Thursday, November 20, 2014

Essie Sew Psyched

Sew Psyched was released by Essie as part of the Fall into Fashion collection for fall 2010. It's officially described as "a cashmere-soft sage pewter." Come again? Sew Psyched is above all a green polish. It's a beautiful medium-light laurel green, sort of a muted grey-cast olive, very soft (ok, yes, like cashmere), with a mist of ultrafine secret shimmers in silver. In truth, these shimmers don't really qualify as "secret" because you can actually see them on the nail if you look closely. Mostly what you notice is the sort of dreamy, soft focus effect they bring to the polish.

Application was great. The consistency of Sew Psyched has a touch more body to it than the classic fluid, smooth Essie formula, but it goes on just as nicely with a creamy glide over the nail. It self-levels to a point, but I would have had to use three coats to completely disguise my ridges to my liking and coverage-wise there was no need. This is a very well-pigmented polish that is nearly opaque in one medium coat, but two coats are best. Aren't two coat always best? Anyway, cleanup is easy and straightforward and Sew Psyched dries naturally in good time to a shade that is a tick or two darker than bottle color with glossy finish, very nice!

Photos show two coats of Sew Psyched over Seche Rebuild treatment and Pretty Serious All Your Base basecoat with a somewhat bubbly topcoat of Seche Vite.


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched


Essie So Psyched

This one had been on my wishlist for the longest time but then I took it off for some ephemeral reason that escapes me now. It went back on there after I came across photos of it not too long ago while reading reviews for some other Essies. I found it for $5.77 BIN with free shipping on ebay from this seller (excellent, boxes items to ship, immediate turnaround). To my delight, it came in an old school embossed Essie bottle with the similarly embossed "e" on the cap. I love Essie's bottles despite the quandary they present to my detail-obsessive self in photos with the bottle. This is the first post where I've used my go-to swatcher left hand to hold the bottle for this pose, with the resulting upside-down logo. I took pics with both hands and the left hand won out so decisively that the upside-down logo didn't matter... much. Ok, it still bothers me a little bit. What can I say?

I love Sew Psyched, it's a perfect lighter color for fall and just exactly what I was in the mood for. I think the silver shimmer is a genius touch, and makes it a lot more special than my other camo-type green, American Apparel Army Jacket. Essie has put out several of my favorite grey-muddled green and blue cremes, like the gorgeous flannel-soft School of Hard Rocks and the more dramatic oceanic Go Overboard. Sew Psyched is lighter than those two, but in my mind they're all part of the same clique of classy, unusual colors for fall. 

love,
Liz

3 comments:

  1. Don't you just love it when your picture plans go awry? I am right-handed but consistently have to take pics of my right hand (complete with severely arthritic middle finger) because I have a nail on my left hand that breaks, flakes, and shreds on a regular basis. But enough about me! This polish...yeah. Don't get me wrong, this Essie formula looks impeccable for Essie, and the shimmer is great. But I just don't know if I wear something of this particular hue of green. It's so...not blue undertoned, LOL. I had Zoya Yara and gave it away for being too pukey-olive, but everybody else loves it. So it's just me. Carry on, Sew Psyched.

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    1. I've never noticed the arthritis in that finger in your photos, Melissa. You're hand poses don't show it that I can see. People are looking at the polish anyway, at least that's what I look at when I read reviews. Notice: read! I guess if I wanted to see only photos I would buy a smart phone and spend all my time looking at instagram (which would be a silly reason to buy a smart phone). The problem I most often have with my photos is seeing that little bit of polish on the cuticle or whatnot that I missed during cleanup, it never fails to happen. I used to go back, clean it up, and retake the photos. *lol* Not so much anymore, though I've been known to fiddle with photoshop and remove offending swipage. Sssh, don't tell anyone!

      I take pictures of both hands, but only a few of the right one. It has the best thumb nail of the two. Oh the minutiae of the polish blogger! Next topic, how does one select the next polish to blog about -- film at eleven. ;)

      I don't have Yara, but I've got Gemma, which is kinda like Sew Psyched but with less grey and more of a blue-ish shimmer. I wouldn't wear this kind of color in clothing (not near my face, in any case... I'd wear pants this color), but on my nails anything goes. Except yellow and camel/tan, which has yellow in it. I just can't seem to cotton to yellow on my nails.

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  2. "I've never noticed the arthritis in that finger in your photos..." = Smoke and mirrors!! :D

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