Pairings that unexpectedly work…
Chocolate and chili powder
I had a chocolate and spicy chili gelato once and was surprised by how much I liked it — after the first few bites, which, yeah, were definitely weird.
Karen and Tabs
El Hub and I were actually dog people up until Tabs came along… Talk about unexpected detours down Crazy Cat Lady Lane! 🙂
Celebrities and shoes
Dude, I never thought I’d say this, but some of those celebrity shoes are really cute! I practically live in my Fergie boots. And if I had a nickel for every time a pair of Jessica Simpsons at Macy’s stopped me dead in my tracks…
The brights and pastels from the new Essie Navigate Her Spring 2012 Collection
Seriously, creamy avocado and shimmery hot pink? I know! But don’t these polishes look good together?
I’ve been neglecting my poor paws all winter long, but the six new shades in the Essie Navigate Collection ($8 each) promise to change that. Available in February, the playful pastels and bold brights in both cream and shimmer finishes offer an almost endless supply of unusual color pairings for fingers and toes.
Bottles from the left: Ole Caliente, Orange It’s Obvious and Tour de Finance
From the left: A Crewed Interest, Navigate Her and To Buy or Not to Buy
I never would have thought to pair some of these colors together, but standing side by side, I think they look pretty darned cute.
Swatches clockwise from my thumb: A Crewed Interest, Tour de Finance, Navigate Her, Ole Caliente and Orange It’s Obvious
Swatches clockwise from my pinky: Orange It’s Obvious, Ole Caliente, Navigate Her and To Buy or Not to Buy
That settles it. This weekend, first chance I get, I’m painting my fingers with avocado green Navigate Her and my toes with the shimmery hot pink Tour De Finance.
From top to bottom: Tour de Finance, Navigate Her, Ole Caliente and Orange It’s Obvious
And if El Hub decides to surprise me with last-minute tickets for a tropical getaway, I’ll just slip on a few layers of A Crewed Interest (a warm peachy pastel) and reddish coral Ole Caliente, a combo that I bet would look right at home against a backdrop of white sandy beaches and turquoise blue (hint-hint, babe!). 🙂
There are just so many possible combinations I can’t wait to try, like pale violet To Buy or Not to Buy on my toes (see the tiny teal, blue and purple micro glitter?) and juicy Orange It’s Obvious on my fingers.
Clockwise from my thumb: A Crewed Interest, Tour de Finance, Navigate Her, Ole Caliente and Orange It’s Obvious
Been dying to try a multi-colored nail look? This collection looks like a purr-fect place to start, and not just because the green in Navigate Her matches a certain husky tabby’s eyes.
Clockwise from my pinky: Orange It’s Obvious, Ole Caliente, Navigate Her and To Buy or Not to Buy
To keep the color-combining chaos under control, I like to wear the same colors on opposite fingers, and then switch up the shades on my thumb.
Some technical details…
- The green, reddish coral, hot pink and orange shades apply smooth and evenly, and I only need two coats for opaque coverage. All of them also dry within 15 minutes, although I’d still wait a full hour to avoid any dents or nicks.
- A Crewed Interest (creamy peach) and pale violet To Buy or Not to Buy need a little more TLC… I have to apply four coats of each to avoid streaks, and they take forever (okay, more like 2 hours) to fully dry.
- Notice how the names are all about business? Isn’t that strange? I’m not sure what the names have to do with these colors, but Essie says that she was inspired by the kind of bold women who chart their own paths and aren’t afraid to take risks! I don’t know, though. I can’t help but see these shades as more fiesta than finance.
Overall, I’m excited by this launch, but I wish the creamy peach and pale violet shades were a little easier to apply.
PRICE: $8 each
AVAILABILITY: Coming to beauty salons and stores next month
MAKEUP AND BEAUTY BLOG RATING: A-
And speaking of exciting developments…
Chanel’s coming out with a new shade in July called Sky Line!
It just walked down the runway at the 2012 Chanel Spring-Summer Haute Couture Show in Paris along with a couple of soon-to-be released items also set to launch on counters in July — Long Wear Luminous Eyeshadow in Apparition and Destination and Precision Eye Pencil in Bleu.
Pretty, yeah? I kindasorta want to wear that crazy bejeweled feather hair clip to Trader Joe’s, LOL!
Your friendly neighborhood beauty addict,
Karen
I’ve been really into nail polish, and these look so pretty! Also, I would love to see you in that feather clip. 😛
casual-beauty.blogspot.com
I want it! I bet it’s like $5000 or something!
Oh heck, I need Sky Line! I got Riva because of you and it’s one of my most favorite colors evah! 🙂
RIVA!!! That color will always bind us together, aww!
Omgah, Orange It’s Obvious & Navigate Her are stunning! *grabby hands*
You’re so funny! 🙂
I love the oranges Essie puts out (I have Meet Me at Sunset).
It’s so unfair that Chanel is releasing Sky Line. I mean, how am I supposed to resist a pale blue polish? 😛
I know! It’s useless to resist!
I just saw a similar shade of pale blue by Essie at Walgreens, but I didn’t get the name of the shade since I was in a rush. I’ll look on the websites and try to find it.
I found a sky blue shade in an older Essie collection. It’s called Sweet Talker and looks pretty similar to the Chanel.
Such fun colors! Looks like companies are coming out with very similar palette of hues for Spring, but I guess that just means we can be more picky. 😀 Sky Line looks gorgeous and immediately made me think of Nissan Sky Line.
I’m already crushing hard on Sky Line!
Do you think you might pick any of these up?
the makeup on the models – gorgeous. its stunning, and arresting. i love it!
i want navigate her too. i have a thing for weird green polishes. 🙂
Me too! I may have to play this weekend to see if I can recreate it.
I love green polishes. Did you pick up Chanel Jade from fall 2009? To this day it’s one of my favorite greens:
https://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/product-reviews/the-chanel-jade-collection-a-softer-alternative-to-falls-dark-nail-polishes/
i did! i use it very sparingly LOL… it is one of the most expensive polishes in my tiny polish stash!
I LOOOOOVE that color. I’m about halfway through the bottle. The day I get to the last drop will be a sad one!
oh wow … i dont even want to think of getting halfway through my bottle. i might cry. 😀
The Essie polishes look fun! But Chanel Skyline-OMG. Gorgeous! And that bleu eyeliner too!
ZOMG, I know, right? I am already salivating at the thought of it. 🙂
Tour de Finance looks like a dup from another Essie a few years back. Bermuda Shorts? Funny Face? Eh, I’ll look later. Either way, you know I’ll be purchasing it.
Hi Kimberly!
Oh, Bermuda Shorts was a good color. It’s a little more neon, though, and lacks the shimmer of Tour de Finance. Here’s a swatch in case anyone’s interested:
https://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/nails/splurge-or-steal-essie-neon-delivers-chanel-nail-colors-for-less/
Anywho, Tour de Finance is so fun! It will look really cute on toes.
All three major spring polish collections have overlapping shades; OPI, Essie, and Zoya! I can’t decide on which collex will reign supreme, but I know I need corals and purples with shimmahs!
These look awesome, Karen! Too bad the two colors I was mos interested in we’re the peach and purple! Oh well, they seem like there worth the trouble!
Do you use a quick dry top coat? I started using some a few years ago and it’s a total game changer!
For the last year has been Sally Hansen Insta-Dri (in the red bottle). I’m on my second bottle, and it’s magic! Its shiny, no fussy shrinking, it smooths out small imperfections in the polish, and dries super fast! Maybe like 15 minutes for 2-3 coats.I usually do my nails right before bed, and I have no issues.
I’d really recommend it! Can’t imagine you having to wait 1-2 goes for petting Tabs!
Hi Lauren,
I usually do, but I like to provide drying times for the gals who don’t like to use extra bells and whistles.
I haven’t tried the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri one yet, so thanks for the rec!
Beautiful colors! Can we see a close up of To Buy or Not to Buy? I want to know if I want to buy it.
Hi Lindsay,
Here’s a closeup of the bottle:
https://www.makeupandbeautyblog.com/daily-beauty-cat/secret-shimmer/
On nails the shade looks exactly like the cream in the pics in this post. You really have to look at it closely and at certain angles to see the glitter.
I can’t wait to check out the avocado green, looks great.
It’s such a fun shade! You’ll love it.
What are you up to this weekend?
I’m drawn to that cute lime green (Navigate Her) and the bright orange (Orange it’s obvious) but Essie nail polishes take ages to dry on my nails too. I use Deborah Lippmann’s Addicted to Speed fast dry topcoat and it really does help 🙂
I have that and love it!
Got any exciting plans for the weekend, Fieran?
That Chanel colour, swoon! They polishes are ridiculously overpriced, but they do come up with gorgeous colours..!
Talking about nail polish, is there a good (reasonably) natural base coat you’d recommend, Karen? I’m new at base coats but get freaked out by all the chemicals on the label.
Hi Advah,
I used to use Zoya Ridge Filling Base Coat and thought it was pretty good:
http://www.zoya.com/content/38/category/Zoya_Get_Even_Ridge_Filling_Base_Coat.html
There’s also the one from Butter London. I haven’t it tried it yet, though:
http://www.butterlondon.com/lacquers/base-top-coat/nail-foundation-flawless-basecoat
This line looks interesting, but they don’t seem to have a dedicated base coat. You could probably use the clear shade though:
http://www.bewellstaywell.com/Honeybee-Gardens-Watercolors-Nail-Enamel-p/hbwnail.htm
Thank you!! The last one might not be available in the UK but Butter definitely is and Zoya should be too (fingers crossed!).
I know nail polishes are pretty chemical, but lately I’ve been obsessing over picturing my nails drinking up all of the ingredients. Hopefully a good base coat should calm me down a wee bit!
Oh, and TGIF! 😉
I’m really digging Navigate Her!!!
I didn’t know you’re a converted cat lady lol. To be honest I’ve heard about many stories like that, but things never seem to happen the other way around (cat people converted into dog people). If anyone has a story like that I’d LOVE to know!
I went downtown yesterday and I found the nail polishes from Essie ! This collection looks really pretty on you Karen. I don’t know what colours I will choose, one costs 12 € here so it’s rather expensive. But I am very happy to know I can get some here in Bordeaux. My dream ? A nail corner here where we could find Essie, Butter London, Orly and China Glaze ! But it’s in my dreams !
I had a feeling that the pastels were going to be a little thick and streaky. That’s too bad because I’m a fan of understated (OK, I’m lazy, so unpolished!) on my fingernails. That Chanel polish is beautiful, though.
I know El Hub took a little while to notice your hair, but I’ think he’d notice the bejeweled hair ornament. 🙂
Oh, shoot, Happy Friday! In case I forget to say that later. I didn’t actually forget it was Friday.
I’m not much of a polish person usually, but this spring has the most gorgeous shades! Love the neons, and the creamy easter pastels – I’m going to have to buy Ole Caliente immediately, and then get a beach and a tan to go with it:)
The orange is gorgeous!
I love that – “I can’t help but see these shades as more fiesta than finance” Agree! I don’t see finance as pastel and colorful 🙂 But they are lovely colors and give me hope that the dark days of winter WILL come to an end sometime!
I wish you showed the brush of the polishes, because they seem to be a little different than the regular Essie polishes. Anyways.. I like the polishes, but I’d skip the green and orange one. Not really my colors.
Hi Stephanie,
Sorry for not including the brush, but I do try to take as many pics as I can with the time I have. 🙂
I think I just saw these at a local drugstore today… I’m going back tomorrow lol.
That orange is calling my name! The lilac is too…but I don’t want to do 4 coats!