NOTD: OPI Russian Navy Matte/ OPI Merry Midnight

Unlike the rest of the NP-loving community, I'd yet to try flakies. I had looked at a couple Nfu-Ohs, and then decided against them. I felt the price was just too much. Plus, 51 is always OOS.

So, when OPI released 2 flakies in this year's holiday collection, I immediately took notice. Unfortunately, one of the 2 they released, Shim-merry Chic (the golden one) had this vomit-ty look to it, so I decided against it. I waffled on Merry Midnight because I'd read a iffy review on it, though for the life of me, I can't remember where. I decided to go for it, however, because it just looked so unique. Whenever Suzi decides to go out of her norm (read reds), the color is usually fab. Usually. Sometimes, it can go very, very wrong.

Thankfully, Merry Midnight was not one of those times. It's a deep purple base, loaded with duochrome magenta flakies and what looks like blue, purple, and green (maybe? I can't tell if the green is really green or just the light hitting the blue) fine glitter.

Gasp. This is absolutely amazing. What I like about this polish is that the flakies are much, much smaller than the flakies I've seen in the Nfu-Ohs, Sinful, and NYX flakies; though it all fairness, I don't have those to compare. They don't look like big chunks on your nails, which is a BIG plus for me.

As for application, I had read that MM can be a bit thin, and I was afraid it would be lighter on the nail than in the bottle, so I decided to layer it over a coat of OPI Russian Navy Matte, to get a deep purple color and to help with the multiple coats issue.

I'd mentioned the other day that I yet to use my RN-M. I'd bought it on a whim about a month after the first wave of OPI Mattes came out. I think I'd seen Scrangie's pic of it, fell in love with her swatches, and pulled the trigger on it, before thinking it through. Honestly, I don't really like the full-on matte look. I love the satin finish my Orly Matte Top gives me, and I really love the OPI Suedes, but I don't like my nails looking like chalkboards, which is what happens with the OPI Mattes.

So, my RN-M, and my LaPH-M have just been sadly gathering dust in their drawer. I had no plans on using either of them. Then I had the bright idea, that they would be perfect for layering. They dry super quick and the color is very saturated. Perfect, IMO, as a base. I could have gone with a regular navy (i.e. CC Naughty-cal Navy or ChG Calypso Blue), but again, I didn't want to have to deal with the drying time on the bottom coat.

For those that are interested, I did take a pic of RN-M on it's own, just so you could see it.

It's a pretty, if boring, navy, but I don't really like the finish. It's also very unforgiving. I use glue-ons, so thankfully, I don't have to deal with ridges in my nails, but you can see every time where I didn't put the polish on perfectly straight or it got a little lumpy. There was no fixing those mistakes, either, as it dries in 1-2 minutes. I just can't see me using this on it's own in the future. Maybe, I'll use it with a konad and then top it with a coat of Matte Top, but it just doesn't ring any bells for me. I'm planning on layering it with the original RN, as I wasn't a fan of the O-RN due to the green base. In swatching, it looks like using the RN-M neutralizes the green.

But to get off my tangent, I then used 2 coats of Merry Midnight and a coat of my current quick-dry TC, Beauty Secrets Top Coat. Like I said earlier, I adore this color. It's different which is something most nail polish companies are lacking. Granted, it's not brand new territory, but it is new for OPI (US), and that's something I can appreciate. Let's hope it's a trend that continues into Spring 2010. Not just for OPI, but for Essie and Orly as well (ChG, CC, and Misa seem like the are on the forefront of interesting and different colors).

RN-M and MM are both available at e-tailers and on eBay. I'm not sure of the availability of RN-M in beauty supply stores as it came out in the summer, though they still should have it, but MM should definitely be there as it's a brand new release.

Hope you guys love this one as much as I do. It's a fab color for the holidays. I can't wait to try it layered over other colors as well. I've heard it looks great over a red creme.