Before I met El Hub and moved across the Golden Gate Bridge from the city to Marin County (oh, the things we do for love!), I called San Francisco’s Outer Richmond district my home.
I lived in an apartment at the corner of 36th and Geary, about five minutes from the often foggy beach. At night, the 38 Geary Bus would rumble past my window as low fog horns from the Bay lulled me to sleep.
I was in my 20s then, savoring life in the city right at the height of the dot-com boom. I loved the excitement and everything the city had to offer, but truth be told, the experience also kicked my @ss…in a good way though.
I learned a lot — about myself, about what I wanted out of life, what I didn’t want, and even after a decade removed from the city, I’m still awestruck every time I cross the Golden Gate and see the city skyline.
I love that town. 🙂
Needless to say, I’ve been hella freakin’ over the moon about the new OPI San Francisco collection.
And, yes, I said hella. Because that’s how we do it here, babe.
The 15-piece release, new for fall/winter 2013, feels authentic to me, like OPI did their research. It’s like they took postcards of some of the city’s most iconic places and spaces and poured them into the bottles.
May I be your tour guide? I’d love to show you around San Francisco by OPI 🙂
For starters, I think it’s fitting that OPI chose fall for a San Francisco collection, seeing as how it’s such a wonderful season around here. Generally sunnier, warmer and less crowded than summer (yup, it’s the micro-climates here). September through early- to mid-November is my favorite time of year in the city.
Very much like a song sung about SF, the collection embodies the urban aspects of SF — sure, it’s a city — but it also has some very beautiful parks and lush outdoor areas, like the greens of Golden Gate Park and Land’s End (could you imagine a shade of green inspired by the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill?? I die!).
Instead of going that route, though, OPI chose something more street chic, with nautical blues, sandy taupes, foggy grays, Golden Gate/Chinatown reds, burgundies and browns. It’s not urban in an industrial way. More like a hike up and down steep city streets surrounded by epic views and high-rise buildings.
The collection features 12 shades in OPI’s regular polish formula, encompassing a mix of creams and shimmers, as well as three textured Liquid Sand shades, and the entire color palette is meant to go with fall’s fashion trends, specifically looks with military details and winter whites.
For me, most of the polishes require two coats, although some of the more glittery shades, like Haven’t the Foggiest and Alcatraz…Rocks, work well with one. They all boast OPI’s signature bad-@ss brush, which is nice and full and wide and makes it very easy to cover an entire nail evenly in two or three swipes.
Hop aboard this cable car with me, and let’s take a look. 🙂
A-Piers To Be Tan is a creamy orange-brown. Call me cat lady, but it reminds of Tabs’ tum more than anything else. It’s one of my least favorite shades here, but I do like the way it contrasts with the rest of the colors in the collection.
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