Shine On, You Crazy Diamond

Remember when you were young,
you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes,
like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond...

Taking a brief break from perfume for a post, I’d like to talk a little bit about the newly created line of nail polish, Sephora by OPI. The line is available, as you’d imagine, at Sephora. I really like OPI polish. It goes on smooth, dries fast, usually matches the bottle color pretty closely with a proper coating, and generally lasts me a while. The nicest part about the Sephora OPI line is that there is an open bottle of each shade available at the store to actually try it on before purchasing. I went in today with clean, dry nails and tried on a few colors, which made it much easier to pick out which ones went the nicest with my skin tone. Sephora also provides polish remover and pads to take off the rainbow of polish before you exit the store looking like Bob Ross went nutso on your nail.

Sephora by OPI currently has three collections. The Digital Diva Collection is a collection of springy pastels that, while lovely, aren’t entirely right for me. The Autumn & Eve Collection has a lot of dark rich colors that are more in my wheel house. After perusing a bit, I choose three.

"I’m with Brad," which is a "shimmering wine over dark coffee," is also a glittery, shimmer burgundy. It can read as almost black until the light hits it, when it shimmers a lovely deep brown-red.

"Never Enough Shoes" is described as a "black with multi-color glitter." It’s less black on me than it is a purplish grey, but the glitter is really nice. So far I’ve only tried it on my toes, but it was great with some open toed satin black heels.

I tend toward glittery colors, but my final color is "BYOBoy." BYOBoy is a "spicy rose brown" which on me reads as a lovely dusty rose. It goes super well with my skin color, and it a pretty and noticeable color without being too loud or non-normative to wear to my rather conservative job with the local law enforcement. I don’t have a lot of polish that I really like that is also work appropriate, but this one will work out really well I think.

Sephora by OPI also has a Treatment Collection, which includes base coat, top coat, and some other basic items. From this collection I picked up the Restorative Hand Moisturizer, which is a rich moisturizer that isn’t sticky or greasy, absorbs easily, and has a lovely light lemony scent. As hand cream goes, I recommend it.

All colors go for $9 a bottle. A little on the pricey side, but OPI polish lasts forever if you keep the bottles closed tight. I really recommend trying the colors in the store, though, because there are too many colors that look lovely in the bottle and not so great on your hands. The ability to try them out first is very, no pun intended, handy.

"...Come on you raver, you seer of visions,
come on you painter, you piper, you prisoner, and shine!"
- Pink Floyd, "Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Parts I-V"

Want more polish reviews?
~ A review of reds from Perfume Posse.
~ There are a few additional polish recommendations included in this piece as well.