O.P.I The Thrill Of Brazil...

Ahhh  Brazil...

To me Brazil is synonymous with Carnival, Samba and Carmen Miranda...

This Friday starts the Rio Carnival, last bits of celebration before Lent the 40 days period which precedes Easter. This grand street party can be quite wild for some and so must be very different these days than when it started back in 1823.

Photo credit: That The Bones You Have Crushed...

Before writing this entry I knew nothing about the Rio Carnival and so I read bits about it here and there on the web. Like everybody else I had seen images of people dancing next and on top of lavishly decorated floats in what appeared to be a wild party atmosphere. What I’ve learnt is that it’s all about the Samba which seems to have originated in Bahia, Brazil, with roots in Rio de Janeiro and Africa via the West African slave trade and African religious traditions. Samba is most frequently identified as a musical expression of urban Rio de Janeiro where it was developed between the 19^th and 20^th century.

The Rio Carnival is a big party but it’s also a Samba competition. The carnival parade is for samba schools to compete against rival samba schools. Each chooses a theme they try to portray in their performances, floats, costumes, some pretty amazing artistic makeups and of course, music. There can be as much as 4000 participants/revelers per school.* Now talk about a party!

O.P.I Spring/Summer 2014 collection, Brazil...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkRZZD11WwE&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PLQJUg0LNqNatSIO-M1qlMsj5umZBR5-ET

Twelve new colors inspired by the largest South American country have hit the shelves about two weeks ago. I hadn’t planned on getting any but hey, why not?

The Thrill Of Brazil...

I decided to go for the beautiful bright red in the collection but ended up being duped!!!

I purchased The Thrill Of Brazil thinking it was color from the new collection only to find out once home that it had been originally released in 2002 as part of the South American Collection. It now has its place in O.P.I’s  regular line up. Even more annoying is that there was a swatch of it on the store's color wheel along with those of the new offerings.

Still, even if this is not a new shade it does come up as a pretty perfect dupe of Red Hot Rio which is likely the reason it was on the same display. A co-worker was wearing the gel version of it this week and our two hands side by side, truly looked identical. When two colors are that close it really makes me wonder about some limited edition collections out there and I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed but O.P.I has pretty extensive selection of reds similar to this one. I guess it's getting a little hard to develop new ones.

The formula...

Slightly on the thin side but if you lick the extra on the the neck of the bottle it goes on easily and I had no pooling. This one could actually be a one coater but I preferred to go with two for durability. Drying time was pretty quick so that was nice. I’d say I was able to use my hands 30 minutes after applying the second coat.

I applied it on Sunday morning and early in the afternoon did some cooking where I prepared three dishes for the upcoming week. After about an hour I could see that I was starting to get some tip wear so this one definitely needs a top coat just like most O.P.I cream nail polishes I own.

I removed it on Friday nights and by then it didn't look that good. I must admit that I didn't reapply my top coat mid week. Longevity is not as good as some higher end formulas I own but for the price this is a good quality nail polish. Just note that if you have soft nails you may end up with chips on the second day, especially if you don't wear a top coat over it. Staining may also be an issue so a base coat may have its place here if it's something that annoys you. I don't mind much since I'll be going for another medium dark color right after.

I don’t wear reds that often, in fact up until now I only owned one from Essie (Twin Sweater Set reviewed, here) released last fall and the reason I decided to get O.P.I’s was because I thought it would be a little brighter, which it is but since I’m not a red aficionado I could have lived without it. I find them pretty much interchangeable.

I tried to take pictures of it I really tried and every time the color came out almost tomato red which it’s not. It’s much cooler thus more wearable in my opinion for this time of year. Even the swatches I’ve seen on other blogs all appear warmer than it is. On the pictures above, natural light on the left is the closest I could get to the actual color. You can get an idea of what I mean on the right with indoor lighting about the tomato effect.

Who knew red could be so hard to photograph?

Here next to one another Essie Twin Sweater Set does appear much darker but in real life it's not that evident.

So this took care of The Thrill Of Brazil, the carnival and samba portion but who the heck was Carmen Miranda?

A popular Brazilian actress from the 1930s/1950s. She was Hollywood’s generic kind of stereotypical “Latinness” who was a sort of mixture of Brazilian, Mexican, Portuguese, Cuban and Argentinean styles. Flamboyant, she would wear over the top colorful costumes, crazy fruit loaded head pieces and platform shoes high enough to make Lady Gaga jealous! You can learn more about her, here.

I do believe she would have loved O.P.I’s Red Hot In Brazil!

If you love red you might want to check out The Thrill Of Brazil or Red Hot In Rio and who knows, they just might inspire you to take samba lessons!  :)

How do you feel about red nail polish? Go or no go?

*To learn more about Samba schools and the carnival in general there's this very informative website you can visit, Rio Carnival but be warned, it's slow and a bit of a pain to navigate.