OPI Fall 2014 – Nordic Collection Swatches & Review (Part 1)
OPI Nordic – Fall 2014
As we move into Fall, prepare to be whisked away to an icy wonderland thanks to the OPI Fall 2014 Nordic collection.
When creating colors for a new seasonal collection, I always draw inspiration from the food,
music, art, landscape and street style of a particular destination,” remarks Suzi Weiss-Fischmann, OPI Co-Founder & Executive VP. “While conceptualizing the shades of the Nordic Collection, I ate cinnamon buns and drank glogg, snapped photographs of brightly painted houses, and gazed in wonder at the region’s topography – from the northern lights and midnight sun to lava flats and deep fjords. All of these diverse elements came together to inspire an equally varied array of colors that capture the aesthetic of the Nordic region.
Today, I have the six cooler-toned shades in the 12-piece OPI Nordic collection. You all know how I love my purples and greens so, of course, I had to jump in with these first.
Formula & Application
OPI nail polish is 4-free (Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP and Formaldehyde Resin). The OPI Pro Wide brush is flat, wide and medium in length. It’s of average stiffness and easily spreads out on the nail when pressed. The only downside to the Pro Wide brush is that it can be too wide for slim fingers or little toes.
Because each polish applied a bit differently, I’m going to address that individually below.
OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm? is an electric purple creme. If you’ve ever seen Nfu Oh 554, it’s like that but not as warm/red-based. It has this brightness in spite of its depth that feels neon-esque. Though the application and pigmentation tells a different story. It’s very smooth and only needed two coats.
OPI Do You Have This Color In Stock-Holm?
OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid is a deep mint creme. I kept thinking it would be similar to OPI Mermaid’s Tears or Sally Hansen Jaded but it’s richer and darker. The formula is smooth and streak-free but, because of my ridges, I needed three coats. The average person can probably get away with two.
OPI My Dogsled Is A Hybrid
OPI My Voice Is A Little Norse is a holographic glitter in a smoky, sheer grey base. The silver holo particles are dense, small and square so you can get pretty good coverage with three coats. I also put one coat over Viking In A Vinter Vonderland and, as you can see, you get a LOT of glitter with one pass. It dries pretty gritty so you may need two layers of top coat for a smooth finish.
OPI My Voice Is A Little Norse
OPI My Voice Is A Little Norse Layered
OPI Skating On Thin Iceland is a plum creme that is extremely well pigmented, barely needing two coats. It’s very, very similar to Sally Hansen Plum Luck, just a touch cooler.
OPI Skating On Thin Iceland
OPI Suzi Has Swede Tooth is a strawberry milkshake creme. It’s a pretty straightforward pink, very similar but not quite as warm as NCLA Mile High Glam. I don’t have any other OPIs quite like this. Like Dogsled, I needed three coats to cover my ridges but someone without ridges should get away with two coats.
OPI Suzi Has Swede Tooth
OPI Viking Vinter Vonderland is a vampy, blue-based eggplant creme. To me, it’s a bluer version of OPI Siberian Nights. Oddly enough, even though it’s really dark, I was getting some dragging at my cuticle and needed three coats.
OPI Viking Vinter Vonderland
OPI Fall 2014 Nordic swatches
Bottom Line: While Suzi’s explanation of her Nordic palette makes sense, I thought there may be some icier shades or more shimmers in this side of the collection. Even though there are more cremes than I expected, I’m drawn to Stock-holm and Dogsled and enjoy the dense glitter of Norse. I have no dupes for those three so they’re all keepers in my book. The rest are nice but not showstoppers.
The OPI Nordic collection is available now at salons and select retailers nationwide including ULTA and ULTA.com. OPI nail polish retails for $9.50/ea for a .5oz bottle. For more info visit OPI.com.
Thoughts on these Nordic shades? What color are you most drawn to? Do you plan to pick up any of these? Or have you already?
Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for OPI. Affiliate links appear in this post. When you purchase through an affiliate link, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
Not sure what to think of the little norse holo gitter. I mean, it’s great and so on, but the grey base kinda kills it for me… what to make of that one, actually? When layered over darker colors the base won’t show anyways, and over light colors I can see that one being pretty patchy because of the colored base. And alone in three coats… nah, thanks, too much of a hassle. But I *do* like the color and the concept. I’m just unsure what to do with it lol
Hi Rea! I tried it over a light color, just to see, and it’s not patchy at all. In fact it goes on pretty smooth and even. It just slightly darkens the base color, like a light smoky top coat.
Rea! You spell your name the “right” way! That’s how my mom & I spell our middle names.
Well, I suppose I should say my grandma since it started with her. lol
I like them all, but the first one seems more blue to me than anything else. Either way, I’ll probably get them.
It may read blue on your screen but it’s definitely a violet blue-based purple.
I guess I’ll just have to buy it to try it out.
Thanks!
I looked for this color at my local Sallys to see if it was as purple as Michelle was sayng….and yes it is! It was so much more purple than I expected, I actually did a double take haha its very pretty
This type of purple is very hard to photograph accurately. Thanks for confirming.
I love Skating On Thin Iceland, such a beautiful color. Love your swatches, they are amazing
Christine, x
Thank you so much Christine!
Skating on Thin Iceland is my cup of tea. Dreamy color.
These are nice! Can’t wait to see the rest of the collection.
I’m quite disappointed in this collection – just by the swatches and the shades I see online, I don’t have them. I LOVE the nordic countries and I really liked what Suzi said about the inspiration, however, I do not see it manifesting in the colours created. I felt the same way about the Euro Centrale collection too – I’m Hungarian and I know her heritage is Hungarian as well, so I expected a lot more – hell, even a whole collection on just Hungary, like an hommage, but the shades were a nice summer collection, but not at all relating to the countries. These shades don’t speak nordic at all to me. You are right, maybe shimmers, like snowcaps or the colours of the fjords, greens and turquoise shades, something we haven’t seen before… This is just not it. I will probably buy a couple of them, not sure what yet, just because I always buy some OPI, but it doesn’t make me less underwhelmed. xoxo
Love Skating On Thin Iceland and My Dogsled Is A Hybrid!
Dogsled is unique to my collection so I’m all about it.
Those vampy shades are gorgeous also loving the holo glitter! OPI always manages to lure me in with a few shades every collection
Me too. They can’t all be winners but a few always draw me in.
Just a little FYI: Opi has started to put Formaldehyde Resin in some of their polishes again and is not guaranteed 4-free.
I do not have this collection, but 3 of 4 from the Flamingo had Formaldehyde Resin.
What? Oh no! The samples I get don’t have full ingredient labels. I had no idea. Thank you for the heads up. I couldn’t get my hands on the Flamingo collection since it was a CosmoProf exclusive and I’m not licensed.
I did not discover it until I suddenly had an allergic reaction.
Forgot to say that the Jamone Roberts is also with Formaldehyde Resin. I don’t have that many OPI, so I am not sure exactly when they started adding it again. I would have preffered it if all were the same, at least…
I recently visited Sweden and Finland and I think these colors really did Scandinavia justice! I especially love Stock-holm, I will definitely be picking that one up!
Wow, that must have been a cool trip. I need to do some more Euro travel, in general.
Oh that plum! Must have!!
Glad you like it! Let me know if you end up getting it.
And yet another boring collection from OPI…
LOVE Call of them. Even that pink which I usually run from! Great pics I want that holo badly.
Thanks Shannon! It is a nice pink, even though that’s not a color I wear much. It just takes a lot for me to get excited about a pink.
Yeah, I dont think these colours are “nordic” enough. Needed more blues, more grays, more pearl/shimmer/metallics. And why not a multichrome? In Finland they have auroras! In my opinion, they had ingredients for these shades in stock, and she wanted to use these names in any collection, so…
Interesting theory. I would have loved an icy blue grey shimmer of some sort.
More shimmer,pearl and metallic, those are my favorites
hi! how does “do you have this color in stockholm” compare to deborah lippmann’s “i know what boys like”? thanks!
Skating On Thin Iceland and Viking Vinter Vonderland are going on my list. Nice collection!
I like the Dogsled color the best
Thanks for the beautiful swatches! Stockholm is one of my favorites here. Did it stain at all?
Hi Claire! I didn’t have any staining issues. I try to always say in the post if that happens.
They are absolutely stunning!
Nice work, keep doin’
I think it’s a really good collection and of course I love all the names since I live in Sweden
Great swatches! I have Viking in Vinter Vonderland and I love it. You mentioned you have no dupes for Hybrid, does that include China Glaze Aquadelic? That’s the only one I’m worried about it being too close to.
I like the colors but I can’t help thinking that Viking Vinter Vonderland looks a lot like 2013′s Vant to Bite My Neck (although I do love the “v” alliterations!) Would you agree or is one darker than the other?
Stock-holm, Dogsled, and Norse will definitely have to come live in my collection!
I have to say that the purples of Skating On Thin Ice-Land & Do You Have This Color in Stock-Holm are way different enough to get both especially since you gave them both a good application review. And yes, I tend to buy purples, lilacs, lavenders & grays, but these are different.
I’m glad you like them so much. Enjoy!
Oh , so beautiful !! ( My husband calls me a Polish addict ! Guess he’s right .) I especially like – “Du you have this color . . . .” and ” Viking Winter Wonderland ” ! Both very striking colors !!!