I wore Essie’s Smooth Sailing at the end of last week, and I enjoyed this color so much that I wanted to re-post it!  I already posted it as part of the Essie 2011 Summer Collection review.  Smooth Sailing is available even in the retail locations like WalGreen’s, where I picked mine up.  It’s a beautiful, soft blue with heavy shimmer pieces.

Smooth Sailing is a cornflower blue polish with silver shimmer, and some of the shimmer pieces can also flash pink or blue in certain lights.  The shimmer is what makes it really special; the color has a glazed, textured feeling even when it’s not directly in the light because the shimmer is so heavy.  There seems to be some purple, or maybe grey, in the mix, so it’s a sophisticated blue that’s vibrant but not too bright.

I used three coats for these pictures, but I probably could have stopped with two.  It went on so well, I was really pleased with how easily controlled it was.  It made perfect little curves at my cuticles; this is without any clean-up.

This picture was in slightly brighter light, and shows off the purple tone that Smooth Sailing has at certain angles.

I like the depth the color has, and that it’s darker than many of the colors I’ve been wearing recently.  Since it seemed dark enough to work with Dior’s Rock Coat,  I tried a coat on top and really liked how it deepened the blue tone but still let the shimmer show through.  It tips the color more grey and even makes the shimmer look a bit grey, but the pretty blue is still there, too.  To me this seems like a good combination to take Smooth Sailing into fall.  I couldn’t stop staring at my hands when I wore this; it’s so nice and is pretty unique among recent polish releases.