Essie Swatch Spam!

Hello, my lovelies!

Today we are enjoying some gorgeous early fall weather in DC, so I decided to share some Essie swatches with you! Many of these are from earlier this year so these are not fall colors. I am no fashionista and I do not subscribe to “appropriate to wear” colors dictated to by season, so expect to see plenty of warm summery colors during winter and sometimes dark, vampy colors in the spring! 

Warning - Massively pic heavy!

Essie formulas can be hit and miss. Sometimes they really nail it perfectly and other times they’re a mess. These varied, so I’ll comment on them along the way. I hadn’t planned to buy all of these but Wegmans had $2 coupons sitting out through all of June, so I stocked up. I can’t resist a sale! I am surprised I bought some of these colors though, because while I like bright colors, I don’t like pastels in general, and some of these fall into that classification. 

The one Essie color I’ve been hunting forever is Essie Starry Starry Night, which has been off the market for several years and periodically surfaces on eBay for about $60. Yeah, RIGHT. I refuse to pay that much for any polish! Some of the indie makers are getting very, very close to duping it and one of these days, I’ll get one of them!

Now, on to the pretties! The first few are all from the Summer 2012 collection. This is actually one of the first swatchathon days I did this summer, several months ago. My painting and photography skills have gotten much better since!

These are one hand together because I was feeling quite lazy at the end of this swatching day (my apologies). On the ring and pinky fingers are Off the Shoulder. This was considered one of their neons. I didn’t find it very neon-ish (especially compared to Sinful Colors neons!). This is two coats, and applied very smoothly. 

Index and middle fingers are All Tied Up. This is two coats, and the application was pretty smooth. This one really kind of stood out in the bunch because frankly, it struck me as a color my mother would buy-kind of a dull, standard, mauve. In the bottle it has a faint gold shimmer but I couldn’t capture it on the nail. I almost skipped it but it was marked down for clearance (by mistake maybe?). Anyways, this color is rather boring on the nail, as suspected.

Bottle shot of All Tied Up, trying to capture the gold shimmer:

Bikini So Teeny! A lovely, pretty powdery, almost cornflower, summery blue. This little punk was SO hard to find. Let me just say that Essie sucks at sending out emails that their new lines are in stores. I get the emails two days after the lines are in the stores and half of the stock is gone. I went to 5, no joke, 5 stores looking for this sucker!  The application was on the thin side but smooth enough, sheer though. This was 4 coats to get fully opaque and still felt a little sheer to me. Little disappointed here, especially after the hunt.

Mojito Madness! I love the name itself. A bright, cheerful, fun grass green. This one took 3 stores to find. This one was thicker than Bikini, but still more sheer than expected, and a little streaky-my ring finger looks kinda rough. It went on okay, but I still felt a little let down. It does pair nicely with orange though. 

 

Next up is Fear or Desire. This was from the “Poppy-razzi” collection, and considered a neon. Again, not very neon-ish. It doesn’t have the white undies, which make it pop more, but having to put undies on a polish to make it brighter annoys me. This makes me really prefer the Sinful Colors neons. This is three coats, with a nice application, and is a nice pumpkin-y orange. You know how I love my oranges!

She’s Picture Perfect is from the 2012 “Resort” collection and is on the index and middle fingers (again, end of swatching day, tired and lazy!). This is a lovely lilac crème with a red shimmer in the bottle. Unfortunately the red shimmer disappears on the nails, much like All Tied Up’s gold shimmer does. The formula was pretty smooth, it applied with just a touch of dragging, and was opaque for the most part in two coats. There is still some VNL though if you look very closely. 

A Crewed Interest is on the ring and pinky fingers. This is from the 2012 “Tour de Finance” collection. I love peach polishes but this one made me laugh. Depending on how old you are, you may remember the now politically incorrect “flesh” colored Crayola crayon. That’s what this reminds me of. I’m very fair skinned (Ok, pasty white, really, when I don’t have some hint of a summer tan), and wearing this made me laugh. Indoors, it practically blends into my skin. I loathe neutrals and nudes and really though this would have a bit more color to it.

Turquoise and Caicos is part of the core Essie collection. This is a beautiful aqua color that is often compared to the Tiffany blue color, and China Glaze For Audrey. I have seen comparisons online and I do not believe they are dupes, just similar. (I don’t have For Audrey to compare them myself). This formula was super thin, and very sheer, and took 4 coats to build up. There is still some VNL if you look really closely but it is a beautiful springy color.

  

I saved my favorite for last! Tart Deco is also part of the core collection. As you know coral falls into my favorite color spectrum! This one is no exception. She’s a little thin, but applied beautifully in 3 coats. Look at that beauty!  She’s also a dupe to Julep Sasha, and I believe another one of my polishes, but I haven’t had a chance to confirm this yet. 

Overall, I really enjoy Essie polishes. I’m glad that in recent years, they’re moved away from the pale pink, pale pink and more pale pink polishes. Their fall lines have been pretty disappointing though—I haven’t bought a single one!— so I’m really hoping for something spectacular for the holidays. So far, mum’s been the word, but since Zoya, China Glaze and OPI have already given us glimpses, I’m hoping Essie steps up and gives us something good too. 

Do you like Essie? Do you have a favorite Essie polish?