Scenes from Cosmoprof – A Look At Essie Holiday & Winter 2011
I recently attended the Cosmoprof North America business to business beauty trade show in Las Vegas and, as always, it was completely overwhelming, in a good way. Imagine an enormous convention center filled with rows upon rows of beauty brands, manufacturers, packaging companies, etc. debuting their latest products and innovations. I didn’t know which way to go first.
In years past I haven’t made it to the Essie booth. In part because they make it look so secretive with the surrounding walls. This year however, I met the adorable and charming Dominic and Melissa who took me on a tour of the upcoming Winter & Holiday 2011 collections. Sadly, Essie was not at the show this year but I’m sure I’ll run into her in a few weeks during New York Fashion Week.
Dominic, by the way, told me he reads my blog (so flattering) and when I playfully questioned him, he replied, “I know that you store your nail polish in IKEA Helmers!” How cute is that?!?
Let’s check out what Essie is bringing to the nail polish party in the upcoming months including some hints about SPRING!
First up, the Essie Cocktail Bling nail polish collection for Winter 2011. These gemstone and jewelry inspired colors have a little something for everyone, including a new GREEN and TEAL! Get excited.
The shades (l-r): Cocktail Bling, Brooch The Subject, Bangle Jangle, School of Hard Rocks, Size Matters, Bobbing for Baubles
Melissa from Essie happened to be wearing School of Hard Rocks on her nails and let me snap a shot of it. It’s even more gorg in person.
The Essie Luxeffects collection for Holiday 2011 is comprised of glitter effect top coats of varying sizes and textures. There are chunky glitters, more refined sparkles and even a FLAKIE!
I didn’t catch all the names but the gold is As Gold As It Gets and the flakie is Shine of the Times (3rd from left).
Also, three of the retail exclusive shades are being brought over to the salon side. They will be re-promoted along with three core Essie colors, including Sexy Divide and Over The Top. The three retail shades are: Dive Bar, Trophy Wife and Jamaica Me Crazy.
Finally, Dominic let it slip that the Essie Spring 2012 collection had just landed on his desk before flying to Vegas. We were discussing how Essie continues to step outside of the classics/neutrals corner we tend to paint her into. I mentioned how unexpected the neons in Fall 2009 were (Pink Parka, Bright Tights) when he shared that the Spring 2012 collection is also, “BRIGHT! Like little easter eggs.” If you have pastel hopes and sheer dreams for Essie this spring, you’re going to have to put them on hold.
Okay so which colors are you already drooling over? Does one collection appeal to you more than the others? Do you think Essie should continue making more unusual shades like blues or greens?
Lisa N.
Ms Meatballhead
Birdie
Spa pediccure chairs
Melissa is also wearing School of Hard Rocks on her hand! Holy bling!!!
Haha – I was thinking EXACTLY the same thing!
did you mean for spring 2012?
Oops, I got it right the first time I wrote it. Thanks for pointing that out.
Ooo! Flakies!?!? From Essie? I can’t wait to see it.
*totally wants School of Hard rocks please*
I’m really pleased with the direction Essie has gone. It seems like the purchase has not only improved the formula, but has emboldened them to step out of the safe box and I hope they continue to do so!
Nice!!
Looking forward to the Essie topcoats!
I’m already sold on School of Hard Rocks.
I love the new retail polishes! Dive bar looks gorgeous. I’m glad their introducing brighter shades and fully support their quest for more blues and greens.
I admit to never really owning any Essie polish. The neutrals just never excited me enough to buy, for years I focused only on pedicures. Recently, within the last slightly less than 8 weeks ago, I stopped biting my fingernails (thanks for the inspiration ALU!) and have bought polishes for both hands and feet. Essie has tempted me a few times, particularly with the summer collection.
Looking forward, Dive Bar is very hot, I really like all of those colors and intend to buy my first Essie out of that collection. Also flakies is a super edition, I will definitely buy that topcoat.
Lastly, I think it’s a smart business move to innovate & expand their color selections. High users are probably more likely to buy exciting colors, it’s got to be good for sales.
I am loving Essie’s new direction! Can;t wait for the Luxeffect top coats.
I am going to need to start storing all my polish in Helmers too between the new OPI collection and this winter Essie collection on top of my shoeboxes I already own.
I’m looking forward to the luxeffects the most!
Oooh! School of Hard Rocks and Bobbing for Baubles look like gorgeous winter colours! Definatly keeping my eye out for those!
omg there isn’t a polish I don’t want
School of hard rocks, dive bar, trophy wife are my must haves!
Love the blog! Since you’re in my neck of the woods thought I’d tell you there’s an ULTA opening at Mayfield and SOM. But I’m sure you already knew that!
LOVE!
I’m liking it all. The jewel toned ones will look great in the fall.
the Winter collection and Cocktail really have me excited – but then Dive Bar (those that I don’t have already out of it) will be fun to pick up. They all look so pretty in their little white caps, fit well into bulk storage (better than other bottles I find). I am getting more and more Essie now that I have retail access…need to visit a salon shop that has those versions so I can see what I am missing as I am now really getting the names on Essie down which never thought would happen until of course it went retail. I cannot wait for really every collection. Fall already out, I bought all but 1, I got all of everything pretty much since French collection this spring. I am thrilled with the availability esp from a lady who lives in the major boonies! I need to see the shades and on line swatches, not just bad color chips and bottle shots to know what I want to buy.
When will these be available?
Dive Bar looks pretty neat, thanks for sharing
GLITTER!!!!!
I freaking love that Essie has been creating bolder shades recently. I never even looked that closely at Essie until the past year-ish because 99% of the bottles on the salon wall were red, pink, pink, sheer, beige, red, or beige. Blah!
And I’m not sure what it is about the bottle itself, but it somehow makes the polishes look a *lot* more blah and dull than they look on the nail. In fact, I only started really payig attention to Essie after a mani/pedi where my chatty nail lady RAVED about a color. She showed me the bottle and I thought it was just another burgundyish shade with shimmer. Whoop de do. Only after you got the polish out of that dang bottle did you see how rich the color was. Maybe it’s the tallish rectangle shape that prohibits either a nice WIDE expanse of color (a la Rescue Beauty) or the subtleties highlighted by light (shown at the curve of rounded bottles).
But yes, keep up the fun colors, Essie!
Dive Bar and Luxe Effects. I hope they’ll have them in my area. THe only places that carry Essie now are Walmart and Walgreens, but I’m hopeful. And holy bling, baby!!!
You may want to check at Target, too. The Targets in my area all carry Essie now!
Ohhh! I am so excitet do see so much new formula by essie! I am sure that everybody will love it. Bravo!
I see some amazing colors!
Those are some awesome awesome colors! I cant wait until they come out!! So excited =))
“School of Hard Rocks” – gowachusss!
I’m not gonna lie. I love pinks and reds. Essie has so many of them, though, that they all start looking alike in the bottle. So I stand there frozen in the glare of the store’s fluorescent lighting, trying to make a decision about which one to take home…and invariably I choose none and go home empty-handed.
I love all of the collections! I love how Essie has changed their image a bit over the last couple of years! I hope they continue on this route! I absolutely love their current Brand New Bag collection too, I think Very Structured will be an AW must have!
The holiday & spring collections look gorgeous!
I really love Essie as a brand, and always get 1-2 polishes from every collection that comes out (I think it’s very loyal from a non-blogging girl like me!)
Ahh, can’t wait for the top coats already!!
OMG the glitters have me sooo excited for the end of the year
I think I want about every single color featured in this post lol
Very good stuff! Im liking all the colors. Here I go. Shopping again!
These colours are gorgeous! Thank you so much for sharing!
I’M SO EXCITED.
Sorry, had to put that in all caps.
I cannot wait to see the topcoat collection. I love how Essie is finally starting to get colors to make me interested (only color by them I ever really LOVED before was Wicked). Way to go Essie…i cannot wait for the info to be released about the topcoats…i’m already drooling
I love these Essie nail polishes. Especially the glitters. Even though glitter nail polish is a pain getting off, I love them!!!
Way super most excited for the flakie!!!
I’m excited about the flakie, Shine of the Times! That’s going to be pretty cool.
These all look amazing… Super excited for the flakes!!!
The last collection there look amazing! Which is great to me since I have not been a fan of Essie from what I saw on their site.
what was that other color next to dive bar???
I’ll keep an eye on the red Size Matters, but will wait for swatches first. The cocktail bling collection preview really does nothing to me!
And I MUST get the Luxeffects purple flakie!!!!!!!
In your third picture, I actually love the purple and the teal colours…
If they’re all cremes, which it looks like from the photo, I would wear all the Cocktail Bling shades but the red one…I just don’t do reds anymore. Nice, wearable shades. Luxeffects and Dive Bar aren’t my speed.
What is the name of the purple-ish color in the collection with Dive Bar?
Oh that’s Sexy Divide
Ohmygod ohmygod all of those glitter topcoats will need to be MINE! I also like some of the Winter shades. Also, when is that Dive Bar collection coming out? This is so exciting to see because I really haven’t been all that thrilled with the fall colors from Essie.
can’t wait for the flakie!
Ever since resort 2010 Essie has had my attention. I’ve been buying up its collections like a fiend! And this post just solidified the trend. I want every shade!
For the winter shades they look like smokey creme jewel tones which is amazing! I also and SUPER excited for the luxe effects! I can just picture that gold over a classic Essie red for a great holiday mani. Those retail exclusive shades get me so excited too! I want them all NOW! I guess I’ll just have to settle for painting my nails super boss nova from the summer collection. (which your smooth sailing post motivated me to buy the entire collection!)
PS: Would LOVE to see an entire Essie Fall 2011 collection swatch post
School of Hard Rocks turns me on.
Would you be so kind as to make a side-by-side of CG Concrete Walk and Essie School of Hard Rocks, please?
Thanks.
I don’t have School of Hard Rocks to do a comparison
FINALLY! Yellows! I’ve been wondering when Essie would come out with some shades of yellow.
Maybe you can explain the difference between the retail and salon formulas? I LOVE the collections that are available everywhere these days, but every time I’ve tried to bring one into a salon, the manicurist/nail techs have had problems with the formulas. They don’t apply the same as the salon formula, and one manicurist even just gave me a bottle of polish from her own collection because the one I brought looked horrible on. Someone please explain!! And can mere mortals actually buy the salon formulas somewhere?
From what I understand, the formula of the salon and retail is the same. I highly doubt Essie would bother with the costs of reformulating the same colors into a consumer formula. To be frank, I think your manicurist is full of it. The only difference is the labeling on the bottles. Though to answer your question, lots of salons sell the salon bottles including chains like Trade Secret and ULTA.
Love Essie!! They keep knocking it out of the park. I can’t wait until these come out.
I’ve gotten so hooked on nail polish in the last 2 years. It’s crazy. I wait for these collections like it’s Fashion Week.
I can’t wait!!
Holy. Moly.
That luxeffects collection looks to DIE for!!!
*shimmer swoon*
Omggg when are these out I neeed at least 5 of them D:D
I’m loving the Dive Bar collection, especially the gold one… Wonder if I can get it in time for Christmas…
OMG WHEN DOES THIS COME OUT! like exact date??? im seriously going to die if its not till like january of 2012 soon please!
I LOVE School of Hard Rocks and Cocktail Bling! Can’t wait to see what’s next!!
Yay! Finally got School of Hard Rocks
It came out in the UK this week.
It’s my first green polish ever! I totally love it. It doesn’t do any of that red chapped hands look that blues seem to do on me.
Thanks for getting me addicted to the blog by the way! LOL.
P.S. Luxeffects is not out for another THREE weeks over here! Boo!
Does any body know exactly when the luxeffects will be released for sale in salons?
Whats the name of the gold polish next to dive bar???