OPI I Theodora You + Lights of Emerald City

Hi friends!  I've been so excited for OPI's Oz The Great and Powerful Softshades collection, and I recently snagged the mini set and the Lights of Emerald City glitter.

Last year's NYC Ballet collection is my favorite of all time, so I've been curious how this year's jellies compare to those.  Today I'm wearing I Theodora You, a cotton candy pink jelly that is brighter and pinker than anything from Ballet.

 I Theodora You is just the fluffiest, pinkest, girliest thing I've ever seen, and reminds me of  fluffy slippers, ruffly bathrobes, feathers from pillowfights, and Pink Sugar perfume.  All things pink, sweet, frivolous, and light-- that's I Theodora You.  It's the unsubtlest subtle color I've seen.  It's super pretty and *close* to opaque in three coats, which might be a draw to some of you who like the color and the texture but not the sheerness of polishes similar.  I found it to be a little streaky, even after three coats, but that could be because of the mini brush proportions. 

Something happened with this collection that I didn't even notice until, well, just now typing this, really.  I got excited about a glitter.  I blame Amy for this.  Here's Lights of Emerald City over I Theodora You.

Lights of Emerald City is a not too densely saturated mix of small, square twinkly holographic bits and larger matte white squares in a clear base.  I've seen it over Theodora the most, and indeed, it was the duo that spoke the most to me.  It's lovely and delicate, and somehow manages to tone down the in-your-face sugariness of Theodora while maintaining a high level of total girliness.  This may be a case of a glitter actually making a color more demure... either that or I'm just getting used to wearing glitters, lol.

I used one coat of Lights and I want to say something about my experience with this and what I've read about that other glitter causing all sorts of buzz right now.  Lights is an extremely difficult glitter to work with.  Even after manipulating the brush to grab some of the white squares, it's difficult to actually place them on the nail.  They like to stick to the brush.  The end result is subtle and sparse; very pretty, but not very evenly distributed.  My point is this.  When Monkeys Fly, that curling glitter, is absolutely stunning in real life, maybe the prettiest of the collection, but so many people are up in arms about the curling, and I'm not going to say I blame them.  Apparently OPI has come out and said that the remedy to that is to place the curling pieces just so on your nails so they follow your natural curvature.  Nobody wants to work that hard for a glitter to look nice, BUT I feel like I had to work just as hard to get Lights on my nails, period.  So take your pick, I guess... I'm inclined to think difficulty in application is just the nature of the glittery beast.

One more shot, Essie-style, because I love how light pink looks with grey....

...and speaking of Essie, our giveaway winner has been chosen by la Rafflecopter and she's accepted her prize. Congrats, Aurélie R.!  Thank you to all y'all who entered and I do hope you stick around ♥♥

Thanks for reading!