I know, I know. It's been 5 months since I posted last. Yes, I'm fine... kinda.
Ladies, this semester has been one hell of a ride, emphasis on the "hell" part. I am not cut out for 5 classes. At all. I'm especially not cut out for giving speeches and presentations at 9:30 AM. I've also landed a side gig as a transcriber for an insurance adjuster, so in addition to my schoolwork, I'm spending anywhere from a few minutes here and there to hours not dissimilar to a full-blown part-time job per week doing this (the influx of work is not very consistent). Oh, and my 15 year old cat died. Who I love more than anything in the world. Yep. I know that no one (or next to no one) reads this blog, but if you've been wondering, that's where I've been.
Anyways! Today I've got a fun little shade that's fallen to the wayside in the books of nail polish history. OPI's 2002 S/S South America collection was not unsuccessful by any stretch of the imagination. Some of its colors are still produced by the company 19 years later, such as the sizzling pink La Paz-itively Hot and the beloved nude Dulce de Leche. Other polishes from this collection did not get so lucky, and were neglected for the permanent lineup.
Today I bring to you one such example, Up the Amazon Without a Paddle (love the name). My bottle is first edition!... but only because it was swiftly discontinued after the collection's run, along with other unloved colors like the amusingly-named Galapa-ghost (a whiteish nude) and Santiago Sangria (which looks virtually indistinguishable from La Paz). And honestly... I can kind of see why.
Not to say this isn't a great color, because it is. It's a bright coral with an obnoxious pink shimmer to it. In both of the pictures I've attached, I've used the flash on my phone camera to really emphasize that pink glow. I would call it "stealth shimmer", but that'd be a lie -- even when not under direct light, this shade hums in such a way that these old shimmery OPIs tend to do. There's also some golden shimmer swirled into it, if you can tell. It's real nice.
So why was this discontinued if it's so great? Well... it just
looks outdated. It simply screams 2002... well, if I'm being honest, it screams 1996 a little louder. Not that I remember (I was bigger on watching Barney the Dinosaur and shitting my pants over nail polish back then), but I get the vibe that by 2002, the nail world was starting to get antsy. Pinks and reds and nudes weren't cutting it anymore. Those wacky, edgy shades popularized by brands like Street Wear in the 90s were beginning to really catch on. Why wear a pearl coral when you COULD be wearing green glitter? Maybe for the conservative crowd or the office workers, a pearl coral could be nice. But for the cool college girls and Phoebe from
Friends types, a funky color is much more en vogue. Then again, I could be totally wrong... but I'm just speculating! (Oh, and it's MAD sheer... like, 4 coats and I still see VNL sheer. That could have had a hand in its discontinuation, methinks.)
Check it out, on my stubby little nail, on my fat little finger. Ain't it puuuurdy? I'll answer that question for you -- it's alright. Y'all know I love a good vintage polish more than damn near anything on this planet (with the only exceptions being my mom, my cats, my BF, and sushi), but this one doesn't really do it for me. Yes, it's bright and fun and all that good stuff, but... I don't know. I just don't love it. Then why'd I use it? It's called shopping the stash, people! Sometimes you just gotta close your eyes and do a full manicure with the first polish you grab. With ~1000 polishes under my belt, it can get hard to choose with my eyes open. It's not like I picked this out for myself, anyway -- I got it as part of a $5 lot on Facebook. I got some other BLOPIs in there too, including Kinky in Helsinki, which remains one of my best finds 2-ish years later. One (wo)man's trash is another (wo)man's treasure... :')
So that's gonna do it for today. If you've read this far, I hope you enjoyed it. If you didn't, go to hell. :) Jk. And until next time... PEACE! xoxo
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