OPI Soft Shades inspired by Disney's Oz The Great and Powerful Spring 2013 Swatches and Review

  

OPI's Soft Shades collection for 2013 (sent for review) is a set of three sheers, three glitters and one new Liquid Sand shade, all inspired by Disney's Oz The Great And Powerful.  I don't plan on seeing the film since the original one still terrifies me, but the polishes are pretty much the opposite of traumatizing and nightmare-inducing. 

What?  Come on.  Don't try to tell me that the Wizard of Oz isn't scary.  It is.  ANYWAY.  Soft Shades.

OPI Don't Burst My Bubble.  Sheer off-white.  Has a clean look as if it has a touch of blue or violet in the base rather than a yellowed/antique look.  This was a little streakier than the other two sheers but nothing terrible.

OPI Glints of Glinda.  A sheer, mostly neutral beige creme.  It's nice and sandy looking, not too strongly brown, too yellowy, or too pink, and light but not chalky or excessively white-ish.  Very easy to wear.

OPI I Theodora You.  A light, neutral, sheer pink creme.  More pink than white, but also has enough warmth in it to seem almost peach-colored in certain lights.  Very nice glossy-thick finish to this one, almost a creamy/milky jelly finish.

OPI Liquid Sand polish in What Wizardry Is This?  This has a warm, dirty olive green shimmer base with glints of gold, bronze, brown, red and even a few flecks of blue.  It dries to a sandpaper-like finish that's semi-matte.  I let this one dry for an hour before taking the picture and it still has a bit of shine to it, but I've heard from many people that their Liquid Sand polishes turn completely matte after drying.

OPI Liquid Sand polish in What Wizardry Is This? with topcoat.  I prefer it this way as the topcoat makes the multicolor particles stand out and sparkle instead of just looking textured.  It needs at least two coats of topcoat to smooth out the sandy texture.

OPI Lights of Emerald City (over OPI Don't Burst My Bubble).  A clear base (with slight blue-ish tinge) with medium square opalescent mylar glitter and large pearlized white glitter squares. I love the idea of this glitter but not so much the execution.  The clear base is very thick and gooey and the glitter is very sparse which makes it difficult to apply.  You end up with thick, globby nails and barely any glitter.  I'm going to thin this and see if it applies any easier, but I still think it could use just a touch more glitter in the base so more ends up on the nail.

OPI When Monkeys Fly! (over OPI Glints of Glinda).  A clear base with small, roung hologram glitter, medium hexagon silver and hologram glitter and giant gold chrome hexagon glitter.  Glitters this large tend to do that taco-curl thing, but these stayed surprisingly flat on my nail.  It is a bit odd-looking because there's less of the giant glitter than the other colors, but still pretty cool for layering.  OPI recommends a gradient glitter tip look with this combination:

OPI Which is Witch (over OPI I Theodora You.)  A clear base with silver hologram microglitter, medium silver and hologram hexagon glitter and tiny hologram bar glitter.  This looks way more delicate on the nail than I thought it would from looking at it in the bottle.  That's a good thing.  It's the perfect bar-hex holo combo for layering because the pieces are so small and fine.  It won't clump up or cover your base color in weird ways like larger hex and bar glitters usually do.

The formula on the cremes was good, and the glitters were smooth but thick.  The sheer cremes have a thicker texture than last year's Ballet soft shades and were a little streakier for me, but maintain that same self-levelling super-glossy quality that I liked about the others.  I didn't have trouble with any shade except Lights of Emerald City, which was thick and goopy.  Dry time on these is very fast.

Pretty and delicate with a touch a glitter.  Good for Spring or for office wear.  I personally preferred the milky jelly look of the NYC Ballet Soft Shades (especially as a glitter sandwich), but these are still flattering and natural.  They're neutral enough to be worn by a wide range of skin tones and they didn't give me a problem with streaking. 

The Liquid Sand finish still doesn't have my heart, but I love What Wizardry Is This? with topcoat.  Also: awesome name.  I have to recite it all dramatically every time I say it. What wizardry is THIS??

This collection is available now!

(This was sent for review.)