April 23, 2009
Essie Neon Collection for Summer 2009
Essie has done it again! A fabulous unexpected collection for summer, this time neon’s! These are what I would classify as mostly true neon’s, especially the yellow. The application ran from fabulous to streaky-as-hell, but I love them all anyway. Pics taken in sun with no top coat.
Funky Limelight was the streaky-as-hell one, BUT that’s to be expected because yellow’s are always a hot streaky mess for some reason. This is a true highlighter yellow color. I did my absolute best to show you the true color of this. It’s SUPER UBER NEON and really cool. However, because of the sheerness and streakiness I needed four coats and you can still see my nail tip through it. I don’t care, I really like it anyway!
Flirty Fuchsia is a neon flamingo pink and trust me, the brightness isn’t reflected in this pic, it’s much brighter in person. The application was awesome on this, thick, opaque and creamy. I used only two coats here.
Punchy Pink is the slightly darker and a tingle more coral cousin to Flirty Fuchsia. Again, much brighter in real life than reflected here. The consistency of this one was perfect and I only needed two coats.
Perky Purple was interesting. You can see it’s really dull because I don’t have a top coat on, but trust me it’s beautiful when you add the top coat. The color is very bright but I wouldn’t call it’s “neon” really. I don’t think I have ever really seen a purple neon, maybe that color can’t be “neon” for some reason? Who knows! This wasn’t quite as opaque as the pinks, so I used three coats.
If you like what you see and want to order these, you can find them here and they retail for $8.00 each. They aren’t listed on Transdesign or Head2Toe Beauty just yet, but should be soon.
Welcome! My name is Kelly and Vampy Varnish is a animal friendly beauty blog.
Don’t know why, but I’m feeling kind of over with the neon colors. Thanks for the beautiful swatches, though!
Fab swatches! I LOVE this collection. Essie is def my favorite brand; their formula is to die for. I’m ordering everything except punchy pink. Do you think barielle camo would make funky limelight less streaky?
Hi Jamie,
There have been A LOT lately!
Hi Sharon,
You know I haven’t used Camo yet. I have yet to come across a yellow that wasn’t streaky, no matter the base coat, so I don’t know how much it would help.
Thanks for the swatches Kelly. Good to know about the Funky Limelight. I love all the colors. Didn’t know the purple was matte. It is pretty though.
Hi Lucy,
It’s really not matte, just dull without a top coat. Actually they all are, but that one you can really tell in the pic.
I saw Perky Purple just this past weekend and wrote it down on the “to buy” list!
The dullness is a bit disappointing though…
Oh neons, how I wish you would go away. They always manage to make my retinas feel like they’re burning. Nailphile’s nails were uber bright. Your’s aren’t bad but my retinas still feel like they’re burning! Beautiful swatches though!
Hi stef,
Well like I said, it’s super shiny when you add a top coat, which most people do!
That yellow is incredible! Since it’s so streaky, I think I’ll wear one coat of white polish underneath and hope that’ll help.
Hi Kelly,
I’m not really sure about the name of the nail polish, but Urban Outfitters sells a creamy, slightly pastel yellow nail polish that is far from streaky. They sell the same brand in Forever 21 for a fraction of the price, but I have yet to see the yellow one in a Forever 21. Here’s what the bottles look like.
http://www.forever21.com/product.asp?catalog_name=FOREVER21&category_name=acc_giftitem&product_id=1058266988&Page=all
Hi Yasmine,
Interesting I might check that out. Thanks!
The Perky Purple looks like an exact ripoff of Sinful Colors’ Dream On (one of my alltime favs), no?
Hi Chaka,
I honestly don’t know, I don’t have that one. Sorry!
Hi Kelly! Thank you for the swatches. I was in Ulta last night and saw the collection in person. The Funky Limelight was uber bright! As much as I love them, I would get a headache from them.
hey an absolute awsome trick i use is that i start with and opague white polish! it totally makes the neons stand out! i have all the neons and that is exactly what you need when your polish looks like highlighter! you can thank me later!!