Hi ladies :D You have no idea what it means for me to able to even type this post up! In fact, I think it is every nail addicts dream to be able to have the opportunity to attend product launch events and in this circumstance, I had the distinct pleasure of going to OPI's breakfast event. To make it even more memorable, George Schaeffer, founder of OPI, was present and gave us all an insight into the brand.
I actually arrived at the event pretty early (paranoia hit me and I kind of over-estimated travel time) so I actually walked around the area a bit first and took some photos of the scenery. The breakfast was going to be at The Sailors Club in Rose Bay, aka gorgeous sea views. It was a pity the day was overcast and although the rain held off (obviously it wouldn't rain, because I took the time to lug my umbrella around), it was a rather cloudy day. Still, I was able to catch the sun before heading indoors for the event.
The first person I met was the wonderful Lisa from OPI's Australian PR company. It was fabulous getting to meet her in person and I totally regret not being to snag a photo with her! After getting my name badge I was warmly invited to get my nails done. With shades from the upcoming collections, of course ;)
Oh choices, choices, so many choices! Again, I didn't manage to snap a shot of the table set up - so many nail polishes! - but you get to see what nail polish I decided to go with instead. I was actually torn between
OPI Alcatraz...rocks and
Peace & love & polish but in the tend, I decided to go with
Alcatraz....rocks. In hindsight, I should have just asked for an accent nail like
Michelle did, but oh well! You may see one in a future post instead :)
Afterwards, lots of mingling happened as more ladies trickled in. It started to occur to me at that point that many of the ladies attending the event represented magazines or salons, making this opportunity even more special for me. I heard that there were a few other blogger ladies present, but I only had the chance to meet Michelle in person, and it was great getting to know her in real life!
In this time, I also took the chance to go around the room and take as many photos as I could of the upcoming product launches. Prepare to drool, ladies! ;)
I'll start with the recently released
Bond Girls collection. Seeing the bottles in person are even better than swatches online! They're all utterly amazing and I know I will especially adore
Jinx ♥
Next up is the cute
Couture de Minnie collection, which will be available in June.
Of course, the namesake of the breakfast was also prominently featured and displayed throughout the room. The
San Francisco collection is a huge collection consisting of 15 nail polishes.
I also discovered OPI's Holiday collection for 2013 displayed and trust me, I almost literally drooled over this one! Having not heard or read any information of it yet, it was an extremely pleasant surprise to see it featured for all to see. It looks like
OPI will be collaborating with Mariah Carey once again and will provide an additional 6 Liquid Sand nail polishes in the collection. I have to admit, I didn't even realise the collection was filled with reds until I looked at my photos again. I was too drawn to the glitters, shimmers and darker shades along the left, as well as the liquid sands to even give the reds my attention!
And omg, there is going to be a GOLD AND SILVER leaf top coat! Can the Holiday collection look any better already? :D
Outdoors on the verandah, I made another small discovery of product launches. Really, this morning just couldn't get any better :P There was also a small display of the
Matte top coat, along with some fine gold and silver glitter pots. I loved the display nails which showcased some shiny and matte top coat nail art designs :)
OPI's annual Breast Cancer Awareness
Pink of Hearts 2013 collection reveals another glitter bomb. The multicoloured glitters remind me of a pastel version of
Rainbow connection.
And of course, the annual
Halloween 2013 collection was also sighted.
Rolling bones looks the most interesting of the four.
After all this, I finally sat down to gobble down some fruit from the fruit platter before listening to George Schaeffer speak about OPI.
George is a super funny guy and made the atmosphere really light-hearted. He gave us an overview of the upcoming products OPI would be releasing and the influence OPI has on creating trends. It was absolutely amazing to hear the influence all women have on OPI.
There was a chance to ask questions afterwards and this question really stood out - "How do you coordinate the colours in a collection to match the seasons for us down under?" And of course, George being his witty and humorous self answered, "Well, women don't really care about seasonally appropriate colours, they care more about being up-to-date with the current trends."
Lightbulb moment! How many times have ladies in Australia been frustrated with the fact that current collections available in the northern hemisphere were not going to be available until 6 months later? *ding ding ding* Yep, I certainly have been! I found George's answer to be so simple and straightforward - simply provide current products worldwide regardless of seasons because in his words - "Seasons don't exist". I presume not in nail polish land, at least.
I really got to mull over this as I dug into my yummy breakfast - sugar cured ocean trout on brioche with dill dressing ♥ I'm actually not a raw fish kinda gal, but even I found this delicious!
All in all, this has been the most amazing opportunity for me. For a small blogger in the most minute corner of the interwebs to be attending an event from such a large and well known brand, this event has really humbled me. The morning ended with a fabulous goodie bag from OPI, of which I am itching to dig through and admire ;)
Of course, be on the look out for my swatches of the
San Francisco collection, as well as the
Bond Girls and
Couture de Minnie collections in future posts!
-edit- Swatches and review of the
San Francisco collection can be found here! :)
Thank you for reading through this unbelievably long post!
~Sharon
