Do you currently use OPI nail polish? Do you have OPI nail envy? If you do already create cute nail designs with OPI brands, you already know this is a quality product from a company that has been around since 1981, and originally was only available in professional salons. Recently there has been a lot of press around the line of OPI Gel Nail Polishes – which they call their OPI Axxium line of polishes, and are also known as “uv gel nails” as they require a UV lamp to dry or “cure” the polish.
The OPI polish brand has over 200 colors of nail polish, spread over a collection that sports cool names such as “Pirates of the Caribbean”, OPI’s Serena Grand Slam collection of nail polishes, their Katy Perry crackle nail polish line, and many more as explained below. All are top choices for getting that beautiful nail design. I am constantly amazed at the nails designs I can create by simply varying these nail polish colors every couple of weeks.
The OPI “Hong Kong” line of nail polishes are very trendy – and reflect a taste of the city. This collection has 12 edgy, modern colors that definitely convey a sense of fast paced, city lifestyle [after looking at the colors, I'd be tempted to rename it "New York" as it just has that feel of the city to it]. Fashion nails never looked better with this edgy reflection of city life.
Specific Collections of the Beautiful OPI Nail Polish Brand
The “Pirates of the Caribbean” polish collection is, of course, modeled after the movie! This collection is especially intriguing – it includes 7 different polish shades with names and colors that reflect the theme of the movie – I have to admit as collections and theme’s go this one stands out for women that want OPI Nails:
- Mermaids Tears – this is a cool light green shade of nail polish that results in stunningly beautiful nails
- Stranger Tides – this is an almost translucent off-white shade of polish
- Plans a Lot – a unique light purple shimmery shade that creates a nails design that will attract attention for sure
- Sparrow Me the Drama – a light pink that seems quite different than the normal shades you’d see from a drugstore brand.
- Steady as She Rose – you can guess at this one. A very fine light Pink shade that is unique across the OPI nail polish pink colors.
- Skull and Gloss Bones – Similar to the “Stranger Tides” OPI polish above, but a little more glossy [but still looks like a shimmering translucent shade].
- Silver Shatter – An exceptional addition to the OPI line of crackle nail polishes – this one is of course a bright fully functional silver crackle polish that creates that unique shatter nail polish effect.
Visualizing your Cute new OPI Nail Design
The OPI polish web site also has a cool “Try It On” tool that allows you to see how any nail polish in their extensive collection will look on nails – it’s pretty cool, as you can select a polish from their collection and it shows a very realistic [photo quality] hand that instantly has that color applied to it. I’d give it a shot if you haven’t already as it is a good way to see how a nail polish color looks on a real hand [ok, kind of real anyway].
One of the better places to buy OPI polishes for me is amazon.com – they often carry some hard to find ones, and of course I can shop for polish online and not leave my easy chair.
OPI Brights Polish Collection for Fashion Nails
The OPI Bright Collection is a personal favorite of mine and screams beautiful and provides that fashion nail look – especially for summer nails. It is a vibrant set of polish colors that honestly SCREAMS spring and summer, and seems to match almost any aspect of the season – work, the beach, a night out – it mirrors the brighter colors and styles of clothes all of us women tend to gravitate to as soon as the thermometer hits 70 degrees! People will comment on your creative nails and not realize what an easy nails design it was to achieve.
OPI recently introduced 6 new nail polish colors to this collection: Insert the word “Vibrant” in front of each of these and you’ll have a better mental image of the effect:
- Orange
- Red
- Ping
- Purple
- Blue
- Grey
What is OPI Gel Nail Polish
OPI’s line of gel / shellac nail polishes is called “Axxium Gel Nail Polish”. If you don’t know what gel nail polish is you can click on the link in this sentence to learn more. As with all OPI nails, this is a high quality line of gel nail polishes, which will last in most cases longer than 2 weeks – it is highly resistant to chipping and cracking which is common with normal nail polishes. Achieving beautiful nails is one thing, but these gel polishes help you keep the beauty longer!
Be aware, however, that you will need a UV light to “cure” or dry the polish (takes less than 2 minutes) and these typically run between $50 and $100 depending on brand – but they last a long time and more than pay for themselves by saving a few trips to the salon. This is why you sometimes see these hardy nail styles referred to as uv gel nails as well.
OPI offers a great collection of nail colors for their gel polish, and package several colors into “starter” kits that not only save you money, but give you everything you need for a wide variety of simple nail designs for several months. These starter kits are a great way to immerse yourself into the gel nail experience and see for yourself the resilience and vividness of gel polish. If you hear women discussing shellac nails, I consider these the same thing in terms of gel versus shellac, although the drying technology may differ a bit in terms of uv gel nail approach versus an infrared light approach.
Caring for your Cute OPI Nail Designs
The one thing I REALLY like about OPI nail products are they have a synergistic line to cover every aspect of nail care and nails designs. For example, they have exceptional quality nail base coats, acrylic nail base coats if you go the acrylic route, clear high quality top coats to protect your simple nail design, ridge fillers to smooth out defects in your nails, and a nail strengthener.
In addition to their complete line of nail products and trendy eye popping names, they also are a responsible company. They give back to the community in terms of charitable contributions, they have multiple lines of OPI nail polishes that fall into the category of organic or safe nail polish – free of DBP, toluene, or formaldehyde (which I know is a concern of many women who are trying to avoid some of these ingredients for more natural nails), and they do NO animal testing on their products.
Finding Katy Perry Crackle Polish & other OPI Brand Polishes
I don’t normally put links in to other sites, as I’d prefer you stay on my site and absorb all of my incredible wisdom when it comes to easy nail designs! However, in this case I think you need to visit the OPI site and check them out for yourself. When you decide to buy, you can find all of their product lines online, and they also sell through national retailers such as JC Penny and Dillard’s, Ulta, and many local salons in major cities.
So go check them out [but remember who sent you there, and pay proper homage by visiting more pages on my site as well 
Check out OPI Nail Polish HERE.
While this isn't the only polish I use [look for future reviews of China Glaze and other high end polishes], it definitely is part of my collection!