Another Look: Essie Smooth Sailing

A few months ago Jessie showed you guys Essie Smooth Sailing, and her glowing review had me drooling over it, but for some reason I just hadn't pulled the trigger on buying it.  An amazingly generous girl on MUA was nice enough to throw it in as an extra in a swap, so I was dying to try it out!  Jessie and I decided to introduce the "Another Look" posts to give each other the chance to review polishes that the other had already posted, while giving you guys another perspective - and of course, more pictures!  Win for everybody!  :-)

Without further ado...here's my take on Smooth Sailing!

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Smooth Sailing is really a gorgeous polish.  It's brightish, but still somehow muted, which I really like.  The shimmer shows up well, especially in the sun, though unfortunately the silver shimmer tends to drown out the pink and blue.  Application was a bit of a problem for me.  The first coat went on kind of gloopy, but also patchy at the same time.  Kind of like a holo, maybe?  I don't know, but it was strange.  Thankfully, all patchiness was smoothed over by the second coat, and all was well.  :-)

Remember a while back when I said Smooth Sailing might be a good substitute for RBL Catherine H?  Now that I finally had both, I decided to do a comparison to see just how close they were.  GUYS - I finally did an on-the-nail comparison!  LoL I really want to do more of them, it's just that it's so much quicker to do them on the nail wheel.  I promise I'll try to do more on-the-nail for you.  Anywho, check it out:

 Index and Ring:  Essie Smooth Sailing, Middle and Pinky:  RBL Catherine H

Erm...well...looks like I was a bit off.  A lot off.  They're in the same vein, but quite different.  Smooth Sailing is much lighter and brighter than Catherine H, while Catherine H shows off that pink and blue shimmer much better.  In all honesty, even though I was disappointed in that strange cloudiness of Catherine H, I prefer it to Smooth Sailing.  Thankfully all the Queens are coming back, so you'll have a chance to pick that one up in just a few months!

As for Smooth Sailing, it's nice, and I like it, but I really don't love it.  I wanted to love it.  I wanted it to fill that strange void that Catherine H had left, but it fell a bit short.  I can't really explain why (D'oh!), especially since it really is a beautiful polish.  It's certainly worth getting if you don't already own it, but I just can't whole-heartedly get behind it.  It makes me haz a sad.  Now I need some chocolate and glass of wine...

;-)