OPI Merry Midnight

Thank goodness for Abby at Lovely in Lacquer! She taught me how to dusty hunt! My adventure started today. I overslept a bit so it was near the end of the day, but I managed to call a few salons on my side of town. I have to mention that a few were VERY rude to me for even suggesting the fact that they would also sell nail polish.... Well, exxxcccuuuuuuuse me! On the other hand, several places were very friendly. :) I managed to wrangle my sister into going with me and we hit up 3 salons before they closed for the evening.

First stop was a bust. They had junky 1/4 full OPI bottles and mostly Sation, which I was not interested in. Left empty-handed.

Second stop was one that I knew had OPI DS hard to finds, because I friend of mine had gone there and gotten a manicure using OPI DS Vintage. They had some true beauties! I picked out 4. OPI DS Glamour (from my wishlist!) OPI DS Original, OPI DS Shimmer? or Diamond? I don't remember, and wait for it.... wait for it..... China Glaze OMG DV8!!!! It was missing the label on the bottom, but I knew what it was! All of these were 3/4 full and I wanted them so desperately. When I carried them to the front, they said they would only sell them to me if they had a spare bottle. :( And of course they didn't have back up bottles of any of them :(( The lady was super nice and assured me that she could order any nail polish and get it in just 2 days for me, if I could wait that long.  She said she would order them for me and call me when they came in. I'm thinking to myself.... "Yeah right, you're going to call me in 2 days and tell me that they're discontinued..." But I just smiled really sweet like, and said that would be fantastic, couldn't wait to hear from her. I'm not going to be holding my breath though. :( Left empty-handed.

Last stop 10 minutes before they closed we marked another salon off my list. This salon didn't have any DS polishes, but I found Merry Midnight! Hooray! And the best part.... it's BRAND NEW! Obviously never been used before. I tried to hide my excitement. The only other polish I picked up there was OPI Dating a Royal which was just a great periwinkle blue that I liked the look of. (I'll swatch that soon) Then this lady told me that she didn't have back up bottles of either of these! She said the same story about ordering them, 2 days, etc. :( "Oh, ok then." And as I put my cash back in my pocket... she said "Or you can buy these now, and I'll order replacements for the salon." Ah the power of money! That's great! I came home with two beauties! She charged me $10 each and I couldn't be happier!

 I see why this has become so hard to find, it is absolutely stunning. Truly unique and sophisticated.

Here is the deal though: I know I won't use this polish to it's full potential. I rarely just have straight polish without art on my nails. And despite it's beauty, this is just not a color I would wear that often. So I let my sister list in on evilBay. It's new and only been used for this one handed swatch seen here. And before you get your panties in a bunch..... we're not listing it for a ridiculous price. She placed the starting bid at $9.99. That way we at least make back what I paid for it. And if it goes up from there, well that's not on my conscience. So please don't send me hate mail about it. :) The link to the listing is here if you're interested. If it doesn't sell on eBay, then it can live amidst my collection and I will still be happy.

 It reminded me of Cult Nails Iconic because of the berry/flakie combination. But just in the bottle shots you can see that there are quite different. OPI's flakes are smaller and more concentrated, while Iconic has larger flakes that are more dispersed. And the base colors look completely different... berry vs blue-ish/purple jelly.