Ah, it has been a while since I last posted something! Everything is OK with me, life is just very busy and although I’m currently really enjoying my own nail polish stash, I’m not really taking the time to look into newer collections or taking pictures. With the amount of nail polishes that I own, I feel like my stash is pretty much complete. That’s the main reason that I haven’t been posting much here!
The past year, I have been wearing more of my OPI black label nail polish shades (‘OPI black labels’ are OPI shades from before the middle of 2006). I made a post about some of my black label OPIs before, which you can find over here and I thought it was time to share a bit more. Although I already had a fast collection of OPI nail polishes when I made the first post, I was able to expand my collection even further, by hunting down listings on basically all the second hand market place websites that I could find.
What really helped me, was that I developed a strategy to identify the age of a bottle. While I previously had to study blurry pictures for hours, I can honestly say that I’m now actually pretty good at spotting a black label OPI polish! I will share a bit of my strategy here.
One of the easiest ways to date a bottle of OPI polish, is by looking at the label on the underside. I have shared this picture before in the previous black label OPI post, but for the sake of completeness I’m sharing it again. What I have noticed while I was on my black label hunt, is that a lot of sellers don’t take careful pictures of this label. The pictures are often blurry, or not shared at all. So while looking at the labels is the easiest way to determine the age of an OPI polish, it can’t always be done. What I learned this past year, is to also look at other features on the bottle.
At first glance, OPI’s front bottle seemed to have always been the same, but when you look closely, you will actually see that the bottle has been gradually updated over the years.
The bottles that I own from 1998 and before have OPI Nail Lacquer on the front, underneath they have the text ‘Paris – Los Angeles – Roma’. Underneath that there is ‘0.5 Fl. Oz. – 15 mL’. Notice how there is basically no gap between the text ‘Paris-Los Angeles-Roma’ and the next line ‘0.5 Fl. Oz. – 15 mL’. This is how you can easily spot a pre-1999 bottle.
In 1999, OPI updated the bottle slightly. There is now a larger gap between the text ‘Paris-Los Angeles-Roma’ and the ml text. Also notice how the text with the volume consist mostly of lower case letters now. Also, OPI added the ‘℮’ sign after the volume, which is for me the easiest way to identify whether a bottle was produced after 1999 or before.
In the year 2000, OPI stepped away from ‘Paris-Los Angeles-Roma’ and replaced the text by ‘Vernis a Ongles-Esmalte de Unas’, but the rest of the text remained the same.
From approximately the end of 2000, until mid 2001. OPI again updated this text to ‘Vernis a Ongles-Esmalte de Unas-Nagellack’. So if you are seeing Nagellack on the front of the bottle, we can pretty much identify that the bottle was made after 2000.
The change OPI made in mid 2001, is actually pretty funny. They flipped the 15 mL and 0.5 fl. oz. So now the text on the bottle starts with the milliliters, and after that fluid ounce.
The ml-text is actually undergoing a lot of changes. In early 2003, they again updated this text. They now changed the text from ’15 mL – 0.5 fl.oz. ℮’, to ’15 ml – 0.5 fl.oz. ℮’ (can you spot the difference?), and they made the text slightly larger.
In 2004, OPI switched back to capital letters, they updated the text ’15 ml – 0.5 fl.oz. ℮’ to ’15 mL – 0.5 Fl.Oz. ℮’. For as far as I can tell, this update remained this way until 2017.
In 2018, they changed the front to the the bigger OPI font and it’s the way the bottles are currently being sold. It’s quite a big change from the previous look, but it looks a lot more modern and a bit cleaner.
You can also identify the age of an OPI bottle by looking at the symbols on the back. However, those have been updated so often in the past, that it deserves it’s own post and a little bit more investigation on my side.
For now, I would like to continue with the swatches that I made.
OPI Outback Aphrodisiac
Outback Aphrodisiac is from OPI’s 2001 World collection. However, by looking at the front of this bottle, you can see that mine was actually produced after 2004 but the label indicates it was produced before 2006, so I’m assuming that this shade stayed in OPI’s permanent collection for a while after its release. Outback aphrodisiac is a gorgeous magenta creme leaning a bit more purple than other magentas in my collection.
Although I own quite some magenta cremes, I could not really find a good dupe for this one in my collection. OPI 7th and flower contains a lot more pink. Essie Swing of things is darker, and Essie Bahama mama contains more red.
In the lot of polishes that I purchased, there were 31 bottles of Outback Aphrodisiac! I have kept one, six bottles have found a new home. But I still have 24 bottles left that still need to find a new home! In case you are interested, I have listed this Outback Aphrodisiac over here on my Etsy storefront.
OPI Cha-ching cherry
OPI Cha-ching cherry was released as part of OPI’s Las Vegas Spring 2003 collection. You can clearly see that this matches my bottle since it corresponds to the early 2003-early 2004 time line. As far as I’m aware, Cha-ching cherry has only been discontinued recently. It was available in the 2018+ bottle, but stores near me no longer seem to sell it. Although I really love this red-pink shimmer, it also definitely gives it early ’00s vibes. Although it is ‘funny’ to me that they discontinued now that y2k is making a comeback.
I couldn’t find exact dupes for Cha-ching cherry in my collection, but I have to admit that this is also not a shade that I often purchase or wear. I think Deer valley spice is kind of close, but it seems to be the darker, more winter-like sister of Cha-ching cherry. Deer valley spice is also discontinued, I posted more information about that color over here. OPI Pompeii purple is a lot more cooler-toned, but I would say it is definitely the same ‘type’ of polish as Cha-ching cherry, and it is still available. OPI Spring break the internet was more recenty released as part of OPI’s spring 2023 collection, but it’s just a completely different type of shimmer.
OPI Madison Mauvenue
Madison Mauvenue is definitely an amazing shade. It’s a medium dusty rose creme, and I think it could easily fit into a modern day nail polish collection. This shade was released in 2000 as part of OPI’s ‘New York City Fall/Winter’ collection and my bottle indeed matches the end of 2000 era. I own quite a few shades from this collection, but I honestly wish I would have owned even more! One of the most famous shades from the New York City collection that is still available today is ‘Big Apple Red’.
I do have a lot of shades that have a similar ‘vibe’ as Madison Mauvenue. Essie’s Lips are sealed comes pretty close, but is a lot more pink. My angora cardi is a lot more brown, but I believe it once was more purple. OPI just lanai-ing around is cooler toned and has a silver shimmer, but to me it definitely gives off the same feeling as Madison Mauvenue.
OPI Can’t-a-berry have some fun
Last but not least, I have the shade Can’t-a-berry-have some fun. This one was released as part of OPI’s European collection for Fall/Winter 2002. I’m proud to report that I almost own that entire collection, but I’m still missing ‘Basque in the sun’ and ‘Marquis d’Mauve’. Can’t-a-berry have some fun is a brownish red with a contrasting pink shimmer. In these older collections, there are really a lot of these types of shimmers, and in that sense it is kind of similar to Cha-ching cherry.
I did not do any comparisons for Can’t-a-berry have some fun. I have the feeling that I might find some dupes or close shades in my vintage collection, but it would be a lot more difficult to find a modern day dupe. I have the feeling that OPI ‘Thank glogg it’s Friday’ could be a modern-day alternative, but I do not own that shade and I think it is probably too pink.
Conclusion
I definitely enjoyed wearing these shades and diving a bit deeper into the history of OPI’s bottles. Although I know nail polish is meant to be worn, I always feel a bit guilty when wearing these older shades, by documenting them like this, I feel a little bit less guilty.
Am I going to post more regularly now again? I’m not really sure to be honest. In al honesty, I kind of like this more laid back approach to nail polish, although I’m not producing a lot of output this way. I do still have plans to create a more detailed identification story for the backside of OPI bottles, but it’s quite a challenge and already the labels on the underside and front has been taking me quite some time to compose. So I’m not making any promises, let’s just wait and see!
