Essie Holiday 2012 Collection

The holiday makeup collections and I knew that the holiday nail polish collections wouldn't be far behind.  I am very torn on the subject of holiday nail polish collections, every year I get really excited about one or two new shades but I get so sick of seeing the same versions of red, silver, and gold shades from every single collection.  All last holiday, I wore China Glaze's Ruby Pumps and I see an "updated" version of this shade in the China Glaze holiday collection every single year.  By "updated", I pretty much mean that the shade looks exactly the same and only the name has been changed to be more festive.  I do love all the little nail polish gift sets that come out every year, like lip gloss, I go after small nail polishes since I rarely finish most bottles and wouldn't feel so bad if I had to throw away the last drops of polish from a small bottle in a set.  Makes sense in my head...

The first holiday nail polish collection that I am seeing is a series of new shades from Essie so this is exactly where we will start.  I am really looking forward to the OPI holiday collection, it is a tie-in to the new James Bond movie that is releasing soon and all the shades and names are inspired by Bond movies throughout the years.  Oh hello Daniel Craig!

This holiday season, Essie has released six new polish hues in a collection that I believe is called Leading Lady.  On first glance, I see a very pretty ruby toned polish and then a bunch of brighter hues that look slightly out of place with the first shade.  I do wonder if Essie will release a second holiday collection that is very festive or if this is all that we will be getting to take us into the holidays.

"A leading lady is always dressed to thrill", is the collection description from the company's founder Essie Weingarten and I must say that I do agree with this statement!  Now onto the polishes!

There are three red hues in this new collection so we are going to look at the reds first and then look at the rest of the shades that are being offered.  The first shade that we will look at is my early favorite from the collection, Leading Lady.  Leading Lady is "a supreme deep red with glitter" and it is the shade that I have pictured here.  This is such a unique hue and one that I will wear starting in the end of fall and then all through the winter and holiday seasons.  I predict that this will be the first shade to sell out at Ulta and all the other counters.  The second red is Snap Happy, my least favorite of the reds.  This shade is a warm red, a hue that I have never liked and never works well with my skintone.  "A cheerful red orange", is how this shade is described and it has a cream finish.  This looks like a bright coral and will be great on someone with a warmer skintone than mine.  I will be skipping over this red.  The last red is called She's Pampered and is the most traditional red in this collection.  This shade is a cream finish and is described by Essie as "an indulgent red".  At the moment, I don't have a traditional bright red cream in my collection but I am considering buying MAC's Russian Red nail shade.  I am on the fence of what I will do with She's Pampered, I don't think that I need it unless it looks very different in person but I wouldn't mind adding it to my collection...

The rest of the collection consists of two blue hues and a gold metallic.  We will look at the blues first and then end with the metallic hue.  The first blue shade is Butler Please, "an indulgent bright blue" with a cream finish.  I love blue shades and this shade is no different.  This shade reminds me very much of the famed Baker St. from Nails Inc and it sort of appears that Essie is trying to capitalize on the famed cult following that Baker St has.  That being said, this hue looks a shade or two brighter than the Nails Inc shade and as long as it still appears this way in real life, I bet that I will buy a bottle of this shade.  The second blue shade is more of an aqua than a true blue.  Where's My Chauffer is "an opulent turquoise" with a cream finish and this one appears very similar to the cult China Glaze shade For Audrey, a shade that I already own too.  This shade looks really close to the shade from China Glaze so I doubt that I need to add this one to my collection.  The last shade is Beyond Cozy and it another glitter finish polish.  This shade is "a decadent silvery gold glitter" and reminds me of I'm Not Lion from China Glaze.  Again, nice shade but I already own I'm Not Lion and unless it looks totally different in real life, I don't need this shade.

This collection is ok, I love the Leading Lady shade and must add it to my Ulta shopping list.  However, most of the other shades I like but they all look like something that I already own and don't need another bottle of.  I am a bit disappointed in the Essie line since three of these shades look exactly (or I will say photograph exactly like) and it looks like Essie was trying to capitalize on the following that these shades already have.  Maybe they look different in real life but I don't need three more versions of shades that are already in my collection.

photo courtesy of chicprofile.com