I was pretty sure I was not interested in anything from OPI's Texas Collection for spring/summer 2011. The colors were too simple, too bright and just not my thing. I don't know why out of all the beautiful shades one can find in the Southwest landscape OPI went with these. Oh, well, maybe one day they'll come up with a Santa Fe collection. Wouldn't it be marvelous?
But then I stopped at my local Ulta the week they got the Texas Collection and among all those blues and pinks I saw San Tan-Tonio, a surprisingly sophisticated warm beige, tan, cafe au lait or whatever you wish to call it. It came home with me.
San Tan-Tonio is a cream formula, completely opaque and comes with OPI's standard wonderful wide and thick brush. I know not everyone is into this OPI feature, but for me it's probably the easiest brush to use. San Tan-Tonio requires just two coats for a full-coverage true to the bottle look. It dries very quickly- when I started taking these pictures I realized that for once all the nails on my left hands were free of polish (my normal state is three different colors being tested on the left hand and an unrelated fourth on my right hand). I quickly slapped San Tan-Onio on, first coat before I started and a second one half way through- it dried out that fast. I didn't use a base or a top coat (bad Gaia!) and my application is far from perfect, but you can see how nice and wearable this shade is. And the quality is so good- even without the requisite protective aids it has yet to see any chips, even four days later.
OPI San Tan-Tonio ($8.50) and the rest of the Texas Spring/Summer 2011 collection are available from Ulta and select nail salons.
All photos are mine.
