Saturday, June 6, 2009

Essie Summer Collection 2009

Essie describes this collection as "Six sexy shades..." and that makes me laugh a little. I know everyone has their own idea of sexy, but really? Bubblegum pink and salmon are sexy? They're cute, I'll definitely give them that. Kittens and ponies and cupcakes cute. But sexy? Come on, that's a stretch and we all know it.


Chubby Cheeks. Warm salmon-coral creme. This reminds me a little bit of Sephora By OPI Brainiac. A rich, soft, fall-like orange.

Cute As A Button. Warm light pink-coral creme. I can't quite decide what color this is. It's orangey but not orange, it's pinkish but not pink, and it's corally but not coral. It's soft and pretty and makes me think of a lady wearing one of those huge straw hats on the beach.

(Sorry for accidentally flipping them! :( )

Funny Face. Medium cool pink creme. I love the name. This picture is a little off and I can't seem to capture the proper portrayal of this shade. It is a little more purple in real life. It reminds me of I'm India Mood For Love. It's one of those gorgeous purple-pinks that actually look good on me.


Lovie Dovie. Light pink creme. This is more of a bubblegum or candy pink. Fun, girly, playful. Pale but bright at the same time.

Luscious Lips. Sheer milky warm pink creme. This is three coats. Sheer but very buildable. I have a slight amount of visible nail line. This shade is flattering and subtle. One coat of it is almost clear but leaves a hint of milkiness, it reminds me a lot of Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage.


Not Just A Pretty Face. Sheer milky nude creme. Three coats. Sheers must be growing on me or something, because I actually like this on me. This is a little on the warm side, a flesh color with a bit of pink. It almost feels like a less-edgy Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge to me.


The formula on these is excellent. It's on the thin side, smooth, even, non-streaky. The sheers in this collection can be worn with one coat because of the resistance to streaking. The dry time is lightning fast. I swatched these without topcoat and by the time I was done taking the pictures, the polish was almost completely dry. They also dry glossy without topcoat, but I'd still recommend using topcoat anyway. The formula was great, but something happened to the brushes! They shrank! I don't ever remember Essie brushes being this tiny. These brushes are TINY! Almost art brush tiny! I do prefer larger brushes, but these were pretty easy to work with.

Nothing too exciting here. They're all nice colors, some good sheers that even I like, but nothing particularly unique or summery. I think I see what Essie is doing now- two small yet exciting collections get released before the summer collection. They did it last year- Shorts and that little collection of sheer bright shimmers... Cool Click or something? I don't remember if they did a small collection before the summer collection the year before that.

Overall, a lot of good staple colors for 'normal' people, but not much in here for us polish junkies. Funny Face is a really great pink and Not Just A Pretty Face is an interesting sheer, but I feel like I've seen them before. The corals are pretty, it seems like coral is 'in' this year. This whole collection is soft, feminine, girly, cute and conservative.

Now I'm looking forward to Essie Fall. This year and last year Essie showed us that they can do more than just sheer pinks, so I'm really curious to see what they surprise us with next!

29 comments:

  1. I agree, it's a pretty collection, but nothing special. Laughing at your 'it's fine for normal people' reference :)

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  2. I am in love with Chubby Cheeks, which I think looks a lot more like "Cute as a button" from your pictures in real life than what it looks like on the pictures. It's also strangely darker on my nails than in the bottle. I think it's really cute and retro. I would call it a coral pastel.

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  3. hmmm, nice, but too many pinks and reds. summer collections should be bright fun colors... also, this is unrelated, but could you do a comparison of OPI's done out in deco, a grape fit and do you lilac it?

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  4. Yes very boring collection. I'm so not much a fan of pink and red, well they're ok but far from being my favorite colors. I'm planning on buying a bubble gum pink though. Theirs look nice. But I was thinking about buying Audrina by Zoya.

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  5. it is pretty collection, but i think it is quite normal. so bored.
    thanks.

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  6. They want us to believe a shade called "Chubby Cheeks" is "sexy"? Creepy! Is Essie trying to turn us into pedophiles?

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  7. Meh, dull...I know lots of people who would love it, but I am not one of them. I guess I am not normal then :).

    We could use this as a psychological test...are you a conformist or not? If so, then you like reds, pinks, nudes. If not, then you like any other kind of polish colour, all the time. If you jump on bandwagons, and are a follower, then you like black for a season, then get off of it when In Style, Glamour, Vogue, etc., tell what is the next in thing. Not that any of these are bad polish preferences, just different personalities.

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  8. FYI: I think you switched the pics for cute as a button and chubby cheeks.
    As usual, your nails are gorgeous.

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  9. I'm developing a major soft spot for Essie. The formula is just so darn great, and it dries so shiny. These colours aren't anything to salivate over, but they're nice enough.

    Sexy Salmon is DEFINITELY what's missing from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4rUiV_Hh74

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  10. Whoops, sorry, should mention that video link has swearing in it.

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  11. I fell in love with Essie when I found a bottle of Looking for Love and Body Language for $1 at a nearby Ulta. But they have some rather tame collections overall. I like their names though?

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  12. I don't know. Sometimes I have an outfit or an occasion that really calls for a color that's pretty and a bit conservative and these fill the bill. I love the way Essie applies.

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  13. I love their formula, those sheer pinks look great, thanks for the swatches :D

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  14. did u mix up Chubby Cheeks and Cute as a Button? Your pics on nailgal website show those two swatches differently so I'm a little confused :-\

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  15. did u mix up Chubby Cheeks and Cute as a Button? Your pics on nailgal website show those two swatches differently so I'm a little confused :-\

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  16. Can you suggest an OPI dupe for Lovie Dovie? I love the color but prefer OPI's wide brush. Love your blog! Thanks

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  17. Sorry if people ask this all the time, but do you paint, then take off your nail polish for all of these pictures everyday?

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  18. They are pretty IRL< I have CaaB on my toes, and IRL it looks brighter and pinker than in your pic and Chubby Cheeks looks warmer IRL

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  19. I like Chubby Cheeks and Funny Face, but in a lukewarm "I guess they're okay" way. You're right; these are pretty yawn inducing. Hopefully Essie will do something mind-blowingly awesome for Fall!

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  20. It`s a beautiful collection!
    I love this colors!

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  21. sexy lol! Look at that sexy little kitten:P Nothing special about this collection but I can't help myself loving the name "cute as a button":P

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  22. Thank you for these swatches ! I think this is a nice collection, but as you wrote, and I agree, not very unique for polish addicts like us....lol
    Yet,I have 2 questions:
    1. Do you know if Lovie Dovie is similar to Zoya Barbie ?

    2. Do you think that Luscious Lips and Not Just A Pretty Face can be good as a base for french mani with one or two coats ?

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  23. Are you sure you did not mix up chubby cheeks and cute as a button?

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  24. Those are definitely not sexy in my book, except maybe the hot pink.

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  25. I hope you didn't have to pay for these. They suck!

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  26. The last thing I would call these shades are sexy. They all look very pretty on you. But there isn't anything different in this collection.

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  27. SEXY?! ha!

    I love melli's comment...forget trends. I'll wear a vampy shade in the middle of summer and a pastel in fall; it all depends on my own mood. I don't need Vogue to tell me what I should wear this season unless I happen to like it.

    Blah! They look, well...nice? It's just boring! Don't get me wrong, I like a nice pink polish but I prefer pinks with personality! Eh, I guess they needed to throw a bone to the general public after the insanity known as the Neon collection :D

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  28. I'm really disappointed with these, I don't think I'll bother getting any. Might get something from OPI Sunbelieveable instead.

    Have you got the MAC Style Warrior polishes yet Scrangie? The purple is gorgeous.

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  29. what is your you tube channel name or whereeever i can subscribe you ? damn how can i miss such a great gal channel !

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