Your fall books open in three weeks. OPI just reopened the vault.
OPI marked its 45th year by bringing back the retired shades people never stopped asking for: Lincoln Park at Midnight, Vampire State Building, Every Month is Oktoberfest. All five Fall '26 kits are now listed at C8, in gel, lacquer and dip.
OPI's Most Requested: the vault shades, in three formats
OPI's fall release this year is not a set of new inventions. It is a reissue. To mark 45 years the brand went back into its archive and brought out the discontinued shades that techs and clients have been hunting on resale sites, then made them permanent. Route Beer Float, that shimmery mauve-brown. Lincoln Park at Midnight, the inky purple every fall client asks for by name. Vampire State Building. Every Month is Oktoberfest.
C8 has all five Fall '26 kits listed, and they arrive across the three systems a salon actually runs: gel, lacquer and dip. If you already stock OPI nail polish, these drop straight into the wall you have. If you have been waiting for a reason to widen your gel nail polish range before the fall rebook, this is a cleaner one than a random colour launch, because clients are already asking for these by name.
GC385, 0.5 oz each, 6-piece kit
Four vault revivals plus two new neutrals, including Vampire State Building and Every Month is Oktoberfest. Intelli-Gel is HEMA-free and vegan, cures in 30 seconds, and soaks off without the scraping the older GelColor needed.
Add-On Kit #1 $90
Fall '26 Nail Lacquer 12PC Vac Tray Display
$72
Intelli-Gel Add-On Kit #2: Route Beer Float, Lincoln Park at Midnight
$90
Powder Perfection Trial Kit #1
$138
Powder Perfection Trial Kit #2
$138
Cre8tion: 24 new Cat Eye shades, 452 through 475
Cat eye has not slowed down. It is the finish that photographs itself, which is why it keeps earning rebooks, and Cre8tion added another 24 shades to the line this week running 452 to 475 at $8.95 each. They are HEMA-free and TPO-free, same as the rest of the Cre8tion cat eye range, so they sit inside a clean-gel back bar without an asterisk.
If you are building out cat eye gel polish as a menu upcharge rather than a one-off, the counter chart below does more work than another twelve bottles. Clients pick faster from a swatched display than from a shelf. We covered the ten kits that landed earlier this month in the Leo season cat eye post.
Counter Display Colour Chart: Cat Eye Moonlight, 18 swatched shades
$15.95
Cat Eye Soak Off Gel 475
$8.95
Cat Eye Soak Off Gel 470
$8.95
Cat Eye Soak Off Gel 461
$8.95
DND DC 9D Cat Eye Unicorn full set, 12 shades
$90
HEMA-free is now the default, not the upgrade
Worth noticing in this week's arrivals: OPI's Intelli-Gel line is HEMA-free and vegan, and every Cre8tion builder and cat eye product below is HEMA-free and TPO-free. That is not a coincidence of one week's shipping. The industry has been moving this direction for two years, driven by the EU's 2025 TPO restriction and the steady rise in client-reported contact allergy, and the practical effect for a US salon is that the clean-gel option is no longer the expensive shelf.
Cre8tion's Overlay and Brush-on Builder sets landed this week in three curations, and they come with the calendar display that makes them sellable at the desk rather than explainable. If you are moving clients onto builder gel for strength without the dust of acrylic, a curated set is a faster start than picking eighteen bottles yourself.
What HEMA-free actually buys you
Fewer reactive clients, and a clean answer when someone asks what is in the bottle.
It does not mean allergen-free, and it does not remove the need for good prep or a cured-through set. Cure times still matter.
Keep the SDS on file for every product on the back bar. We wrote the plain-English version in the SDS guide.
Builder Bare, 18 colours with calendar display
$180
Builder Bold, 18 colours
$180
Builder Fresh, 12 colours
$120
Calendar display, on its own
$12.95
A cordless lamp for the tech who moves
The MAX-1 arrived this week and it is the kind of tool that changes the room layout rather than just the cure time. Seventy-two watts, rechargeable, so it moves between stations and to a client's home for a mobile set. When the shelf empties the listing closes rather than backordering, so if it shows as available, it is buyable.
If you are replacing a corded unit, compare it against the rest of the UV LED nail lamp range first. The 30% off collection is holding 69 lamps and drills right now.
72W, rechargeable, pink / gold / silver
Cordless once it is charged, so it follows the tech instead of the outlet. Three finishes, one price. Call 714-868-7088 and we will confirm which colours are physically on the shelf before you drive out.
MAX-1 lamp $169Small restocks, and one thing for the salons buying a whole wall
Two Cre8tion implements went up this week at the price where you buy three and stop thinking about it. And PLA's 308-colour book landed for salons pricing out a full matching wall. A sample book is the cheap way to test whether a line suits your clientele before you commit to the set. It sits alongside the rest of the dip powder nails range.
| Item | Spec | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Cre8tion Slanted Tweezers | Stainless, slanted tip | $7.95 |
| Cre8tion Cuticle Pusher P09 | Stainless steel, double end | $8.25 |
| PLA Matching Colour Book | 308 colours, swatched | $69 |
| KAT Matching Colours full set | 252 colours, matching | from $1,260 |
Before you order a case: most of this week's arrivals were listed as the shipments were booked in, so on-hand counts are still settling. Call 714-868-7088 and we will confirm what is physically on the shelf before you commit.
What techs asked us about the fall drop
Are the Fall '26 vault shades permanent or limited?
OPI has said the reissued shades are joining the permanent range rather than running as a seasonal capsule. Buy them as core stock, not as a three-month gamble.
Do I need the OPI Star Light lamp for Intelli-Gel?
The 30-second cure time OPI quotes is measured in their Star Light. In another LED lamp it still cures, but follow that lamp's timing for gel, not OPI's number. If you are unsure, cure longer and check for tack.
Can I buy these without a cosmetology licence?
Yes. C8 does not require a licence to purchase. Salon and wholesale pricing is available either way, and a licence is not the same thing as a wholesale account.
Do you have all 24 new Cat Eye shades in the showroom?
Call before you drive out. 714-868-7088, and we will walk the shelf and tell you what is physically there.