So my mom was looking at the Facebook Marketplace when she came across someone in town selling a lot of nail polish for 5 dollars. She showed me a picture and asked if I was interested - of course I said yes! It includes 5 OPIs (all of which were on the newer side and didn't seem too exciting) as well as an Essie, a Models Own, a couple of Wet n Wilds, and an L.A. Colors. Nothing too extravagant, but who was I to turn down a bunch of nail polish for 5 bucks?
She texts me the next day saying that she picked it up and that the seller had actually thrown in some additional nail polishes. This got me excited - what could they be? But I just waited until she got home with a bag full of polishes.
As I pulled them from the bag, I realized that the overwhelming majority were OPI. The initial listing only had 5 OPIs - she had thrown in about 10 more! There were some BLOPIs that, when doing research, are pretty rare - these include "Up the Amazon Without a Paddle", "You Cannoli Imagine", "Dinner for Two", and "Sicilian Vermillion". As I was nearing the end, I picked up a bottle of pretty magenta polish with bluish shimmer. I turned it over - 2 icons on the back, indicating that it's quite old. No way... I thought to myself. But when I turned it over to look at the bottle label, it was true...
Yes. I'm not fooling you in any way. It's really Kinky in Helsinki from the 2002 European collection. I royally lost my shit. This bad boy goes for up to $60 on eBay - that's how rare it is. My bottle is heavily used (there's probably about half remaining) so I could never sell it, but being in possession of such a coveted polish... I'm sure it'll keep Peel Me a Gobi Grape company in my OPI drawer!
There's a bottle shot. I realize it's a bit dark - this is after turning the brightness up! I don't know why my phone camera can't play nice.
Unfortunately it is pretty gloppy and thick - a lot of them from this lot are. They are rather old, and it looks like the previous owner wasn't very careful with them. A few of them (including Kinky in Helsinki) would not open and had to be soaked before they'd budge. I actually still can't get one of them (DS Reflection) open because it's so crusted shut. Despite its thickness, I was still able to get a swatch of KiH - I bought a bottle of Seche Restore online and plan to revive all these old, thick polishes. Here is the beautiful Kinky in Helsinki. 2 coats.
It's a really pretty color. Once again, my camera doesn't do it justice - it's so much brighter in person. I tried to turn up the contrast, and here's the result of that:
This is closer to how it looks in person, but I'd say it's still brighter IRL. It's also a lot more cool-toned - there's a super-fine blue shimmer to it that the camera doesn't pick up on.
I'd say this one is easily dupe-able. There are loads of similar (if not identical) cool-toned magenta shimmers in the world. I have some similar polishes in my own collection (which, by the way, has now passed 300 bottles!) but I guess for some people, there's just something special about Kinky in Helsinki. And I get it. There's a thrill to rare old nail polish that most won't understand, but if you get it, you get it. It's especially rewarding when an HTF just falls right into your hands. ;)
Until next time...