Essie Vermillionaire

If there's a color I've neglected even worse than pink, it's ORANGE.  I don't know why, but for some reason I've just always passed over orange polishes as "something I wouldn't wear" or something that's "not my style."  Famous last words, right?  ;-)

I was done for as soon as I saw Piff's swatch of Deborah Lippmann Lara's Theme on Polish or Perish.  I don't think any polish could look bad on her!  The lemming monster got me, and I was just about to shell out the $16 for it, when she posted a follow-up post identifying Essie Vermillionaire as a pretty darn close dupe.  Close enough!  I ran to my local beauty supply store and brought it home.

Vermillionaire is bright orange creme.  It's not a neon, so don't worry about it being too obnoxious.  It dries a smidge darker than the bottle color, and leans to the red side of orange (Just for funsies:  Vermilion is a red-orange pigment, hence the goofy name).  I'd say the last photo is the most color-accurate.  Application was perfect in two coats, and as expected from Essie, it's got that kind of squishy look to it.  After the fiasco that was Essie Sexy Divide, I was a little worried about the wear on this one.  No worries - I wore this for five days and had only minimal tip wear.  Woo-hoo!

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I'm not usually an orange fan, but holy cow - I LOVE this!  Love love love love LOVE!  It's a perfect summery orange.  Makes me wanna go eat a tangerine or something.  Bright enough for a good pedi (which is how I wore this the first time and was sad to take it off), but muted enough for me to wear it to work and not feel weird.  I wore it over the weekend when the hubby and I went to go see a play this weekend with my parents.  I paired it with this dress, and it was a match made in heaven!

Vermillionaire was released with Essie's Summer 2010 collection, but I'm pretty sure it's made its way to the core lineup.  I highly recommend it (especially if you're even remotely interested in Lara's Theme), even if you're not typically into orange.  I think this one may sway you!  It sure stole my heart!  :-)