OPI South Beach Collection Revisited Spring/Summer 2009

Today I will revisit last year's OPI South Beach collection. I think this was the collection that really got me into OPI and then I went back and bought some popular polishes previous to this. Ever since then I've been hooked. OPI in my opinion, makes the best polishes because their formulation is so great, most of the time, with creme finishes anyway, you can apply 2 coats and get excellent coverage. The pro-wide brush is also awesome in helping you get even coverage. OPI is definitely king and I don't think any of us are going to stop buying their polishes anytime soon.

Hits: Done Out in Deco,  Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot!, Miami Beet, OPI On Collins Ave
Misses: Bronzed To Perfection, Clubbing Til Sunrise and Suzi & The Lifeguard

This collection came out with 12 colours that captured "the color, the fashion and the trend-setting excitement of the world's most stylish celebrity playground - South Beach." I bought the mini set "Teeny Bikinis", it came with Overexposed In South Beach, Suzi & The Lifeguard, Done Out In Deco and a Fast Dry topcoat (I really wish they would just do away with the TC and put a fourth polish). Anyway, minis are cute to try out, but not practical and since I liked Done Out In Deco so much, I bought a full size. How do you guys feel about mini sets? Do you buy them?

I am not a huge fan of mini sets for multiple reasons:
1) The biggest reason is probably: The polishes do not have balls inside them, so once the polish starts to separate, it is difficult to shake it around.
2) Polish names are not labeled, so you have to keep them in the original packaging as I have here to remember which is which. They do have the OPI label number on the bottoms so I suppose you can look it up if you really misplace them.
3) They don't come with the pro-wide OPI brush so they can be a pain to apply as the brush is a lot smaller than usual.
4) You only get 3.75ml vs the full size 15ml bottle (notice size difference in pic below).
5) They are really awkward to hold for swatch pics.

Onto the swatches of the polishes that I have from the South Beach collection:

Overexposed In South Beach is a shimmery purple. It has blueish, purple shimmers in it. It's a fun, summery colour.

Suzi & The Lifeguard is shimmery baby pink. I wouldn't have bought this in full size if I hadn't got it with the mini set, it's not really my colour since it has that almost frost look to it, it is cute, but not on me. This polish illustrates why I like sticking to mostly creme finishes with OPI because ones like this show every brush stroke and just look too old lady-like in my opinion.

Done Out In Deco makes it on my all-time favourite OPI colours list, this is a pastel purple creme with slight grey undertones. It definitely makes me think of spring and Easter, but I can wear this all year round and not feel weird, cause I like it that much. I think this was the most popular colour from this collection.

Feelin' Hot-Hot-Hot! is a bright pink creme, I have uploaded a swatch of this colour recently. It's really pretty and nice to have if you like pinks. I just recently bought this one and the next one up.

OPI On Collins Ave is a bright orangey-red creme colour. I think this colour is unique in that it is between an orange and a red, and personally, I don't have a lot of orange OPI shades, so this one is cool to have.

Miami Beet is a purpley-red creme that totally reminds me of beets. This is another must-have in this collection in my opinion. The colour is awesome, and it applies really well too. You could get away with one thick coat, this is two. 

Let me know if you like these blog posts revisting old collection? I feel like since this blog hasn't been around very long, I may be going back a bit and including some past collections, it's easier to do longer posts with several swatches instead one nail polish swatch per day, more posts, but less exciting I think. Let me know what you think please! And don't forget to enter my poll on the top right of what you would like to see more of on this blog! :)