Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Finally, a review. Essie Spring 2009 Collection

Is it just me, or have the last few Essie collections not had any names?

Okay, maybe Essie seasonal collections never had names to begin with, but I clearly recall some Essie collections having names. Like, "The Cruise Collection", "Frozen Assets" or "Madison Avenue."

Hmmm... Puzzling!

Anyway, the sun was out yesterday so I snapped a few non-blurry pictures of this collection.



Eternal Optimist. It's described as "spiced tea rose." I think I would describe it as, "barf."
It's like a weird band-aid color with a pinkish fleshy look to it. Not flattering on me at all. I'm sure this was designed for someone with a different skintone than me, but I thought that their seasonal collections were supposed to be universally flattering and the core line was supposed to have the specialty skin-matchy colors. Either way, I'm not a fan of this color, and I consider this the dud of the collection.


Flawless. Essie describes it as "Cherry Blossom Pink". It's really not too far off. Most cherry blossoms I've seen are brighter than this or white, but this is nice and in-between. It's a delicate light pink cream. Reminds me more of bubblegum than cherry blossoms, but it's not a bad color at all. Very girly.



Lacquered up, "Red Hot Crimson". Red hot, indeed! This is a BRIGHT red. I have to say, I really like it. I don't normally like reds, I find them boring, but a red like this catches my attention. You could probably see it from a mile away.


One Of A Kind, "Poppy Red Kiss." To me, this leans more orange than red. Or is it an orange-red? It seems too orange for me to call it red, but that's how they describe it. Either way it's bright and punchy. Seems more summer than spring, but I'll never complain about bright colors!


Mesmerize, "Royal Va Va Blue" (There are so many dirty jokes about The Queen that are waiting to be made here, but I'm not gonna be the one to make them!) This color rocks. Plain and simple. It's blue, it's bright, it's awesome. Actually, this blue seems less bright to me than other blues- it seems more "muted", which I'm seeing a lot in the spring collections. I can see myself wearing this all the time. Total winner. Very unexpected from Essie!


Status Symbol, "Feisty Hot Pink". This is a nice hot pink, bright but not quite neon. It doesn't look totally pink, either- it seems almost a bit coral to me. Really pretty, but again, feels more summery than springy.


Overall, I like this collection. Someone take my temperature! Am I feeling okay?
Essie seems to be surprising me a lot lately. The Neons were particularly surprising and also astonishingly cool, and Sexy Divide from the winter collection is almost entering "backup bottle" territory. While I don't see Essie ever becoming "edgy", it is really nice of them to surprise us every now and then.

I will say this: None of the colors are really unique, and I'm sure you could find many duplicates even within Essie's line. That being said, most of these colors (I say most because of Eternal Optimist, ew) are really nice, bright, fresh and pretty. These types of colors appeal to a lot of people. Essie seems to make collections for color traditionalists and people who aren't willing to take risks with their nail color, so seeing Mezmerize in this collection was a big shocker and a welcome surprise! Maybe Essie had the hardcore nail junkies like us in mind when they created Mesmerize, and they decided to give use something for a change. I'm just as sick as the rest of you of seeing the same sheers, pinks and reds every year. But, these are nice. I like them.

The application was flawless. The formula on these is perfect. Smooth like butter. All of the colors are pretty opaque, and only Status Symbol seemed to need a third coat. Lacquered Up and One Of A Kind could even get away with only one coat. They all dried quickly and didn't bubble. No complaints here.


So... there you have it. My thoughts on Essie Spring 2009.

22 comments:

  1. i'm not sure if anyone mentioned this in a comment in your post re: dior black sequins but i found that it chips VERY easily
    i tried it with and without a top coat and it chipped right away both times
    I have yet to try it with seche vite though so maybe that will fix it?
    i've never tried a dior polish other than that one do you know about the quality of any others?
    maybe its just me- i've read about a ton of people not liking Chanel but that polish seems to be the one that lasts the longest on me

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  2. Am I wrong in thinking that Eternal Optimist looks like RBL Om? Om is pretty, but on me it's a total dud...

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  3. Hey scrangie! Beautiful pics, you made me want the whole collection. Love the cherry blossom one, I forget its name n_n

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  4. Obviously, Mesmerize MUST BE MINE! Muahaha. Status symbol is an interesting color but I don't know if I could pull it off my pale, pale cool-toned skin.

    Great pictures and swatches, your nails are gorgeous as usual. :) Thanks!

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  5. OMG I almost spit out my diet coke laughing when I read the word "barf". I think Eternal Optimist looks nice on you! I liked it on me. LOL dying over here.

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  6. They are all prettier in the sun. Thanks for your dedication in producing quality swatches on your hot nails. You should have a monument in your honor. Just saying.

    Question day:
    How frequent do you have the same color on both hands? Do you pick a favorite and let it rock? Do you ever do a color and hate it so bad, you take it right off without a pic? Just asking.

    Scott

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  7. Hi Scrangie!
    This is just a general question - how do you get the nail polish so perfectly rounded on the nail like that?

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  8. Oh and any tips on painting right hands as a rightie? :)

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  9. Essie are trying to tempt me to join camp "I heart Essie" with that blue, but I'm just not feeling the rest.

    I REALLY wanted a spring green from them. How could the same company that gave us SSN, Nightcap, Dominica Green and more recently Sexy Divide make me feel so disappointed?

    Props for the blue though Essie, that was left field.

    Ohh and Scrangie, you should sign up for twitterfeed. It broadcasts your new blog posts over twitter when you write them.

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  10. I areally like all of them on you, even Eternal Optimist -- it reminds me of one of RBL's pinkish neutrals for some reason. I think it's more your application that's making me like it than the color itself, maybe? That blue is just awesome all around, though!

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  11. man oh man..these nail polish companies really need to pay u for ur blogging, cuz u've just sold me on the entire spring collection except the first "barf" pink color. lol.
    seriously tho, i NEED the blue, the pinks, and the reds, altho im probably 100% sure i have dupes of those reds, lol. NEED them nonetheless.
    as always, love the blog! keep up the good work!

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  12. Beautiful pictures...Hate the colors.
    The red-oranges are throwing me off, but I think that's just my personal preference.
    Thank you for sharing!

    BTW I love your "barf" !!

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  13. ahhh, that blue is b/u worthy! :D
    the rest just suck (barf! LOL), sorry to anybody that likes em! but i dont :/

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  14. Wow Scrangie, thanks for always putting up all these swatches! It's been quite a while since I've bought something without checking your site first XD That blue is BEAUTIFUL, but it reminds me a lot of Nocti Flying Blind and Misa Pour Me Something Tall & Strong. When you get a chance, could you swatch them next to each other? Thanks!

    - j

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  15. The blue reminds me of a crayola crayon I use to have in grade school.

    Since I'm on the blue's note, I may start a fight with what I'm about to say, but...... I think NP companies are going a bit overboard with the blues.

    I know that it's all about the $$$ benji's (that's the Bengamin's Baby as P.Diddy would say) for the NP companies, however, these colors are only flattering on really young girls.

    And I am not a really young girl. I'm a mom and a school teacher and I'm all about the young thing, but, classy like Chanel's Blue Satin. Maybe I'm just jealous cause I'm not a youngster anymore even though I look like im still in my twenties. LOL. So they say! (but who the hell is they anyway? they are usually bullshiters!)

    I'm just rambling! Sorry Scrange, I have not posted in a while, my computer's hard drive crashed and I've been really deprived of your fabulous blog and I guess I wanted to see something hotter, more WOW. (this is what happens when your addicted to anything, you always need more and better!)

    Please don't take me the wrong way, you are ALWAYS doing a FANTASTIC job!

    I think I'm going through an "I've got the blues for the blues" stage...

    Anyway, I'll stop now cause I'm becomimg annoying.

    YOUR HARD WORK IS, AS I ALWAYS TELL YOU, ALWAYS APPRECIATED!!!

    P.S. NCWUTI (I wonder if anyone can figure out what that means! I'll be willing to give away some colors from my NP collection which is not as big as yours but i'd say I have around 100 polishes, if anyone can crack the code of NCWUTI!) With your permission of course!

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  16. Nicole, interesting! I have had very good luck with Dior polishes. They apply and wear very well for me, unlike Chanel that chips no matter what I do :(

    Shryh, Hm, I don't think they're anything alike actually!

    Steph, thank you :D

    Grace, thanks :D Mesmerize is a stunner, go for it!

    Katee, lol!

    Chaosophia, ooooh I can't wait to see it on you :D

    Scott, oh my! Thank you so much! That means a lot to me :D I put a lot of hard work and time into my swatches and I'm so happy you appreciate them :)
    For your question, when I'm not taking pictures I usually just pick my favorite color of the day and wear it until I'm bored. Often I'll have a different color on each hand! I don't usually go more than two days without changing colors.

    Anonymous, the key to the perfect rounded shape is to stop the brush just before where you want the polish to end, and press down gently on the brush :D

    Anonymous, my only tip for that is practice, and a little brush for cleaning up mistakes :D That's tricky!

    Mazoo, oh, that would have been *so* awesome. I really wish they would go out on a limb more often!! And thanks for the tip about the twitter thing :D

    Sybelle, awwwe thank you so much :D

    Lizzz262, man that would be awesome :D Are you listening polish companies?? Hehehe :D Thank you!!

    Mouthwash, lol thank you! :D

    Ocelot1, lol totally! :D

    J, you got it :D

    Stubby, I love your thoughts :D I think they originally tested the waters to see if we would buy blue polish, and once they realized it would make them money, it was all BLUE BLUE BLUE! But hey, I'm not complaining, I love it!
    And I can't figure out what that means... Never catch a whore's urinary tract infection? lol XD
    Fine with me- would be fun for everyone :D

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  18. I absolutely loved OPI's Dating a Royal from last year's summer collection. How do Mesmerize and DAR compare?

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  19. I know this is an old post, but I just picked up Essie Flawless today. Hubby picked it out. I got to say, that it looks much more like the swatch for "Barf"! Though on my short nails it looks nice, a somewhat mushroomy pink, if my nails were long it would be too much of a good mushroomy thing.

    Love your swatches! Thank you so much for investing so much time in them and your blog.

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  20. Tiffany, Dating A Royal is richer, much more sheer and more of a bright-crayon color. Mesmerize is opaque, creamy bright blue :)

    Abigail, haha, thanks for your comment! :)

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  21. I found nearly all of this collection at my favorite thrift store! 99¢ each, and not old or dry at all--I'm thinking someone in my area has a polish blog! I snagged three.

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