Essie Holiday 2013 Mini Set Comparisons: Forever Yummy, Wicked, Chinchilly, Turquoise & Caicos
Essie Holiday 2013 Mini Set Comparisons
Forever Yummy, Wicked, Chinchilly, Turquoise & Caicos
Christmas has come early this year :) I managed to snag one of the holiday minis sets for $24 (they never appeared in a store near me and were immediately sold out online) on ebay and it turned up a few days ago. Didn't get one this Christmas? I got you covered - depending on the shades you want, you can find some nice, cheaper dupes.
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I had to have Essie's mini set because it contains the absolute essential colors: a sheer nude (Ballet Slippers), a greige (Chinchilly), a mint green (Turquoise and Caicos), an true red/bright red/cherry red (Forever Yummy), and an oxblood/blood red/dark red (Wicked). Essie also has excellent formulas, so this set is definitely perfect for either the stylista who isn't a nail fanatic who just needs the essentials, or the nail freak who has all the crazy stuff but needs the classic creams. Also, they're mini-size bottles, 1 mL, so the per-unit price, even secondhand, is a lot less than the usual $8 pricetag, and let's face it, nobody with 200+ polishes uses up an entire full-size bottle.
Starting with your basic bright red, Forever Yummy is a lot of people's perfect red. Mine is Revlon Red or Zoya Monica, but I'm into a more warm deep hue. This is your bright, candy, cherry, mid-tone red, so-red-it's-a-cliche kinda red. You probably already have one of these if you have a lot of polish, but in case you don't, this is a good one! This is one coat - one coat! - of each of my cherry reds, and Essie is smooth as silk and opaque as cotton. Other than that, they're all pretty similar in color. Pure Ice has always had creams that are a bit thick, and mine's old, so it was a little globby, but also covers pretty well. Sally Hansen Xtreme wear would be me go-to; it has pretty good coverage and is only $3, but, though it's a bit hard to tell here, it's a little cooler red than the others, so not an exact dupe. sinful Colors Ruby Ruby is the same hue, but a jelly - I used 2 of that to get semi-decent coverage. I recommend Essie if you need it as a standalone, but if you just need an essential red for nail art, etc, Sally Hansen or Pure Ice is a better deal.
Next we have the oxblood - I love me an oxblood - so much so I have several. These are just the ones that were close-ish in hue. Now oxbloods are a bit crelly by nature, to build up a very fluid, hemoglobinish look, so I used one coat of each again to show the opacity (naturally you'll want to use two or more). Essie wins again with Wicked - I felt as though I was literally painting blood on my nails, it's thick and just a bit syrupy, covers the way you'd want it to in just one coat, with a little bit of transparency at the very edges giving it that liquid look. The most similar was Sephora by OPI's Caffeine Fix, which I bought mostly for the name, but turned out to be a favorite of mine. It's a tad less opaque and lighter than Essie though. The Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear alternative is the cheapest, but doesn't hold up well - it's patchy and not as dark. Revlon Vixen, my first oxblood, is by contrast much lighter, and I had to do two coats just to get rid of the streakiness - it's rather thin, but great for layering as it's almost jelly-like, but rather less like heart's blood. Speaking of hearts, I included Sinful Colors Rich in Heart, which is an "inner glow" not a true oxblood, because it was surprisingly dead on to the hue - the basic color of the cream part is the closest to the rich nearly black red of wicked, but it has that sheen of red metallic shimmer in it, so not quite the same effect, but at $2 it's lovely. Essie's is still the best, and since SOPI is actually more than $8, it's a good bet - if you're wanting more of a nail art basic, try Vixen, as it layers too.
On to the "Tiffany" shade, somewhere between seafoam and mint there is this magical color that everybody needs to have. Ev-re-bo-dy. And then there's people like me who about about 20 of them ... Anyway Turquoise and Caicos is less that For Audrey dupe than a really classy, slightly greener variation on the theme - China Glaze's essential, which matches most of the Tiffany dupes you'll find, is on my pinkie - as you can see, T&C is an entirely different family. Zoya is the greenest shift of my Tiffany collection, but it too is bluer and a bit darker. Surprise! the closest is Sinful Colors Mint Apple - the base color is very similar, if a tad darker. However, Mint Apple has shimmer, which in a way kind of spoils the effect - I rarely use it except as a mix-in nowadays. Tiffany needs to be a pure cream in my book. However, if you can't bring yourself to spend $8 on T&C, Mint Apple is a lovely alternative; however, Essie is my favorite once again. It is distinctively perfect among Tiffanies for most skin tones in my book. (Edit: I am an uncultured swine; I totally typed Calicos for a while, including on my photo! Sry!)
Finally, the greige! Chinchilly's been on my want list for a while, and I was excited to hold it up to the "light greige family." As you may know, my "standard" greiges are Essie Merino Cool and Zoya Jana; the former the greyer, ashier, cool hue standard and the latter the warm, purpler standard. Chinchilly is on the cooler side, so I used Merino Cool on my thumb and pinkie to show the gradation from "standard" greige to light. My lightest greige is L'Oreal Effiel for you, which I never much liked - it's a unique color, but much too light and ashy, not very flattering to rosy skin, and probably not as flattering as any other greige on other skin tones anyway. Chinchilly is both darker and purpler. From the girl who has pretty much every greige, I did finally find a surprising dupe - Nuance by Salma Hayek, which I picked up at CVS for $6, is almost dead on. I think it's a hair lighter, but for all intents and purposes, dupe found! If you can find one, the formula was nice, and it's a bit cheaper than Essie. I also love the name - Evening Haze! But Chinchilly's pretty great too.
There is one more polish in this set, the sheer pale pink nude Ballet Slippers. I know there are shades and nuances within sheer nudes, but I only have one other sheer nude, which isn't much of a comparison, plus with any sheer, it's going to depend greatly on your underlying skin/nail tone. Suffice to say you probably need one, if only for those days you don't want to do your nails, but they look a bit worn - a few coast of sheer nude will freshen up icky-looking nails without the hassel and cleanup of a color. They're also great for layering. You probably don't need Essie; Revlon's is great, and if you can find the sheer line in its entirety, they have many hues that may be better on your skin. However, Ballet Slippers is the kind of light, subtle pink that will blend well with any natural nail color.
There you have it! If you still want the set, I don't blame you, they're pretty close to perfect and have great formulas. But if you're looking for some cheaper basics, you don't necessarily have to shell out for it.
My recommendations:
- Essie Forever Yummy
- Essie Wicked
- Essie Turquoise & Caicos
- Nuance Evening Haze
- Revlon Sheers collection
Alternative (thrifty) recommendations:
- Pure Ice Siren ($2)
- Revlon Vixen ($5)
- Sinful Colors Mint Apple ($2)
- Nuance Evening Haze ($6)
- Any basic sheer nude ($2-$5)
Have a happy holiday everyone! Here's wishing you at least one of these amazing shades.
Forever Yummy, Wicked, Chinchilly, Turquoise & Caicos
Christmas has come early this year :) I managed to snag one of the holiday minis sets for $24 (they never appeared in a store near me and were immediately sold out online) on ebay and it turned up a few days ago. Didn't get one this Christmas? I got you covered - depending on the shades you want, you can find some nice, cheaper dupes.
I had to have Essie's mini set because it contains the absolute essential colors: a sheer nude (Ballet Slippers), a greige (Chinchilly), a mint green (Turquoise and Caicos), an true red/bright red/cherry red (Forever Yummy), and an oxblood/blood red/dark red (Wicked). Essie also has excellent formulas, so this set is definitely perfect for either the stylista who isn't a nail fanatic who just needs the essentials, or the nail freak who has all the crazy stuff but needs the classic creams. Also, they're mini-size bottles, 1 mL, so the per-unit price, even secondhand, is a lot less than the usual $8 pricetag, and let's face it, nobody with 200+ polishes uses up an entire full-size bottle.
Starting with your basic bright red, Forever Yummy is a lot of people's perfect red. Mine is Revlon Red or Zoya Monica, but I'm into a more warm deep hue. This is your bright, candy, cherry, mid-tone red, so-red-it's-a-cliche kinda red. You probably already have one of these if you have a lot of polish, but in case you don't, this is a good one! This is one coat - one coat! - of each of my cherry reds, and Essie is smooth as silk and opaque as cotton. Other than that, they're all pretty similar in color. Pure Ice has always had creams that are a bit thick, and mine's old, so it was a little globby, but also covers pretty well. Sally Hansen Xtreme wear would be me go-to; it has pretty good coverage and is only $3, but, though it's a bit hard to tell here, it's a little cooler red than the others, so not an exact dupe. sinful Colors Ruby Ruby is the same hue, but a jelly - I used 2 of that to get semi-decent coverage. I recommend Essie if you need it as a standalone, but if you just need an essential red for nail art, etc, Sally Hansen or Pure Ice is a better deal.
Next we have the oxblood - I love me an oxblood - so much so I have several. These are just the ones that were close-ish in hue. Now oxbloods are a bit crelly by nature, to build up a very fluid, hemoglobinish look, so I used one coat of each again to show the opacity (naturally you'll want to use two or more). Essie wins again with Wicked - I felt as though I was literally painting blood on my nails, it's thick and just a bit syrupy, covers the way you'd want it to in just one coat, with a little bit of transparency at the very edges giving it that liquid look. The most similar was Sephora by OPI's Caffeine Fix, which I bought mostly for the name, but turned out to be a favorite of mine. It's a tad less opaque and lighter than Essie though. The Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear alternative is the cheapest, but doesn't hold up well - it's patchy and not as dark. Revlon Vixen, my first oxblood, is by contrast much lighter, and I had to do two coats just to get rid of the streakiness - it's rather thin, but great for layering as it's almost jelly-like, but rather less like heart's blood. Speaking of hearts, I included Sinful Colors Rich in Heart, which is an "inner glow" not a true oxblood, because it was surprisingly dead on to the hue - the basic color of the cream part is the closest to the rich nearly black red of wicked, but it has that sheen of red metallic shimmer in it, so not quite the same effect, but at $2 it's lovely. Essie's is still the best, and since SOPI is actually more than $8, it's a good bet - if you're wanting more of a nail art basic, try Vixen, as it layers too.
On to the "Tiffany" shade, somewhere between seafoam and mint there is this magical color that everybody needs to have. Ev-re-bo-dy. And then there's people like me who about about 20 of them ... Anyway Turquoise and Caicos is less that For Audrey dupe than a really classy, slightly greener variation on the theme - China Glaze's essential, which matches most of the Tiffany dupes you'll find, is on my pinkie - as you can see, T&C is an entirely different family. Zoya is the greenest shift of my Tiffany collection, but it too is bluer and a bit darker. Surprise! the closest is Sinful Colors Mint Apple - the base color is very similar, if a tad darker. However, Mint Apple has shimmer, which in a way kind of spoils the effect - I rarely use it except as a mix-in nowadays. Tiffany needs to be a pure cream in my book. However, if you can't bring yourself to spend $8 on T&C, Mint Apple is a lovely alternative; however, Essie is my favorite once again. It is distinctively perfect among Tiffanies for most skin tones in my book. (Edit: I am an uncultured swine; I totally typed Calicos for a while, including on my photo! Sry!)
Finally, the greige! Chinchilly's been on my want list for a while, and I was excited to hold it up to the "light greige family." As you may know, my "standard" greiges are Essie Merino Cool and Zoya Jana; the former the greyer, ashier, cool hue standard and the latter the warm, purpler standard. Chinchilly is on the cooler side, so I used Merino Cool on my thumb and pinkie to show the gradation from "standard" greige to light. My lightest greige is L'Oreal Effiel for you, which I never much liked - it's a unique color, but much too light and ashy, not very flattering to rosy skin, and probably not as flattering as any other greige on other skin tones anyway. Chinchilly is both darker and purpler. From the girl who has pretty much every greige, I did finally find a surprising dupe - Nuance by Salma Hayek, which I picked up at CVS for $6, is almost dead on. I think it's a hair lighter, but for all intents and purposes, dupe found! If you can find one, the formula was nice, and it's a bit cheaper than Essie. I also love the name - Evening Haze! But Chinchilly's pretty great too.
There is one more polish in this set, the sheer pale pink nude Ballet Slippers. I know there are shades and nuances within sheer nudes, but I only have one other sheer nude, which isn't much of a comparison, plus with any sheer, it's going to depend greatly on your underlying skin/nail tone. Suffice to say you probably need one, if only for those days you don't want to do your nails, but they look a bit worn - a few coast of sheer nude will freshen up icky-looking nails without the hassel and cleanup of a color. They're also great for layering. You probably don't need Essie; Revlon's is great, and if you can find the sheer line in its entirety, they have many hues that may be better on your skin. However, Ballet Slippers is the kind of light, subtle pink that will blend well with any natural nail color.
There you have it! If you still want the set, I don't blame you, they're pretty close to perfect and have great formulas. But if you're looking for some cheaper basics, you don't necessarily have to shell out for it.
My recommendations:
- Essie Forever Yummy
- Essie Wicked
- Essie Turquoise & Caicos
- Nuance Evening Haze
- Revlon Sheers collection
Alternative (thrifty) recommendations:
- Pure Ice Siren ($2)
- Revlon Vixen ($5)
- Sinful Colors Mint Apple ($2)
- Nuance Evening Haze ($6)
- Any basic sheer nude ($2-$5)
Have a happy holiday everyone! Here's wishing you at least one of these amazing shades.