OPI Fifty Shades of Grey Swatches & Review
OPI Fifty Shades of Grey
Flash back to Spring 2012. I’m listening to Jennifer Hutt on Sirius XM Stars as she spends an entire hour asking people to call in if they’ve read some book called Fifty Shades of Grey. Apparently all the mom’s in her Jersey suburb were reading the Twilight fan fiction and calling it “mommy porn.”
Six months later everyone and their mother was talking about it so, of course, I gave in and read the first book. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the writing is awful. AW-FUL! Regardless, come February, the X-rated phenomenon will come to the big screen and OPI has partnered with the film to bring us six inspired shades.
I’ve long been a fan of grey polish, even after it was bastardized into griege and griolet, and happily welcome new versions into my collection. So, even if I’m not jazzed about the movie, I’m all in on the OPI Fifty Shades of Grey collection.
Formula & Application
OPI nail polish is 3-free (Formaldehyde, Toluene, DBP) though it’s been brought to my attention that some colors contain Formaldehyde Resin, but not all. Since my sample bottles don’t come with retail labels, I have no idea of which shades may contain the allergen. It’s best to check the label in store before purchasing.
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.
I found all the colors in this collection to be a bit watery feeling so I needed three coats with almost all of them to get full coverage. The red being the exception as it is well pigmented.
OPI Cement the Deal is a blue-based light grey creme. It’s definitely cooler than any other OPI greys in this range. To me, it’s a cross between Orly Mirror Mirror and RBL Concrete Jungle.
OPI Cement the Deal
OPI Dark Side of the Mood is a charcoal creme with hints of slate blue. Held up next to other charcoals, like Color Club Musical, you would almost think it is a blue. Also, there are random gold specks floating in the lacquer that are barely perceptible, even in bright light. I thought my top coat had picked up some glitter from another polish until I checked the DSotM bottle.
OPI Dark Side of the Mood
OPI Embrace The Gray is a dolphin grey creme. Like the other cremes in this collection, it leans cool and reminds me a bit of the shade I created, Barielle U-Concrete-Me.
OPI Embrace The Gray
OPI My Silk Tie is a fine silver shimmer. It’s very soft, light and semi-sheer but buildable. The only downside is brush marks.
OPI My Silk Tie
OPI Romantically Involved is the one pop of bold color in this group. It’s a slightly warm red. Very Valentine’s feeling.
OPI Romantically Involved
OPI Shine For Me is a sparkling silver foil, sprinkled with bright indigo glitter. The glitter makes for a bumpy finish but using a layer of Gelous before my top coat, it dried nice and smooth.
OPI Shine For Me
OPI Fifty Shades of Grey swatches
Bottom Line: While I own a TON of greys, it’s been a while since I’ve added new cremes to my collection and these three are unique to my stash. I just wish they were better pigmented. The red and silver shimmer are nothing new but Shine For Me, with its tiny blue flecks, has such a cool look. If you like cool neutrals, there is definitely something here for you.
The OPI Fifty Shades of Grey collection is limited edition and officially launches in January 2015, though people have already spotted it in stores. OPI is carried in salons and select mass retailers nationwide and online at ULTA.com, SallyBeauty.com and LoxaBeauty.com. OPI nail polish retails for $9.50/ea.
Thoughts on the Fifty Shades collection? Will you pick up any of these colors? Do you plan to see the movie? Even though the book was ridiculously bad, I’m curious about the movie. I mean, Jamie Dornan! But, Netflix interested, not full-price-movie-ticket interested.
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.
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Hi Michelle,
I love a good grey, so its’ nice to see a grey collection (50 shades or otherwise). I think my favorites here are OPI My Silk Tie and Cement the Deal!
I’m with you. I ignore the movie connection and focus on the color
I have a confession. I have COMPLETELY boycotted this book purely because of how everyone kept raving about how groundbreaking and fantastic it was, and based on the sample I got on my Kindle of maybe the first couple chapters, it was NOT so groundbreaking at all. There has been erotic fiction for a LONG time, and this is nothing new. I kinda feel like maybe part of the hype over it is seriously because it’s supposed to be Twilight fan-fic. Although I have a problem even with that aspect because, hello, no vamps, right? Again, I’ve not read them so who knows, maybe Christian ends up “coming out” as a vamp in the final book… In spite of not having read the books, I was going to be ALL over watching it when they had Charlie Hunnam set to play Christian (that man is HAAAAWT!!!) but now, idk. lol
See and I boycotted Twilight because of the 30-40 year-old women I knew who were swooning over some vampire boy. I agree, Fifty Shades is not groundbreaking and the writing is so bad that I don’t know how it became so popular, let alone published for the masses. I feel we should be giving credit to a PR team for making it a phenom.
LOL that is hilarious!! I’m just over 30 and while I wouldn’t say I was swooning per se, there were moments where I felt like a dirty old perv, though that was primarily over Jackson Rathbone who played Jasper in the movies. Which really isn’t TOO bad since in reality he’s not that much younger.
Oh, I get swooning over an actual actor but these were women getting swoon-y over the idea of Edward Cullen, a 17-year old vampire. Don’t get me wrong, I have the DVR of a tween and ABC Family has my number but the concept of Twilight seemed so ridiculous, I just couldn’t bring myself to read it. I remember having a debate with my friend about how the werewolves must have hidden cargo shorts all over the woods. She told me it’s explained in the books but even the explanation was ludicrous. Though vampire fiction, in general, isn’t my genre, so there’s that.
Oh but the polish! lol I love gray/grey polishes so I’d actually probably pick up 3 or 4 of these, but likely leave the red. lol
Yeah, with the million OPI reds that exist, this one isn’t a necessity.
Uhm, I had boycotted as well until I saw that Charlie Hunnam was to play Christan Grey… I bought those books so fast. Haha, highly disappointed that he backed out.
Great swatches. I’ll definitely get a minis pack, but I’ll probably have to get Dark Side of the Mood in full size.
I like that they have a mini set with all the colors, as opposed to their usual four packs.
Well, now you did it, I’ll have to get the dang mini pack so I can have all of them… lol I hadn’t even looked them up yet so I had no clue a mini pack was available with all of them!!
p.s… Merry Christmas, Michelle!! Hope you enjoy your snow, since we have another RAINY Christmas in Oregon lol
Some nice grey shades in this collection.
I’m not quite sure what I think of the collection yet. Following a built in hype, yes OPI went there. But I think I am pretty well covered with grey polishes from various China Glaze polishes.
And I know OPI does a bazillion and one reds, but this one has caught my eye. And Shine For Me is pretty unique.
But all bets are off once I get a good look at the bottles.
I definitely have a lot of greys but I don’t have any exact matches to these which makes them totally justifiable in my hoarders way of thinking, ha!
I can’t get over how beautiful your nails are and how perfect the polish looks on your nails. Major nail envy, not sure I’ve ever said that before.
Aww, Mary, you are too kind. I’m always coveting other people’s nails because mine are so weak. Thanks for saying that.
I’m not a fan of grey. It doesn’t look good on me. I agree about the red polish. OPI needs to do something different. Maybe 50 shades of red?
50 shades of red? They could do a 500 shades of red, ha!
Oh yeah. I mean, I like erotica now and then, but this is about the worst erotica I’ve ever encountered! I mean… I don’t begrudge it on the concept of fan fiction being published, but crap like this is what gives fanfiction a bad name. (Quite a lot of fanfiction is some of the best stuff I’ve ever read. Why did THIS ONE have to get published???)
That having been said, I really like Cement The Deal. It’s a cream, but I love how it has an almost metallic look to it. I’ll have to look around for a dupe though- OPI polish is not worth the price if I have to use three coats for opacity.
I hear you. Why, of all the fanfic out there, did this get published? Clearly it resonated in some way. Or it’s just plain old curiosity.
This is getting ridiculous now. Everytime OPI comes out with a collection that I’ve deemed not worth picking up because the colors look like 1000 other available colors in their color classes, your swatches change my mind. I don’t know what kind of magic you have working that camera but stop it!
Ha, it’s my power of enabling coming through the lens!! I wasn’t wowed about this collection in theory until I started putting them on. Cement the Deal and Shine for Me are my jam!
I could give a crap less about the book or movie but this collection looks awesome! I love grey polish and deff want to add a few of thee to my collection!
My thoughts exactly!
I love these grays and the cool toned Concrete one is awesome! I do not think I would have picked it up without your swatches so thank you.
Love Dark Side of the Mood. Sort of glad to see the collection wasn’t literal and there was a bit of nice variety.
I agree. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the joy of Shine for Me.
LOL on “mommy porn”. Thanks for this post. You’ve given me the confidence to love this collection while being (for lack of a better choice of words) turned off by the tie-in. I suppose anything that prompts OPI to create more fantastic grey polishes can’t be all bad? Right?
I’m so glad. I know the stigma attached to this collection will be off-putting to some but I like to focus on the colors and these greys are great.
I bought the entire collection thanks to the minis. I also purchased all of the gray shades in full size bottles. I loved all of the colors, so this is the first time I’ve ever gotten a full collection of anything.
I’m so glad you like it. I’m planning to use the three greys for a gradient. They were totally made for it.
I am so excited for some grey nail polish! There are two that I know I won’t get and they are Romantically Involved and My Silk Tie. I just don’t know how many more of these silver polishes OPI can release that I’ll buy.
I saw these today at Ulta and LOLed because the books do indeed suck big time. (seriously, somebody go print some GOOD fanfic. I can direct you to some smashing Supernatural-inspired stuff.) Almost bought Cement the Deal, but it didn’t look blue enough to suit me. I love blue-greys, but plain greys not so much. Your swatches look like more blue comes out on the nail though, so I may have to reconsider, much as I hate to buy anything tied in to the dreck.
Darn you evil enabler.
Ha, I live to enable
It is definitely cool toned, no brown or yellow undertones. At least to my eye.
I’m just trying to ignore the book/movie connection
I have ordered the minis online, since I really like gray polishes. I will try them out, and if some shade really looks good on me, I will buy full size.
I have not read the books, and I think I will not watch the movie, but I will order another mini set to gift a friend in her birthday. I have shown her mine, and she nearly flipped over, since she is a great fan of the books :p