OPI – ‘Ahoy, Me Hearties’ part 2 (swatches & review)

Today I bring you the second half of OPI’s upcoming ‘Ahoy, Me Hearties’ collection, a trio of rosy themed pastel polishes, but with an modern twist to them. ‘Steady As She Rose’ – a dusty pale lavender, ‘Sparrow Me The Drama’ – a carnation pink and ‘Planks A Lot’ – a delicate lilac shade. While the first half of this collection (reviewed here) consisted of more edgier looking pastel hues, these three will feel right at home with Easter right around the corner (think candy coated chocolate eggs!) as well as looking more like traditional Spring colours. As with the first half of the collection, I have included bottle photos taken with both flash and in sunlight, to give you the most accurate depiction of the colour. All swatches are with OPI’s Natural Nail Base coat and three coats of lacquer, no top coat.

A muted and rather dusty looking hue in the bottle, ‘Steady As She Rose’ is the most wonderful pale lavender shade with a light grey tint in its base. As you can see from the sunlight swatch photo (top), the delicate lavender hue is quite visible and lends a nice warmth to your nails, while indirect lighting (bottom photo) gives a creamy yet edgy look to the shade. While there was very minimal streaking, it’s still an easy polish to apply and flows beautifully with a glossy finish to it.

What I love about ‘Sparrow Me The Drama’ is that it is a true pink colour, without ever coming across as too “bubble-gummy”. This is a shade that will lend itself beautifully to both warm & cool toned skin types and I could just see this working as an awesome pedicure shade for the Summer. What’s also nice is that the colour doesn’t change all that much whether seen in sunlight (top photo) or indirect light (bottom photo) and there was absolutely no streaking whatsoever.

I have to admit that I absolutely love ‘Planks A Lot’, one of the truest looking lilac shades I have come across. Apart from the wonderful formula and easy application, not to mention the amazing shine at the finish, this muted pale purple shade has the barest hints of blue in its base, lending it a somewhat cooler look but never coming off as chalky. The sunlight photo (top) almost adds a subtle silver sheen to the hue, but as you can see from the bottom photo, it is most definitely all lilac! Love it!

As mentioned in my previous review (here), along with the six shades of this collection, OPI is also launching ‘Silver Shatter’ – a sparkling silvery crackle effect polish, to add an intricate yet totally modern vibe over these shades (or any other polish you might wish!) The basic rule of using this shatter finish is to apply your base polish, wait for it to be completely dry, then quickly apply a medium-ish coat of ‘Silver Shatter’ on top, wait a minute for the effect to take place and seal everything with a top coat to prevent chipping and add a super-glossy shine (I used OPI’s Start to Finish Base & Top Coat to all shatter swatches).

‘Steady As She Rose’ with ‘Silver Shatter’

‘Sparrow Me The Drama’ with ‘Silver Shatter’

‘Planks A Lot’ with ‘Silver Shatter’

Final thoughts: This entire collection has been nothing short of WIN for me. While I don’t normally lean towards pastel shades as they can be somewhat finicky against quite a few skin tones, there is not one polish in this collection that I didn’t feel will flatter everyone. The ‘Silver Shatter’ coming out with this collection is the perfect compliment to these fresh and light hues as it never overpowers their delicate look, but adds a classic yet modern twist to them. Slated to coincide with the upcoming blockbuster movie “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides”, this collection will be officially available this May, everywhere OPI polishes are sold. My recommendations? All of them!