Essie Da Bush was released in late spring/early summer as part of the Essie Resort 2011 collection. Shortly after its launch I kept hearing raves for the color that left me staring at my bottle, thinking, “What the eff??” What’s with all the hype over this bland looking, neutral grey/green/cream concoction.

I’m all for odd colors but in the bottle, Da Bush, did nothing fore me. Even the name turned me off. So all this time it’s sat in one of my untrieds bin, taunting me. I could almost hear it saying, “Just give in. You know you’re going to love me.” Well, we’ll just see about that!

When Chanel Riva came out this past spring, I was less than thrilled with it. The sheerness, the lack of sparkle or uniqueness. It just didn’t live up to the Chanel reputation or cost.

When I spotted Sally Hansen Barracuda from the Tracy Reese for Sally Hansen Spring 2011 collection, I immediately thought of Riva and thankfully it comes with a more affordable price tag.

I’ve been on this odd beige neutrals kick lately. It all started with CND Perfectly Bare and Deborah Lippmann’s Naked and now Zoya comes out with the Touch collection, a specialty set of three undertone-matching beige polishes with a subtle shimmer.

Zoya Nail Polish presents 3 new, full coverage nude creams – softly kissed with a bit of metallic to make them ultra wearable.

It’s so not my color personality but there’s just something about wearing a full coverage neutral that feels so fresh and clean in this sticky summer heat. I honestly don’t know what’s become of me but I don’t see this trend of mine dying off anytime soon.

As much as I believe that you never get the whole nail polish story until you see the juice on the nail, I love looking at bottle images. One of my favorite things about scrolling through Tumblr posts is when I stumble across a great bottle shot. So I started photographing my collection, in bottles, by brand, with the intention of eventually posting them in my gallery.

FYI, my gallery hasn’t allowed me to upload photos for a year and that’s why it isn’t updated. I haven’t found a fix or a better gallery solution which is why it remains unchanged since April 2010. It’s not that I’m neglecting it.

Anyway, I decided to start with Chanel, going color drawer by color drawer though my Helmers. I’ll be posting the pics on my Tumblr in the meantime so if you want to follow along, subscribe to my account over there.

I started with my white, black, gray and silver drawers and that inspired me to finally try Chanel Pearl Drop. Pearl Drop seemed to be the forgotten child in the Spring 2011 collection as Black Pearl garnered all the buzz so I was curious to see if it would end up being a sleeper hit.

Let’s kick off the week with my “lesson learned” moment Fanatics! When I started this 365 project I told myself I wouldn’t do any posts in advance unless I was going to be out of town. I wanted it to be as organic as possible and show you my untrieds selections as the mood struck me. The whole point was to challenge myself to post a new polish swatch and review every day.

Well when I became sick this weekend, it threw a wrench in the plan. I actually slept until 2pm today. CRAZY! So in case of emergency I’m going to put a couple posts in the hopper should this issue arise again. I learned my lesson and will add a couple days to the 365 to make up for it. Though there’s no point in dwelling on what I can’t fix so let’s just move forward, shall we?

I had the good fortune to attend the Tracy Reese Spring 2011 RTW runway show which had a 70s chic, jetsetter-on-safari kind of vibe. Mixed in with the graphic prints, black & white basics and sandy neutrals were pops of lavender, blue and coral. Tracy pulled inspiration from her fabrics when it came time to collaborate with her longtime partner-in-polish Sally Hansen. Of the seven shades in the collection, Sally Hansen Coral Fever really piqued my interest.