OPI Nicole by OPI Nail Lacquer, It Starts With Me, .5 fl oz

I've been doing my nails (not a salon, ME), since I was a kid. I'm middle-aged now, and after trying all sorts of brands, from the cheap to the high-end pricey ones, I've concluded that OPI is the best.

These polishes last two weeks, easy, looking decently on my toes. Hands less long (cause I wash dishes without gloves).

Lately, I've forgone nail polish on my fingers (laziness), but I still love to OPI my toes.

Opi goes on smooth, dries relatively fast, has rich colors, and lasts. Chick Flick Cherry is my fave of the cool, darker reds. Gorgeous red that makes my toes girly, sexy, and very happy. Hubby loves this color, too. Even comments on it. (When a man comments on a toenail color, it's gotta be nice!)

Malaga Wine is another lovely darker, coolor, winey-red color. (Try Kennebunk-port, too. Niiiice.) And in the warmer reds, Thrill of Brazil, Smok'n in Havana are tops. Moscow Red and Big Apple Red are terrific medium reds. And the...Read more

This polish is a deep-purple-edging-towards-black color which comes as close as you can get to the famous Chanel "Media" of the 90's. It's OPI, hence you're getting a nice bottle of polish for a not so large price that rivals the couture brands - not that most people could tell anyway. I love the whole OPI Russian collection. It has very retro colors that are "in" now so for "old" folks like me, it's nice to have my past made hip. Maybe I wasn't such an outcast after all - I was just cool before my time!

I am as low-maintenance a woman as they come; I can't usually be bothered with fixing polish chips and reapplying because it has bubbles and all the other headaches that have come with my brief forays into growing out and keeping polish on my nails in the past. I finally got smart and decided that cheap polish might be my problem, and looked around for the best-reviewed brand. I was not disappointed. It applied very smoothly, no bubbles, and with a thicker coat than I was expecting. The second coat took the color from a medium red/fuchsia to something just a little too pink to be candy-apple red, and I think I would have been just fine with a single coat, the coverage was that good. And then it stayed, and stayed. I'm usually lucky to get two days with perfect nails; this time I got a week, with only some wear (some very even wear, a thin line of white) at the very tips. I'm very pleased to finally find a polish as low-maintenance as I am!