OPI Fall/Winter 2011 "Touring America" swatches and Review Part I

If you've already read my first post about the "Touring America" collection, you already know pretty much everything about the inspiration behind it so I'll just cut to the chase.

Today I'll be reviewing the first half, all cremes :

Road House Blues In this case…R&B stands for “Really Blue.”

Get in the Expresso Lane An amped-up dark brown that’ll never letcha down!

A-taupe the Space Needle You’ll climb to new heights with this creamy-rich taupe.

Uh-oh Roll Down the Window You’re gonna wanna pull over for this “unexpected” olive green.

French Quarter for Your Thoughts Want beads? Then show us your sexy gray nails!

Suzi Takes the Wheel Buckle up—she’s not stopping until she gets to gray!

The collection is very consistent in terms of formula, pretty much OPI's standard : nice, smooth, two coaters, surprisingly pigmented on the lighter ones.

All the pictures below are with both base and topcoat.

Road House Blues is a dark navy blue strongly leaning towards blurple. It's dark but definitely not a "faux-black". I tried to find a similar shade in my stash but I came up empty handed, my creme blues are either lighter or way darker...

OPI Road House Blues

OPI Road House Blues

OPI Road House Blues

Get in the Expresso Lane would be best described as a dark murky brown, a dark cool toned brown with a green hue, or a military brown if you prefer... Once again, it's very different from the browns I have, it remind me a little bit of Chanel Khaki Brun but definitely a darker version of it.

OPI Get in the Expresso Lane

OPI Get in the Expresso Lane

OPI Get in the Expresso Lane

A-taupe the Space Needle is a warm taupe, a sort of "café au lait" color with with a dusty touch. I find that it's a welcome variation on the usual taupe and fits perfectly the Fall/Winter theme. This nail polish didn't seem very interesting to me in the bottle but once on my nails it was very flattering.

OPI A-taupe the Space Needle

OPI A-taupe the Space Needle

OPI A-taupe the Space Needle

Uh-oh Roll Down the Window is a muted olive green , it's too bright to really qualify as a military green but to dusty for a true olive green... I tried to pull out something similar : Chanel Khaki vert, American Apparel Army Jacket, H&M Hunt me Down, Zoya Shawn, Illamasqua Hectic,.. Nothing begins to compare.

OPI Uh-oh Roll Down the Window

OPI Uh-oh Roll Down the Window

OPI Uh-oh Roll Down the Window

French Quarter for Your Thoughts is a light grey, definitely not pastel but not a medium grey either, somewhere between those two. It's not a blue base grey like there's plenty of but I'd say it has a very subtle green touch. This one's almost a perfect dupe to Essie Chinchilly.

OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts

OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts

OPI French Quarter for Your Thoughts

Suzi Takes the Wheel is a strong green based grey. Once again I didn't think much of it at first but once I wore it, it was instant love. This is one of my favorites from the collection. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it, so if you have, please let me now!

OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

OPI Suzi Takes the Wheel

Overall :

I think that these shades definitely call for Fall/Winter in my opinion, I'm also really happy that they are all cool toned... So not last year... LOL.

I know it can be really hard to start to project oneself into a Fall collection in April and that might expain why a lot of "nail fanatics" find them boring... But I think that OPI had to fill a void in their color range with them : murky browns, military greens and soft greys... Can you think of anythink alike in their core collection?

I'd be more than curious to know your opinion!

That's it for today, stay tuned for the second half of Touring America very soon.

Availability : August 3rd, 2011

*these products were provided to me by the manufacturer or their PR company*