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.
Essie Meet Balls.
