Essie Poppy-Razzi Collection

I appreciate that Essie releases polishes in smaller collections. It's much easier for me to deal with four or six new colors at a time rather than a dozen (or fourteen, like a certain drugstore brand whose initials are SH just set loose). Poppy-Razzi is a quartet of neons for Summer 2012. These bottles have something I don't remember noticing on other retail Essie bottles—the collection name printed to the left of the brand name. Left to right below: Lights, Camera, Action, Bazooka. (Because sure, in a summer blockbuster movie, that's what comes next after Action: shooting and explosions.)



I was sure I wanted Action (Mr. Karen really likes those sorts of colors), and Camera and Bazooka looked interesting too, so I picked them up when I saw them and because there was only the one other color in the collection, I picked up Lights, too, and that made the part of me that likes to "complete the set" very happy, and because I had CVS extra bucks to cover the cost of the extra bottle it didn't even feel like I was spending real money.

I tried Camera first (because Mr. Karen was out of town so he couldn't appreciate Action just then anyway). Here's three coats, no topcoat. It didn't dry matte like I expect neons to do, so maybe these should be called nearly-neons.



Because there was still a hint of visible nail line, I re-did my middle finger using Sally Hansen Insta Dri in Whirlwind White as a base and my pinky using Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure in Café au Lait as a base. I did three coats of Camera over the white because I dented the second coat; there are two coats over Café au Lait.



Then I did Skittles with all four colors, all over Whirlwind White. Below, top to bottom: Lights, Camera, Action, Bazooka.





These aren't as crazy bright as some neons in my collection, which I think means I might wear them more often. Colors as bright as the sun are fun, but only in small doses, so I tend to save them for my toes, which are under wraps a lot of the time. I could see myself wearing one of these Poppy-Razzi colors to work for a week and not getting tired of it. Well, maybe not Action; that might be a bit too distracting to spend a whole week with.