Nail Polish Review: OPI Liquid Sand Collection

We tested out and loved the holographic shimmer and sandpapery texture of OPI's new Liquid Sand Collection. Click for swatches and shade-by-shade review!

One of the most buzzed about nail polish launches of 2013 is OPI's Liquid Sand Polish, part of their Mariah Carey Collection. I got my hands on the OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Mini Set, which includes four shades: Get Your Number, Can't Let Go, The Impossible, and Stay the Night. The packaging features (in addition to a nude Mariah Carey) swatches showing the color and texture of these four shades.

For the most part, the swatches stay true to the color result for each shade. The exception would be Get Your Number, which appears to be a much lighter, marine blue when applied. See the photo below for a comparison between swatches and real results. As you can see, each of the polishes comes out a bit lighter on the nails.

From the swatches I underestimated how much I would like the texture of liquid sand polish. The polish dries to a textured matte that is rough and gritty to the touch. It's also packed with holographic glitters of different sizes that give your nails some serious 3D shine. I appreciate when nail polish innovations are true to their inspirations, so I love how this polish actually looks and feels like sand. Judging from the colors, though, this would be some psychedelic beach that only exists in our imaginations.

These polishes don't require any base colors, so application involves only a base coat (link) and 2 coats of the liquid sand polish, with no top coat. I was impressed by how quickly the polish dried, and 2 coats of color resulted in a deep, opaque color effect. Get Your Number dried to a gorgeous light sea blue, nowhere near the deep purplish blue of the swatch. Can't Let Go is actually a purple shade, drying to a light, grape purple. The Impossible is a red shade that is less pigmented than the rest, and includes some larger glitter particles that in my opinion detracted from the liquid sand texture. Stay The Night is the darkest shade in the collection, a vampy deep red that makes the liquid sand texture less noticeable than the others.

I usually find miniature polish kits to be a good deal, for the amount of versatility you get for a variety of polishes. The OPI Mariah Carey Liquid Sand Mini Set ranges in price from $9.25 to $13.90. You get 4 beautiful shades in a texture that is truly unique and new to the nail polish scene. My favorite shades would be Get Your Number and Can't Let Go, the blue and purple shades. Definitely like wearing miniature magical beaches on your fingertips - 5/5 stars!