Tuesday, January 11, 2011

As Promised...Essie Dive Bar & Master Plan!

Happy 11-1-11! Eleven is one of my lucky numbers so I'm really excited to post today! To mark the occasion I thought I'd share with you the swatches of the new Essies that I promised - Essie Master Plan & Essie Dive Bar. Just a little memo...the retail line of Essie polishes is coming to Walgreens and Rite-Aid soon! I think this is good news for those of us who don't enjoy Walmart.

Spoiler Alert: I think Master Plan and Dive Bar are both gorgeous! Although very different polishes, I think both are knock-outs in their particular weight classes!

First up, the one that has received the most buzz so far - Dive Bar. At first when I showed you bottle pics here, I speculated that the purple flash you see in the bottle would not be very evident on the nail - as with Dive Bar's cousin, OPI Unripened. I was wrong.

In some lights you see the strong teal shimmer...


...and in others the purple.


But in semi-light, you see both at the same time!


Another pic for funsies...


The effect of Dive Bar is a lot less "black" than Unripened in general lighting situations. The smaller shimmer and teal/purple flashes give this an almost black pearl feeling... Now it's by no means a Chanel Black Pearl dupe - it's a much more colourful version of that and has larger shimmer. (And is better IMHO. But to be fair I haven't tried Black Pearl because I find it wholly unappealing for some reason.) I love this, and I think it will be a universal favourite if people can get their hands on it! (NB: I ordered mine from walmart.com and shipping was free at the time. I've also seen it in certain stores. Check walmart.com to see if it's in your store today!)

Time for another star...Master Plan.


A simple creme, this only required one picture! But a picture speaks volumes. Essie nailed this one. Again, I *really* feel like this must be close to Lippmann's Waking Up in Vegas, but I gave that one away! It's just a gorgeous, quiet-but-edgy putty grey with enough warmth that it doesn't give me total corpse-hands. I typically love colours like this, but the balance in this is exactly right. Oh and application was WAY better than the Lippmann. Way.

Two great new colours coming straight out of the new retail line, currently available at Walmart. Say what you want about the decisions L'Oreal is making with regards to the Essie brand, but these colours are - in my brother's words - "bangin'"!

What do you think? Will you be picking these up?

kittytokaren

P.S. I loved these so much that I got curious about another retail-exclusive that isn't in stores - Sweet Talker - so I ordered it! I'm so anxious for it to get here!