Essie Winter 2008 Collection Swatches
I feel silly covering winter collections already when, in Florida, we’re still having 90 degree days. Honestly, the winter collections sort of crept up on me. In actuality, I haven’t even finished covering all the fall collections yet. In any case, here are swatches of the Essie Winter 2008 collection. It’s a solid collection with several purchase worthy colors, but there’s nothing ultra extraordinary or ground breaking. Most of these colors dried fairly matte, and as always, my swatches don’t include a top coat. No major application issues with this collection but I had to use 3 coats with all of them in order to get full coverage.
Essie It’s Genius is a light tyrian purple with complex green to gold shimmer. Essie calls it a ‘violet quartz shimmer’. This color applies pretty sheer, so I used 3 coats for this swatch. I know I will love this one madly when I get over my purple discrimination phase. This image was taken with flash.
Essie Shift Power is a gold frost. It’s not what I would consider a true gold, to me it looks like there is a slight coppery tinge to it. Like It’s Genius, Shift Power also applied pretty sheer so I used 3 coats for this swatch. The name of this color is a little perplexing to me… is it supposed to evoke car imagery? or elicit the idea of a powerful business woman? I don’t get it. I don’t have Chanel Gold Fiction so I wonder how close these two are to one another? (Paging Scrangie.)
Essie Damsel in a Dress is a deep reddish purple (apparently the name for a reddish purple is currant – you learn something new everyday). Vampy lovers will dig this color. I probably could have gotten away with 2 coats on this one, but I used 3. This image was taken with flash.
Essie Sexy Divide is a dark purple with bright violet shimmer. We’ve had several similar colors released this season, all of which haven’t made any significant impression on me – Sexy Divide is different. It’s less flat than the others, definitely brighter. The shimmer gives this shade depth. My image doesn’t do it justice, it was taken with flash.
Essie Rock Star Skinny is a vampy brownish red with very subtle shimmer. I used 3 coats but I probably could have used two and still achieved the same depth of color. A lot of girls are not a fan of the name, but I don’t find it offensive.
Essie Bold and Beautiful is a gorgeous vampy dark red crème with a jelly-like quality. This, too, was a three coater.
This collection hasn’t hit the e-tailers yet but it’s been spotted in brick & mortars all over the U.S.
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Disclosure: This collection was sent to me for review by Essie.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
which are your faves? sorry, im used to you coming right out and saying.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
lol. Yea, I do. Nothing really jumped out at me in this collection which is why I didn’t mention favorites. I’m going through this weird rejection of all polishes purple and since this collection is made up mostly of purples, it didn’t really excite me. It’s Genius, Sexy Divide, and Damsel in a Dress would have totally done it for me if this collection had come out two months ago. I’d say those two are my favorites from this collection and I hope to get over my purple-phobia soon so I can start appreciating purples again.
October 12th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
They look really similar from your pic, I’ll have to check it out in person to decide :)
October 13th, 2008 at 2:02 am
Thank you so much for these pics, I have been waiting for swatches from the full collection! I love the purples, but please could you let me know about the application of the gold Shift Power in terms of brush strokes? I struggle with applying frosts/metallics so tend to avoid them, but am currently looking for a nice gold! Thanks again!
October 13th, 2008 at 5:57 am
Scrangie – Can’t wait for swatches. : )
Caty – For a frost, the brush strokes weren’t that bad – they are there but they weren’t horribly noticeable at all.
October 13th, 2008 at 6:57 am
Thank you, that’s very helpful! I couldn’t see any brushstrokes on your nails but I thought it might be because your application skills are better than mine! I might give this one a try after all. Thanks again!
October 13th, 2008 at 7:15 am
They look pretty! All of them.
But to be honest none of them are “OMG it’s so pretty I need it right now”! type of polish. I was hoping that gold would be closer to OPI I get a kick out of gold or symphony in gold. And I relly don’t like the name Rock Star Skinny. Sorry Essie!
Sexy Divide looks gorgeous, maybe not that unique. And I think Shift Power would be a great funky french polish though:)
October 13th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Bold and Beautiful is a nice sumptuous-looking shade. The others just seem a bit been there done that as far as polish is concerned. B&B looks like you dipped your nails in blood which is befitting this time of year.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Thank you so much for these swatches!! Where were you able to get the ENTIRE collex?!! gah! etailers where are you? i need all of them…again.
October 13th, 2008 at 11:39 am
It looks to me as though damsel in a dress is the vampy purple I sooo wanted OPI LPAD, LPAM and Eiffel for this colour to be, all of which are almost black and almost identical. It looks like DIAD is a shade or two lighter, what is your opinion?
Thanks for the great swatches!
October 13th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Damsel in a Dress and Sexy Divide are making my heart race a little. Gosh, I hope I never come down with purple-phobia! Hopefully it is neither chronic nor contagious. ;)
Shift Power really does look like Gold Fiction in your swatch. Gold Fiction though has this tremendous opacity for a metallic.
October 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Meh. Essie is the only brand I consistently have application issues with, and their colours make me drowsy. Sexy Divide is pretty, but I think I’ll pass.
That said, I sure wouldn’t pass up a bottle of Starry Starry Night, if anyone’s offering…
October 13th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Caty – Nope definitely not my skills. lol. Sadly, no amount of skill will do away with brush strokes in certain polishes.
Sanna – Yea I agree. I mean, they really are good colors but nothing pops out at me. I might feel differently when I wear one as a mani with top coat.
Ninarz – lol, it really does sort of look like I dipped my fingers in blood.
Andie – These are from Essie. : ( But the e-tailers will have them soon!
Alison – LPAM & EftC are more purple, DiaD is more of a brownish purple in comparison. Although I think if you felt like LPAM & EftC were almost blacks, you’re probably going to feel the same way about DiaD. : ( It’s very dark in person, although I don’t consider it an ‘almost black’ per se.
Diana – lol. Yea it’s not an enviable disorder, trust me. I can’t wait to see Scrangie’s swatches for SP & GF. It will be a great way to stick it to the man! : P
Rach – Have you tried using Barielle Nail Camo? That’s really helped me with my streaky Essies. You might already know this but Essie re-released SSN – it’s on the pricey side but it might be worth it if you really want it.
October 14th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Thanks for that, I think you saved me from purchasing yet another dark purple that looks like all my others! I think I will purchase sexy divide as it definatly looks different!
Thanks again!
October 15th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Would love to see Sexy Divide compared to VLV. Very gorgeous!
October 17th, 2008 at 11:39 pm
Hey there… I was wondering you considered RSS to be a dupe for Chanel’s vamp. I’ve been looking for a cheaper alternative to my favorite fall shade.
October 18th, 2008 at 6:35 am
Alison – Sexy Divide is probably going to be the biggie from this collection. I think you’ll love it.
K – I did a quick bottle comparison, they’re not very close. : ( Do you still want to see swatches?
Rachel – Aw, I can only give you a guesstimate because I’m not huge on Chanel and don’t own Vamp. From what I can tell in pictures I’ve seen of Vamp, RSS might be a close enough dupe. If you end up getting it, definitely let me know what you think. : )
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
Hi! Wonderful swatches, I’m thinking about ordering a set of 4 mini bottles :)
I actually blogged about this on my and my friends beauty blog (in swedish), I hope it’s ok that I borrowed your pics! Of course I both linked and mentioned that they are your pics :) Holla if you want me to delete it!
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:48 am
Oh, sorry, here’s the link to the post I mentioned: http://elmikas.blogspot.com/2008/11/essie-winter-08.html D’oh :)
November 3rd, 2008 at 2:21 pm
That’s totally okay Maria – my licensing agreement is designed to help other bloggers who link to me. I really like what you did with the photo layout too, very cute. : )
November 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Oh, how great! I’m glad you liked it, I really can loose myself when working in Photoshop doing collages :) I must tell you, your blog is awesome! Nice design, excellent pictures and informative. And plus, I really like the lenght of your nails – perfect mid-lenght! Hope you have a nice election day :)
November 6th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
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November 10th, 2008 at 7:32 am
I was looking for a purple and got a manicure this weekend with Damsel in a Dress. I think you can tell it’s a purple shade in the bottle, but on my nails you can hardly tell. I am going to try It’s Genius next time… the girl next to me had it on and it looked great. PS. I’m already touching up chips along the tip… : ( I am wondering if these polishes are thinned at the salon. I don’t have this problem when I do my nails at home…
November 11th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
Maria – Thank you! : )
LC – Well, actually, I bet they don’t add thinner which wouldn’t cause any negative change in the polish, I bet they add nail polish remover which may cause chippiness.