Yesterday, I had the pleasure of playing around with the new OPI Color Paints, which hit stores between the eyes in May.

(You probably remember the OPI Color Paints press release I posted on here earlier, and you may have seen the quick photo I uploaded yesterday on my Instagram and other social media accounts.)

Like you, I was curious like a cat watching a mouse hole.

Would the 2015 OPI Color Paints just revisit the OPI Sheer Tints from 2014 and expand the colour selection? Or would they be completely different?

In this post, not only do I directly address that, but I show you side-by-side swatches, so you can see that the OPI Color Paints are much more pigmented than their OPI Sheer Tints baby sister!

I’ve also included OPI Color Paints swatches on a nail wheel with one coat and then with two coats, so you can see that OPI’s claim about these being buildable is true.

The silver nail polish included in the OPI Color Paints Collection is intended to be used as a base to make the colours pop, although I liked how they looked solo as well. (They have an almost creme-jelly finish to them.)

You’ll see swatches of that alone, but also with what it looks like with a single layer of another OPI Color Paints shade on top.

These OPI Color Paints are really fun to play around with, and I tried blending them and layering different colours on top. They work very well that way, too. (I may do a post later with photos of how they blend and layer.)

OPI Color Paints Pictures

OPI Color Paints Collection Photos

OPI Silver Canvas

OPI Primarily Yellow

OPI Chromatic Orange

OPI Pen & Pink

OPI Magenta Muse

OPI Landscape Artist

OPI Turquoise Aesthetic

OPI Indigo Motif

OPI Purple Perspective

OPI Color Paints Swatches (Artificial Light Photos)

All swatches from left to right are as follows:

Silver Canvas

Primarily Yellow

Chromatic Orange

Pen & Pink

Magenta Muse

Landscape Artist

Turquoise Aesthetic

Indigo Motif

Purple Perspective

OPI Sheer Tints vs. OPI Color Paints

A lot of people initially thought, when they read ‘sheer’ and ‘translucent’ in the OPI Color Paints press release that the OPI Color Paints would be reminiscent of the OPI Sheer Tints.

While both are designed so that they can be layered, I found that the OPI Color Paints were heavily pigmented compared to the OPI Sheer Tints.

With the OPI Sheer Tints, I don’t think you can ever achieve full opacity, even if you layered four coats. They only provide a very watery wash of colour.

On the other manicured hand, the OPI Color Paints impressed me with their pigmentation right away. Even with a single coat, they offered a lot of pigmentation, and the colours were more vivid than I remember the OPI Sheer Tints being.

I put OPI Sheer Tints I Can Teal You Like Me next to OPI Color Paints Turquoise Aesthetic because, in the bottle, they both appear to be a dark, translucent turquoise.

As you can see below, clearly, they are completely different in terms of pigmentation! (My heart beats faster for OPI Color Paints Turquoise Aesthetic, and it flatlines for OPI Sheer Tints I Can Teal You Like Me.)

OPI Sheer Tints vs. OPI Color Paints Swatch Comparison

Note: The OPI Color Paints and dotting tool in this post were provided by OPI.

Which OPI Color Paints shades did you drool over first? How would you design a nail-art look using the OPI Color Paints? Do you prefer the coverage of the OPI Sheer Tints or the OPI Color Paints?