Soooo. What was to be a nice, lazy afternoon became just a bit more exciting. After spending 10 minutes in my closet trying to choose a color, I finally sat down with a muted pink and was just about to open the bottle, when... the doorbell rang.
The Postman. Handed. Me. The. Nicki. Minaj. OPI. Collection.
And timing could NOT be better.
This collection was developed by OPI in collaboration with Nicki Minaj. And if you've seen her Super Bass MV, it's like technicolor eyecandy. I'm pretty happy with this collection - it offers two stunning glitters, three striking opaque shades, and one smashing shatter. Perfect for someone who likes variety.
Without further ado, here's the lineup.
Note: I've tried to get detail shots as close as I can, but my camera refuses to focus on the glitter. Might replace those later. Anyhow, click the pictures to get a larger version. The majority of photos are done in almost direct sunlight.
I've been really curious about this one ever since I saw swatches elsewhere. Metallic 4 Life is one of the two glitters in the collection - a black charcoal jelly base, suspending three sizes of silver glitter (tiny circles, medium circles, and larger 1mm hexagonals).
To get even coverage of glitter, this is one glit polish where you are obliged to 'place' and position hex glits with your brush onto the nail.
However after two coats, the glittermonster in me remained unsatisfied - but three coats was perfect. No glitter placement needed. The jelly base allows the bottom layers of glitter to peek through with varying opacity, giving the glitter effect more depth.
I'm in love.
But I'd consider layering two coats over black in future, if just to save polish.
Save Me is the other glitter polish in the collection. I wasn't as excited about this as I was for Metallic 4 Life, since I've seen this done before - but it does have the potential to be really pretty. This is essentially small silver glitter with a clear polish base, and helpings of two types of stick glitter - teal, and gold holographic.
Application for this was more finicky since once again, you are obliged to 'place' the stick glitter as and where you like it. The teal stick glitters give the silver an overall cool blue tinge which I find really appealing, so I'm all for wearing it alone. The swatch is two coats, which provides good coverage due to the dense small glitter.In the meantime, my mother just put it over her sheer pink mani. Equally pretty.
Pink Friday is a swatch I've seen on the OPI Facebook page, and it looked pretty creamy there. This is a very opaque, chalky-pastel pink that I think may almost be universally flattering. In the bottle, the shade looks quite comparable to OPI It's a Girl! which I hauled a while ago, but Pink Friday has a bluish undertone that won't make Asian skin yellower.
In fact, ONE coat of it was pretty opaque already, but I slapped another coat on for good measure. Application is flawless with this one, no streaking.
Here's two coats of Pink Friday. Pretty awesome on its own, but please, please scroll down for shatter photos. Really.
Did It On 'Em is a stunning yellow-green neon shade - the consistency and application is exactly the same as Pink Friday above, so no complaints there. When I saw the yellow-green mix, I immediately thought about Who The Shrek Are You? but seeing swatches, I'm convinced that this includes more yellow hues than green.
Two coats here. For those people who look horrible in yellow (read: me), this is a good hue to try. 
And finally the last neon shade - Fly. I must admit I wasn't overly excited since solid blues have been done before (and I actually own this shade from Caronia, a Philippine brand). It's a darker blue than What's With the Cattitude?, and that makes it very wearable for those with fair skin - color really pops.
Two coats of Fly here as well.The consistency here was not the lovely creme that I got from both Pink Friday and Did It On 'Em; the first coat applied streaky. Second coat fixed that though, so as long as you have a smooth application technique and don't swipe the brush too many times, your nail should remain streak free.
Admission. I am not a big shatter fan; I got into the craze about 6 years ago and never picked up a shatter polish since.
Enter Super Bass. I'm pleased to find it a lot easier to apply than the shatters I had way back when - layering a thin coat elicits a perfectly distributed shatter with just the right amount of base color exposure. It's a purple shimmer with glints of magenta and violet. I would actually love to have this color just as a normal polish...
So. I'm really liking the vivid contrast of the shatter on neon colors. Pictures were taken in direct sunlight; shades are actually quite a bit less neon indoors. Dries matte.If you ever thought the Maybelline Colossal Mascaras had the most AWESOME packaging, you're going to love this collection.
However... I'm not entirely convinced about shatter on the glitters. I personally prefer the beauty of a full glitter nail itself, so to me, shattering glitter with shimmer is just distracting. That being said, Super Bass on Save Me really is starting to grow on me - but it kills the depth of Metallic 4 Life, which is what I found attractive about it in the first place.
[Edit: that shatter picture has no topcoat. I put some clear polish on it later, and it really makes a WORLD of difference. Brings out the shimmer in Super Bass, and even the glitters are starting to look really really good.]
[Edit: that shatter picture has no topcoat. I put some clear polish on it later, and it really makes a WORLD of difference. Brings out the shimmer in Super Bass, and even the glitters are starting to look really really good.]
The Nicki Minaj collection will be available in stores come January 2012.
Disclaimer: I received the Nicki Minaj collection as a result of winning an official OPI contest. All views are my own.
