Depend spring 2012

Late on this, but better that, than never, right? Here's what Swedish nail care brand Depend is offering us for spring, in terms of color. This collection contains 11 colors and a matte topcoat.




Unfortunately, low light is all Sweden has to offer this time of year, but the colors here are pretty accurate.

Let's take a look at the wheel, and we might just find something interesting. Or..?

Do you see that? Yes. Eight of these are mattes. Semi-matte, but still. Eight! Only three glossy shades to choose from.

Now, let's see what we can expect from the matte topcoat. Here over the three glossy shades.

Yeah. So...

Yeah. where do I begin? This is by far the most terrible collection I had to review. Let's talk about the colors first. I do realize that pastel like shades are back this spring, and yes, that's painful for me personally, but these shades... Some of them aren't even pretty in theory. 298, 302, and 303 (the latter referred to as "band-aid colored" by fellow Swedish blogger Nailtastic) stand out as the worst color lab mishaps of the year (and it's only just begun!). Let's be fair: some of the shades are good, 299 might even be really pretty, but none of the better shades are very inventive or fresh. And then there are good shades that have that semi-matte thing going on, and if you'd by any chance like your manicure glossy, that frost finish they're made from will be revealed.

The last time I reviewed a Depend collection with quite a large bulk of these semi-matte shades, my verdict was a lot more positive. There's a reason for that. I believe this is the third, or perhaps even fourth, collection where Depend includes this finish - and this time with a total of them that exceeds all the previous together. It's just too much. In the accompanying press release, they state that mattes are still going strong among nail trends, but the Depend peeps and I must be looking for way different sources. I'm sad that Depend didn't catch up on the again exploding flakie trend, like they did when they released 156 during the last flakie boom, and while pretty much every brand releases a shitload of flakies that make lacqueristas all over the world giddy, Depend releases ...eight more frost struck semi-mattes.

Let's skip to the matte topcoat. Again, while most brands released matte topcoats in 2009 and 2010, Depend does so in 2012. Together with a collection that consists to 70 % of matte shades. I don't follow their logic, but okay. So, what's it like, performance wise?

Well, those of you who were around before the new generation of matte topcoats may remember using certain ridge filling basecoats as substitutes. This is pretty much the exact same feeling Depend's matte topcoat will give you. It's thick, and slightly whitening, it alters the color underneath into a lighter shade. See the last photo, compare the colors to the un-mattified versions on the wheel above.

I don't like being this mean, but this is a terrible collection. Three okay (but frosty) shades in the matte division (294, 295, 301), a decent staple among the glossy ones (300), and one pretty shade (299) that could be worth picking up if you're short on good periwinkle cremes. Not even two greens saves anything. And there used to be a time when Depend did colors that I would stock up on, buy a large pile and forward to international friends, such as 156 (pink jelly flakie) and 170 (super greyed blue creme). They were fast on picking up the army green trend, to my personal content. But this... Let's hope for a better fall for this brand.

Swedish word of the day:
matt -adjective I matte II weak, dull
Too many mattes makes me weak...