OPI Skull and Glossbones

Hello loves!  Happy Sunday!

In keeping with the theme of last post being extremely late seasonally for review, here is OPI's Skull and Glossbones from the Pirates Summer 2011 collection!  I originally purchased the 4 piece mini set that was released with the entire collection, but this was also before I earnestly started hoarding collecting polishes.  I fell in love with it in the mini, let someone borrow it, and after I got it back I lost it.  So when I found the full sized bottle of it randomly at Target I snatched it up almost in a panic.

Skull and Glossbones is a very pale almost heather gray creme (I have a pic below of my nails next to a heather gray sweater for comparison), but it really is the color I would imagine sun-bleached bones would be.  The formula is a little on the thin side, but not enough to be sheer.  I got full opacity with three thin coats and it lasted about a week with just my regular quick dry top coat.

The first time I wore this my mom commented that I looked dead, so I decided I would ignore her.  But the this time she like it.  Maybe she forgot?  I love a gray polish, and I have a couple now that they've become more popular.  Until this past summer it was almost impossible to find a distinctly gray polish.  Not a blue-gray, or a purple-gray/light periwinkle, just gray.

So shiny!!

I got a little ambitious after I put this on, and decided to try my hand at freehand nail art.  As a play on words like the name, I put a skull and crossbones on my ring ringer.

This was after I had to redo them before cleanup.  I was just so excited about this little guy looking so good for shaky hands and being a first try.  =)  I used a Sally Hansen black nail art pen for this.  S&G wasn't 100% dry when I did this, so he kind of had to be dotted on very carefully.

Also, please forgive my cuticles, I stabbed myself while manicuring.

Da Bush and Stranger Tides

Happy Thursday!  =)

So I realize that this color comparison is waaaay late from the release dates, but I honestly just realized it myself.  I've had these two colors sitting my hoard collection and saw them next to each other.  Then I thought, "Hey, that looks exactly the same."  The colors I'm talking about are Essie's Da Bush and OPI's Stranger Tides from the Pirates of the Caribbean collection, both of which are from last year's summer collections.

Yeah, I know, my bad.

In the first picture I have Essie Da Bush on my index finger and OPI Stranger Tides on my middle finger.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, but to my eye they are exactly the same.  There might be a fraction of a shade difference, but that must might be from lighting in the photo.  These are perfect dupes for each other.  They're both a murky gray toned sage greens, and they're both cremes.

The second pic is of the two in the bottle side to side.  I figured Da Bush would be more different because Essie tends to dry darker than what you see in the bottle.  But I was wrong.  Granted these are minis of the shades, so I didn't end up spending a gob of money on two bottles of the same thing, but still.

Formula wise, the OPI is thinner and more watery than the Essie.  In the picture I used two coats of Da Bush and lucked out with two thick coats of Stranger Tides.  Normally I'll choose OPI over Essie, but in this comparison you get more bang for your buck with Essie.  Essie normally has very cute names for the colors, but OPI's are more bitchy and interesting.  So if you're deciding over marketing and presentation between the two, go with OPI.

I have no idea if either of these are still available en mass at, say, Ulta, but OPI Stranger Tides retails for $8.50 US and Essie Da Bush retails for $8 US.