Spring 2008 nail trends are obviously going sheer rather than bright pops of color (though not all brands are following this trend–China Glaze is most definitely not!). Essie gives nail polish fans six lovely sheers to choose from as spring arrives in beautiful hues of soft pastels. These polishes apply easily, smoothly, and just to show what kind of color you can build, each color was applied with three coats (keep in mind that these were done strictly as swatches, so the aren’t perfectly polished!).
Pictured above, Hi Maintenance, was my favorite of the six, because it was such a flattering pink. It wasn’t so cool that it looked awkward on my warmer skin, but it also wasn’t a warm pink that looked a bit too peppy for my tastes. Hard To Getis a brighter pink that’s fairly opaque–it kind of reminds me of Don’t Be Shy blush from MAC’s Barbie launch–it was really close to being my perfect pink, but it was just a few shades too bright to be that absolute perfect pink. Secret Affairis a fun, shimmery pinky-white shade that looked surprisingly nice with my skin; I thought something with that much white in it could never look right all over nails. Looking For Loveis a lovely lavender color that was just gorgeous, but I found that it did apply a bit streaky in terms of depositing the color - I think you may have to be a bit more meticulous when applying this particular shade, but it’s too beautiful to dismiss. Body Language was a flatter white with gray-purple undertones; kind of an odd color for my nails personally, but I see it working better on lighter skinned hands. Great Expectations has a silvery-purple cast to it, and like Looking For Love, it didn’t apply as evenly as the others did. I found this shade to be too cool for my taste, making it my least favorite. Overall, I liked that I could build up these sheers with three coats to get decent color, since I don’t usually wear sheers. On the same note, for more professional or subdued affairs, sheers are fabulous choices, and this gives you a polish that can multitask! Also, sheers are amazing on top of a more opaque polish to give it a different sheen or color.
Check out swatches of the five other polishes…
the first one looks like my fav. nail polish called “bamboo”.
Body Language, Secret Affair, and Looking For Love… agh! I like ALL of them :) It must be coincidental or something because I was just looking at my Essie polish yesterday too!
I really think I’m going to get Looking for Love. I love anything purple, and I think it’s so wearable!
Hard to Get looks super cute…its so hard to find a light pink similar to that one that doesn’t steak.
these were great!!! thank you!! (doing nail photos is a great IDEA!)
I really like hard to get, and hi maintenance
i love essie. high maintenance & body language would be ones i would like to get. thanks for the great pix!
I love all these shades. Leave it to essie to come up some fabulous shades for the spring! And the names are so cool… I love essie — it’s the best of the best! Did you use essie base coat and top coats — I find using essie as a complete system usually solves any streaking issues.