OPI San Francisco for Fall 2013 Blues & Browns Nail Polish Swatches & Review

I’ve never been to San Francisco but I’ve eaten my fair share of Rice-A-Roni over the years. Does that count? San Francisco is one of those cities I almost don’t want to visit because I fear I may love it so much, I’ll never want to leave. Do you know what I mean?

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Clearly, OPI shares my long distance love affair with the city as its the subject of their Fall 2013 collection. Though, this year they have expanded their usual twelve color offering to introduce three new Liquid Sand shades. Today I’m showing you the first half of the collection which consists of blue and brown hues, including the three textured nail polishes. One of which I’m simply swooning over.

Formula & Application: OPI is a 4-free brand. The OPI Pro Wide brush is flat, wide and medium in length. It’s of average stiffness and easily spreads out on the nail when pressed. The only downside to the Pro Wide brush is that it can be too wide for slim fingers or little toes.

There is a range of finishes and textures in this collection but one thing they have in common is pigmentation. All eight of these shades provide full coverage in two coats. The cremes all flow well on the nail and dry nice and glossy while the textures are thin enough to easily control. Note: Liquid Sand is meant to be worn sans top coat and they dry somewhat matte.

The only really issue I had was with Dining Al Frisco. The pearl in this polish made for a brush marked finish and it kept pooling on the nail no matter how much I wiped off my brush. In short, it was bother.

OPI A-Piers To Be Tan is a golden brown creme that feels reminiscent of horse hair or cowboy boot leather. It’s unusual color to my collection, as I don’t normally wear shades like this. If you’re looking for a color reference, China Glaze Desert Sun is a lighter version.

OPI Dining Al Frisco is an icy sky blue shimmer. This was such a promising shade in the bottle. The silvery swirls of pearl, the tiny light blue sparkles peeking out at me. A shame it was such a pain to apply. I redid one nail FOUR times. That’s just too much for me.

OPI Incognito in Sausalito is an inky, midnight blue creme with the slightest hint of teal. It doesn’t cross the line to say, RBL Teal territory, but it definitely has that blackened seawater undertone.

OPI Keeping Suzi At Bay is a kicky blue creme with a jelly-ish texture. It’s also the most sheer polish in the collection though it still covers in two coats. I liken it to China Glaze Manhunt, though they’re certainly not twins, and it has the texture of OPI Dating A Royal.

OPI Peace & Love & OPI is a multi-chromatic shade that flashes teal and magenta over a silvery browned base. It’s a dead-on dupe for Essie For The Twill of It and has the same brush-stroke issues that come with most metallics. Though I love this shade so much, they’re worth it.

OPI Alcatraz Rocks is a ridiculously gorgeous Liquid Sand polish. Its indigo base is packed with a carnival of sparkling glitters in gold, pink, purple and blue. If any color screamed, “party nail!” it would be this one.

If you’re looking at OPI It’s All San Adreas’s Fault and thinking the color looks familiar, you’re not alone. The base is a pretty close match for OPI Over The Taupe only in Liquid Sand form. This is a creme based texture so the particles look like miniature Nerds candy on the nail.

OPI Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! Liquid Sand has a rich blue base that reminds me of one of my all-time fave shades, China Glaze Bermuda Breakaway. While I’m not as much of a fan of the creme-based Liquid Sand polishes, the vividness of the shade draws me in.

Bottom Line: Alcatraz Rocks has to be one of the best textured polishes I’ve seen thus far (and you know how I love me some PixieDust). Peace & Love & OPI gets my thumbs up the same was Essie For Twill of It did but you only need one or the other. The rest of the shades are nice but they don’t exactly curl my toes. Though Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! will make it into my regular manicure rotation.

OPI San Francisco is available now at salons nationwide including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, jcp Salons, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA. They are also available at the first authorized online seller ULTA.com. OPI nail polish retails for $9/ea for a .5oz bottle. For more info visit OPI.com.

Which of the San Francisco shades are calling your name? Are you still into Liquid Sand or ready to move on?

Disclosure: Product samples were provided by reps for OPI. Affiliate links appear in this post. When you purchase through an affiliate link, you help support this site. For more info view my Disclosure Policy.