Resort yourself out

Sorry is supposed to be the hardest word, but I'll use it with wild abandon here to apologies for yet another nail post. I just couldn't resist testing these babies as soon as they arrived. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, the Essie Resort Collection 2010.

From left to right: Lapis of Luxury, Splash of Grenadine, Playa Del Platinum and Turquoise & Caicos.

Now, one gripe I have with these is they don't come in a set of minis, so this haul (which came from America through the fabulous Major Sam Dexter - thanks Sam!) set me back a cool £24 ($32 to be precise). But you can't put a price on my excitement at ripping off their bubble wrap.

So last night I settled down with wine and Mary Queen of Shops to play with them, and I was more than happy with the quality after three coats.

Coat one was pretty insipid. Coat two was slightly streaky (though that could be my poor polish performance) but three was a wonderfully vivid coating that, despite what the hundred pictures I took in different lighting conditions might suggest, is actually the same as how it looks in the bottle, for all four - pretty rare I tell you! And these are basically my four favourite colours in the world for clothing, interiors, everything... all though not, at first, my nails. 

The blue is that beautiful shade you see in hydrangeas...

 

This was certainly my favourite, so I've been sporting that today and have had a couple of compliments.

This weekend will be the turn of Splash of Grenadine. It's a rare punchy-purply-blush-pink (if you can imagine that) - not too girly. I often find paler pink polishes a little eighties, but this is gorgeous and refreshingly different.

The Playa Del Platinum was probably the least exciting, but then I suppose that's the point of a nude. It's somewhere in between stone, cream and nude, and would be an excellent bridal shade this season.

And Tuquoise and Caicos is a great, more grown up alternative to my Nails Inc Satin, It's more turquoise than mint - I'd love to do a comparison between all the turquoisy minty greens on the market (I'd also like to get my hands on Isadora Vintage Mint - anyone know where stocks it?)

So, in summation, these polishes will pretty much set you up for summer. So what's my reservation? At first I was a little underwhelmed, because I'm so used to incredibly bright strong nails - strange because everywhere else I love exactly these colours. But on reflection, they are all beautiful shades that definitely have a place in my repertoire. They will certainly suit those who want to try colour, but aren't quite ready for ridiculously bright nails (or whose work environment doesn't approve of them) and they go with almost everything in my wardrobe.

Incidentally, I tried them all in matte too, but really struggled to take a picture of my right hand without a tripod. Here's my best effort for reference - I'm keeping it small!