Yesterday I showed you two of the four Nicole by OPI Wal-Mart exclusive polishes (reviewed here); today I bring you the last two of this little collection: ‘He’s A Keeper’ – a brick red cream and ‘Never Give Up’ – a frosted magenta with small glitter pieces. I still don’t get what these names have to do with these colours, but that’s just me I guess! These two shades are highly pigmented, and all swatches are with OPI’s Natural Nails Base Coat and two coats of lacquer, no top coat (except where indicated).
‘He’s A Keeper’ is an incredibly creamy red, with burnt orange undertones which gives it a nice warmth against your skin tone. The formula was both richly pigmented, making it practically a one-coater as well as somewhat thick, which simply means you might need to have less polish on your brush in order to have more control of the spread. Wonderfully glossy at the finish, this is a modern and sophisticated take on deep red. Note how natural light (top photo) brings out the warm tones, while indirect light (last photo) gives it a cooler cast. Seen under flash (center photo) gives an almost cherry red tint, bringing out more of the red tones.
‘Never Give Up’ is a densely pigmented, frosted candy pink hue, loaded with minute particles of holographic micro glitter. The name, however, is somewhat of a misnomer: I did give up on this shade. Before I get into the issues I was confronted with, let me state some positive attributes. First of all, because of how saturated in colour this polish is, you literally only need one coat for full opacity. Secondly, I find that this shade of pink is so pretty and eye catching, which also happens to be a highly flattering hue for most skin tones. Lastly, it looks so darn good…in the bottle. Ok, now for the not so good stuff. Seriously, this one should have worked; I think the problem is that there’s just so many conflicting textures (frost, glitter, thick formula) that the truth is that…it just doesn’t. The formula was the thickest I have ever come across, making it rather difficult to apply smoothly. The glitter pieces all seem to rise to the surface, leaving your nails looking pockmarked (which, in all fairness, seems to be more visible in photographs than when seen with the naked eye), instead of glimmery, and I found that it dried so super fast that it makes clean up of any mistakes a futile effort. On the plus side, I was surprised by how easily removal was, considering it has glitter. Even applying a top coat, as I did in the last 2 photos of swatches, could not salvage the surface look of this lacquer. Oh well, I guess we’re all entitled to a dud once in a while, right? If textured nail polish is your thing, then ‘Never Give Up’ is the polish for you.
Final thoughts: From the shades reviewed here, it goes without saying that ‘He’s A keeper’ is definitely the “keeper” of the two, while ‘Never Give Up’ was sadly a disappointment. I have to be honest and say that perhaps the latter could be improved on if you wanted to spend the extra time and effort needed to do so, but let’s face it…who has the time, when there’s so many other alternatives? The four shades, while nothing extraordinary (with the exception of ‘Count On Me’) are still lovely & wearable shades. These polishes are available now and can be purchased at all Wal-Mart stores.
*Disclaimer: product samples were provided by the company/PR for my unbiased consideration
