Tuesday, February 19, 2013

OPI Euro Centrale Swatches

Finally, the OPI Euro Centrale swatches that I've been promising for a week! I only picked up some of the creme shades, as I'm getting into a phase where I'm not so into the shimmers. They're great for a more subtle glittery hue, but they make a mess and I feel like they just don't look as polished as mattes, glitters and cremes. Some other blog reviews that I've read have described a few of the polishes as shimmers, but I just didn't see it, so I'm classifying them as cremes.

First up is Can't Find My Czechbook, which I've featured in a few past posts, including my aqua quilt nails from just a few days ago. As I mentioned before, Wendy and I can't get enough of this color! It's a crisp aqua blue, a few shades darker than Tiffany blue but not quite cerulean or teal. It did take quite a few coats to get full opacity (three to four, depending on the finger), which I was a little disappointed in, but I've yet to find a polish that has this specific color, so it's definitely worth picking up if you're only purchasing one or two bottles in this collection.

 



Suzi's Hungary Again is a pink-coral hue. In some macro swatches from other bloggers, it looks like it has a really subtle shimmer to it, but to my eye (and camera) there wasn't any. Again, I was a little disappointed in the formula, since I needed more than my standard two coats to achieve opacity, but in the end it looked great (with three coats). I used a different bulb for my lightbox for these swatches, so the colors turned out a little off, actually. While it definitely takes on a peach/coral tone in some lighting, this shade is really more vibrant in sunlight.




You're Such A Budapest is a soft lavender, and of the three pastel shades in these swatches, definitely had the thinnest formula. Even with the three coats below, the application was a little thin and streaky. From a distance though, it looks great and has a very soft, feminine appeal.




My Vampire is Buff actually had a bit too much yellow in it for my tastes (I prefer darker beiges like Did You Ear About Van Gogh), but it complements the other light shades in this collection really well. The application was really streaky, however and reminded me of Alpine Snow's formula—streaky but gets smoothed out with the use of a good top coat.




I'm not sure what I was expecting when I swatched I Saw...U Saw...We Saw...Warsaw, but I was definitely underwhelmed. I've never been a fan of navy blues, and I can't say that this one was an exception. It's a navy blue creme but instead of the rich, thick formula that I was expecting, it was actually rather thin and somewhat streaky ... something I'd expect out of a jelly-based polish. Below is two coats, and I still didn't achieve the opacity that I hoped for. I hate layering on the darker polishes because it makes them more difficult to remove, so I can't say this is one that I'll be using very often.




The final polish I bought from this collection is Vant to Bite My Neck?, which is a dark purple eggplant creme. The formula and application are decent on this one; not too streaky and full opacity is possible with just one heavier coat. It did apply darker than it appears in the bottle, however.




That's it for the OPI Euro Centrale collection swatches ... a friend just gave me a bottle of Polka.com, but I probably won't be swatching it separately.

Were there any colors that stood out to you? I immediately fell in love with Can't Find My Czechbook, but also really liked Suzi's Hungary Again and You're Such a Budapest.

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