you think these will cause a craze like the Alice glitters? Maybe we should start a pool as to high they’ll go for on eBay once the collection sells out.
If you missed it make sure you view my swatches & review of the other half of the Burlesque Collection.
Disclosure: Product samples were provided by OPI. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
oh but on a serious note i think mad as a hatter really messed up my pinky nail… i applied and it took it off about 3 days later and my pinky nail was really sore and had a huge white spot that never went away until my nail finally grew out (took about two months) i was wondering if maybe the glitter polishes don’t allow the nail to breath as much?
Nails don’t actually need to breath, that is a myth
You probably rubbed the nail really hard and irritated it when you were removing it.
I want them all but Shimmer & Simmmer!
I’ve just received my bottles of Take The Stage, Extra-Va-Vaganza and Tease-Y Does It… I strongly recommend layering Extra-Va-Vaganza over Take The Stage… looks fantastic!
OKay, I’m getting Extra-va-vaganza and Sparkle-iscious. The other colors look great, but I already own some polishes that kind of somewhat look like them.
The thing with glitters is that you just have to sit down in a nice comfortable chair and just take your time to remove the polish, just takes a little tiny bit of patience. I LOVE glitters! Anything that looks like JEWELRY for the nails is GREAT! I never even wear bracelets or rings, but I ADORE glitter on my nails.
And I can’t wait to see the movie Burlesque. Christina’s voice in a movie theater will sound very ridiculously epic.
Ricky’s in NYC has both Burlesque collections…I’m wearing 3 coats of Simmer and Shimmer over 2 coats of Essie Fill the Gap and under Seche Vite.
Looking very blue and glittery and fun! Love it!
Sparkleicious looks like the only must have for me from the entire collection, I will say the Alice glitters are fabulous so these will be too I would imagine. Don’t care much for orangey red or red shimmers… snore
My Burlesque Collection order from Transdesign has just arrived today!
I got: Simmer & Shimmer, Tease-y Does It, Sparkle-icious, Show It & Glow It!, and Glow Up Already!
Currently I’m wearing Sparkle-icious as French tip (over Essie Lapis of Luxury), the OPI formula is nice and easy to apply. It is so sparkly as well, loving it so far!!
OPI offical release of the collection is 1st October from what I read in the OPI Facebook page. But here is Singapore it was out in September (very very early Sep)…
I have to say that none of these glitters are doing it for me….possibly because I have Absolutely Alice and Mad as a Hatter, and these shades just aren’t as pretty, in my opinion. I did however get The Show Must Go On and Teasey Does It, since they are really gorgeous.
I got Bring On The Bling the other day (I pretty much died of excitement when I saw the collection at a salon in the mall, the saleslady was rather unimpressed…) and I love it! I’m definitely getting more colours once I can afford them. I’m wondering if they might have improved the formula, as I painted my nails the night before last and so far, no chips. I recall that with the Alice ones I was getting chips the very next day. Maybe it’s because I have a different base & top coat now. I’ve got Sally Hansen Continuous Growth Treatment Hardening Formula as my base and OPI Rapidry top coat (which I actually hate, it usually sucks). Who knows!
Hi, try using Seche Vite dry fast top coat, its the best out their and especially for glitter polishes.. ur polish wont chip, smooth hard glassy finish is the results u get within 5 min of applying this top coat!
I know I’m one of the very few but I’m not an OPI fan but I did love MAAH and I just heard RBL Locavore is no more. Please let me know if any of these are a dupe for Locavore, Look Rich,Be Cheap & Frugalista. Thanks!
I was in love with “Mad as a Hatter”, and sadly I have used it so much that there is not a lot left and it has been going dry and chunky. NOW they has these wonderful glitters I AM SO EXCITIED!!! I have “Shimmer Shimmer” and “Glow Up Already” at the moment and I love them, I can’t wait to get the rest of them. Although they will never replace my precious “Mad as a Hatter” they are great, and just as fun. SO for anyone mourning the loss of “Mad as a Hatter” and “Absolutely Alice” I suggest you get some of there colours they will ease the pain a bit
I loved the way Sparkle-iscious went on, great coverage on my acrylic nails, but OMG I was almost in tears trying to get it off!! it took me 1.5hrs to remove and I ended up buffing most of it of because the polish remover was doing nothing.
As soon as I got my Ulta catalog in the mail I spotted the OPI Burlesque set and I ran into the store. I’ll tell you…it was a tough decision, I wanted to buy all of them but I decided on Sparkle-iscious. I LOVE it. I’m wearing it right now
i got the extra-va-vaganza polish today and I love it. It´s perfect for a new years eve party. It´s just as sparkly and beautiful as the alice in wonderland glitters
I´m very pleased.
I actually just bought Mad as a hatter thinking it was part of the burlesque line until I read the label when I got in the car.
I ADORE this glitter nail polish and plan on buying all the sets!
I received “Show it and glow it” opi nail polish for Christmas and I loooooooove it! The only thing that erks me is that when you feel the nail polish its all gritty!
But these are perfect for new years!
i FINALLY got “simmer & shimmer”, and it looked great over “whats with the cattitude” & “Ogre the top blue” as my new years eve mani. thanks for your swatches!
Do you know how the Simmer and Shimmer compares to the new Blue one coming out with the Katy Perry collection I think it is call “Last Friday Night. I have Simmer and Shimmer and love it is Last Friday Night different enough to get both. Thanks
I plan on purchasing the OPI clear base since my burlesque polishes tend to chip in HUGE pieces, but what’s a good top coat to use??
TIA
[...] Originally Posted by sarahc have a party book for 6 girls hardly any pamper time as going out for a meal so thought could do glitter tattoos and just paint their fingers and toes with really effective glitter (like katy perry pink opi one) ordered a couple online and were really poop hardly glittery at all – any sugestions, all the katy perry ones seem to be sold out, would have been ideal The glitters from the OPI Burlesque collection were amazing! Have a look here: OPI Holiday 2010 Burlesque Collection Glitter Swatches & Review | All Lacquered Up [...]