OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Is as Chic and Relevant as Ever |

OPI Lincoln Park After Dark Is as Chic and Relevant as Ever

November 9, 2025 admin

Before I ever dreamed of becoming a beauty editor, I was a teen who spent my hard-earned babysitting money on what I considered to be essentials at the time—a long-since discontinued glitter eyeliner from Victoria’s Secret, a variety of drugstore mascaras, and colorful, clinking bottles of nail polish. I had a microscopic budget to work with, so I was only willing to invest in items that A) I had already tested myself, B) had glowing online reviews, or C) I recognized as iconic, cult-loved items.

OPI’s Lincoln Park After Dark Nail Lacquer was the latter. I discovered it while flipping through the pages of a (sadly now-shuttered) magazine. Words like “cool,” “edgy,” and “on-trend” circled the bottle on the page. I was entranced by the rich, black-purple shade and its high-gloss finish. So I went online, ordered myself a bottle, and waited for it to arrive.

That was roughly 15 years ago, and I still count Lincoln Park After Dark as one of my favorite fall-and-winter nail colors. TikTok does too. Lately, I’ve been seeing so many videos of millennials dusting off their old bottles and Gen Zers purchasing their first ones. As one TikToker put it, it’s “the best fall nail color in the entire world.” Ahead, see why this nail polish is as relevant as ever in 2025.

OPI

Nail Lacquer in Lincoln Park After Dark

According to Lia Smith, OPI North America brand education manager, Lincoln Park After Dark was launched in 2005. Yep, that means it’s maintained its relevancy for a full 20 years. Originally, it debuted as part of the brand’s Chicago Collection. “Lincoln Park After Dark is named after the Chicago park of the same name,” Smith says. “At night, some find the park has a beautiful, mysterious quality, and Lincoln Park After Dark fits that description.”

Since then, it’s surpassed all other shades to become one of the brand’s best sellers—I mean, of all time. “Lincoln Park After Dark is 20 years old and remains one of OPI’s top, iconic shades,” Smith says. “It’s popular year-round, but people really ask for it in fall and winter. According to our most recently pulled trends data report, July to Sept 2025, Lincoln Park After Dark has doubled the average monthly search volume (40K versus 18K).” To put it another way, it’s grown 83% month over month.

Twenty years after its launch, it continues to transcend trends thanks to its unique purple-black pigment. Anyone who’s worn it knows how it shifts in different lighting—it might look jet-black in low light, then purple and even raisin-colored in bright light. Smith likens it to the timelessness and versatility of a little black dress. “It’s a rich, deep cream that is classic and chic [and] looks fabulous on a variety of skin tones,” she says, “[It’s] nail jewelry in a bottle.”

So here’s an official PSA: OPI’s Lincoln Park After Dark is the ultimate cool-girl nail color for fall ’25 and winter ’26 (and probably every year thereafter).