Today’s drawer is where I keep my modest little Essie collection, my Icings, My Claire’s and my BB Couture stash. I thought my Essie stash was larger but what I have only takes up a few rows in the Helmer drawer. I found some interesting polishes in this lot, and a few that I had completely forgotten that I owned.

Click Swatch For Larger Pic

36. Essie Viva La Vespa
YEAR: 2003
AVAILABILITY: VHTF

I’m guestimating on the year here, but I can’t find any reviews or info on this polish prior to 2003 so I’m thinking that’s the year. Viva La Vespa was inspired by the Vespa paint shade ‘Daring Plum’ and as you can see, it’s something special. Can you believe I bought this on eBay for about eight bucks back when I first started collecting polish? I shudder when I think of all the polishes I let slip by. Thankfully this gorgeous purple wasn’t one of them.

Click Swatch For Larger Pic

37. Essie Ruby Slippers
YEAR: 2005 or earlier
AVAILABILITY: VHTF

The second Essie I have selected today is the beautiful Ruby Slippers. I own a bunch of colours inspired by Dorothy’s iconic heels and they’re all completely different. China Glaze have Ruby Pumps, which is a much finer glitter, while Color Clubs Ruby Slippers is slightly larger than that. The Essie pictured here has the largest glitter particle size of all three. It’s quite chunky and dries a little bit bumpy, but add a good topcoat and this gal sparkles like no other.

Click Swatch For Larger Pic

38. Claire’s Envy
YEAR: 2007
AVAILABILITY: Discontinued

Oh Envy, you cheeky, misleading little polish. I picked this out of my Claire’s collection (considering how hard to source that these are for me I was surprised at how many I have) because I remember that I loved the colour. What I didn’t remember is how thin the formula is! My swatch is six coats. I wonder if it’s gone funny with age because I don’t remember it being so difficult to work with. Gorgeous, but painful.

Click Swatch For Larger Pic

39. BB Couture Grenade
YEAR: 2009
AVAILABILITY: Available

I only have a handful of BB Couture (ten or so?) and as much as I love the colours I tend to ave issues with the formula. They streak, bubble or patch on my nails and I have no idea why. I’ve seen plenty of other people do amazing manicures with these polishes but for some reason they just play up on me. The colours though? Amazing. Grenade is one of my faves from their “mens” line (I’ll wear ‘em anyway!). You can still buy this colour from Overall Beauty.

Click Swatch For Larger Pic

40. Icing Blue on Black
YEAR:
AVAILABILITY: HTF

My final shade for today is one of my Icings – Blue on Black, which is quite possibly the most misleading name ever considering it isn’t black at all. It’s a weird kind of blurple with an aqua shimmer and tiny gold holographic flecks. It’s an oddball of a polish, but there’s something endearing about it. I don’t own a lot of Icing (once again, hard to source) but this is one of the few that I own that isn’t green!