O.P.I Infinite Shine Review and Photos

O.P.I Infinite Shine

Long wearing gel like polishes are everywhere right now, as they claim to bridge the gap between ordinary nail polish and gel polish. This hybrid formula has a high shine finish, lasts longer than regular polish, dry's quickly and involves either two or three steps to achieve the gel like appearance. I have already tested out a few from the drugstore including Barry M and Revlon, but I was keen to see what the premium brands had to offer within this market. O.P.I has been one of my favourite brands for years now, so I thought I would give their Infinite Shine version a go first, here's my thoughts.

Price
To get the most from this system it's advised you purchase the base and top coat too. Both the base, top and colour all retail for £13.95 each for the usual 15ml of polish. A regular bottle of O.P.I lacquer retails for £12.50, so not a huge difference in price, which is good, it's just a shame you have to pay out another £27.90 just to be able to use the three step system properly. But once you have the base and top that should last you a good while and it's a lot cheaper than getting a gel manicure.

Packaging
The packaging is the same as the original lacquers, the only difference is the title and silver top. They also tell you on the front of the bottle which is step 1, 2 & 3. The Infinite Shine colour collection comes in 30 shades ranging from blues to green and reds to taupe's.

At the moment these only come in a crème formula, but hopefully in the future they will release some shimmers and duo chromes. I picked up four of the shades from left to right in, Set in Stone, Raisin' the Bar, From Here to Eternity and It Never Ends.

Application
To apply you start with a thin layer of the base coat, known as the 'prime', you then apply two thin layers of the coloured lacquer, it's then advised you wait two minutes before you apply your top coat, know as the 'gloss', this dried pretty quickly, which was great. These lacquers are beautifully pigmented and are really opaque in just one coat, so it's up to you whether you think you need the 2nd coat. I did apply the two coats of colour as per the instructions.

Longevity
Although these had a glossy finish and went on beautifully, unfortunately the shine didn't last the 10 days as mentioned on the box. I also had chipping on a few nails on day 3 which was a shame. I also found that if you did accidently knock your nails, they did chip easily and by day 6 my nails didn't look the best so I decided to take it off.

Overall Thoughts

For me this system sounds appealing, as everyone loves a glossy gel like nail, that lasts, but also takes away the hassle of using a light to cure, as well as a having to soak off the colour. Now don't get me wrong I loved the colour selection, opaque formula and the fact it dry's pretty quickly, it was just unfortunate the longevity and shine factor let it down. I have normal polishes that have better durability than these, which is a real shame considering I'm a big fan of O.P.I. But as I do love these colours I purchased, I will see how well they work with a normal base and top coat as I do know they work well on top of gel extensions and acrylics, I will keep you posted!

 

So if you have a special occasion or a holiday booked and your after a gel like polish, that has a glossy, long-wearing finish, I would recommend going to the salon and having gel nails instead, as they are more likely to withstand the test of time.

 

I award O.P.I Infinite Shine 3.6 out of 5