OPI Mariah Carey Collection: Stage Shades (Liquid Sand)

Here's the second half of OPI's Mariah Carey collection: the Liquid Sands!  (Read Part One here.)  When I first saw the preview for these, I was really skeptical.  It was just a puzzling finish to me, because I read about the excessive use of Gelous and top coat in blogs all the time.  You know, to get rid of glitter grit.  Now we want it?  I'll tell you my thoughts on this finish at the end, but let's take a look at these individually first. ^^

The Impossible, 3 coats: bright red jelly base with medium and fine red glitters, as well very fine silver glitters and holographic stars.  All of these also contain very fine (sand-like) clear glitter that gives the polish its textured look when it dries to a "matte" finish.  I put matte in quotations, because it still maintains some of its shine (as shown in the pictures), but OPI describes them as mattes.  The formulas on all of these were easy to work with.  The textured finish does take a few minutes to fully develop.  It also takes longer for these to dry, since you cannot use any fast dry top coats on them.  Using top coat will obviously eliminate the Liquid Sand finish, making it look like a regular glitter polish.

Stay The Night, 3 coats: black jelly base with small red glitter and clear "sand" glitters.  Application was good, but this was my least favorite of the four.  I generally like the black base with glitter combo, but I didn't like how the black looks with the textured finish.  I like it better with top coat, but I guess that would kind of defeat the purpose.

Can't Let Go, 3 coats:  blurple (blue-purple) jelly base with medium and fine purple glitter.  This one also has super fine silver glitter, as well as the clear sand glitters.  Can't Let Go was one of the ones I liked better.  It kind of looks like the plastic grip...on my DSLR...

Get Your Number, 3 coats: blue jelly base with small and fine holographic glitters amidst clear sand glitters.  This is another shade I liked more out of the four.  The holographic glitters give it more depth than the other colors, and it looks great with clear top coat.  No problems with the formula either.

Verdict:  Formula-wise, all of these were nice.  The only downside is that they dry slower, since they cannot be used with fast dry top coats if you want to maintain the finish.  Of the four, I prefer Can't Let Go and Get Your Number.  As for the finish...I don't hate it as expected.  But I don't love it either.  Stay The Night was definitely not for me and The Impossible just didn't really grab my attention.  For the two that I did "like", my like was in comparison to the others.  I don't exactly feel compelled to run out and buy these, but I don't mind owning them either.  I guess I'm still on the fence.  In any case, I think they're worth trying if you're curious about them.

Availability: Mariah Carey by OPI nail lacquers are now available at Professional Salons, including Beauty Brands, Beauty First, Chatters, Dillard’s, JCPenney, Pure Beauty, Regis, Trade Secret, and ULTA, for  $9.00 ($10.95 CAN) suggested retail for each nail lacquer.


What do you think of Liquid Sands?  Is this a finish you would try?


Liz

Polishes in this post were provided to me by OPI for my honest review.
Please view my disclosure policy for more info.