Y’all, it’s a huge collection, so I promise I won’t talk too much. But be ready for lots of posts coming up soon. I’m going to be at my parents house for a week for the holidays, so when I’m not annoying them and eating their food, I’m going to be working on writing up as many posts as I can and getting them ready to post. So be ready. (Sorry in advance, Mom and Dad).

Alright that’s enough rambling because we have a big-ass collection to get into today. This is the OPI Holiday 2018 collection which is inspired by the newest Nutcracker movie that came out. This is their traditional 12 shades, but 3 glitter toppers for a whopping 15 bottle group. I know right. BUT WE’LL GET THROUGH IT TOGETHER. There’s a ton of polishes and photos to get into, so let’s just do this.

‘Dancing Keeps Me on My Toes’ is a frosty, pearly white shade with subtle shimmers throughout. With 1 coat as I like to say, you get a “perfected nails look” so there will be nail line, but your nails just look smoothed out and with just a little sparkle.

This surprised me and built up easily in 2 coats. There are some brush strokes, as you can see in the bright direct lights, but most disappear and aren’t noticeable in normal lighting. In certain angles and direct lights it can show nail line, but again, not as noticeable in normal daylight.

From other angles it’s brighter and more frosty.

‘Lavendare to Find Courage’ is a purple-toned pink shade. It’s a little brighter and pinker than a true lilac, but you know I’ll let it slide this time. This is pretty well good in 1 coat – with the ridges on my nails, I used a 2nd coat to smooth it out more. Easy cream formula.

‘Dreams Need Clara-fication’ is a beautiful sky blue shade. It’s more cool-toned and dustier than other sky blue shades I’ve had, and it’s just so stunning (can you tell I’m in love?).

This did have a more squishy sort of crelly feel to it. It was smooth, but again with my ridges I needed two coats. It was a thicker formula so it didn’t flood too much when I painted thicker coats. Don’t manipulate it too much after it’s been painted on as well, or else I found it could pull and become a little patchy, so just floating it on is best.

‘Tinker, Thinker, Winker?’ is the shade that I couldn’t wait to put on my nails. Another holo from a mainstream brand? Gimme it to my grabby hands. There was some nail line on 2 coats, so I added a 3rd – though you could probably do it in 2 thicker coats.

And as you can see, the holo is absolutely stunning in it. Obviously it’s a little more apparent in bright direct lights, but in normal daylight as well, it’s just so sparkly and delicate. I love this.

‘Dazzling Dew Drop’ is a shimmery gold foil (we had to have a gold in a holiday collection). There was some patches still in the 1st coat at different angles, but they were covered up in 2 easy coats.

‘Toying with Trouble’ is a bright fuchsia pink cream shade. This was a smooth formula, and could easily be opaque in 1 coat. I used 2 thinner coats for the picture here. It’s a bright and fun non-traditional holiday shade.

‘Candied Kingdom’ is the bright traditional cherry red of the collection. OPI knows how to do their reds and this is no exception. This was a 1 coat beautiful and easy to control formula. The color deepens a little on a 2nd coat, but either way she’s a beauty.

The darker of the two reds is ‘Ginger’s Revenge’ (this is what they call my plan against all the kids in high school who would only call me Ginger, right?). It’s darker and more rusty than ‘Candied Kingdom’ above.

Another good formula. It had some patches on the 1st coat, but those were easily covered up with 2 coats.

‘Berry Fairy Fun’ is well, fun. This is a jewel-toned bright purple with pink and purple shimmer throughout. It had a more sheer 1st coat, but was still smooth. A 2nd coat made it opaque and deepened up the color and the shimmers. Another non-traditional holiday color that I’m here for.

‘Black to Reality’ is finally the vampy Christmas I’m looking for. This is a black base with tons of red shimmer throughout. This can be built up in 1 thicker coat, or 2 thinner ones like I used here. The shimmer is beautiful and very visible, and keeps it from looking just like a straight black on the nails. BRING ON THE VAMPY CHRISTMAS.

‘Envy the Adventure’ is a beautiful dark forest green cream shade. I don’t really have any greens like this in my collection (surprising, I know) so I was just so excited for this one. After 1 coat, there was still some patches left. With a 2nd coat, the patches are covered, and it becomes that full rich color you see in the bottle. So stunning.

‘March in Uniform’ is the last of the core shades for this collection. This is a super dark navy blue cream shade. There’s just enough touch of blue to the shade that it doesn’t look like a black on the nails.

It could be built up in 1 thicker coat, though it can look a little patchy. I used 2 thinner coats here and the color was even and so deep and beautiful. One that will transition over to the rest of winter as well.

Lastly are the 3 glitter toppers. They are all in the same clear base with matte hexagon pieces, and then they differ with the other metallic hexagons – in rose gold, silver, and gold respectively. For all of these, I found they distributed so nicely on just one coat, without having to place really. You can swipe it on for a more scattered look, or for a little more built up look like in my swatches, I just swiped over the nail a couple more times to place more pieces down. They distributed evenly, and added fun to any of the base colors.

First up, ‘I Pull the Strings’ is the rose gold one. The matte pieces in this one are more pink toned, and then the rose gold metallic pieces.

Shown here over ‘Lavendare to Find Courage’ and ‘Black to Reality’.

‘Dreams on a Silver Platter’ has white matte pieces and silver metallic hexagons.

 

Shown here over ‘Candied Kindgom’ and ‘Berry Fairy Fun’.

Lastly, ‘Gold Key to the Kingdom’ has white matte pieces and gold metallic hexagons.

 

Shown here over ‘Dreams Need Clara-fication’ and ‘Envy the Adventure’.

 

WHEW. I feel almost tired after that monster of a post. But we did it. And you know, I actually really liked this collection. It deviated from the traditional holiday colors while still giving us some classics. I loved the toppers – new goal for 2019 is wear more toppers and sparkle. To me it did remind me of the colors of the Nutcracker, and I couldn’t complain about any of the formulas.

It’s been a long post I can’t give you any more in-depth follow up than that. I need to sleep.

 

A couple more holiday and winter posts are on their way, as well as some palette and makeup posts, so stay tuned!

What are your holiday plans this year? Are you traveling?

 

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