I always eagerly await fall collections, and Essie collections more than is normal! (Gahhh I am such an Essie fangirl!) I stalked my drugstores for the early release of the fall collection, Carry On. Drugstores only get 4 out of the 6 polishes of particular collections (however, they seemed to get all of Brazilliant...) , and they seem to be getting them early, like we witnessed with French Affair. This new Essie distribution system post-L'Oreal takeover is...complicated.
Anyways, after spastically running around town, I managed to grab the following at my Walgreens:
Already my favourite polish of the fall. No joke. An amazing slightly dusty grey-green that comes out darker and more green on the nail than it looks in the bottle. This to me is the green version of Smokin' Hot - where SH was purple, PC is green. It reminds me of the slate stone my parents have in their house. It's flattering on my pale yellow skin, looks chic and elegant, while remaining modern and a bit edgy. To me, this is perfect. Brava, Essie! (Oh and the formula was TDF!)
Lady Like
In the bottle this reminded me of OPI Steady As She Rose, but once I got it on the nail, the differences were evident. Lady Like is more mauve than SASR - still pink with purple thrown in, but darker and warmer. Cool-toned ladies beware! I'm super yellow-toned, but I still think this polish would work better on someone with darker skin. You know what this is? It's Demure Vixen sans shimmer - almost identical base colour. It kind of makes my hands/fingers look dirty...I'm not sure about this one. I'm going to have to drag it around a while to mull it over.
Carry On
At first I thought this was dumb. Lame. Another dark vampy purple. I was kind of right. This is *extremely* close to last year's OPI William Tell Me About OPI. The OPI is just ever-so-slightly browner and darker. The difference is extremely hard to detect, even with flash photography on a dark background. I like that this polish has some dustiness to it, which makes it difference from my beloved Essie Sole Mate! (Oh, and application was amazing again!) Of the two, I'm keeping the Essie.
L: Essie Carry On; R: OPI William Tell Me About OPI
Without flash:
With flash to see the undertone:
Case Study
Now...I didn't pick this up. Only because I believe I already have it. I haven't been able to directly compare, but I believe that this is just the J. Crew "exclusive" - Milky Way - renamed. And I *love* Milky Way. If I didn't have it, I would have picked this up. Even though I'm pretty sure they are nearly identical, I was tempted to grab it off the shelf just to see.
There will be an addendum to this post at a later date, because I still plan on picking up Glamour Purse (one of the two polishes along with Very Structured - a burnt sienna - that is not being released in the drugstore micro-collection). It looks to be in the delicious taupe-y vein, but lighter than past offerings. In other words, it looks back-up worthy, even from badly Photoshop'd company visuals! Let's hope it lives up to expectations...
Are you hyped for fall yet or still feeling the summer heat?
kittytokaren
