Essie Go Overboard comparison: from the Spring 2012 mini-collection

Here is the last of the Essie Go Overbord mini-collection comparisons, the collection's namesake. Go Overboard is a deep teal creme, what I would call in the "peacock" family- I don't know why but that's how I think of these deep rich green-blues.

I expected to have an easy dupe in my stash because I have so many of these "peacock" shades, but surprisingly nothing was all that close except for Color Club Gossip Column, which is a cousin but no dupe. Gossip Column is significantly bluer, and it is a couple shades lighter- not neccessarily brighter, because Gossip Column has a dusty quality to it. Go Overboard isn't dusty, just deep and rich.

Some others which didn't match up: Barielle A Bouquet for Ava is too light, and Finger Paints To-Teally Chic is too light and dusty, and Orly Sapphire Silk is too gray. Illamasqua Muse is too light, RBL Teal is too dark, Orly Calpyso Breeze is too blue.

Here are side-by-side comparison pictures. 3 thin coats of each. (A bit sloppy swatch because I was trying to catch the last of the day's sunlight!)

Sunlight

Sunlight

(terrible) Flash, indoors

Price:

• Essie $8 (drugstores, Ulta, head2toebeauty.com, amazon.com)
• Color Club $3 (head2toebeauty.com, 8ty8beauty.com)

Application, Formula, Bottle:

• Essie has the cutest bottles, square glass embossed with "essie" on 2 sides. They have a white plastic cap, on the shorter side, with a medium-length stem. The brush is petite and thin and flexible. I like Essie's brush because it makes it easier for me to control & position the polish just where I want it. Go Overboard is a really great creme; it is smooth and pigmented and opaque: a one-and-a-half coater. (The pictures have 3 because I'm a habitual 3-coater.) Unlike Essie's usual squishy jelly-cremes (which I love,) this one is a really creamy creme with a dense finish, and I really like it! Bonus: No staining! I expect & fear staining and smurf-fingers from well-pigmented blues/greens, but this one came off without any of that.
• Color Club has a bottle, brush and handle I love. The bottle is square glass, and the medium-heighth cap is matte black plastic and a good width. The stem is medium-length. I really like Color Club's brush--to me it is almost the best of all brushes, especially for my petite nail-beds. It's medium-length, good density, flexible, but with enough resistance so it's not floppy; it fans out well for a neat cuticle line and also helps me place & manipulate the lacquer easily. Gossip Column is also from a spring collection (Rebel Debutante, 2010.) It is smooth and easy to apply with a nice shiny finish, 2 coats to opacity. Bonus: No staining from this one either!

Cruelty/Animal Testing:

• Essie themselves do not test on animals; however, their parent company L'Oreal (the guys who own them) does test on animals. This is what I consider a gray area in terms of how to vote no-cruelty with polish dollars.
• Color Club and their parent company Forsythe Cosmetics both do NOT perform animal testing! I believe that many of Color Club's lacquers are vegan, too.

Final Thoughts:

• If you already own Color Club Gossip Column you could pass by Go Overboard if you're just looking for a chic deep teal for spring. If you don't already own either of these, like the look of the Essie and are looking to conserve your polish dollars Gossip Column is much cheaper, makes a decent subsitute in terms of color, and it has a good formula too. If you are a lover of these peacock shades, however, you may want to snap up the Essie as it has a great formula.
•  I'd like to see Go Overboard next to NYX Girls Indigo Blue and OPI Ski Teal We Drop (which are no longer in my stash) but I think both of them might be bluer than the Essie--but if I still had Ski Teal We Drop, for example, I think that I'd probably choose to skip Go Overboard.