Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear & Midnight Mambo
This past weekend the boyfriend and I went to Pittsburgh to visit with friends. I also went to see Chelsea Handler’s Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang Tour Saturday night.
I am a religious Chelsea Lately watcher and I adore her on the show but her stand up was a REAL disappointment. As Chelsea would say, “It’s not great!” Her behavior was so manic you would think she was having an episode on stage. Like to the point that I was worried about her. And her act was so old that I remembered some parts from her 2007 Comedy Central Presents show. Time for some new material Chelsea. Anywho, I wanted a blingy manicure for the weekend and two of the Sephora by OPI polishes I purchased during the Friends & Family sale called out to me. A reader suggested that I try Looks Like Rain, Dear but Midnight Mambo looked really pretty as well so I decided to combine them into a multi-colored mani. |
Application & Formula: Sephora by OPI polishes are 4-Free (including Formaldehyde Resin). The bottle design is unique to the SOPI with it’s smooth rounded black cap and bulbous base. The brush is round and flexible allowing for an easy application. The brush reminds me of the old OPI round brush and I wouldn’t doubt that they are the same.
Both of these polishes are opaque glitters so they apply pretty thick and gloopy but they’re easy to control. The polish doesn’t spread out right away so it basically goes exactly where you place the brush. I didn’t experience any patchiness, unevenness, etc. The only downside is that there is a LOT of texture due to the various amount of glitter particles in each polish. So if you’re looking for a completely smooth finish, be prepared to layer on the top coat.
In combining the colors, I made Midnight Mambo my accent color with Looks Like Rain, Dear on all my nails except the ring fingers. Because I always have the same two rings on my ring fingers I tend to choose those nails for my accent color to draw attention to them. Otherwise I make my thumbs the accent since I text a lot.
The concept of highlighting your thumb nails with an accent color or rhinestones was dubbed Blackberry Bling a couple years ago during fashion week and while I originally laughed at the idea, I must admit I like it from time to time.
Looks Like Rain, Dear is a burnished gold glitter. It’s packed with gold and silver micro-glitter and chunkier hexagonal glitter that reflects a rainbow of colors. Because there is pigment in the base, the color is pretty opaque with two coats though you might find a third necessary. My only complaint with this polish is the name. I find it utterly lame.
Midnight Mambo has an electric blue base and it’s filled with blue & silver micro-glitter and blue and silver hexagonal pieces. The silver particles reflect the light making them look prismatic, similar to LLRD only a bit more noticeable. This one applied in an easy two coats.
As you can tell from the close up swatches above, the finish is really chunky and that was with one layer of Prolana Quick & Slick top coat (the company changed its name). I ended up pulling out the big guns, Seche Vite, and still felt some texture but it was definitely an improvement.
Wear Test: I wore this mani for a full five days before taking it off and to be honest, I really didn’t want to. It made it through bowling without a chip or sign of wear. It wasn’t until Sunday, while I was shopping at IKEA, that I got my first chip on my ring finger (figures!). I went to grab a Helmer off the self-service shelf and totally biffed my nail. If that hadn’t happened, I would have kept it going a few days longer.
Bottom Line: If you’re looking for two coat, full coverage bling, stop your search. Midnight Mambo and Looks Like Rain, Dear are winners. They make a great color combination for the holidays and give you sparkle without looking too young or like a total glitter party. They are as big of a pain to remove as traditional glitters but it’s the price you pay.
Sephora by OPI Looks Like Rain, Dear is available online at Sephora.com and in stores as part of the SOPI Holiday 2010 collection. Midnight Mambo is an online exclusive. SOPI polishes retail for $9/ea for a .5oz bottle.
What do you think of my multi-color manicure choices? Are any of you rocking either of these colors? If you haven’t jumped on the glitter bandwagon, do more subtle, opaque shades like this pique your interest?
Disclosure: I purchased these polishes myself. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
I agree with you completely! I was obsessed with Chelsea! Watched/TiVo’d her everynight, read all her books, went to see her on Chelsea Chelsea Bang Bang tour and was so unimpressed. It kind of broke my obsession. Obvs. I wasn’t the only one!
Also, I love Looks Like Rain, Dear. SUCH a great color. I wear it all the time. I like the texture of it too.
Oh my, these look just gorgeous! Unfortunately I have never seen the Sephora by OPI range in any Sephora in France. At least the French website doesn’t seem to carry it.
WOW!! I need!!!
Thanks for the idea (for the not so young :)for using the blue on one finger – I love that idea! I also love the color the the gold polish – I’ll have to pick these up! Thanks Michelle:)!
I’m loving the Looks Like Rain, Dear…I’ve worn it once already. For other readers, I tried it as a top coat (one coat) and it was totally too opaque, but this polish is beautiful, even more so in person. From the same holiday SOPI collection, I purchased What’s your Pointsettia? I’m telling you, it is a beautiful dark cranberry red with light gold shimmer…it wears like iron as well! Enjoy the holidays!
The blue one kinda reminded me of China Glaze’s Blue Hawaiian but I take that back with the close-up pics. They’re quite pretty!
These are pretty.
I really like both of those colors! I do wish $OPI polishes weren’t quite so expensive, though.
In theory, I love glitter polishes, especially ones with the hex glitter, but in practice – well, I do still love them, until it comes time to take them off. Then I curse. A lot.
These colors do look great, though!
I love this mani, these lacquers are awesome! love the accent nail!
I have both those polishes and lo-lo-love them. I’ve never worn them more than a day or two, so I’m glad to know they wear so well!
Yay! So glad you decided to swatch LLRD! (I spell it “reindeer” in my head, but it’s still lame, LOL!) I have been wearing it nonstop. I love that it has a gold base so you can do just two coats, and the texture is actually one of my favorite things about it, I think. I’ll have to check out the blue one, too… I love the idea of an accent color!
Oh those are so pretty! I love glitters!
I’m loving glitter right now, and the wear is fabulous!
I have a weakness for glitter polishes but I learned a way of taking them off. I resisted it because it sounded so silly but it works. I use those cotton squares for polish, so I cut a couple of them in quarters, soak them in remover, put one over my nail, and wrap the end of my finger in a piece of aluminum foil (so it presses the pad against my nail). In five minutes or so, I grab the foil-wrapped cotton and slide it off and pretty much the whole works comes right off. Usually I just need one more piece of cotton to get everything out of the edges but its a lot easier than scrubbing and cursing!
That removal technique is commonly referred to as the “soak-off method” by professionals and the “foil method” by nail fanatics. It’s effective at removing glitter but it’s just time consuming.
Agree that it is the best way to get glitter polish off. But it is time consuming, and I hate thinking about how many chemicals are soaking into my skin because of it! Ewwww
LLRD looks a lot like Worth My Weight, which I bought last year along with 212. Do you know if it’s the same w/a name change, or is it completely new? The color looks exactly the same in the bottle, and from what I can remember (as I haven’t worn it recently) pretty much the same on my nails.
I never saw Worth My Weight so I have no idea if it’s the exact same polish though I would highly doubt that it is. I know OPI recycle’s colors but it’s usually a long time after the original.
I have Worth my Weight and I’ve looked at Looks Like Rain Deer in Sephora and they look identical to me.
I love this manicure, and I never miss an episode of Chelsea Lately. Too bad her stand up is not as funny as her show, she’s hilarious!
These nail lacquers look beautiful!
These colors are gorgeous. I love the blue and gold together, I’m a sucker for these colors together. I’ll definitely have to check out Sephora soon.
My pedicure this week was a modified french with China glaze “for audrey” as the base with “looks like rain, dear” on the tips. It reminded me of a 60′s kitchen with the aqua color and gold accent. I’m a fan of the blue-gold combo!
I’ve been considering Midnight Mambo for a while, and it looks pretty awesome…. might have to pick it up.
I am wearing Looks Like Rain Deer right now and I have had no chips as of yet – 5 days! Seche top coat- it rocks I love this polish!!!
Midnight Mambo is so beautiful! I liked it when I saw it at Sephora but I was hesitant to buy it because glitters can look so little girlish sometimes. That’s some definite grown-up glitter though. I think a trip to Sephora is in order to pick that baby up!
i love the blue… its simply gorgeous
I agree with some of the the other commenters that Looks Like Rain Dear likes identical to Worth My Weight from last year’s collection. It is a pretty shade though.
There is a subtle difference: WmW has a deeper gold base than LLRD which has more of a champagne gold base. The hexagonal holo glitter is also slightly smaller in LLRD. I can’t see why they didn’t just do a repromote of WmW,
I’m late to this polish party, but for the life of me I can’t imagine ANY polish staying on for five days. What am I doing wrong??? Is it that I’m talking about natural nails and everyone here has artificials?
i love the blue
Hey you were in my city! Very beautiful mani BTW.
I LOVE that gold! The blue is a little much for me, but that gold with some smokey eyes is all I need for some holiday fun!
These are gorgeous. However, a cheap alternative would be the LA Girl Rock Star nailpolishes. I have a gold glittery one from them that looks exactly like the Looks like Rain, Dear. I believe they have a similar blue also. Worth checking out I guess.
Hey there maaan. I love the blue. It’s no coincidence my name’s Chelsea too, actually. Hehe. These are beautiful but I can’t help feeling as though China Glaze’s nautical collection has triumphed over every old glitter already. ):