Essie Winter 2010 Collection Swatches and Review

This is the very first Essie mini cube that I have ever purchased. I always thought they were a bit silly to get when you can get full bottles. A mini cube costs about $17 while one full sized bottle costs $10 around me. My ever-expanding nail polish collection is getting out of control and my favourite Amazon nail polish seller has mini sets for $9-10 so it just makes sense to get these. It's a nice way to sample a couple of the colours and if you like them a lot then buy a full bottle or two. I was planning on getting the Fall 2010 collection (especially for Sew Psyched) but I got to this one first.

Actually I am really impressed in Essie's mini cube, the bottles are still engraved with the "essie" name and they are so cute. Plus, unlike OPI mini's these ones have the names on the bottom, the brushes seem the same size and they have balls in the bottles too! The little box is super cute too and great for storing. I think I will be purchasing mini sets from now on! Anyway, this collection is available now in stores, it's the latest from Essie, it comes with 6 colours and I have 4 of them here: Silken Cord, Hot Coco, Masquerade Belle and Going Incognito. The other colours are Smokin' Hot (this one looks great I wish it was included) and Luxedo.

Silken Cord is an intense red, not as intense as it appears here though which is a bit blinding! It's a maraschino cherry red, it's very vibrant and I am surprised that I like this one as much as I do. It takes 2 coats, but really smooth on the first coat too. You could do with one coat on this one, which is great. This one doesn't make me think of winter, and it can be worn year round.

Hot Coco is like a warm, pale taupey brown colour, like a chocolate bar colour. A brown shade was expected in this collection. The shade in the picture is appearing darker than it's true colour. This one is quite similar to OPI You Don't Know Jacques.

These two are similar, Essie Hot Coco is a warm brown while OPI You Don't Know Jacques is a gray brown. Please ignore my super dry finger when I do swatch after swatch my hands get really dried out. This swatch is more true to life.

Masquerade Belle is vampy red with a jelly finish. This one was quite thin and took 3 coats, the first coat being very thin. It's really pretty, but can be problematic in application.

Going Incognito was the colour that first attracted me to this collection, I love greens and this one is vibrant and gorgeous. It's a jelly finish as well. This one is a quite dark emerald green, takes 2 coats.

I have compared Going Incognito to OPI Jade is the New Black, which I thought was similar, but nah the Essie is a much darker forest green. My bottle of Jade is the New Black is separating all weird, in the top on the right of the bottle they always look the same.

Did you pick up any polishes from this collection?