Essie Winter 2008 Collection

I've finally seen the Essie Winter 2008 collection (does this collection even have a name?) in person, and I'm surprised! A lot of these are much different than they looked in the promo pics from Essie- not a bad thing!


Bold and Beautiful. A deep red jelly-like cream. This is the one polish from the collection I'd probably never wear. It's boring. Unlike some of Essie's other reds, this one has no character, no edge, no 'BAM!'.... It's just... red. Doesn't stand out at all.



Damsel in a Dress. Deep, dark eggplant with very fine silver shimmer. Very pretty. Reminds me of OPI Lincoln Park At Midnight or Laura Mercier Avant Garde. It's very dark but still purple- I think the silver shimmer makes the purple stand out more. Nothing at all like the promo pics suggest- they describe it as "Oh-so-deep currant"- I like the real life version better.


It's Genius. Bright grape-purple with fine gold and silver shimmer. Oooh! This was a pleasant surprise. It looks nothing like this in the promo pictures! In this picture it looks like a full-on metallic like Zoya Rea, but it's really not. It's just so packed full of gorgeous shimmer that it looks metallic.



Rock Star Skinny. Kind of a plum or mulberry shade with fine silver shimmer. Stupid name, really nice color. Again, nothing like the promo pics. It's described as "glamorous crimson red"- huh? Maybe I'm colorblind- I don't get glamorous crimson red from this. Either way, it's really pretty.



Sexy Divide. Bold, saturated purple with multicolored shimmer. My favorite from this collection. My picture makes it look blue, but it's much more purple in real life. The bottle color is closer to the actual color. I was hoping it would be like Viva La Vespa, but it's a different type of purple. It has really interesting shimmer, too- sometimes it looks gold, sometimes red, you can see some blue in there... Really cool. Love it. I only wish it was brighter.


Shifting Power. Sheer metallic gold. This one is kinda 'meh' to me. It's really sheer, definitely a three coater. This picture is three coats and you can still see my nail through it. It's kind of streaky as well. I was hoping for something richer based on the promo images, but this is sort of anemic. It's not a bad color, but it's not anything special. The promo picture made it look like a dense, shimmery cooler gold, but this is very warm, almost orangey, and not very shimmery at all.


Again, I think Essie played it safe, but despite that there are some really great colors in this collection. Two were total disappointments to me, the rest were nice surprises (and no sheer pinks! Hallelujah!). Sexy Divide is, in my opinion, the standout color. It's so un-Essie like! I love it! Keep it up, Essie!

The formula on these was great. It was thick but not runny, like three-free polishes tend to be. The thickness made the colors nice and opaque and the polish was very easy to control. No mess. These also dried extremely quickly. The Essie formula is really nice. There was also no staining after removing the polish, which is also pretty rare for reds and purples.

Overall, pretty solid collection. None of the colors strike me as particularly 'wintery', but I'm not complaining. Nothing too exciting here, but if you're into vampy colors or fine shimmer, you'll probably like these shades.