OPI Summer 2008 – Mod About Brights
When I first caught wind of a new Brights collection from OPI, I honestly wasn’t that jazzed. I figured, what could Suzi and her crew possibly come up with that would be fresh and new? But after three summers of Brights that were hit or miss, I will admit that I’m pleasantly surprised by the Mod About Brights collection. Instead of fooling us with beautiful in the bottle blues & greens that end up being sheer (I’m looking at you, Call My Cell-ery and Can’t You Sea?) these shades deliver a bold, funky punch of color that really stand out.
An entire collection of cremes, this rainbow lineup of nail polishes has a retro feel that reminded me of this drawing from the book 100 Years of Fashion Illustration by Cally Blackman (see above left). Don’t you just expect her to pop off the page and into a dance sequence from Austin Powers?
When these beauties arrived on my doorstep, I was jumping out of my skin to start swatching. I’ve been dying to show them to you all but time is not on my side. So what you see below is two coats of color with no top coat, exceptions are noted. As with the India collection, OPI is really hitting their stride with creme finishes in their Big 3 Free formula. They all applied smooth and even with a glossy finish.
Mod-ern Girl is a reddish coral shade that actually matches one of my favorite summer gauzy tunics. I can’t wait to pair them together.
That’s Hot! Pink is your typical bright summer pink. It’s La Paz-itively Hot without the blue undertone or shimmer.
Brights Power fits right in with the hot orange trend that is happening in nails but instead of being neon it’s just bright and fun. Definitely a better choice for people that are shying from the day-glo construction barrel shades I’m loving.
The “It” Color is a bit too French’s Mustard for me personally but I can see a darker skin tone rocking it on their tips. You know this is a total Rihanna shade, right? Unfortunately, it makes my skin tone look a bit dirty. I so wish I could pull it off though because I love seeing the reactions I get to wearing totally odd colors.
Green-wich Village. What do I even need to say? It’s perfect! Perfect I say. Can there ever be too many greens? Um, NO! And a green creme? You know I’ve been wanting a creme in every shade of green I can find. And even though Green-wich Village took three coats to achieve perfection, it’s worth it. Look at that color, look at it! You know you want to buy a bottle just to have, even if you’re too scared to wear it.
And before you even get a chance to ask I went ahead and swatched it next to Carolyn New York Greenwich Ave. You know someone was going to request it. The CNY shade is more pigmented and a bit deeper in color. It only required two coats to the OPI’s three. As you can see, they’re pretty close though not dupes. Do you need both? Only if you’re a fellow green freak.
I swear, either I’ve become clairvoyant or the brands have been reading my 2008 Wish List. Because Dating A Royal not only fulfills my need for blues that aren’t “almost black” (e.g. Yoga-ta) but also for blue and green cremes. Where did this undying love for cremes come from? I have no idea. Maybe because I feel like my nails are imperfect and achieving a smooth creme finish makes them look flawless. Anywho, this deep cornflower confection is unlike any other lacquer I own.
Of course, looking at all the bottles lined up like a little rainbow, I thought they’d make the perfect Skittles Manicure. Instead I ended up looking like the disembodied fingers that were put on ice during an episode of Dexter. Creepy, huh? I think I’ll stick to more candy/pastel shades from now on.
image: Frozen Barbie
The OPI Mod About Brights collection is on sale now at all professional salons and retailers including Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, Ulta, Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Dillard’s, and JCPenney.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
Oh how I love you and your blog. You ALWAYS deliver perfect pictures with perfectly applicated polish. And I totally agree with you about the blue and green, they are wonderful.
Your swatches are SO lovely! Glad I added you to my feed reader. It was great to meet you as well last weekend. ♥
Yum to the blue and the green – the rest I can live without (which is good news for my wallet). I wish yellows weren’t so hard to wear!
Great swatches as always! I am totally siked about this collection. Every color look fab
I was thinking about the green and blue when I first saw them and am glad they look so good on your skin tone since mine is almost the same as yours. Might just have to pick them up although you have totally made be broke with Zoya lately.
Oh, Dating a Royal is beautiful! I just got Naughty Nauticals on Monday, though… do I need another blue? (My gut says YES, ALWAYS.)
It was so awesome to meet and get to know you this past weekend! Let me know if you ever plan to come and visit San Francisco!
I bought everything from this collection, save the pink and the green (I love that you love greens, but they do something weird with my skin tone), and LOVE! As soon as I opened the box I immediately thought that I could see why they call it ‘Mod about Brights.’ There’s a faint, faint dustiness to these colours that make them quite retro.
So far I’ve only done a mani with DAR, but it’s AMAZING, the most beautiful, flawless, jewel-like blue. Such a must-have. I’m on a creme kick, too, so I hope the good, bright cremes keep on coming!
Mod-ern Girl is calling my name! I wish I didn’t work in such a corporate environment where bright colors are a no no.
I adore this collection!! I have never been one for cremes, but I’m addicted now. Suddenly I find myself wearing the long-neglected cremes in my polish case after having tried (and purchased) the entire Mod About Brights collection. Your pictures are great!
I’m a blues girl, and I bought Dating a Royal a few weeks ago. There’s nothing else like it!
I like your skittles look, not creepy at all!
Great photoshoot. Love the hot pink.
Wow! These colors really pop, M! I was thinking about ignoring them, but now that I see them on your lovely hands, I think I need to give them a look.
I love the Green-wich Green by the way.
Dating a Royal is cute, too.
Hugs!
I ran to my local Trade Secret the week these came out. I was on a mission to at least get Dating a Royal and Green-wich Village, I already had two perfect yellows, RBL Yellow Fever and one CND Hot Pop Yellow, in terms of oranges and pinks I had CND Hot Pop Orange and who doesn’t have too many pinks to know what to do with, so the only other shade from Mod About Brights I wanted to look at was Mod-ern Girl. I got my DAR and GV, but decided to wait on MG becuase I couldn’t decide if the color was too close to Cajun Shrimp or my other corals to spend the extra cash, what do you think… is MG worth my money? I thought the exact same thing as you when I saw the It Color in person, waay too mustard/custard colored.
hey chica! what’s your fav brights collection? i know there’s opi, china glaze, essie and some more like wet n wild.
i like china glaze’s collection the best, though opi makes the colors much more wearable.
I love the blue and CNY green! Could you possibly put the blue next to yoga blue?
So Dexter, lol!
Forgot to mention, I love Dating a Royal, but it took three shades to get full coverage. But I’m not a professional nail tech, I’m not really even a decent amateur!
And maybe it’s the new formula, but you have to be really fast with your strokes to cover the whole nail and avoid pulling.
Yeah – I’m not really enjoying the new formula either. Just bought a new bottle of Melon of Troy, and it really doesn’t apply as well as the old one, even with the lovely ProWide brush.
I don’t know anyone who’s had cancer because of nail polish. I wish they’d bring the big 3 back.
I’m so excited to order new polish because Dating a Royal and Brights Power are both perfect matches for my favorite college team! I can’t wait for fall football.
OH MY GODDD!!! THAT BLUE!!! cincy i dont know if you recall me emailling you about a similar color that jessica simpson was wearing back in november! a perfect creamy true blue. my nails are aching for me to wear that.
omg thank you thank you thank you for posting this!!! they’re seriously all beautiful!!!
i used to curse myself for being a jobless 19 year old student but now im glad i’m not a mature working woman so i can wear all these to my heart’s content!
I’m currently wearing the yellow shade, and I have NO idea how you got it to look so perfect! It took me four coats to get it opaque, and because of that my nails are covered in bubbles.
How did you make it work?
I am so happy you swatched all of them! I was thinking maybe I would get some more of this collection, I allready have Dating a Royal and green-witch village, of coursse, ut was thinking about Mod-ern girl and maybe even the pink one. this helped me decide!
Thank you!!
I think Dating a Royal is clearly the star of the collection and one that I’m still trying to find since it seems to be sold out online. Honestly I’m not a fan of the green (eep! can I say that here? lol) because it seems too yellow-green, but then I’m not a green person. Agree the yellow is too mustardy and the pink is nothing special, but I LOVE the orange! The orange is the sleeper hit of the collection I am convinced! It’s the most perfect orange creme from OPI in a while. My other favorite is Mod-ern girl which is a nice wearable but fun coral IMO.
YYYYYAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! got D.A.R. & i’m ready to take on the world!
Green nail polish? Hmm not sure I will have the guts to try. But that That’s Hot! Pink looks absolutely AMAZING.
Great post. I've been trying to find a nail polish blog I could follow. I find there aren't many good ones out there !
i own the yellow and the blue, they are both FANTASTIC. im considering picking up the green aswell after seeing this post. ILY Michelle <3