Comparison Essie - Take it Outside, Chinchilly & Berlin There Done That + bonus mani

Essie Take it Outside is by no means a extremely unique colour (lovely but not unique), so I needed to compare it with the greige polishes I have in my possession: Essie Chinchilly and (a favourite) OPI Berlin There Done That. I thought I would have more close calls....but they were all too brown.
The two Essie's are definitely family: TIO is a lighter version of Chinchilly. BTDT is a touch more brown and is again a step darker then Chinchilly.

Essie Take it Outside, Chinchilly & OPI Berlin There Done That

In my search for family and friends of Take it Outside I found Elevation Polish Aguja St. Exupery to be a very handsome friend. It is a light holo topper with a dusting of old gold and steel grey flakes and it is from the Patagonia Collection 2014. The flakes make the polish interesting in the shade and the holo does it's trick in the sun! Because of the combination of old gold and steel gray flakes it matches the greige of Take it Outside perfectly.

Elevation Polish - Aguja St. Exupery

Still very work appropriate but with a nice twist. Formula was outstanding: just one coat with an even flake distribution.

Aguja St. Exupery (the name keeps reminding me of the writer of the famous book "Le Petit Prince", Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. That is not without reason as Wikipedia explanes: "The Aguja Saint Exupery is a mountain spear ('aguja') located near the Cerro Chaltén in the Los Glaciares National Park in Patagonia, Argentina. The mountain is named in memory of Antoine de Saint Exupéry, the French writer and aviator who was director of the Aeroposta Argentina airline and pioneered postal flights in the Patagonia region between 1929 and 1931.") is still available at Elevation Polish.

Formula: 5/5

Durability: 4/5

Shine:4/5

Colour: 5/5

Overall: 5/5

Essie - Take it Outside (Dress to Kilt Collection, autumn 2014)

Long time no see.....
But I'm back again with yet another beauty from the Dress to Kilt collection: Take it Outside.
TIO is a Pantone warm grey, or greige, or beige with strong grey undertones or grey with a hint of beige (or a lighter version of Chinchilly). The formula was lovely, two easy coats and you're done!

Essie - Take it Outside

It's a very lovely neutral without being stark and washed out or giving you mannequin nails.
I'm loving the neutrals these days, there are these periods when you just needs specific colours and the last few weeks it is neutrals for me: I'll show you some more in the coming days!

Formula: 4/5

Durability: 3/5

Shine:4/5

Colour: 5/5

Overall: 4/5

China Glaze - Release (The Giver Collection, autumn 2014) and comparison to Essie Bangle Jangle, Zoya Caitlin, OPI Parlez-vous Opi etc.

What is it with these taupe, greige, grey-purple colours that makes you want to own them all so desperately?
When I saw the first pictures of the The Giver Collection, I just needed Release immediately!
Release is a fairly neutral greige, not too warm and not too cold: very wearable for all kinds of skin colours.
The formula works reasonably well, it's a bit fast drying so you have to get on with it and don't fuss. I did three coats here to get it all opaque and greigealicious.

China Glaze - Release

Oh, don't you love it?!

It reminded me of a few colours that are sitting in some of my drawers.....soooooooo I needed to do a comparison!

First up I compared Release with Zoya Caitlin, OPI Parlez-vous Opi and Essie Smokin' Hot. Parlez-vous was too mauve and not grey enough, the Essie was too brown and too dark; the Zoya was the closest in colour yet it was a bit darker and was overall a bit too blue.

Zoya Caitlin, CG Release, OPI Parlez-vous Opi, Essie Smokin' Hot

Smokin' Hot, Parlez-vous, Release, Caitlin

Then I remembered Essie Bangle Jangle....that might be the closest friend of Release.

Zoya Caitlin, CG Release, Essie Bangle Jangle, OPI Parlez-vous Opi

CG Release, Essie Bangle Jangle

Bangle Jangle really is a very close friend, the same tone of colour as Release BUT it is a tint lighter then the China Glaze.
So relieve here: I have no dupes, only friends and I really needed this greige, no doubt about that!