OPI Mermaid's Tears are of joy and not sorrow.

After a spell of sporting vampy, dark shades, I had a hankering for pretty spring heralding colors to brighten up the dreary gray Toronto mornings. If you ask me, I prefer the white of snow to the grey of impending rain. Never mind that I used to live in a tropical island where the chance of rain on any given day was never lower than 50%. That cold, white stuff that falls from the sky is infinitely more magical than sloshing about in the damp, and huge puddles. Inspired by the new spring releases and all the lovely pops of color, I brought out a spring 2011 shade that I hadn't gotten around to wearing yet:

I definitely have spring in the brain.

The Quick Take

Brand/Name: OPI Mermaid's Tears
Color: Dusty sea green
Finish: Creme
Price: $10 CDN for 15mL
Seen at: Trade Secrets, Nail Polish Canada
Note(s): Mermaid's Tears is part of the limited edition Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Collection that coincided with the release of the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean movie of the same name in Spring 2011.


The Fun Facts

Token bottle shot.

Ingredients.

Serial at the base

Standard OPI brush

Pastel pretty green!

I'm usually not a huge fan of pastels as I feel the strangely chalky cast to most of them make it hard to sport these otherwise pretty pale brights. What drew me to Mermaid's Tears is the dusty quality to it that makes it so much more wearable. I thought it was very appropriate that the name coincided so well with the sea green color. Being a creme finish, the color itself is fairly straightforward. However, it can look a few shades lighter in some lighting conditions, and a bit darker in others. I find that easily sets it apart from the other cremes.
***All nail swatches were done with Nail Tek II Foundation Base Coat and two coats of OPI Mermaid's Tears unless stated.

Natural light/No top coat/No flash

A few shades paler in this light.

Natural light/No top coat/Flash

Strangely darker looking with flash.

Sunlight/No top coat/No flash

The most accurate color representation as I see it in person.

As easy as it is to use the pro-wide brush, I do sometimes wish it wasn't all that wide so I can easily get into the nooks and crannies close to the cuticle area. Not really that big of a deal, but for smaller nails, that might make application trickier. The consistency of this particular polish is outstanding. Just what you'd expect from OPI. It flows nicely and evens itself out upon drying. No brushstrokes on a gorgeous, flawless finish. This otherwise lovely opaque formula was on the sheerer side of the spectrum and definitely needed at least two coats for complete coverage. Something I found quite surprising for a creme OPI polish. Dry time was decent, clocking in at about the same time as your run of the mill polishes. Give or take 3-5 minutes after application.

Natural light/Top coat/No flash

Even better with top coat!

Natural light/Top coat/Flash

Hammie says: Doesn't this make for a great stamping base?

Sunlight/Top coat/No Flash

Hammie sings: "Flipping your fins you don't get too far/ legs are required for jumping, dancing..!"

Ahh, top coat. You make everything all the more better. Definitely amped up the shine for Mermaid's Tears!


The Lowdown

Off the top of my head, the first polish that comes to mind in terms of comparable colors is Orly Ancient Jade. Unfortunately, I don't own the Orly polish, but from photos I've seen from other bloggers who've compared Mermaid's Tears to Ancient Jade, the latter is brighter and a whole lot more opaque formula-wise. Sinful Color Open Seas is touted as the absolute closest dupe. I have to agree. When you think about the collection and display that Open Seas came out with, it looked a whole lot like the OPI Pirates of the Caribbean collection, all the way down to the ship photo on the display and the color choices. Corporate espionage or happy coincidence? Whatever the case may be, for us frugal mortals with limited polish purchasing budgets, having a much cheaper option is always a good thing. When you compare the colors, it would take a very discerning nail polish aficionado to be able to tell the difference between Open Seas and Mermaid's Tears. Both share the same color family and only differ in that Mermaid's Tears is a tiddly bit lighter than Open Seas. So do you need Mermaid's Tears? I say yes if you don't have access to Open Seas. Because really, $1.99 vs. $10, I'd go with the $1.99 so I can save that $8 for even more polish down the road. Makes sense, no? As far as I know though, this was a limited release so once the stock is gone, I think it's gone. As it was released early last year, chances are this may be tricky to find in stores. I'd say your best bet are online retailers, but do yourself a favor and save eBay as your ultimate last option.

I've actually only recently seen the movie when Mr. J and I did a movie marathon during the holidays. I didn't quite enjoy it as much as I did the first three ones. It strangely felt like Capt. Sparrow wasn't as audacious, impertinent and all around funny as he was in the first three films. Or maybe it was just that I didn't appreciate the banter with Penelope Cruz's character, who felt flat/2D. In any case, what saved it for me was the mermaid angle. See, I've always been fascinated by mermaids. As a voracious young reader, I used to devour books about them. I was such a permanent fixture at our local library that the librarians knew me by name and were so kind as to hold on to new books that would come in for me (it might've been because I pester them about new books every time I go as I'd already read practically everything they had in the kids/young adult section, so I guess holding the books for me was easier than dealing with my questions). The Hans Christian Andersen story was what started it all. I sympathized with the little mermaid and felt it was an injustice that she didn't get a happy ending (I'm a huge proponent for happily ever afters). It didn't seem fair. Then I read The Water Babies, which apparently was a controversial book. I only thought they seemed like mermaids so I enjoyed that immensely. Disney's Little Mermaid is a close second to Beauty and the Beast in my book and quickly endeared Disney to me as they gave her the happy ending (I felt) she deserved. So it comes as no surprise that the biggest thing that bugged me about the movie was how it felt like they left the Syrena/Philip angle way too open ended. A happily ever after seemed implied, but come on! I wanted to see it! *end rant*

Hammie was strangely enamored with Mermaid's Tears. He says he heard it singing a haunting melody, but we all know nail polish can't sing...right? He also says it easily kept at bay the horrible winter blues and reminded him of sunshine-filled spring days and the promise of greenery and flowers abounding. When a polish affects you in such a positive way, I'd say that's an epic win! Predictably, Hammie scores Mermaid's Tears:

10 Hammie Points!

Happy Weekend! What does the weekend have in store for you? We're saying goodbye to my in-laws on Saturday and my adorable niece is going back to Whitby on the same day. Things should be back to normal thereafter but we'll surely miss having a baby in the house! Can you guess what song Hammie was singing? How did you like the movie? Do you think Mermaid's Tears was a good representation of its part in the movie?