Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Depend fall 2012 - bottles and wheel

And now for something entirely different. An ordinary fall collection! And it contains very little (or small) glitter. Let's have a look at what Swedish brand Depend has to offer this season.


318 - mint green with frosty shimmer, 319 - nude creme in the pink spectrum, 320 - berry creme.


321 - dusty mauve-ish purple, 322 - strongly green tinged grey creme (or very greyed out green creme), 323 - berry shimmer.


324 - an ultramarine sorta blue creme, 325 - dark green with blue shimmer, 326 - teal green creme.


328 - sheer yellow jelly with yellow glitter, 330 - warm red jelly with dark pink glitter, 331 - sheer blue jelly with blue and purple glitter.


334 - candy cane like glitter, a warm white base with pink and unidentifiable glitters, 335 - small holographic glitters with a few small holographic hex glitters in clear base - the numbers in this photo have been mixed up! (sorry)

And directly to the wheel - for some reason these photos have a weird yellow tint despite using a correct white balance setting, but I've tried to color correct them back to reality, or at least as close to it as possible. All are three coats, no matter if they needed it or not (more on that later).

318, 319, and 320

321, 322, and 323

324, 325, and 326

328, 330, and 331 - for your convenience, I have topcoated this
group of swatches, but they are still rather gritty

334 and 335 - 334 is also topcoated, and not this yellow

All over the place, this fall collection as usually provides a little something for everyone, from the color fearing to the color embracing person. Thrown in, a bunch of hard-to-describe glitters - what are they supposed to be? This isn't all that clear. So let's begin by scrutinizing those (god knows I have been). At first glance, upon receiving these bottles, they caught my interest - what are they, really?! - and as I painted them on the wheel, I was more and more puzzled. I tried them as topping glitters over some of the other colors, I examined them in one coat, two coats, three coats... Fairly gritty, I was staring to wonder if they were meant to be. They sure aren't pretty, so perhaps they are meant for some new, weird, über-cool effect? I still don't know, all I know is I think the yellow 328 is absolutely terrible, 330 just doesn't work the way it's formulated, and 331 is worth a try on actual nails. As for 334, which seems to have a more opaque base, it still really catches my eye. A candy cane (Swedish polkagris) colored glitter?! I will have to try it, despite the doubts I have towards it's formulation and provided type of glitter. (335 is not worth more than a parenthesis - it's an unattractive variety of holographic glitter with very few slightly larger hexagonal glitters thrown in. In three coats I managed to fish up two of the hexes, barely noticeable in the swatch above because they ended up on the sides. There are far better options out there, just leave this one on its shelf.)

Let's move on to what is the more conventional parts of the collection, which is in part well done. There are plenty of repeats and bland colors, such as the two berry ones (320, 323), and the purple mauve 321. Then there are the ones that makes us think of what the huge brands are putting out, such as the grey balancing on green 322, and pink nude kind of color in 319, and then there are the completely uncomprehensible choice of putting the frosty mint 318 in this collection.

What does this leave us with? The blue creme 324, the green and blue shimmer 325, and the teal creme 326. I guess it wasn't that farfetched, reading this particular blog, was it? 324 may not be that original, but I always fall for those vivid blues - this one perhaps not the most vivid I've ever seen. Depend describes it as a cornflower blue, but I disagree and would like to call it an ultramarine blue. It's nice, but like too many shades in this collection it has an opacity problem. A three coater creme is not what I expect from Depend, and keeping in mind that these bottles are minis containing only 5 ml, that's basically a two-manicure bottle. 325 is a gorgeous shimmer if you happen to be a lover of greens, blues and teals. It is like the less fabulous sister of a Korean lacquer I was lusting over a long time, namely Skin Food Cucumber. If you can't get a hold of Korean products, but Scandinavian, pick this one up instead. A teal creme may not be that special, but 326 is a nice shade. I know all the subcultural teenage girls here will pick it up. It also has a pigmentation problem, but that renders it a little more squishy than your average one coater creme.

Another wordy review of a Depend collection. In large, this collection gets a pass from me, but just barely. The truly weird glitters kind of ruin the overall impression of it, which drags it down a notch or two. As usual, I'm sure everyone will find something to their liking here, which is still Depend's forte.

As a side note, though not required in Sweden, I have decided to start stating when products have been bought with my own money or when they were gifts for review by the manufacturer or a PR representative. I know many trust my honesty, and I refuse to change in my honest ways, but clarification could always be desirable, especially for residents of countries where stating acquirations is mandatory when blogging. You will find this note at the bottom of every post - I'll try to edit past posts to reflect this, to the best of my abilities, as well.

These products were provided by the manufacturer or PR representative for reviewing purposes.

Swedish word of the day:
spretig -adjective straggle
Best way to describe Depend collections - good or bad?

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for a nice really usefull post!

    The only one I feel like trying is 326.

    I'm into dark autumn polishes right now ;)
    (That'll soon change, and then perhaps I want to try the others too ;))

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hmmm, I think I like the 'boring' section ;)
    The first berry color really caught my attention but you use them up after just two manicures? I have some 'old' Essence 5ml bottles and after about five applications my bottle is still more than half full, what do you do with them?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's okay, all readers are welcome here. :D <3 And I may have under-exaggerated the bit about number of manicures in a mini bottle, but also to take into account: different nail lengths require different amounts, as well as desired number of coats. When my nails are towards the longer, and I do three coats, that needs a lot of polish. But yes, two may be untruthful - let's say three. xD

      Delete
    2. Oh, sarcasm ;)
      I don't get it jet ;)

      Delete
  3. I like that some polish lines are using a wide range of shades for fall. The fall collections come out so early that many folks are still wearing summer clothing. Also this fall there is more than just a pop of color. It's almost like a re-visit to 1980's with all the color I am seeing. Know I cannot merge into deep shades until first or middle of Oct...so when I am done with summer shades I look to my reds, nudes and teals for polish typically - this fall I have some great glimmering oranges to pick from as well. I rarely buy mini bottles - I loose them in my stash - they slip down between other bottles.

    ReplyDelete
  4. meh, none of these look interesting to me. luckily, because I can't seem to get a hold of them in Austria anyhow.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for commenting! Please, NO LINK SPAMMING! Anonymous comments with rude contents, advertising and/or link dropping will be deleted.