opi - pirates of the caribbean collection - swatches and review!

Hey everybody.
The blogger issues going on right now thankfully hasn't deleted any of my posts - but I have lost all comments left since a certain time. I know at least 2 of you left lovely comments on my last post and now they're gone :(
And I don't know what else might be gone.
But I hope they come back!
And I was expecting problems to be fixed but making this post was so difficult!!!! NONE of the images pasted where I wanted them to... Anyway...

Yesterday I was writing up a post - swatches of Color Club Wild at Heart - when I got a text from a friend who works at a salon nearby. (Hi Nicole!!)
And she told me that they had just got in a lot of nail polish. And I replied, "THE OPI PIRATES COLLECTION?!"
To which she said "YES! And the Serena Williams ones!"

So I promptly got off my ass and walked the 10 minute walk up a hill to the salon. Hah. Got my workout for the day as well as some new goodies. And once I got home, blogger was gone and I could not finish my post. I'll post that one tomorrow.

I got the Pirates minis, plus Mermaids Tears and Silver Shatter, of course. (No Glam Slam's for me, I'm not into those very much.)

So the swatches I have to show you today don't include Steady As She Rose. As much as I like the name, I'm not into the color.
I hate how small the minis are but I wanted all of the colors and did not want to pay 60 bucks and tax. Plus, when am I ever going to use up a full bottle anyway?

  

First of all I will tell you how awesome Silver Shatter is. It is just such a cool effect!

It is much easier to work with than Black Shatter or China Glaze Crackle. The formula goes on really easily, and even if you end up with a thick coat on one finger and a thin coat on the next, it isn't easy to tell the difference. It makes the whole look more cohesive.

When using Black Shatter I would always end up with one nail looking totally different than the rest and being annoyed. But that did not happen with Silver Shatter! (And I used it 5 times.)

I think people who weren't into Black Shatter will like this one, it is much less harsh.

I had read on other blogs that it seemed to like to work over Seche Vite and over not-fully-dried polish, and I tried it over both of those conditions as well as totally dry polish, and it looked the same every time.

Super awesome polish. My swatches of it have no topcoat.

The one complaint I have about Silver Shatter is that if you're messy when you apply it and get it on your skin, it can be a bit hard to get all the shimmer off your skin. Some of my swatches show this issue.  

Okay, on to the swatches!

Skull and Glossbones. Cute name. Cute polish. Light beige-y gray creme. I don't have anything like this.

3 thin coats but 2 thick ones would have been good. (Using the mini brush is why my coats ended up being thin.)
Very flattering on my skin tone and for some reason I also felt it looked good with my red hair. (However, hours after these swatches I had a hair appointment to get rid of the red... and I ruined it and wasted $63 and plan on trying to get back to my red tomorrow. Woe is me!)

In the next picture I tipped my hand forward to show you the pattern of the shatter better.

Love it!

 

Up next is Stranger Tides.
Totally lovely and totally unique in my collection. Not the typical color I would like but I love it!
Again I really liked this against my red hair... *cries*
This is a murky pale olive green creme. 2 normal coats.
It is similar to Skull and Glossbones. I swatched S&G first, and then went to do this one, but picked up S&G again. Unless you're looking at the bottles side by side it can be a bit hard to tell which is which. Especially the mini bottles.

With Silver Shatter. So pretty. I think Silver Shatter can be work-appropriate over lighter colors because it really does give a subtle look, especially from far away.

Up next is Mermaid's Tears.

I bought this one full-size because it wasn't in the mini set. But that's okay because it is gorgeous.
Murky pale green. A bit seafoam-y. Not as unique as the others but I don't have anything very similar.
2 normal coats. These all applied so well!

And of course, with Silver Shatter.
Beauty!

I decided to wear the purple and pink as a full mani on each hand. So as to waste less by only doing swatches. Haha.

Planks a Lot (such a funny name) is a nice purple creme, but not highly original.
It does have the same murky quality that the others from the collection have, which does make it a bit different than most purples.
It is really hard to capture and most people have posted bright pictures like the one I have above.
I took pictures in a million different lights, and before applying shatter, I uploaded the photos and held my nails up to the screen to find the closest picture match. And this is it:

Please excuse the blurriness.
I know it looks dark, but this is pretty much dead-on on my screen. If you already have this polish, do you think I got it right?

I also compared it to China Glaze's Spontaneous, the polish I was expecting this to be very similar to after seeing promo photos and other swatches.

They're similar, but not that close. But I still am happy I didn't splurge on the full size because I don't think I need both.

And with the shatter.
I was expecting this shade to be my favorite, but I think I like the greens and beige more. Shocking!

And last but not least, Sparrow Me The Drama.

Awkward right hand picture! Sorry.
In seeing other people's photos I lost excitement for this, thinking it was more flesh-toned, but it isn't! Nice vibrant pink, but still has the dirty antique quality that the others all have, which makes it unlike other pinks I have.

I think I liked this one the best when paired with Silver Shatter.

And there you have it, almost all of the collection.
This is a big hit in my books!



And now for some rambling.
I originally wrote this at the beginning of my upcoming Wild At Heart post, but that draft has disappeared.
Thanks for the lovely comments you guys have been leaving me about my personal woes.
I'm going to try and stop my bad mood from intruding into my blog posts, because you guys are more than awesome and you deserve better from me.
I'm going to try to keep this a happy place and not let my issues get me down.
I don't want to get too far into it here, but I need something to keep me sane and occupied now that all this crap is happening... so I'm going to try and use this creative outlet as a way to keep my spirits up.

The way I wrote this yesterday felt a lot better because I was feeling better about everything then but I am an emotional roller coaster and feel different every 5 minutes. But oh well, it is probably lost forever.

Thanks again guys. It means a lot.