OPI Over & Over A-Gwen - A Review

I'm a nail polish fiend, despite acquiring an arsenal of new polish over the festive period with the Ciate Mini-Mani calender and some cute OPI minis from Ad and my baby sister, I cannot seem to help myself and always seem to hunt down new colours to add to my collection. I have a big lack of reds and greens which is my excuse for the slight indulgence below (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!).

For those of you who aren't so familiar with OPI, the gorgeous Gwen Stefani has recently teamed up with the power house to produce a limited edition collection of black satins, glossy pinks and glittery top coats. Perhaps the most exciting of the bunch is Over & Over A-Gwen, designed to be a reflection of Gwen's signature red pout.

Being the stand-out shade in the collection, it comes in it's own special gift box making it ideal to give as a gift for any nail varnish lovers such as myself. As stated above, I'm still in the self-gifting phase so I got this as a wee treat for myself.

In addition to the gorgeous gift box, there are a couple of added bonuses hidden away inside, namely, Swarovski nail elements and a handy nail art guide which serves as inspiration for different ways which you can make the most of the elements. These are adhered with the glue (also enclosed) and can be soaked off and reused. I haven't had a chance to use the elements yet, but there are plenty of photos around the interwebs which demonstrate just how great they can look against any of the colours in the collection.

The colour itself was pretty easy to apply, just two coats were all that was required to give the depth of coverage as shown below.

The picture below shows my nails in a slightly different light. They look almost glacé cherry like, especially with the amount of gloss!

I have to say, I really love this shade, it's an incredibly wearable red, not so poppy that those of us with fairer skin tones would look washed out, not at all vampy (although there is a colour in the range which fits that bill), nor is it so deep a red that you couldn't get away with wearing it every day either. As a plus, I think this comes off glossier on the nails than most reds which give it extra plus points in my book.

 As you'd expect with OPI, with a top-coat and base coat you'll get a good 4/5 days wear before the varnish starts to chip. However, if you're like me and decide to use the weekend to rummage around your store cupboard in a bid to hunt out the gas meter, your nails may suffer minor damage as a result *DOH!*.

Have you tried any of the colours in the new Gwen Stefani range? What did you think?