Friday, August 15, 2008

Elizabeth Arden: the eulogy

Line of Elizabeth Arden polishes has been discontinued about a year ago, I believe. I have no idea why Arden's big shots made this decision. I'm sure, they had their reasons; but so did the Spanish Inquisition. You think I'm overreacting? Well, see for yourself. Formula as smooth as glass, brush is impeccable, wear is great...

What about colors? Well, colors...

Let's start with Vincenza Raspberry. It's an epitome of "pretty": bright pink with sparkly gold flakes. I'm not a sparkly kind of gal, but this is truly pretty. Besides, it's good to wear something really summer-y before we all jump on a Fall wagon.



Arden can do shimmers like no one out there (damn, could do shimmers). How about that: bright jelly red with rather chunky gold glitter? Sounds garish, doesn't it? Not true. It's Camden Pepperberry:

Excuse my ignorance, I have no idea what pepperberry really is. But for me this polish looks like Christmas morning and mistletoe.



Next one is extremely popular among my Nail Board buddies:
West End Purle Sage. Warm purple, loaded with lots of silver shimmer. One can barely see shimmer on the nails (as opposed to the bottle). Honestly, I don't know why it has caused such a frenzy among polish fanatics. I guess, it's just not my color. I've seen better -



Like Connecticut Ave. Merlot, for instance. Rusty-red, loaded (again!) with a fine gold shimmer.


If you don't know, I'm all cremes, not shimmers; so I left the best one for dessert. Buckingham Blackberry.
Just look at this purple perfection!

I made this picture to show of a hint of shimmer, which as not visible on the nails at all. It probably adds depth to the color, or something like that. But it might as well be an old good fairy dust: BB looks absolutely gorgeous.


What do you think? I hope a marketing CEO (or whoever made the decision to discontinue this line) had a very good reason. Like saving a life of a puppy. Otherwise, I wish her goopy polishes for the rest of her life (if it's a women); or a bad-tempered girlfriend with constant hangnails (if it's a guy).

PS: You still can find Arden polishes in selected Ulta stores (clearance shelves); in some nail supply stores and via on-line stores.