Trying to find work appropriate polishes that have a little extra something than the standards nudes and pinks is not an easy feat, that is until I came across the Zoya Flecks range from their Spring 2012 collection Suddenly I’ve found a great way to give my standard polishes an extra boost without being too outrageous.

In the photo above, it has two coats of Essie’s Good Morning Hope with a single coat of Zoya’s Chloe. It is a beautiful transparent pink with iridescent flecks (the entire collection contains a similar green and blue), that dries to give you a very smooth finish. I don’t use top coat anymore since I find it makes it harder to remove polishes later on, and this combination managed to last an entire week without any chipping at all

Happy Christmas Eve! I know this collection has nothing to do with Christmas, but I wanted to post it anyways because it is one of my favourite collections and it’s for a good cause

This collection is filled with pinks, which are all highly wearable and perfect for everyday! I hope you enjoy them and have an amazing Christmas Eve <3

All swatches are two coats with no top coat.

Check Up

A light magenta crème polish, the deepest polish from this collection. You’ll find something similar in ORLY’s Butterflies.

Good Morning Hope

A soft pink crème shade, the lightest from this collection. If you need a dupe, check out Essie’s French Affair.

I Am Strong

An almost bubblegum pink shade, probably just a touch too dark for the bubblegum title. A similar shade would be ROS’ Beauty Queen.

We’re In It Together

My favourite polish from this collection (save the best till last), you can’t see it in the first photo, so I took a second photo for you below so you can see that this is the only polish from the collection that contains micro glitters. Not easy to see even in person, only when you angle the polish, but I just love it! If I had to find a dupe, I’d recommend Essie’s Vandigo which is a bit lighter.

Introducing Essie’s Winter 2012 collection, I can’t really see the relation to winter for all shades, especially the aqua shade threw me off. This collection in general was very hit or miss. On the one hand, the reds were pretty impressive. On the other, the blue and aqua shades were pretty disappointing and would have been better off without them.

As always all swatches are two coats without any top coat.

Beyond Cozy

A silvery gold glitter polish, so densely packed that having an under coat isn’t really necessary. The finish is unfortunately rather rough, though maybe a top coat may help to soften it. A close dupe would be China Glaze’s I’m Not a Lion, which has a very similar texture but also leans closer to gold.

Butler Please

A bright semi-matte royal blue polish, unfortunately I didn’t noticed the photo I took is a little out of focus but hopefully you get the idea! This was probably my least favourite polish out of this collection, the formula is not great. Streaky and hard to work with So if you like the colour, then I’d recommend Face of Australia’s Ocean Villa which is similar but completely matte.

Leading Lady

A deep red gel like polish with glitter, even though the surface for this isn’t smooth, it is probably one of my favourites from this collection. Very unique and beautiful on the nails.

She’s Pampered

A strong vibrant red crème, beautiful formula. Easy to apply and so pigmented even one thick coat would be enough. ORLY’s Unlawful and China Glaze’s Poinsettia are very close dupes.

Snap Happy

Another red crème, very similar to She’s Pampered only just a touch lighter. Again, just like She’s Pampered, the formula and pigmentation is impressive!

Where’s my Chauffeur

A turquoise crème, lighter than your typical mint shades. The formula here is okay, honestly I think you can find better. It took a bit of extra work to ensure the coverage was even and not streaky. China Glaze’s Aquadelic and ORLY’s Gumdrop whilst lighter are similar dupes.

Essie’s Fall collection for 2012, inspired by the classroom! I assume motivated by the fact that most northern hemisphere students are going back to school now that their Summer holidays have finished (completely opposite for us, I’m sooooo looking forward to summer! ;D).

One thing I did find a bit disappointing is how inaccurate the swatches for these polishes were on the official Essie website :/ As in, viewing the website gave me the impression that collection was filled with pinker shades, but in reality as you can see below that is not the case.

That aside, this collection is really quite lovely. Nothing outstanding, yet nothing that made me think this collection wasn’t worth your time. I’d recommend one or two interesting shades, but I think most of these colours have been repeated in previous collections.

As always, all swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.

Don’t Sweater It

A warm creamy mauve crème polish, a pretty common shade for most Fall 2012 polishes. I was easily able to find dupes in Essie’s Glamour Purse and Eyeko’s Posh Polish which was just a tad lighter. I’d check your collection before running out to get this.

Head Mistress

A bright shocking red transparent crème polish, it’s the stock standard red every polish addict should have in their collection (just like every lipstick lover needs a red lipstick). I found similarities in China Glaze’s Winter Berry and ORLY’s Forever Crimson which has a bit of shimmer thrown in.

Miss Fancy Pants

A greige crème polish, which is to me a lighter version of Don’t Sweater It. Similarly, it’s a common shade I’ve seen in previous Fall 2012 collections. Another polish I didn’t struggle to find close dupes, one being Face of Australia’s Foxy Roxy which leans a little darker.

Recessionista

A plummy deep red crème polish, one of my favourites from this collection because it’s not a straight red nor traditional almost black plum shade, which are two types of polish I see constantly plaguing the Fall 2012 collection. To me it’s a pretty unique shade.

Skirting The Issue

A burgundy wine transparent polish, reminds me of lips heavily stained with cherries. I’m becoming a huge fan of these more “gel” like polishes, as opposed to solid opaque colours. I found dupes in Essie’s Limited Addiction (which is more red, less plum) and China Glaze’s Velvet Bow.

Stylenomics

The namesake of this collection, a deep rich incredibly dark green almost black crème polish. It’s a pretty unique shade, I’ve come across plenty of dark green shades, but nothing that I’d considered almost black. The closest shade I’ve found is Essie’s Go Overboard, which is a deep green but not as dark.

Welcome to Essie’s Mirror Metallics collection, five lovely polishes, all with a metallic finish (not surprisingly!) The opacity for each of these polishes were amazing, honestly one coat for each is more than enough (even though the swatches below are to be consistent, swatched with 2 coats).

However my biggest complaint against this collection is the streakiness, which is always the biggest problem with metallic polishes. I know some people love the streak patterns in metallic polishes and others (like myself) are not a fan, so it ultimately will come down to personal preference.

Blue Rhapsody

A metallic blue polish that contains a mixture of silver and blue micro shimmers. China Glaze’s Pull Me Closer is likely the closest dupe I’ve been able to find, however the formula is less streaky and quite a bit darker.

Good as Gold

A metallic slightly antique gold polish, this is one of the polishes I found to have not the best formulation, and the shade isn’t overly unique either so I’d likely give this one a miss.

No place Like Chrome

A silver / chrome metallic shade, interesting not at all a unique shade. I easily found a dupe in Face of Australia’s Titanium, however the formula here is wonderful. Rich in pigment, and smooth when applied. The only reason you see the streaks in the photos are thanks to the ridges on my nails.

Nothing Else Metals

A lilac metallic shade, probably my favourite from this collection as I love how smoothly this applied and how unique and stunning the purple turned out to be. The colour is far richer than how it appears in the bottle, which appears quite muted instead.
Penny Talk

A copper metallic shade, when you look closely at the bottle it appears to be a swirly mixture of gold and pink / red pigments, but when applied directly to the nail it almost looks like a salmon / copper colour. You can see already in the photos how different the colour on the nail and bottle appear. Kinda cool!

I feel slightly jaded posting some of these upcoming Summer related collections because the weather in Melbourne is ridiculously cold, it feels worse than the average Winter even though logically that’s likely not the case.

But here we are, this is Essie’s Summer collection for 2012. It’s a little more subtle in comparison to other massively bright summer collections, especially those released by China Glaze. But that is one of Essie’s key stakes in the market, to be slightly on the less outrageous side of things.

Application was fine, didn’t experience any issues with the formula. All swatches are two coats with no top coat.

All Tied Up

A rustic bronze with subtle golden shimmer polish, the shimmers are very hard to notice from certain angles. OPI’s Baguette Me Not is an exact dupe minus the shimmers.

Bikini so Teeny

A sparkling, cornflower blue polish that contains micro iridescent glitters. The glitters are not what I’d call shimmer, but they aren’t “sandy” like typical glitters. Essie’s Lapis of Luxury is a darker version with no glitter.

Cascade cool

A creamy, sweet dusty pink crème polish that leans towards having blue tones in my opinion. I found OPI’s Sparrow me the Drama to be a darker version.

Fear or desire

A bright, tangerine orange crush crème, this is a definite summer shade. It’s almost shockingly bright and very easy to dupe. OPI’s Mummy Knows Best is the closest I found, with Zoya’s Arizona to be a bit lighter and Essie’s Action to be a matte version.

Mojito madness

A fun-loving, almost lime green shade, I say almost because I think more of China Glaze’s Gaga for Green when I think of lime (lemon lime).

Off the shoulder

A bold, hot pink crème which is likely the most wearable shade out of this entire collection. It’s a shade I would comfortably wear to work, similarly ORLY’s Coquette is close but with more orange tones.

Essie’s Poppy Razzi collection is not to be mistaken for Essie’s upcoming (or perhaps already out) Summer 2012 collection! This collection plays off the entire paparazzi concept, which its pretty obvious by the name and collection name. I found it strange that most of the polishes from this collection have semi-matte finishes, rather than being shiny as is the case with most polishes. I guess it’s a nice change for some, and besides most people use a shiny top coat anyways.

All swatches are 2 coats with no top coat so you can see its natural finish.

Action

A vibrant light orange neon with a semi matte finish. I found Zoya’s Arizona is very similar in terms of colour but with a naturally shiny finish.

Bazooka

This was a little hard to pin point, in some light it looks with a very orange watermelon shade, and in others it’s a tangerine shade. So take your guess. Either way I found Chanel’s Holiday is be rather similar.

Blanc

A snowy white polish, which like OPI’s Alpine Snow is the perfect tip for French manicures. I think everyone needs one in their collection.

Camera

A bright coral pink neon, very watermelon like shade with a semi-matte finish. ORLY’s Ore is a less pigmented version.

Light

An electric pink neon, very bright! Essie’s Tour de Finance is very similar, only with a very slight micro-shimmery finish.

Spring is coming for the northern hemisphere, and with it, the season for weddings. At least that tends to be the most popular season! Essie’s Wedding collection for 2012 contains all soft tones, pinks, purples and a mystery green / blue shade. It’s a lovely collection, but not one I feel is overly unique (and hence easily dupable). Personally I think I still preferred last year’s collection.

Like always, two coats with no top coat.

Instant Hot

A light pink/ nude crème polish with iridescent medium sized shimmers, they aren’t really visible on the nail in the photos (though in person they are if you stare hard), but they appear to be far more obvious in the bottle. Unfortunately the shimmers can make the polish appear a bit gritty on the nail as the polish tends to coat the shimmers. OPI’s Step Right Up! is a sheerer version and Essie’s Vanity Fairest is an ultra sheer version with micro shimmers.

Like to be Bad

A fairy floss pink crème polish perfect for everyday wear. Essie’s Vandigo has more pink tones.

Love & Acceptance

A soft lilac crème shade, I found Essie’s Lilacism to be a very similar dupe with more pink tones.

Who is the Boss

This was a hard colour to label, was it a blue or a green? In some lights it appears to be a dark grayish green, then others a lighter blue. Anyways you can clearly see the swatch here and draw your own conclusion (I’m leaning blue).

In keeping with tradition, here is Essie’s Resort 2012 collection. You can read up on their 2011 and 2010 collection too if you’re keen. The term resort always leaves me longing for days of relaxation and carefree days. All swatches are two coats with no top coat.

No More Film

In person this is an almost black purple / navy crème polish, it kind of reminded me of OPI’s Black Cherry Chutney, but for some reason I think the ISO automatically jacked up and you can see the actual shade of the polish much clearer.

Pink a Boo

A very frosted light pink shade infused with crystal shimmers. Essie’s Vanity Fairest is a very close dupe, except the shimmers are far smaller, almost unnoticeable at first glance.

She’s Picture Perfect

A lilac shade that reflects pink from certain angles. OPI’s Peek-a-Boo is a darker shade without any reflects or shimmers, purely crème.

Sure Shot

A hot magenta shade with a lot of micro pink shimmer, unfortunately I didn’t realise how high the ISO was for this photo Not a hard shade to dupe to be honest, Essie’s Jamaica Me Crazy and Zoya’s Tama are close.

Another Essie collection! This time entitled Go Overboard, which I associated with vacationing and summer break~ Summer in Australia is around for just three more days, how depressing given the sincere lack of true Summer weather we’ve had over the last few months

Oh, the collection!

No major issues with the formula for this collection, the colours were interesting, with Go Overboard being my personal favourite But it felt kinda… mis-matched to me? I dunno, probably just me! All swatches are 2 coats with no top coat.

Armed & Ready

A taupe khaki green crème with gold micro shimmers that are only just barely visible in the swatch. The only dupe I could find was Essie’s Power Clutch which is a bit greyer.

Go Overboard

A dark aqua / turquoise shade, and the signature polish for this collection. It’s a pure crème from what I can tell, and the only dupe I could find was Ulta3′s Mermaid Green which is a much lighter version.

Play Date

A lilac purple crème, OPI’s A Grape Fit! is a darker version and Essie’s Splash of Grenadine is pinker.