I was to apologize for the nice hot minute it’s been since I’ve posted. I’m right in the middle of my senior year of college (dear god I have to be an adult soon) and that’s terrifying. I just finished a big project (today!) so that’s why this post has just been waiting in the background and it’s been so long since you’ve heard from me. But don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere!

Now, it’s no secret that OPI is my one great love in the nail polish world. And that’s right, I was an OPI snob. Before this blog, I owned about 8 Essie shades in total, compared to the 30-something of OPI I had collected over the years. I don’t know why, I just didn’t lean towards Essie that much.

But I’m working to even the gap! I am a polish-opportunist. Any and all brands are open to my trial, and it starts now.

Essie put out a beautiful fall collection out now, and as I began to see photos of it, I knew I had to have them all (and of course I knew I had to swatch them for you guys). I picked them up from TransDesign.

This collection is based on Japan, and there are 6 colors in this collection. (Spoiler: I love them all).

Let’s get into the swatches. And at the very end, after them all, I have comparisons on a couple colors as well!

‘Go Go Geisha’ is a dusty rose pink cream. This one has an absolutely beautiful formula, taking only 2 coats to be opaque. It’s just thick enough to be so easy to control and apply on the nail.

‘Udon Know Me’ is a dusty sky blue cream shade. Another beautiful formula, same as the one above – only 2 coats to opaque.

‘Now and Zen’ is another dusty color (take shots for when I say dusty). This one is a slightly blue toned gray cream. This can be a one coat wonder – one thicker coat and you’re done. I did two here for good measure, but in a hurry, slather on one and love your nails.

‘Playing Koi’ is the one of the collection everyone is going crazy for, and honestly I understand. This is such a unique, yet so quintessential autumn color. It’s a bright burnt orange crelly. This took 2 coats to be opaque – but as you can see on my ring finger, depending on your application, the color can range from a more burnt orange, to more straight orange when thinner. With a crelly, just make sure to smooth out any uneven patches when applying. It’s still a nice, easy to control formula. It looks like the autumn leaves in a bottle.

‘Maki Me Happy’ is a traditional dark “holiday” red shade. This is another crelly formula – however with the color, it’s a more pigmented formula – and needed only 2 coats to be fully opaque and even on all fingers.

‘Kimono-Over’ is a deep, dark vampy purple cream. This is a thinner formula – still pigmented, it just likes to run down the brush, so make sure to wipe it off extra during application. This one was almost opaque in one – there were just a few uneven patches that I needed two coats to cover. In indirect lighting, this is one of those shades that can look black. Absolutely gorgeous traditional fall shade.

And now for two comparisons! I have a couple comparisons down below that I had to pull out. These aren’t exact dupes – just to give ideas of the color.

First, I compared ‘Go Go Geisha’ to OPI’s ‘Don’t Bossa Nova Me Around’ from the Brazil collection. ‘Geisha’ is on my pointer and ring fingers, while ‘Bossa’ is on my middle and pinky fingers. As you can see ‘Go Go Geisha’ has more pink-rose tones to it, and is a little darker.

The other comparison I had is ‘Playing Koi’ to OPI’s ‘It’s a Piazza Cake’ from the Venice Collection. ‘Koi’ is on the pointer and ring finger while ‘Piazza’ is on the middle and pinky fingers. As you can see, the tone is the same but ‘Playing Koi’ is much darker than ‘It’s a Piazza Cake’. 50 shades of burnt orange.

Overall, I love this collection. It has some untraditional fall colors, but all 6 seem to go together so cohesively. They all just work in some way. And they all for some reason make me feel like a classy lady who can strike fear in my employees because they respect me so much. It’s there, trust me.

The formulas are all beautiful as well, all only needing 2 coats to be opaque. Look for this collection in your stores now!

Are you picking up any shades from this collection?

Be on the look out for my post on the Sinful Colors Halloween collection coming up soon as well!