essie

Another wedding season approaches, bringing with it a bevy of bachelorette parties, bridal showers, bridesmaid dresses — which they always say you can wear again (yeah, right!) — and, of course, rampaging bridezillas!

Honestly, I can’t blame brides for going cuckoo for Coco Puffs when there are so many details involed in getting hitched (especially when you’re doing the planning yourself). It’s hard to imagine just how frustrating a seating chart can be, how something so supposedly simple can make a gal simultaneously cry and foam at the mouth like a rabid chihuahua.

But some details don’t have to be hard. Why not make two of them, like what polish to wear on your fingers and toes, a little easier with Essie’s The Wedding Collection Nail Polish cube ($17)?

The limited edition set comes with four Essie nail polish minis in matrimonial shades. There’s Made to Honor (a warm, sheer pinkish beige), Better Together (a sheer candy pink), First Dance (a classic creamy red) and Borrowed & Blue (a creamy sky blue).

From left to right: Better Together, Made to Honor, First Dance and Borrowed & Blue

At first I thought Borrowed & Blue would run away with this bride, but then First Dance intervened. It’s funny — with all of the crazy nail colors out there now, red polishes can seem almost tame. First Dance, however, deserves extra affection. It’s neither too orange nor blue. Rather, it’s more like a neutral, and I bet it would look lovely on an array of skin tones. And while the rest of the collection requires two coats for full coverage, First Dance only needs one.

Borrowed & Blue still looks like a blast, though, and might be the better choice for edgier brides.

The two sheer pinks embody classic Essie style. Both apply smooth, without any streaks, and should look great in wedding pictures, too.

Peep the following swatches, and let me know if anything here makes you want to say “I do.”

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Yesterday I dug out my old surfing wetsuit and tried to put it on. No. Such. Luck. Not without a gallon of Crisco and a whole lot of prayer.

Le sigh…

I haven’t surfed up here in years, but I’m starting to get desperate. Since I don’t see a tropical trip on the horizon, either I brave these frigid waters again, or I dry up like a land-locked fish.

And the Essie Summer 2011 Color Me Braziliant Collection (six colors; $8 each) is only making things worse. It arrives in June, right around the time I’d love to be out galavanting on a beach vacation.

From the left: Brazilliant, Smooth Sailing and Meet Me at Sunset

Inspired by the daring, sexy beaches of Brazil, the collection, with its corals, reds and hot pinks, is also peppered with pretty splashes of light green and blue. I can’t remember seeing a more summery collection from Essie in a while.

Remember last year’s release with it’s dainty purples, pinks, corals and that shot of kelly green? I loved that collection, but I felt it also could have passed for something from spring (which is fine).

But with Braziliant, I didn’t give spring a second thought. These are bikini, beach and summer shades all the way. If last year’s collection was a demure girl in a floral dress sipping tea from a dainty cup, this year’s is that same girl hanging out at the beach in a beaded bandeau bikini. And she’s not afraid to wink at that Adonis with a surfboard.

From the left: Too Too Hot, Super Bossa Nova and Absolutely Shore

While there are lots of classic Essie cream finishes in Summer 2011, the collection also plays with glitter and pearl effects. It’s not as out there/full-on crazy as the neons from 2008 and 2009 (LOVE!), but still, it’s nice to see the line doing something I didn’t expect.

Some of the colors look so edgy, I think they’d pass for China Glaze, like Smooth Sailing, a blue topaz with silver glitter; and Super Bossa Nova, a hot pink with pink and purple glitter. I also see it in Braziliant, with its pink, orange and purple pearl pigment shifts. Cool.

Essie’s polishes have always performed pretty consistently for me. Two coats and I’m good, but I should note that the two shades I was looking forward to the most, Braziliant and Meet Me at Sunset, did leave some streaks, and with them I needed three coats to achieve the opaque look I like. The rest of the collection, however, looked great with two.

I only put these on yesterday afternoon, so I haven’t tested for wear time yet, but with other Essie polishes, as long as I use a sturdy base and top coat, I get at least seven days out of them with minimal chipping.

Here’s a look at the swatches. Let me know if you see something you like. 🙂

From the left: Brazilliant, Smooth Sailing and Meet Me at Sunset

Brazilliant
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