Good morning everyone, and happy Monday. Usually I have Mondays off but I have to work tonight. I’m almost to a day off. I’m so close. I’m just waiting for Wednesday at this point. Guh, I’m so burned out. But this Essie polish kind of makes me feel a bit better. Sorry that the cuticles on my ring finger look dirty. I was just grinding espresso and I guess I wasn’t able to wash all of it off my hands. Stupid macro setting. Anyway, this is Haute As Hello from Essie Summer 2010. It’s the last polish that came in my set of minis and the one I was most anxious to try. I can’t tell you that I don’t really like this color. For some reason coral doesn’t come to mind as a descriptor. This looks like more of a neon melon color; cantaloupe? Either way, it’s pretty. The problem with this is that it’s so stark. It’s a huge pop of color. The reason I normally love corals so much is because the color is usually quite soft while at the same time being decidedly bright. Does that even make sense? Haute As Hello is not soft. I guess I’m really bad at describing things today. Sorry. The formula was…not good. I was expecting that. It had a really similar formula to Knockout Pout; very thick and, for me, difficult to get even. I used three coats and it still doesn’t look even. Maybe it’s because I have a mini brush in my mini bottle; maybe a full-sized brush would make application easier. I really don’t know. Like Knockout Pout, it dries to a satin finish and needs topcoat to look shiny. I think Haute As Hello would make a fun pedicure color for summertime. I’ve been really into wearing neutrals on my toesies, though. I was wearing RBL Grunge on them for a couple weeks (it wore like iron, of course) and I just switched the polish to Essie Marshmallow last night. I think my toes need a neutral for now because the sandals I wear are so ridiculous and strappy and metal-studded. I don’t need a loud polish to distract from them. Oops, sorry. I totally got distracted by shoes. Would I buy a full-sized bottle of Haute As Hello? I don’t know. I do really love the color. It kind of reminds me of the neon orange often found on ridiculous 90s clothes (see Saved By the Bell). That’s the end of my Essie Summer 2010 mini set. Wrap-up! Just to remind you, the four colors included in the mini set are: Haute As Hello, Knockout Pout, Demure Vixen and Pretty Edgy. The other two colors not included in the set are Miss Matched, a sheer pinkish purple that looks really dupey to Essie Minimalistic, which is part of the permanent collection, and Vermillionaire, a bright orange-red. You can click on the names of the polishes to take you to my posts about them. Based on these four polishes my favorite polish of the collection is Demure Vixen. It’s truly unique and completely lovely as an edgy neutral. That’s the only polish out of the four included in the set that I’d consider purchasing a full-sized bottle of. Ew, I ended a sentence with a preposition and I’m too lazy to change the grammar yet I’m not too lazy to type out this sentence about my bad grammar. Go figure. God, I’m distracted so easily today. I need to stop typing now or else I could just go on forever about prepositions and polish. We don’t want that. Tell me, which polishes from Essie Summer 2010 did you pick up? Which ones underwhelmed you and which ones blew you away? Oh, before I go, Essie is buy 2 get 1 free at Ulta this week… 🙂 Also, enter my haiku contest if you haven’t yet. I’m giving away at least one bottle of Hidden Treasure, so throw your hat in the ring!