Essie 2013 Wedding Collection Comparisons

As promised yesterday, I am here today with the comparisons I did for the colors in this year's Essie bridal collection. I wasn't necessarily on a dupe hunt with these, just looking to see how they matched up with similar shades, either ones out now from other brands or ones Essie released in previous collections or in one case a favorite from my Top 20 list for last year.

First up, I have No Baggage Please with two other recently released pinks, Nicole by OPI How Fairy Nice of You from the Tinkerbell collection and Sally Hansen Xtreme Wear Berry Juicy from the latest display out for that line. Now, I do realize that the Essie here is a shimmer and the other two are cremes, but the shimmer in No Baggage Please is on the subtle side and the two creme pinks were the closest hues I had in my swatching box so I went ahead.



The NOPI is a warmer toned pink than the other two. The Sally Hansen is a touch lighter than the Essie but similarly cool toned. Left to right below: No Baggage Please, How Fairy Nice of You, Berry Juicy. All of them were three coats, though Berry Juicy was so well behaved, especially for a pastel, that I probably could have done two of that one. (As an aside, I think Berry Juicy is misnamed—I'd say most people have an idea in their head of what berry juice looks like, and it's not a pink this pale. I get that they were going for a fruit/food theme with the names but at least try to make them reasonable. I would have gone with Strawberry Creme for this one.)



There's no shortage of pale warm purples from Essie; I only had to go back to Spring 2013 to find Go Ginza to compare with Meet Me at the Altar. Again, it's a subtle shimmer versus creme situation.



Meet Me at the Altar is a bit warmer toned than Go Ginza. Left to right below: Meet Me, Ginza, Meet Me, Ginza. I used three coats of Meet Me and two of Go Ginza.



I knew right away which polish I wanted to pull to compare to Using My Maiden Name—She's Picture Perfect from the Essie 2012 Resort collection was also a blue violet with subtle pink shimmer.



Using My Maiden Name is closer to the purple and vibrant side of perwinkle than She's Picture Perfect, which is more blue and even a touch dusty in hue. Left to right below: Maiden Name, Picture Perfect, Maiden Name, Picture Perfect. Both were three coats.



For My Better Half, I grabbed Orly Preamp from their fall 2012 Electronica collection (and my 2012 Top 20) and Essie Madison Ave-Hue from Spring 2013.




These are all shimmers but range from very subtle to more flashy. The Orly has an orange-y pink microflakie shimmer that pops against the purpley pink base color. My Better Half has a very low key pearlescent shimmer. Madison Ave-Hue has scattered white/silver flecks, similar to No Baggage Please and Meet Me at the Altar but a bit more visible due to the darker base color. Left to right below: Preamp, My Better Half, Madison Ave-Hue.



If I'd looked harder, maybe I could have found some dupes for these Wedding collection colors in the depths of my stash, but I'm coming around to the mindset that it's more useful to see how current polishes compare to fairly recent colors than discovering that a polish out now is an exact match for some Maybelline color from the 80s. Maybe this is the first step to me letting go of some of those older polishes. I've got to start letting go of something, that's for sure, given that my Helmers are overflowing. You can use the comments section to let me know what you find helpful in comparisons.