Oh no! It looks like trouble is a brewin’ in the nail polish world. Thanks for the heads up to one of my readers (Ruth) for letting me know about the latest developments.
First Essie demanded that online retailers charge $8 per bottle, double the $4 or so they were charging before. This alone pretty much put a freeze on me getting anymore, since that’s way beyond what I’ll pay for most of their shades. Then, Essie was recently acquired by L’Oreal, which is not cruelty-free. Boo! So, goodbye, Essie. Don’t let the door hitcha on the way out.
Then…they came for my OPI. It’s about $22 per bottle here in Japan, which is just ridiculous. So I’d order it online for $4-5 per bottle, then pick it up when I went back to the US, or finagle a kind friend into shipping a couple eagerly anticipated shades to me by sea-mail. But oh no! OPI has started legal action against online retailers who they say are not authorized to sell the products. Most of the online retailers have pulled all OPI products, except for scrappy old Transdesign, who is still selling “while supply last.” Good luck with getting full retail price, OPI. You’re not worth the $20+ price tag overseas. How much do they cost in the US? I saw them in Target over Christmas and I think it was either $8.99 or $9.99.
At least my other two stand-bys (China Glaze and Color Club) appear to be unaffected. I’ve had good luck with both of them, plus CC is vegan to boot. So while I’ll be looking at everyone’s fun OPI swatches in the future, no more for me.
Is anyone out there stocking up while you still can? What do you think of the situation? Are your future purchases going to change?
NeverTooMuchGlitter Nail Wonderland 
Yeah, this OPI deal is ridiculous. I don’t wear Essie much, because I like wacky colours, and OPI does unique colours well.
But at full retail price plus tax? It comes to ~$12? No thanks.
That’s pretty ridiculous- so a collection of 8 colors would be over $70. Nah, not worth it to me. I’m curious to see what the future will bring in terms of sales and profit…but I’m not coughing up that kind of dough. And I’m a polish junkie.
I know!! Well, I’d already given up on Essie (after the L’Oreal aquisition) for animal cruelty’s sake, but I’m REALLY not going to miss them once this $8 price tag comes into play.
Hopefully, this just steers people towards the “better” animal friendly brands =)
Yeah! I have had great results with Color Club which is cheap and vegan. I can now get 10 Color Clubs or about 7 China Glazes for the price of one OPI.
Keep up the good work- if we all direct our business to animal friendly companies, it will be noticed.
$22/bottle is just disgusting! 😦
Yeah, that’s actually why I started mixing my own colors in the first place! I’m not forking over that much. I don’t even buy boutique brands like Lippmann or Rescue Beauty Lounge at $18 because I think it’s ridiculous. For a mid-range polish like OPI, no way. Not picking on OPI- I like them- but I don’t think the mass market will fork over the $$$ for it.
Won’t be buying Essie – I refuse to do cruelty free.
OPI was always my guilty pleasure, I don’t think I’ve ever paid full price though, except for quick dry top coat once back in the day? I swapped or found them on clearance at dusty’s or swapped for them. They haven’t really been all that impressive lately anyway, with all the collections pretty much boring me to death.
I usually get the repackaged color clubs at five below. i live and die for them.
Right on! I never heard of 5 Below before but I’ve been out of the US a long time. Sounds cool! Color Club is also available on Transdesign too and other online retailers too for around $2.49. I go through a bunch of it, especially the neons.
Ahhhhhh this explains a *lot*. I’d been buying OPI at $8+, but since I was really new to nail polishing I figured it was the Hawaii mark-up. China Glaze and Nubar (the other two brands I use) were about the same price, so I figured that was a normal deal for *here*… but not necessarily everywhere… bummer! Now that I know it’s ridiculous across the board, it makes me not want to pay it anymore. I guess I’ll have to warm to online China Glaze and Color Club, which I’d never heard of before, but is good to know about.
Booooo it is not cool when uncool stuff like this happens.
Yeah, it’s a bummer. I recall seeing OPI at the mall at Trade Secret for around $9 and thinking it was ridiculous. I may cough up for something fantastic but I have yet to see what that will be.
I actually have a soft spot in my heart for Color Club- their president or vice-president answerewd my email enquiry about animal testing within an hour of getting it and told me they are vegan too. (In case you’re wondering what animal parts would go in polish, it’s usually shells, pearl or silk protein). I also use Orly which is cruelty free and easily available online.
Yes my future purchases are seriously effected. I will only buy now after I have seen several swatches from other bloggers and REALLY want the color…no more complete collections for me! Even though I understand OPI wanting to have some quality control, I can not simply afford to buy as many as I used to online. Although I can still get them for $9- $10, non-US purchasers, like yourself, will feel the pain more.
Let em know if there are colors you want, we can do a transcontinental swap 🙂
Oh, thank you! It’ll have to be pretty amazing for me to fork over the price OPI wants, but I’ll keep it in mind! 🙂
never had any essie’s before. well known for being streaky? just when i wanted to order about 10 essie’s, they raised their prices. So very well, no business for you from me then 😛 And after that, OPI pulled out of e-tailers which is huge for international polishes, who got their polishes from e-tailers, cheaper than retail but shipping aint that cheap too. And i also realize that OPI doesn’t really have the most amazing line in their permanent line. Colors are more or less the same after a while and it gets boring, you want me to pay $23.50 for you? go die! i’m switching to color club (OMG, those 1 coat opaque holos that are sooooooo buttery smooth) + china glaze ( those khrome collection, perfect for konading), which are cheaper alternatives but i say, 10x more interesting than OPI. unless for special release by OPI, i’m sticking to my china glaze + color club. What? you want me to pay $23.50 for your regular line with colors that i could franken myself/find dupes in other brands at a cheaper price? Just continuing wishing on, OPI. you disappoint me !
Essie is best known for the endless pale pinks, most of which streak like crazy on me. I guess they’ve gotten better over the years, but I still have trouble applying some of the paler shades.
Actually, the high price of polish in Japan is why I started frankening in the first place. I have a pretty good collection here to increase my frankening possibilities. Luckily I was pretty well stocked before all this went on. I’ll have to flex my franken muscles to make duplicates from upcoming collections, because $23 for a bottle of OPI here is just plain nuts. Chanel goes close to $50. That is deranged. So I too will be sticking to Color Club, China Glaze and Orly, my three el-cheapo but perfectly functional standbys.
Pfft to charging triple for the Japanese market!
bad news 😦
if you want i can find for you french polish !
just tell me 🙂
Thank you very much! 🙂
in france we have Peggy sage usually use by pro
i can find all the color just choose 🙂
http://www.peggysage.com/PEGGYCMD/servlet/PEGGY?svc=SRV&file=peggysage/wwwpeggysagecom/dataweb.jsh&l=2
MY email lily_nail(at)hotmail(dot)fr
Hey there, I really like your blog and right now I have a huge problem with OPI, too…I want to order some polishes from the actual OPI site, but it seems that it’s impossible! I don’t really know of any online retailers and I really hope you could help me with that..Oh and I dont live in the US, I live in Europe, so I cant just walk out and buy some OPI at Target or whatever..So pleeease, pretty please, can you help me find some reliable online sellers??? who do you buy your OPI from? THANKS A LOT! 😀
xx
Maia
Hi Maia,
I live in Japan but I am from the US. I used to order OPI online from Transdesign at http://www.transdesign.com
and then have it shipped to a friend or family members house in America. They used to ship overseas but I am not sure if they still do anymore. Another place you can try is http://www.8ty8beauty.com as they will ship internationally. However, you won’t be able to buy OPI online anymore as far as I know. OPI has taken the online retailers to court to force them to stop selling OPI stuff. Your only choice may become Ebay or a site where people exchange nail polish like Makeup Alley.
Sorry I can’t be more help- a lot of us international girls are going to be buying a lot less nail polish in the future!
I didn’t know what was going on since I haven’t been reading many blogs. I wondered what happend to OPI on some of the nail polish e-tailers. I did order from TransDesign. This is ridiculous. I’ve paid much more for nail polish but those polishes are usually worth the price. I don’t think OPI’s formula is worth it. I guess I’ll have to stick to China Glaze, Orly and Color Club.
Here in Sweden OPI sells for 19 USD, i think!
Some american stuff got crazy prices here, especially a pint of Ben & Jerrys ice cream wich costs about 6 american dollars.