Celina, based in Melbourne Australia is an aspiring artist. With a passion for expressing herself through makeup, beauty, fashion, cosplay & photography, she believes in living life as creatively as possible.
Introducing Essie’s A French Affair Collection for Spring 2011, and whilst I’m well aware Spring has not yet hit Australia, at the encouragement of some lovely beauty bloggers I decided to swatch them anyways~
This collection is made out of 4 pure crèmes and 2 crèmes with micro-shimmers. Mostly very conservative, pastel colours that would suit almost any person in my opinion. The colour just feel so dainty and feminine, despite the streakiness that some of them gave me, I actually really enjoyed this collection. These colours are ones I can see myself personally using a lot.
As always, each swatch is 3 coats without any top coat unless otherwise mentioned.
Kisses & Bises
A sheer opal polish, I was very tempted to mention the micro-shimmers, but maybe these are micro micro shimmers since the formula looks incredibly smooth upon application. If you check out the bottle itself, you can kinda see small hardly there flecks.
Worn on it’s own, not so amazing, but this would look great on a more opaque polish to add that opal like quality to it.
Topless & Barefoot
A soft tanned nude shade, with a hint of pink. Gorgeous colour that I would love to wear more often, my only complaint is that the formula is very streaky 
The only way I could avoid the streakiness was to apply 3 coats or go with 2 thick coats.
So generally I’d only recommend this polish to people who are “well versed” with polishes? Not for the polish beginner for sure.
Nice is Nice
A light lavender polish, with an amazing formula. I was surprised since the other crèmes in this collection proved to be rather streaky, but this was the exception, it applied amazingly well! It’s almost pink, quiet close to French Affair only with a more purple hue and in my opinion there fore more wearable.
Coat Azure
A medium blue colour with silver micro shimmers, this is the pop of colour this collection needed, but I feel like maybe the blue is too saturated? I’d have probably preferred a softer blue, just to match the pastel like theme of this collection, but on it’s own this blue is gorgeous. I only needed to apply 2 coats for this swatch because it’s very pigmented.
Kisses & Bises and Coat Azure are the only non-cremes from this collection, I took a close up shot of the bottle so you can better see the silver shimmers scattered throughout this formula.
French Affair
An almost soft bubblegum pink, like Topless & Barefoot it is very streaky upon application and is better suited to those used to their polishes. It’s a lovely pink to add to the collection, I’m not exactly sure this is something I would wear on a daily basis though, it might be just a tad bright for me and personally out of the entire collection, this is probably the only colour I wouldn’t reach for. Just don’t think it compliments my skin tone very well.
Sand Tropez
A tanned brownish nude, it’s like a darker version of Topless & Barefoot and fortunately is not as streaky, though it’s not incredible easy to work with either. I would love to wear this colour to work, a great conservative shade for those not too keen on attention grabbing colours.
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I love the Coat Azure and the Sand Tropez~
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Celina Reply:
February 8th, 2011 at 11:45 am
Agreed~ The nudes in this collection are beautiful
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Thanks for the swatches
do you think sand tropez would look ashy on medium skintone? NC35-37-ish…
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Celina Reply:
February 13th, 2011 at 10:56 pm
My pleasure
Unfortunately I’m not 100% sure 
I will have to test the colour out of my friend who is NC 42 to be sure if you like 
But I most likely won’t see her till 2 weeks later if you can wait 
But if it helps I’m NC 15-20.
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Rose Reply:
February 14th, 2011 at 12:13 am
Thanks
If you can that’d be great. I’m in Canada and they won’t get the collection for a little while… at least that’s what the salesperson at trade secrets told me… so I’m in no rush ahah!
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Gingersnap90 Reply:
February 24th, 2011 at 7:21 am
I’m in Canada too and the collection has been available for over a week now at Shopper’s Drug Mart (or Pharmaprix if you’re in Québec).
Rose Reply:
February 24th, 2011 at 8:43 am
thanks! I’ll check it out although the pharmaprix i go to don’t usually carry the limited edition collections.
Celina Reply:
February 26th, 2011 at 10:11 pm
Finally got my friend to try out the nail polish, it didn’t look that great on her so I’m not sure I would recommend it
But if you get a chance to try it, no loss? But if ordering online only, I’d avoid! Hope that helps!
Rose Reply:
February 28th, 2011 at 5:06 am
Thanks a lot for all the effort! The collection just arrived at my trade secrets yesterday! I gotto see it and you’re right it didn’t look like it would be fit my skintone that well. But I bought topless & barefoot and I love it!! It definitely looks different on me than it does on you though! It’s got a more beige pink look to it. I’ll try to post a picture sometime soon. Thanks again!
Celina Reply:
February 28th, 2011 at 8:31 am
Happy to help
And glad you manage to pick up a polish you like, can’t wait to see pics <3
Rose Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 8:58 am
I made a post showing topless & barefoot! It looks a lot more pink on me
http://bit.ly/fNTqHw
Celina Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 9:07 am
Ooh I like it! I think it really suits you
thanks for the swatches, they are gorgeous! I’m putting in an order for the mini cube tonight – love Coat Azure and Topless and Barefoot! x
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Celina Reply:
April 1st, 2011 at 7:20 am
My pleasure!
I’m so excited for you, I hope you enjoy them <3
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