OPI New York City Ballet Collection

Like many little girls, I went through a serious ballet phase. I took classes and danced in recitals and talked my mom into taking me to see professional ballet companies and read books about dancers and studied magazine ads for ballet camps and schools. As I grew up, my body became less and less ballerina-like, and I discovered boys (who didn't seem to mind that I didn't look like a dancer), so ballet and I parted ways. I still have a soft spot for it, though, so when I heard OPI's Soft Shades collection this year was ballet-themed, I was interested. Soft Shades and ballet seem go together quite nicely—all those pale pink tights and fluffy white tutus. There are six polishes in this collection, one glitter and five sheer cremes. I was fortunate to get all of them from OPI to review, so settle in for a dozen and a half photos (you know I had to play with them some after I swatched them on their own).



Don't Touch My Tutu is a sheer white. I used three coats when I swatched (of this and the other sheers), mostly because I wanted to see how it would build. It was pleasantly non-streaky for such a light color, and I could have stopped at one or two coats for a more transluscent look. (The same was true of the other sheers.)





Barre My Soul is a sheer peachy beige. Against my pale and ruddy skintone, it gives a clean, neutral look.





You Callin' Me a Lyre is a sheer pink. This is the closest of these to "ballet pink", the color of tights and toe shoes. It would need a touch more orange to match the shoes I remember having, but that was a long time ago so perhaps my mental picture is off a bit.





Care to Danse is a sheer lilac. With my love of purple, of course I liked this one a lot. In the sea of pale sheer polishes in the marketlace, not many are purple-toned, so I appreciate that there's one in this collection





My Pointe Exactly is a sheer light grey. This is the standout of the sheers for me; I've not got anything like it in my stash.





Pirouette My Whistle is the glitter in the group, and it's a pretty one, with a mix of white hex and tiny silver glitter in a clear base. It could be worn by itself but I was so entranced by My Pointe Exactly that I didn't want to take it off right away so put Pirouette My Whistle on top of the grey. For these swatches, I only used one coat of Pirouette My Whistle; you can see it's got a lot of glitter in it.







Because my brain goes to "French manicure" when it sees sheers like these, I had to try some of them with a white tip. I freehanded the white, so please excuse the wobbly lines. As with the swatches above, I used three coats of the sheers so you can see the colors better. Top to bottom below, it's Don't Touch My Tutu, Barre My Soul, You Callin' Me a Lyre, and My Pointe Exactly.



I then glitzed up the French with one coat of Pirouette My Whistle. I quite liked the effect.



Finally, I had to try using one of the sheers for a jelly sandwich, so I put on two coats of Don't Touch My Tutu, followed by one of OPI Rainbow Connection from last year's Muppets collection, followed by one more of Don't Touch My Tutu.





My picks from this collection are Care to Danse, My Pointe Exactly, and Pirouette My Whistle. The other three are nice, but I have similar things in my stash already, and you might too, since pale sheers like that are classics. My Ulta store just put out the display of this collection this past week; they should also be in places like JC Penney (are they just going with JCP now, like KFC?) and other salons and beauty supply stores. Full size bottles are $8.50, and there's also mini set of four for $12.50 which has my three favorites plus Don't Touch My Tutu (never bad to have a basic sheer white).

The polishes shown in this entry were provided free to me from the brand's representatives for review purposes. I received no additional compensation beyond the product samples, and the content of the entry was not dictated in any way by the provider.