Collection: Essie 2016 Spring

Essie’s Spring 2016 collection contains six shades that are all creams: totally my bag! I made a trip down to my favorite beauty supply and snagged four shades: High Class Affair, Off Tropic, Poolside Service, and Sunshine State of Mind. I wanted badly to get a couple from the new Resort collection, as well (particularly Taj-Ma-Haul), but didn’t see it on display. Guess I’ll have to make another trip in the next couple of weeks.

Here’s my little haul (the middle four bottles are from the Spring 2016 collection):

Poolside Service (968), is described by Essie as a “crisp cerulean blue”. (Also, it’s listed as “Pool Side Service” at Essie’s website, but it’s “Poolside Service” on the label, so I’m going with that, since I believe I’ve noted polish name typos on the official site before). Cerulean is one of those funny color words that I can never quite get the hang of. Sometimes it’s used to describe a deep ocean blue, other times it’s a bright warm blue, and there are a multitude of shades in between. Essie’s use of it, here, strikes me as being a bit odd, since I’ve never really associated cerulean with greenish blues, and Poolside Service is, to me, a dusty teal blue cream.

I’m not sure I love this color for spring—it really feels like more of a fall/winter shade to me. I wasn’t feeling it when I was wearing it this week, even though it’s been snowing here. Guess I’m ready for some brights and sunshine! Poolside Service can call me again in September or October.

In any case, this is the main thing I think of when I hear the word cerulean, these days:

Essie’s cream formulas in this collection are pretty awesome. Poolside Service applies beautifully and is fully opaque in two coats.

Essie Nail Polish retails for US$8.50 / CA$9.99–$10.99 and is 0.46 US fl oz / 13.5 mL. The polish is free of toluene, formaldehyde, and dibutyl phthalate (DBP). It is made in the USA.

Essie Cosmetics, founded in 1981, is based in Westfield NJ, USA. In 2010, Essie was acquired by the L’Oréal Group.