Nail of the Day: OPI Just Spotted the Lizard

 natural light, two coats

Over the past year and a half I've become a nail polish junkie.  What was a small collection of ~10 polishes I had collected since high school has grown to probably nearly 100 polishes.  I have a nice little collection of Julep polishes now thanks to their Maven subscription program.  I take advantage of drugstore sales and have tons of Revlon polishes I got for $0.99.  Then there's a healthy mix of Essie (probably my favorite nail polish brand), China Glaze, Zoya, and Butter London (who has the best formula, in my opinion).  Despite having a large collection, I actually did not own an OPI polish until recently when I purchased two polishes from the new The Amazing Spider-Man Collection.

The two polishes from the collection that I purchased were Just Spotted the Lizard (seen above) and Number One Nemesis.  Both shades are dupes for popular Chanel polishes (Peridot and Graphite, respectively) which released with the Illusion d'Ombres Collection from Fall 2011.  I had lusted after the Chanel polishes last fall, but at $26 a polish, I wasn't willing to splurge.  When I saw the new OPI collection and started hearing whispers about the dupes, I had to check it out myself.  At $8 each, the OPI dupes are a much more affordable option!

To be honest, Peridot/Just Spotted the Lizard is a shade that I find very unique and visually interesting, but I don't find it to be particularly flattering on the nails.  It is truly stunning though, and nearly impossible to photograph as it has such a dimensionality that you really have to see in person.  Sometimes it's a deep teal, sometimes it's green, sometimes it's gold.  I think this will be a shade I probably reach for a lot in the fall.

The formula on this polish is great: two coats and it's completely opaque.  As is the nature of pearly/metallic polishes, you do have to be mindful when applying this polish so as to minimize streaks.  Overall, I definitely recommend Just Spotted the Lizard.  I think this has been a very popular shade.  When I picked mine up from ULTA the display for the collection was full of all the shades except this one--there was only two bottles left.  If you're interested in the shade, especially if you were eying Chanel's Peridot last fall but couldn't bring yourself to splurge, I definitely suggest you pick it up soon!