I really go back and forth with CND’s new line of Colors and Effects. I was pleasantly shocked with their one coat colors. I adored their initial Effects. Hated the Red Hot Effects addition. Absolutely loved the Night Factory duo. I liked their Gold and Silver Effects. And now the Jason Wu set which, despite the pretty packaging, I… how do I put it? I despised.

The one coat application that made me stand up and applaud CND’s new color line doesn’t exist with this collection. All are two painful coats. In addition, the Effect that is packaged with this, Anna, was the most awkward Effect I’ve ever seen. If you’ve ever used a base with silk threads in it, this is what Anna resembles. If you haven’t, just think sheet marks. I’ll do my usual Effect comparison post on this later, but I did include swatches of Anna over two of the colors.


Let’s start with Miss Wu. Of these four colors, I’m rather surprised this is the one Jason Wu wanted to slap his name onto. This color applied like chalk and the self-leveling was definitely sub par. Take a good look at the mini swatch to the right and you’ll see what I mean.

Remember playing in the mud when you were a kid? Seriously, I can’t be the only one to have done that. I used to pretend I was working in a chocolate factory. Once mud puddles start drying out, you get a deep chocolate brown in the middle and the edge of the puddle that dries out is this weird grey-brown. This is what Sophie reminded me of: a drying mud puddle.

Brigitte was probably my least disliked color of the batch. Just pink enough to remove it from the band-aid but better (babb) category. This is the only color that may have worked with one coat, but it would have had to be a thick one. With normal strokes, you’ll need a second coat. Veronica is a jelly-like creme. This is the one that I would have expected Wu to brand as his own. But perhaps that was too obvious of a choice.

Below is Anna over Brigitte and Veronica. Anna is supposed to give your base polish a mattified and feathered look. I’m not a fan. Sure this may look cool in a weird sort of way up close. But who is going to be grabbing your hands and examining them 6″ away from their face? No, people are going to be seeing them from a distance and from a distance, it simply looks like you’ve messed up your manicure by rolling around in a haystack. I expected more.