Essie Summer Collection 2009

Essie describes this collection as "Six sexy shades..." and that makes me laugh a little. I know everyone has their own idea of sexy, but really? Bubblegum pink and salmon are sexy? They're cute, I'll definitely give them that. Kittens and ponies and cupcakes cute. But sexy? Come on, that's a stretch and we all know it.


Chubby Cheeks. Warm salmon-coral creme. This reminds me a little bit of Sephora By OPI Brainiac. A rich, soft, fall-like orange.

Cute As A Button. Warm light pink-coral creme. I can't quite decide what color this is. It's orangey but not orange, it's pinkish but not pink, and it's corally but not coral. It's soft and pretty and makes me think of a lady wearing one of those huge straw hats on the beach.

(Sorry for accidentally flipping them! :( )

Funny Face. Medium cool pink creme. I love the name. This picture is a little off and I can't seem to capture the proper portrayal of this shade. It is a little more purple in real life. It reminds me of I'm India Mood For Love. It's one of those gorgeous purple-pinks that actually look good on me.


Lovie Dovie. Light pink creme. This is more of a bubblegum or candy pink. Fun, girly, playful. Pale but bright at the same time.

Luscious Lips. Sheer milky warm pink creme. This is three coats. Sheer but very buildable. I have a slight amount of visible nail line. This shade is flattering and subtle. One coat of it is almost clear but leaves a hint of milkiness, it reminds me a lot of Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage.


Not Just A Pretty Face. Sheer milky nude creme. Three coats. Sheers must be growing on me or something, because I actually like this on me. This is a little on the warm side, a flesh color with a bit of pink. It almost feels like a less-edgy Rescue Beauty Lounge Grunge to me.


The formula on these is excellent. It's on the thin side, smooth, even, non-streaky. The sheers in this collection can be worn with one coat because of the resistance to streaking. The dry time is lightning fast. I swatched these without topcoat and by the time I was done taking the pictures, the polish was almost completely dry. They also dry glossy without topcoat, but I'd still recommend using topcoat anyway. The formula was great, but something happened to the brushes! They shrank! I don't ever remember Essie brushes being this tiny. These brushes are TINY! Almost art brush tiny! I do prefer larger brushes, but these were pretty easy to work with.

Nothing too exciting here. They're all nice colors, some good sheers that even I like, but nothing particularly unique or summery. I think I see what Essie is doing now- two small yet exciting collections get released before the summer collection. They did it last year- Shorts and that little collection of sheer bright shimmers... Cool Click or something? I don't remember if they did a small collection before the summer collection the year before that.

Overall, a lot of good staple colors for 'normal' people, but not much in here for us polish junkies. Funny Face is a really great pink and Not Just A Pretty Face is an interesting sheer, but I feel like I've seen them before. The corals are pretty, it seems like coral is 'in' this year. This whole collection is soft, feminine, girly, cute and conservative.

Now I'm looking forward to Essie Fall. This year and last year Essie showed us that they can do more than just sheer pinks, so I'm really curious to see what they surprise us with next!