Nicole by OPI “Modern Family” collection

First picture, left to right: Luke of the Draw, A Phil’s Paradise, What’s the Mitch-uation?, Candid Cameron, Stand By Your Manny, Alex by the Books, My Jay or the Highway!

Second picture, left to right: Back in My Gloria Days…, Basking in Gloria, A Like-Haley Story…, I Do De-Claire!, Haley Good Lookin’…, She’s Lily Something, Am I Making Myself Claire?

To be honest with you, I haven’t liked “Modern Family” in a long time; I thought the first season was pretty original, but the seasons since have just felt slapdash and unbelievable. The show has become a caricature of itself instead of retaining any originality. So I was a little surprised to see Nicole by OPI doing a collection inspired by the show … I mean, does that seem random to anyone else?

I guess, though, that “Modern Family” is about embracing diversity and variety, and this collection is somewhat like that. The shades are a mix of different finishes, and range from light and work-appropriate to ultra-bright and beach-ready.

In the first picture, the shades are: Luke of the Draw, a black jelly with variously sized silver glitter chunks; A Phil’s Paradise, a shimmer with silver, gold, and gunmetal; What’s the Mitch-uation?, a very shimmery royal blue; Candid Cameron, a very shimmery teal blue; Stand By Your Manny, a light cornflower blue with very slight silver shimmer; Alex by the Books, a light mint green crème; and My Jay or the Highway!, a nude crème.

In the second picture, the shades are: Back in My Gloria Days…, a medium purple shimmer; Basking in Gloria, a saturated pink-based red shimmer that flashes a bit purple in certain lights; A Like-Haley Story…, a medium fuchsia pink with very slight silver shimmer; I Do De-Claire!, a light, almost salmon-pink frost; Haley Good Lookin’…, a mix of small circle- and hexagon-shaped light pink glitter; She’s Lily Something, a mix of orange and pink glitter particles with larger pink star glitter pieces; and Am I Making Myself Claire?, a slightly greyish lavender crème.

I think the shimmer shades, like A Phil’s Paradise, Candid Cameron, and Basking in Gloria to be the real winners here, but they’re all pretty good except for I Do De-Claire!, which I think seems a bit dated with that frost finish, and She’s Lily Something, because the star glitter is impossible to get out of the bottle. Otherwise, though, they’re all quite nice.

AVAILABILITY: $7.99 each at CVS, Rite Aid, Target, Ulta, or Walmart.

OPI “Oz: The Great and Powerful” collection

Left to right: Don’t Burst My Bubble, Glints of Glinda, I Theodora You, Lights of Emerald City, What Wizardry Is This?, When Monkeys Fly!, Which Is Witch?

This limited-edition collection from OPI is half-work friendly, half-glitter overload, so Don’t Burst My Bubble, Glints of Glinda, and I Theodora You are sheer with a jelly finish, while Lights of Emerald City, What Wizardry Is This?, When Monkeys Fly!, and Which Is Witch? are very sparkly indeed.

Don’t Burst My Bubble is a sheer white with a jelly finish; Glints of Glinda is a sheer beige with a jelly finish; I Theodora You is a sheer light pink with a jelly finish; Lights of Emerald City is a sheer white with square-sized opalescent glitter chunks and square-sized white glitter chunks; What Wizardry Is This? is a new addition to OPI’s Liquid Sand line, a mix of dirty olive, gold, and green glitter that dries to a matte, textured finish; When Monkeys Fly! is a mix of large gold glitter hexagons and smaller silver and holographic glitter hexagons; and Which Is Witch? is a clear base with silver hexagon glitter chunks and silver bar glitter, both of which flash holographic.

I basically loved everything in this collection except for When Monkey’s Fly, which was a goopy, never-drying mess—the large gold glitter chunks are really unmanageable and curl up when the polish dries, so they were constantly snagging on things and flaking off during the day. But When Monkey’s Fly is the only disappointment here; I like the three sheer shades as really work-appropriate options, and the other glitters are well-done and not too typical.

AVAILABILITY: $9 each at Ulta, JCPenney, and Dillard’s.