Essie’s Winter 2011 Collection is showing up in salons and retail stores now – the collection is called Cocktail Bling, but it’s a set of six cremes with no glitter in sight.  Essie tells us they were inspired by jewelry and precious stones.  I picked up three of the colors, so I have swatches of Cocktail Bling, Bangle Jangle and Brooch the Subject.

I started with Cocktail Bling, the collection’s namesake and I think most intriguing polish from the set.  Cocktail Bling is a very light bluish grey.  I tried to find polishes to compare it to, but it was greyer than all the light blues, and more blue and lighter than all the greys.  It has a subtly different, cold and wintery feel.  The formula on this one was nice and took just two coats for opacity.

 

In the bottle, Cocktail Bling and Bangle Jangle look pretty close.  Bangle Jangle is supposed to be a light lavender, but on me at least it looks very grey.  It’s different from most lavenders, which tend to be pastel or springy.  The formula on Bangle Jangle was not as good as Cocktail Bling and seemed thick and a bit streaky, so I used three coats to try to even it out but still ended up with some streaks.

Bangle Jangle will be a nice option for a lavender that doesn’t feel out of place in January.  It kind of reminds me of storms and heavy winter skies.

 

Since they seemed so close, I compared Cocktail Bling and Bangle Jangle.  In the picture below, Bangle Jangle is on my index and middle fingers and Cocktail Bling is on my ring and pinky.  When they’re side by side the differences are noticeable-Bangle Jangle is clearly more purple.  But they also look pretty similar; if you squint, they could almost be the same color.  It’s kind of weird they’re so close.  I think on me I’m liking Cocktail Bling best out of the two.

 

I also compared to Zoya’s Caitlin, which came out in Spring 2011.  Bangle Jangle is on my index and middle fingers and Caitlin is on my ring and pinky.  Caitlin is deeper and looks so vibrant and flowery next to the coldness of Bangle Jangle.

 

Brooch the Subject is a tan nude.  I was a little disappointed because the promotional pictures made it look yellowy, like it had a funny buttery tone, but on the nail this just looks like beige.  The formula was nice and it only took two coats for opacity.   Brooch the Subject seems just a bit off on my skintone-it made my fingers look redder.  I’m thinking it might work better a bit further into the fall and winter, when my skin loses more of its color.

 

I compared to Dior’s Safari Beige, which is itself just slightly darker than my skintone.  Brooch the Subject is on my index and middle fingers and Safari Beige is on my ring and pinky.  Brooch the Subject seems to have more grey and maybe a bit more green in it; Safari Beige is a slightly peach tan, very neutral.  Safari Beige is just so pretty!  It seems more flattering, at least on me.

 

The Cocktail Bling collection was available in salons before the drugstores like Walgreens and Target when I bought these first three, but I did finally just see a small display in Walgreens today.  The display only had four of the six colors, though – it was missing Bangle Jangle and Brooch the Subject.  On closer inspection I decided that I liked School of Hard Rocks more than I thought I did, so it came home with me too – look for an upcoming post on it!