Essie’s Summer 2012 Collection is already out in stores, and the most sought-after polish from this collection appears to be the light blue, Bikini So Teeny – it’s been sold out of most of the displays I’ve seen. I found a bottle this week at an out of the way Walgreens and compared it to Chanel’s Coco Blue. Swatches below!
Bikini So Teeny is a light blue that has a hint of periwinkle purple, so it’s very cool-toned. When I picked it up in the store I wasn’t convinced I needed it yet, but it also has a faint silvery shimmer that won me over. I was kind of excited to see it because it’s the polish in the promo image for this collection, but all of the displays I had seen were sold out of the row of Bikini So Teeny.
Maybe I set myself up for it, but I have to say that I was pretty disappointed with this polish when I swatched it. It has a very watery/runny formula, and went on very faint and streaky. I needed three really careful coats to get the pictures below, and in person my nails still had a few streaky parts. I found it even harder to work with than Chanel’s infamous Riva, which at least has a unique color payoff and is intended to be a bit sheer. The pigmentation in Bikini So Teeny was just lacking. Despite this, the shimmer doesn’t translate into the nail at all, so it just looked like a regular creme. There have been a lot of light blues over the last few years from top brands like Dior and Chanel, and all of them are way better than Bikini So Teeny. The slight hint of purple in Bikini So Teeny would be kind of interesting if the formula were just a little easier to work with, but as it is it’s not worth it.
I tried another angle to attempt to catch the silver shimmer, but it’s just hiding in there.
I compared to Chanel’s Coco Blue, which I remembered being very cool and a bit icy. In the picture below, Bikini So Teeny is on my index and middle fingers and Coco Blue is on my ring and pinky fingers. I used three coats of each to compare. When they’re side by side, you can see that these polishes aren’t actually that close – Coco Blue suddenly looks like it has yellow or green undertones, and Bikini So Teeny is powdery and lighter. Coco Blue has a beautiful whitish shimmer that really comes out in the sun, and applied much better, thin but easy to control and not streaky. Coco Blue is the clear winner here. I didn’t need Bikini So Teeny after all.
I’ve seen a full six-polish display of Essie’s entire Summer 2012 Collection out at Target, and a small four-polish display at drugstores like Walgreens and RiteAid. As I mentioned, most of the displays were sold out of Bikini So Teeny, which I think made me even more convinced that I needed it.
I love them! But Bikini So Teeny is amazing 🙂
xoxo