Friday, July 29, 2011

Essie St. Barth's Blue

Well, folks, it's a hat trick for Essie this week!  After Sexy Divide (a vampy) and Vermillionaire (a summery bright), I went in one last direction and grabbed something a little more light and airy - St. Barth's Blue.

St. Barth's is super pale, slightly greyed, pastel blue with fine silvery white shimmer.  It's totally a "secret shimmer," as it's much more apparent in the bottle than on the nail.  Essie sure has a thing for these secret shimmers, but I'm not complaining!  :-)  It gives it soft, delicate look.  This is one of those old black label Essies, so it's jam-packed with chemically goodness.  Chemicals + pastel + Essie = 4 coats and a less than admirable application.  It's a bit streaky and doesn't self-level, even with a thick coat of Seche Vite on top.  That being said, with a little bit of work, I think the end result is stunning.

(click to enlarge)
 (click to enlarge)

Another win!  I love this!  Soft, summery, and doesn't even remotely give me lobster hands (That's saying a lot for a pale blue!).  As soon as I saw the early promos for Chanel Riva, I was dying to have it, but the steep price and application horror stories kept me at bay.  I tried to find a suitable dupe in $OPI Havana Dreams.  The application on that one was a complete nightmare and almost brought me to tears. On top of that it was just a bit too vibrant for me.  St. Barth's Blue fills all the gaps for me.  True, it doesn't have stellar application either, but it's workable, and the color is exactly what I wanted.  Take THAT, Riva!  ;-)

A "pale greyed blue with subtle shimmer" may have you thinking of China Glaze Sea Spray.  I did too, so I did a quick comparison of the two:

(L) Essie St. Barth's Blue, (R) China Glaze Sea Spray

Sea Spray is much more saturated, and St. Barth's Blue almost looks white when compared to it.  They're definitely different enough to own both, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do.  :-)

Unfortunately St. Barth's Blue is long gone (HUGE sad!  I'd buy a backup of this!), but you can still find some up for swaps on MUA and probably the occasional eBay listing.  Despite the formula and application problems, I still give it my seal of approval just for being the most completely perfect pastel blue.  ♥ ♥ ♥

Can you tell I'm smitten??  :-D

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