My Picks from OPI Mariah Carey Holiday '13

I have a serious weakness for OPI holiday collections.  Ok...I have a weakness for OPI in general, but of my 117 OPI polishes I think about thirty are from holiday collections.  My very first OPI's were Red Dazzle and I Get A Kick Out Of Gold from the 2006 Rockettes collection.  When photos of this year's collection started surfacing, I kinda wanted all of them.  I kinda still do.  Somehow I managed to narrow it down to just three.  I have no idea how I managed that, but then this was the same nail supply store trip when I found ALL THE THINGS...so I had a bunch of tough choices.  In this case I went with the sparkle!


All Sparkly And Gold is dense gold microglitter in a clear base.

You could wear All Sparkly And Gold as a glitter topper, but I wanted to see it on its own.  Three coats was enough to give me pretty decent coverage and this sparkle is INSANE.  I kept wiggling my fingers around and going "oooh!"

I can't really call this full-coverage, since there's a hint of nail line still showing, but...come on...who's gonna see that over the massive sparkle?

Ski Slope Sweetie has a white-tinted base and is densely packed with fine gold microfleck shimmer.

I keep buying polishes like this...and they're never quite what I want them to be.  I'll have to do a comparison sometime, but I have at least three others along the same basic lines as Ski Slope Sweetie.  This is four coats and I still have pretty major VNL.  It's not anywhere near as white as I wanted, but I think it's more flattering than some of the similar shades I own.

I won't be wearing it on its own again, but I can see myself wearing it over a nude.

Wondrous Star has white gold microfleck and small black hexagonal glitter in a clear base.

Like the other two, Wondrous Star could be layered.  Probably even should be, but I wanted to see it on its own first.  This is four coats and...it's...odd.  I have mixed feelings about it.  I did a layering test over a cream and I didn't like the result.  The microfleck is so dense and the glitter is so sparse that one coat looks kinda awkward over a cream, with just a few bits of glitter among so much shimmer.  More than one coat starts to obscure the base color.  On its own it doesn't do a great job covering my nail line and the way the flecks cover the glitter looks a little strange up close.

I feel stupid saying this, but I like it way more from further away.  I tend to put my hand right up near my face when I ogle my polish, but at arm's length the two different aspects of Wondrous Star don't look like they're fighting anymore.  They come together into something like a glittery foil and I really like it!

my holo xmas tree's useful as a festive background, no?

Bottom line:  All three should probably be layered over a nude.  I really love the intense goldness of All Sparkly And Gold.  Wondrous Star is a little strange up close, but beautiful and fairly unique.  Ski Slope Sweetie is sheerer and less white than I'd have liked, but I want to try it over a nude sometime to see how that changes it.


Did you buy anything from this collection?  Which do you think I should look for on my next nail supply trip?