Popular Toe Nail Polish Summer 2023

OPI collection reviews are always the most popular posts for this blog. They’re always topping the stats, and clearly everyone else is just as interested in the newest OPI release as I am. After all, it was a couple of random OPI bottles hidden away in the corner of a drawer that truly started my nail polish collection, so I’ll always feel an emotional connection to my “roots”.

Sorry, I’m jumping ahead here. Let’s start off by introducing this newest collection. Yes, it’s SUMMER here in nail world. (And maybe wherever you live too, it’s FINALLY getting consistently warmer over here in the windy city). And I always dive into the new seasons with the OPI release. For Summer 2023, OPI’s release is the ‘Summer Make the Rules’ collection. As always it features 12 shades that as OPI says “let your nails be as bright, bold and carefree as you feel this summer”. We’ve got names themed around laying around the beach, lounging in the sun, and just living your best summer life.

These shades range in a rainbow of pastel, yet bright shades, from bright pinks, to corals, teals and lilacs. We have 8 cream shades and 4 shades in a frosty, pearly shimmery finish. They were a little something different to normal shimmers, and I always love something new in a collection.

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As always, these are available from my favorite polishpick.com, or also at beyondpolish.com (affiliate link). Now, as I hinted to up above, the colors are just so pretty, while the formulas for a majority just …

. I struggled with quite a few streaky creams here, and that’s so unusual for OPI. Things lift up a touch in the back half of the set, but it was quite the journey to get there. I’ll let the individual swatch photos and videos speak for themselves now, but I wanted to make sure you were starting this post with the right expectations. Let’s dive in.

There are 2 pinks in this collection, and yes, they are different – one being more cool-toned and one leaning more peachy – but they are definitely similar, so I question just a

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Them being in the same release. If you’re not a collector like me, maybe you don’t need them both. Maybe I’m just being more critical overall because of the time I had with these formulas as well.

ANYWAYS. The first pink ‘Makeout-side’ is more cool-toned as I mentioned. It’s a medium pink, maybe with just the tiniest hint of lavender to it, and I do love pinks like this on my cooler undertones.

And whew, this is where our formula woes begin, right on the first shade. The beginning of our emotional rollercoaster. Well, not quite rollercoaster, more just going down, down,

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, with tiny hills up for the metallics, and finally a climb up right in the last quarter. So okay, this formula was rough. I used 3 thin coats – 3 is always the most I’ll do for any swatch – and though it was

I do have very ridged nails that often cause me to add an extra coat. But I still expect any cream shade to be opaque and cover those with 3 coats. And I especially expect that for OPI. I’ve been swatching OPI collections regularly since 2017, and these formulas felt so much thinner and more runny than their normal. These just didn’t feel the same, and so because of that I’m going to be more harsh and critical. Because I know they can do better, and this wasn’t their best, and not even their good. I hope this was just a weird little fluke, but if it continues for the fall collections – which are always my favorites – then we’ll have to TALK.

Next up, we have ‘I Quit My Day Job’ (I wish that was a declaration, I WANT to just spend all my days playing with nail polish and blogging, but there’s a small thing of needing money to pay my rent.) This 2nd pink is much more warm-toned, with peachy undertones to it.

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And if you couldn’t tell from above, we’re going to be negative for a lot of these shades, and you can just see the problems in the swatch photos. Again, 3 coats, and it was still so streaky, with my ridges peeking through. It felt so thin, and I was just so flabbergasted. There are much better pink creams from OPI, so skip out on this one.

We’re moving right along the rainbow, and we arrive to our orange stop. This is ‘Flex on the Beach’ and it’s a lighter, almost pastel peachy-coral cream. I do normally love shades like this for sunnier days (but the sun will probably further illuminate the issues of this one, oops).

Again, my disappointment. You can see those streaks still peeking through 3 coats of this. The formula is just too thin and not offering normal coverage and I’m sad.

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Now we get to our first metallic! Our first almost bright spot! All of the metallics have this super interesting almost frosty, pearly finish to them, and I loved it. These might not be for everyone, but I always love something different. They do somehow feel more summery than normal shimmer finishes.

And this first one is ‘Sanding in Stilettos’ (walking in heels on the beach, actually the hardest workout), and it’s a peachy creamsicle orange just filled with delicate silver shimmer, which gives it that frosty finish.

Still a touch of a thinner formula on this one even in a different finish, so I did build this up with 3 thin coats. After those 3 coats you might be able to see a tiiiiiiny bit of my ridges peeking through, but I feel like this shifty glowy formula cover those a little better. Since it is a shimmery shade, you do have a tiny bit of brushstrokes, but most level out nicely as it dries. And listen, I’m here to give more exceptions to a unique shade like this one. It’s definitely wearable and workable (and maybe I was just traumatized from those first 3 creams).

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‘Stay Out All Bright’ is a bright lemon yellow cream shade. It leans to the more cool-toned yellow side, keeping us away from any orange tones.

I knew yellows were notoriously more finicky, and with the creams I had swatched so far, I was nervous for this one. And just look

. It’s rough. It’s 3 coats, and it’s very streaky, especially at the ends of my nails, where the polish can be pulled. Listen,

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Maybe if you just float the polish on perfectly onto the smoothest nails, in thicker coats, while barely touching the nails, in as few strokes as possible, and don’t overwork it

Each time as the creams disappoint me, there’s then a metallic waiting to take me into its arms and tell me “it’s okay, we’ll make it through this”.

This is ‘Sunscreening My Calls’ (as a redhead in the sun, I feel like somehow this is me) and it’s a pale yellow pearly shimmer shade. The color almost reminds me of lemon desserts, which are my favorite.

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Yes, I had better luck with the metallics, and with 3 coats I was able to get this fully opaque. If you have smoother nails, you’ll for sure be good with 2-3. They painted on smoothly, and any brushstrokes I had evened out nicely as it dried.

‘Summer Monday-Fridays’ is a bright yellow-toned lime green cream shade. And I swear it gets better after this one, endure this last bad formula, and then we’ll be onto brighter pastures (even if not brighter colors).

As you can see right in the photo, this was another streaky 3 coat cream. My ridges are peeking through, and it’s more of the same. Shame, as I always love lime greens like this, but alas, there are much better out there.

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This is ‘I’m Yacht Leaving’ and it’s a bright, saturated teal cream shade. My camera had an absolutely DOOZY of a time with this shade, as it does with any sort of teal or turquoise shades. It loves to take the green away from all of them and pull more blue – which does happen in the swatch video. So if the swatch photo itself looks strange at all, it was from me color correcting as best as I could – I wanted to get as close to the true color as I could, and I still couldn’t capture how rich and saturated it was!

And THANK GOD, the formula is better on this. It’s a slight step up on the downhill ride we’ve been on and I could only give a welcome sigh of relief. If you have smooth nails, you’ll absolutely be set with just 2 coats, which has been UNHEARD OF in this set of creams so far. I did add a 3rd to cover my ridges peeking through, but it was fully covered at that point, and I almost sang with happiness.

Name there. This one is a bright aqua blue shimmer, and this feels so summery to

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