OPI Neons Collection - Summer 2014

Hi, you guys! Hope you're in the midst of a great week! :) I had a long holiday weekend, which went by way too fast as usual, and I made the mistake of doing too much. So I came out of it really exhausted and just spent yesterday in a daze trying to recover and mentally get back to work. :P

Today, I've got the new Neons by OPI Collection to share with you. This set of six bright shades are the first full-size neons that OPI is adding to its permanent collection. (About time, yep!) If you guys know me, you know I love neons, so you can imagine my sheer excitement here. Just a quick note: a white base was released with this collection, but all the swatches below are without it (more on that below). But enough jibber jabber... here are the colors! :D


Hotter Than You Pink

Hotter Than You Pink is hot pink with tons of strong blue shimmers. This is such a gorgeous eye-catching pink and one of my favorites from the collection. I used three coats for the swatches.

Down to the Core-al

Down to the Core-al is a bright neon coral with tons of shimmers that flash a little pink depending on the lighting. It's quite bright on the nails, more so that you might think from looking at the bottle. This is another favorite of mine from the collection. Corals have a way of looking orange on me, so one of the reasons I love this color is that it retains its pinkish tint on me. I used three coats for the swatches.

Life Gave Me Lemons

Life Gave Me Lemons is a bright greenish yellow with a creme finish. This is another very bright shade; it reminds me of a highlighter. It's a little streaky with its first coat, but builds up coverage nicely and looks perfect by three coats, which is what I have in the swatches.

You Are So Outta Lime!

You Are So Outta Lime! is a bright lime green with a creme finish. It's not as neon as some of the other colors in the collection, though still very bright. This is another favorite of mine from the collection! I think this is one of those greens that's wonderfully balanced and will look good on most skintones. I used three coats for the swatches.

Juice Bar Hopping

Juice Bar Hopping is an intense and bright orange with a creme/jelly finish. This is a very bright shade under natural lighting, quite eye-searing. It's a little sheer on the first coat due to its slightly jelly-ness, but it builds up nicely and is opaque in three coats.

Push & Pur-pull

Push & Pur-pull is grape purple with a creme/jelly finish. To me, this doesn't look particularly bright, and is the least bright of the shades in this collection. Its jelly-ness is quite prominent, so it looks squishy on the nails. I used three coats for the swatches.

As is typical of polishes with neon pigment, all six of these dry to some degree to a satiny/matte finish, so you'll need to top coat for glossy shine. While the formulas are all easy to work with, some of these do dry a little faster than normal due to the neon pigment, so work fast and don't go over the same area too many times or you risk getting uneven results.

Overall, this is a fun and colorful collection, and I'm thrilled with it. It's great to finally see OPI put out full-sized neons this summer instead of the minis they've done in prior years. My favorite thing about this collection is that most of these colors (with the exception of maybe Push & Pur-pull) look great and sufficiently bright without needing a white base first. I can never get the colors to line up with the white base near the cuticles, and it would drive me crazy to see the white peek out from under the color, so I'm glad that's not necessary with these.

I'm pretty much in love with the whole collection, but if I had to pick favorites, I would go with Hotter Than You Pink and Down to the Core-al for their neon shimmery goodness, and You Are So Outta Lime! for being an amazing shade of green.

What do you think of this collection? Which colors are your favorites and will be joining your stash? And do you usually wear neons with a white base, or do you skip it like me and hope for the best?

You can find the Neons by OPI shades at your local nail salons and beauty stores such as Ulta and Dillard's for a retail price of $9 for each 0.5 fl oz bottle.

** This post contains product(s) provided for honest consideration.