Monday, April 29, 2013

OPI Bond Girls

Texture Week continues today with the OPI Bond Girls collection, which I was fortunate to get sent to me for review. This is six Liquid Sand polishes named for some of the females who've tangled with James Bond over the years: Solitaire, Pussy Galore, Tiffany Case, Honey Ryder, Jinx, and Vesper.



I took the hangtags off for the group bottle photo but they do have the same ones as on the earlier Liquid Sands. Here's a look at the text on the inside of the hangtag—note that it says to use basecoat, which is different than Zoya's recommendation to not use base with the PixieDust ones. (Though I have tried base under the PixieDusts and noticed no impact other than having to wait for it to dry.)



Solitaire is a white pearl with scattered silver glitter. The glitter pieces are similar in size to those in Stay the Night, one of the first Liquid Sand polishes from the Mariah Carey collection this past spring. It's a bit more of a chunky look than the Zoya PixieDusts.





Pussy Galore is a pearly pink. The glitter in this is micro sized and very scattered; some of the texture bits are a slightly darker pink than the base, which adds interest.





It wasn't until I added topcoat (3 layers of it!) that I got the glitter to sparkle:



Tiffany Case is a silvery turquoise. Rather than the pearly base that Solitaire and Pussy Galore had, this is a metallic/foil base. It has larger glitter scattered in it, similar to Solitaire. Overall the effect is more blingy than the first two colors I shared above. Another difference is that Tiffany Case left some slight staining behind when I removed it. Boo to that.





Honey Ryder is gold and also has a metallic/foil base with scattered larger glitters. It's not as blingy as Tiffany Case, though, I think because the larger glitters blend in so well with the base rather than being slightly lighter as they are in the blue.





Just for fun, I tried dotting Tiffany Case on top of Honey Ryder.



Jinx is red orange with orange and gold micro glitter.





Jinx sparkled in low light even without top coat, similar to a Zoya PixieDust.



Vesper is a very dark purple jelly packed with black glitter. It might have been my imagination, or possibly impatience at the end of a swatching session, but this seemed slower to dry than the others in the group. It was definitely the flattest looking as far as visual texture goes, with barely a sparkle to be seen.





I put two layers of topcoat on Vesper and it got nice and shiny but sparkled not at all.



I used two coats each of all of the colors, even the pastels.

Jinx is my favorite of these. Tiffany Case is my runner up despite the staining issue (I think the right base coat would mitigate that). Vesper I'm still deciding about; purple jelly is right up my alley but the overall effect is not as interesting as I'd hope—perhaps it would be good in a jelly sandwich with something sparkly layered in between.


The polishes shown in this entry were provided free for review purposes. The content of the entry was not dictated by the provider, and I get to keep the polishes for my own use.

15 comments:

  1. I like Vesper and Solitaire, but I think the other colours are a bit soft and safe for me. But that's OK, OPI are aiming at the mass market and I don't expect to like everything they produce.

    Your swatches and pictures are super by the way :D

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  2. I love these! I even like Solitaire and I didn't think I would.

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  3. Honey Ryder and Jinx are my favorites, but I also love Tiffany Case. I need to get these soon!

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  4. ARGH! At some point I'm totally getting Solitaire, Pussy Galore and Tiffany Case. So pretty!!

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  5. Ohhh I have Jinx and Tiffany Case but they are untried. Now I need to go home and try them lol

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  6. Aaaaaahhhh!!! I love Solitaire!! It looks like sparkly snow! Love eeet!!! :D

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  7. Ooh more textures! They look great! I really like Jinx :D

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  8. I have been pretty anti-texture, it just hurts my eyes to look at them for some reason, but even I like the white one, and also Tiffany Case. And Jinx. lol. What are these like when you apply them? Are they lumpy in the bottle like that? Or is it some reaction with the air that makes them curdle or something?

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    1. leester, they are lumpy on the brush. What exactly makes up the lumps I'm not sure--I'm pondering how I might dissolve/wash off the base color to see.

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  9. I picked up Jinx, Honey Ryder, and Pussy Galore. I need to get Tiffany Case too though.

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  10. solitaire and vesper are the prettiest, at least to me :D

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  11. I think Solitaire will be an interesting base for some stamping; hoping it is anyways!

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  12. I'm not crazy about the texture but I did buy the mini-set of these since I really wanted to see Solitaire and Vesper with a top coat. I haven't tried them yet. You make them look gorgeous even like this.

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Thank you for reading and commenting! I greatly appreciate knowing I'm not just talking to myself here. :) I'm moderating most comments now due to the spate of spammers who claim to be looking for sexy times.