OPI NYC Ballet Soft Shades 2012 Collection Swatches

Hello ladies!  Hope your weeks are turning out fine. :)  Today I have for you the entire OPI NYC Ballet collection for you.  The collection as a whole features sheer creme-jellies that offer squishy, milky finishes and a soft glitter top coat to pair.

I had so many pretty pictures of these shades, that I actually found it a bit overwhelming to edit all the pictures.  I even considered dedicating a post to each shade, but in the end I want to review it as a collection.  I think the general consensus was that most of the shades look pretty similar to each other, so I wanted them all in one place for you to compare.  Below, you can see my swatches of each shade in direct sunlight, shade, and with Pirouette My Whistle.

 4 coats, Barre My Soul: a white-based beige reminiscent of nude stockings.

shade

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 4 coats, You Callin' Me a Lyre?: a fleshy pink with peach undertones.  It pulls much more pink than Barre My Soul.

shade

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4 coats, Care to Danse?: a cool toned pink-lilac.  This one's more purple than You Callin' Me a Lyre?  Originally, I was quite afraid of this color as cool pinks and lilacs are harder for me to pull off with my warm skin tone.  I was pleasantly surprised that this didn't make my hands look "dirty," and it turned out to be one of my favorite shades from the collection.

shade

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shade

4 coats, Don't Touch My Tutu!: a soft white that isn't stark.  If you love wearing whites but hate how harsh they can look, this white will be your new BFF.  It literally looks like I have milk pooled on my nails.  If you look at the picture right below, you can see how these look in real life: sheer and squishy.

artificial lighting

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4 coats, My Pointe Exactly: a cool toned grey with a slightly blue undertone. 

shade

For all the pictures with Pirouette My Whistle, I used 1 coat.  It's composed of very fine and small white-silver glitters.  The glitters also have a soft quality to them, because they are not straight up silver.  Therefore, they add a nice twinkle to your nails instead of being blindingly shiny.  A big plus for this top coat is that removal is painless.  The fine glitters came off just like shimmer, and since the small hex glitters are sparse, I was able to easily rub those off as well.  Overall, I'm very pleased with this glitter top coat.

In terms of the formula, none of these were streaky and they were all self-leveling.  Dry time was also relatively fast, so I was able to move from one coat to the next without waiting.  They are, however, sheer and are meant to be.  There will be VNL no matter how many coats you put on.  My pictures make the colors look much more opaque.  In real life, I was able to see VNL.  Interestingly, they do look more opaque in sunlight than they do indoors.  With that said, you can build these up to achieve a certain amount of color. 

If you are for some reason, finding these hard to apply.  Here's my application tip: Use medium coats and apply each coat by making your brush almost parallel to your nail bed.  In other words, we are trying to keep the brush from dragging along your nail.  This will help minimize drag and will speed up the self-leveling process.

Overall, I can't help but fall in love with this collection.  I'm normally not a fan of sheers and was afraid that the light colors would not flatter my warm skin tone.  So I was pleasantly surprised that these all looked great on me.  I also did not find these all alike.  I don't know if my warm skin tone picks up the colors better, but I was able to tell each one apart on the nail after 3-4 medium coats.  While I like all of them, my favorites would have to be Care to Danse?, Don't Touch My Tutu!, My Pointe Exactly, and Pirouette My Whistle.


Have you picked up any of the polishes from this collection?

 
Liz

*The polishes reviewed in this post were sent to me for my honest review.
Please view my Disclosure Policy for more info.