OPI Just Lanai-ing Around for Perfect Soft Summer Nails

This post may contain affiliate links.

Hello beautiful readers! First off, I must apologize for my extremely long absence on this blog. I have no excuse, I just lost motivation but I am back and hope to be posting regularly.

This post is aimed primarily at Soft Summers, or anyone who looks and feels their best in cool-to-neutral muted shades.

OPI is a popular, well-known nail polish brand. It boasts a wide range of colors and is pretty consistent in its quality. Two coats sandwiched between your base coat and top coat will generally do the trick.

Once in a while, I run across a nail polish shade that is so perfectly Soft Summer, I can actually use my nails as a "fan" when I shop. OPI's Just Lanai-ing Around is one of those shades. It's that perfect muted pinky-purply mauve shade I'm always looking for in my blush, lipstick, clothing, and accessories. I have quite a few tops nearing this shade and I'd love to find a purse this color! Just Lanai-ing Around is pretty close to 6.4 on the classic Soft Summer 12tone fan.

Just Lanai-ing Around has a nice formula; not too thick nor too thin. My brush was a little wonky, with one hair sticking straight up. Otherwise, it's a typical OPI brush which is nicely shaped for a quick and easy manicure. It dried quickly with my quick-dry topcoat and drops. Unfortunately, I'm already seeing some tip wear on day 3, though no chips yet. I am using a nail hardening base coat and a quick drying top coat; I'm not sure those are the best for nail color longevity. On day 4, I was able to patch up the tips a bit and I slapped on another top coat to eek a couple more days out of my mani. At any rate, the color is so gorgeous and goes with my coloring and my whole wardrobe perfectly. The color is just ... yummy.

It's not a new color, so you may be able to find it at a discount store near you. I found mine at a Tuesday Morning. You can find OPI Just Lanai-ing Around on Amazon here:

My Personal Color Analysis Was a Big Surprise

Color me shocked. As it turns out, I'm not a Bright Winter at all. I'm actually a Soft Summer! They are both neutral seasons, leaning cooler with just a touch of warmth, but the colors and saturation are very different.

I wrote about what I was anticipating and a little about what this is all about in my previous post, here.

Now, how does a personal color analysis work, exactly? First, you wear no makeup. The "studio" (actually a hotel meeting room) was set up with a gray background and full-spectrum lights. I wore a gray scarf over my hair (because there is still a tiny bit of dye in the ends) and a gray drape. My analyst, Christine, also wore a gray coverall so as to not distract the eye. She started by draping me with fabric drapes representing the four true seasons, Winter (black), Autumn (dark brown), Spring (gold), and Summer (silver), comparing two at a time. It was clear that none of the true seasons were a perfect match, but Summer was the best, followed by Winter. We were looking for each color's effects on my face. You want feature definition, smooth skin, healthy skin color, bright colorful eyes, pink lips. You do not want shadows, yellowness, redness, pale lips, dull eyes, or hard lines.

We went through the red drapes (a series of pinks to reds designed to test for how much saturation suits you) and then we did each of the 12 seasons individually. Nine seasons were eliminated pretty quickly. She spent extra time comparing Light Summer and Soft Summer (SSu), but Soft Summer won out. She saved Bright Winter (BW) for last, because she know it was what I was expecting. I didn't tell her straight out, but she figured it out by my comments on how pretty certain drapes were, as well as what I walked in wearing (black and fuchsia).

The Bright Winter vs. Soft Summer draping was interesting. The BW drapes really didn't look bad - they didn't make me sallow, like the warmer seasons (Spring), or severe, like the cold seasons (True Winter and True Summer). But - in the BW, I just sort of receded. I wasn't center stage, the drape was. The SSu drapes, on the other hand, showed ME. This may sounds like a subtle thing. But I really could see it. The SSu colors are truly colors I've hardly looked at in stores. I just assumed they didn't have enough saturation for me. The SSu colors are heathered and grayed. I think they're very pretty, but they are just so far from the electric pinks, purples, and teals I've been favoring lately!

Christine sensed my shock, and she spent a long time with me. She really wanted me to see the changes that SSu made in my appearance. In fact, my session was about six hours long! Granted, much of that time was talking, about color theory in general, and then more specifically once my season had been revealed. We also talked about makeup, and she applied a full face of makeup on me, explaining as she went.

Once I got over my shock (even my shock shocked me - I swore I was totally open minded!), I decided to just embrace my new season. Hey, nothing is permanent, I can always go back to my old bright colors if I like. I've been collecting new makeup from Christine's recommendation list, and bought a few clothing items and scarves. Below, I'm sharing some photos from from draping session, as well as a selfie I took in my car wearing some of my new purchases. All of the draping photos are in my Soft Summer colors, with makeup on (I wasn't going to take any pictures of the "bad" colors, or any no-makeup shots, no matter good an illustration they might be!)

My colors (well, a few of them, anyway)

Some individual shots with Soft Summer colors

Here is my attempt at "doing Soft Summer" myself.

The scarf in the photo above is by Natasha (purchased at TJ Maxx). Foundation is Clinique Perfectly Real Makeup in 14N, blush is Clinique's Cupid. Eyeliner is Urban Decay's Uzi. Eyeshadow is a custom palette I created with MAC's Blackberry, Yogurt, and Scene. Mascara is Almay's Sapphire. Lipstick: Plumful by MAC.

A sampling of Soft Summer colors 

So was it worth it? Yes, I think so. I do love the way I look in the softer colors it would never had occurred to me to wear. And I did DO this in order to push myself out of my comfort zone - and to be the best me I can be. It's a work in progress! Have you ever had a PCA? Were you surprised by your results?

I'm Going To Get Draped - A Personal Color Analysis with 12 Seasons

Remember Color Me Beautiful from the 1980s? Did you get your "seasons done" back then like so many of us did? I was in high school, and my mom and I went and had our seasons done. Her season was very clear, but mine was a little confusing. She was a winter and I was a winter/summer borderline case. While she had a clear set of swatches with which to shop, I didn't really. The four season system just didn't really have something for everyone.

Now, a quarter of a century later, the science of seasonal analysis has advanced quite a bit. No more trying to squeeze everyone into four seasons whether they quite fit or not. There are many different seasonal systems out there, but the one I'll talk about is Sci/Art. One of the most well-known and respected analysts is Christine Scaman, whose website is called 12 Blueprints. Christine explains what seasons are and what a Personal Color Analysis is here.

The basic idea with Sci/Art is that there are 12 seasons. Within each of the four traditional seasons, there are three variations. They are as follows:
Bright Spring, True Spring, Light Spring
Light Summer, True Summer, Soft Summer
Soft Autumn, True Autumn, Dark Autumn
Dark Winter, True Winter, Bright Winter

I put together a collage of all 12 seasonal palettes, with images borrowed from Diary of a Colour Addict.

Just a glimpse of all 12 Sci/Art seasonal palettes

The point of all this is that once you find your seasonal home, you can focus your wardrobe and makeup on the colors in YOUR palette. These are the colors that will be your most flattering and beautifying.

There is quite a lot of science and color theory behind this and I'm not an expert so I won't try to explain it all here. Other sites that explain a lot of this: Truth is Beauty and Diary of a Colour Addict.

You can try to figure out your own season; some of the ways you can do this are explained in the Truth is Beauty link above. However, I've decided to get officially "draped" and have a PCA (Personal Color Analysis) with Christine. It will require some travel, in fact my mom and I are going together for a mother-daughter road trip adventure. It's all part of the journey I've embarked upon as I embrace my natural hair color while still striving to look my very best.

I am pretty sure already that I am a Bright Winter, at any rate, it is the palette I look at and see "me," but I will not mention this to Christine. I will just go into the draping with an open mind and see what results. I'm excited to see what the expert says! I'll be sure to write up my experience here once I'm done.

Have you ever been draped? Were you happy with your results? If you've never had it done, is it something you find interesting?