Essie has two collections you should know about. The first (because wedding season is upon us) is their 2011 bridal collection. I can’t help feeling that Essie basically owns the bridal-polish category, and their 2011 collection is a sweet quartet of matrimonial options.
Better Together is a sheer pale pink. Maid to Honor is a sheerer nude pink. If you have longer nails and don’t like visible nail line, you may want to try these two over white (though I like VNL with nude, natural shades).
Borrowed & Blue is an opaque, Pottery-Barn-bridal blue creme. I hadn’t thought of it before, but the idea of nail polish as “something blue” is pretty cute. Also, if you missed out on St. Barth’s Blue from a few years ago, this might satisfy your craving. First Dance is bright, hot red — a cute color for toes, a nice option for a beach-destination wedding.
The bridal collection is in Ulta now (I’m not sure if it’s being carried by CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, or Target). The shades are $8 each.
The resort collection was inspired (nominally) by an African safari… Though it swatches like a girly, cute African safari.
Your Hut or Mine is a bright, tropical, hibiscus pink with a tiny-shimmer/satin finish. Lion Around is cotton-candy pink with a subtle frost, yielding a more pronounced satin finish. Da Bush is a khaki-mint creme. Fair Game is a slate blue shimmer. I like all four.
The Resort collection polishes are also $8 apiece, but the collection is “pro-only” — which means you won’t see it in Ulta. Many salons are willing to sell polish, so you might pick up a bottle there. You may also have some luck at nail-supply-type stores.
These polishes were provided for swatching purposes.
Hey Karla, I actually saw the Essie Resort at my local (high end) drug store! And they were in the cheaper bottles, not the pro bottles. I love my Essies, so I am holding out for pro bottles.
Fair game seems so pretty!
Nope, I was wrong! I check again, the colors were different!
I saw a new Brazil-inspired collection (absolutely gorgeous) at my local drugstore, but not these. maybe I will go to the salon to hunt them down.
Love these shades. Must keep an eye out for them when they hit Australia
Ooh, Fair Game is pretty. I’ll try to track that one down.
It would be great to see you swatch these on your nails since you mention some of them are sheer and give VNL, tape doesn’t really show me that. I’d like to see them on the nail to see just how sheer they are