Polishes from OPI

Top row, left to right: OPI San Francisco collection Liquid Sand shades It’s All San Andreas’s Fault; Wharf! Wharf! Wharf!; Alcatraz … Rocks

Medium row, left to right: OPI San Francisco collection shades In the Cable Car-Pool Lane; Embarca-Dare Ya!; First Date at the Golden Gate; Lost on Lombard; I Knead Sour-Dough; Muir Muir on the Wall

Bottom row, left to right: Peace & Love & OPI; Keeping Suzi at Bay; Incognito in Sausalito; A-Piers to be Tan; Dining Al Frisco; Haven’t the Foggiest

OPI always does location-inspired collections—last year’s being Germany—and this year’s was San Francisco, with a surprising array of shades and finishes. This was a large collection—15 shades in total, with three Liquid Sand glitters and 12 regular polishes—that should still be floating around stores, and there are definitely some standouts here.

Well, I’ll be honest: I think the collection had too many red shades. None of them are bad, necessarily, but I’m not sure they entirely fit with the San Francisco theme, which I thought would be more beachy. But the reds are nice, if not particularly original: medium berry crème In the Cable Car-Pool Lane; shimmery magenta Embarca-Dare Ya!; cherry red crème First Date at the Golden Gate; darker, almost brick red crème Lost on Lombard; brownish red shimmer I Knead Sour-Dough; and dark plum shimmer Muir Muir on the Wall.

Ultimately, I think the Liquid Sand shades and other, non-red polishes are way more interesting. Of the three Liquid Sand polishes, navy blue with multicolored glitter Alcatraz … Rocks is the most impressive; navy blue without any glitter Wharf! Wharf! Wharf! is a nice basic; and muddy brown It’s All San Andreas’s Fault is … well, it’s not the prettiest shade, I’ll be honest.

There are far better shades to choose from the final six, though: duochrome Peace & Love & OPI, which seems a silvery gray but flashes purple and blue in certain light; true blue crème Keeping Suzi at Bay; very dark navy crème Incognito in Sausalito; mustard brown crème A-Piers to be Tan; frosty sky blue Dining Al Frisco; and silver foil Haven’t the Foggiest. Of all of them, I think Peace & Love & OPI is the best; even though these silver duochromes have been saturating the nail polish market lately, this one has great consistency and dries quickly.

AVAILABILITY: OPI San Francisco collection shades are $9 each, at Ulta, Target, and your local drugstores.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The products featured in this post were provided to Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog by the manufacturer or their public relations company for review. Chesapeake Family’s About Face blog posts are inspired by personal experience and opinion, and are not paid for or influenced by the manufacturer, PR company, or any other organization unless mentioned.

Photos by Roxana Hadadi.

In middle school, Roxana Hadadi was a cosmetics-scorning tomboy; in high school, a glitter eye shadow- and black nail polish-loving trend kid; in college, obsessively committed to dying her hair unruly colors that upset her mom. Now a bit older and a bit more mature, she’s trying to figure out what hair, body and cosmetics products will work for her, you and your family in About Face, Chesapeake Family’s new beauty blog — and she’ll leave the sparkle makeup and neon highlights in the past. Roxana also writes movie reviews for Chesapeake Family’s Popcorn Parents blog.