OPI Miss Universe Collection

As you know Courtney and I are giving away one entire set of OPI's Miss Universe Collection Nail Polishes to one lucky winner.  If you haven't already you can go here to enter (you must be a public follower through Google Friend Connect).  Now that I've had time to sit down and swatch my set of the polishes, I'm happy to report that these four beauties are a MUST get.  I'm absolutely smitten with them and so happy we are giving a brand new set away.  OPI created these polishes in conjunction with the Miss Universe Organization to celebrate the 2011 pageant, held September 12, 2011 in Brazil.  These four shades are limited edition and aren't schedule for official release until August and feature super cute pageant themed names:

• Swimsuit...Nailed It! An itsy bitsy teenie weenie vibrant shiny-blue bikini.
• It's MY Year It’s about time for this champagne-rose to shine!
• Crown Me Already! A sassy silver sparkle that knows what it’s worth.
• Congeniality is My Middle Name And berry-wine shimmer is what I do best!

Swimsuit...Nailed It!,  It's MY Year, Crown Me Already!, and Congeniality is My Middle Name

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First up is Swimsuit...Nailed It!, which is a GORGEOUS bright blue foil.  My face immediately lit up when I put the first swipe across my nail.  Since I was swatching I couldn't leave it on, but I did decide to do a pedicure with it immediately (click here to see my pedi of this in the sunshine!).  This may easily be my favorite blue nail polish ever released by OPI.  The color dries pretty true to the bottle color, but the bottle doesn't really show you the finish on this that just makes the blue jump to life.  This is a MUST for any blue lover.  I used 2 coats here, but if you were carefully you could easily get away with one.  The first two colors show the  blue a bit more true, but the lighting of my skin is off, so I included the third to show you how it looks against my true skin tone.

Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Swimsuit...Nailed It!
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Next up is It's My Year, which surprisingly is my favorite of the collection.  I think it's because I have nothing like it.  I've heard a few people call this the purple version of OPI Rally Pretty Pink or Zoya Faye, but I don't have either.  I actually expected not to like this.  The purple color in this is really beautiful, soft and feminine.  Then OPI packed it full of gold micro-glitter, that just really takes this polish to another level.  I'm not a gold person at all, and I usually think it look pretty horrible against my skin, but this polish was just perfect.  I've got my standard swatch shots for you, and then a few outside in the sunshine/indirect sunlight as I am wearing this now as a full mani.  The gold is a bit more prominent on the nail than my swatch pictures depict.  I used 3 thin coats for the perfect finish.  The texture of this polish reminds me of OPI's Wing It, so I'm kind of expecting it to wear like iron.  I'll report back and let you know how it held up!

OPI It's MY Year
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OPI It's MY Year
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OPI It's MY Year in indirect sunlight
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OPI It's MY Year in direct sunlight
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Now it's time for Crown Me Already!, which is a silver glitter bomb.  Last time Courtney and I got together for a nail polish day, she was wearing OPI's Spark De Triomphe and I think Crown Me Already! is pretty much the silver version of this polish.  It's a clear base packed with small round silver glitter and large hexagon silver glitter.  It took me three coats to reach opacity and it was dying for a coating of Seche Vite to smooth out the bumps.  By the end of it my nails were THICK, so next time I wear this beauty I'll do it over a silver foil with 1 coat of Crown Me Already!  Out of the 4, this is probably the one I could bear to part with, but since I love the rest of the collection I'm going to hold onto it anyway.  I'm thinking about doing a comparison of this with Deborah Lippmann's Today Was A Fairytale.  Let me know in the comments if you would like to see that.

Crown Me Already!
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Crown Me Already!
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Last but certainly not least is Congeniality is My Middle Name, a beautiful berry polish that has an almost jelly like texture full of pink micro-glitter.  The first coat was a little sheer, but I reached full opacity with two coats.    This bottle definitely fooled me.  It doesn't look like anything special in the bottle, but on the nails its really beautiful.  I think it dries lighter and more vibrant that the bottle shows, so don't be fulled.  It also dried SUPER shiny.

Congeniality is My Middle Name
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Congeniality is My Middle Name
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So if you haven't figured it out yet, I'm a huge fan of this collection and if you are even considering it at this point, take the plunge and get at least your favorite one.  These OPI polishes retail for around $8.50 a piece and are typically available at Ulta, beauty salons, and beauty supply stores.  I picked mine up early from Nailsupplies.us.  You should see them officially in store in August, but if you can't wait snag them online now while you still can.

Also, while I don't have many polishes that are similar to these puppies, between my collection and Courtney's we should be able to provide you comparison swatches.  Let me know what you'd like to see in the comments below!