essie Nail Polish

Really big on painting my own nails since nail salons are sooo expensive. I’ve had this color for about a year now and it’s still just as vibrant and so much left. In my opinion just as good of a nail polish as OPI. Not streaky at all and ease of application is great. Not too shear either Read more

My favorite nail polish color and brand. Essie brand is more durable on my nails than most brands and goes on smoothly. It does not get thick in the bottle. Ballet Slippers is a lovely neutral pale pink with some tones of white. In one or two thin coats it looks very natural and smooths out the color and texture of my nails. With more coats it looks more opaque; very nice either way. It looks good with everything without being flashy. Ballet Slippers was also the only nail polish Queen Elizabeth II used for decades. That's what first brought it to my attention. I love this nail polish. Read more

This has always been my classic go to nail polish. Perfect for a professional atmospheres or showing off your ring. It’s very classy. The only thing is you definitely need two or three coats or it’s very streaky looking. After many years of wearing gel or acrylic on my nails, I am able to have a more classic look with this nail polish. Read more

Nice sheer pink that looks great with a sparkly topper or by itself. It is a light polish and lasts long without chipping. I highly recommend. Read more

The color is good but dries very quickly so it’s a little hard to use. Read more

The perfect neutral pink shade that holds up really well in between manicures! Definitely my go-to shade! Read more

I'm actually getting a little tired of giving reviews of this polish but here goes. The BEST. Honestly the best. Not only adore the color and know darn well it will soon be gone like all my faves but one swipe literally fills my quite small nails. Dries almost instantly. Essie is the BEST. Love it a lot. Read more

I have tried several Essie products over the years and with every product, I felt like I was settling. I have never been wowed by a single one of their products, but I would shelve it and forget about it and then try another one several months later. Finally, a manicure I gave myself a few weeks back with one of their polishes and topcoats came out patchy, and I vowed to really pay attention to the next one to be sure it wasn't an issue with just that product. But tonight's, featuring the Topless & Barefoot color, really solidified for me that I think Essie products are basically crap, and undeserving of the hype. (So, on the one hand, shame on me for forgetting that I was underwhelmed with their products and continuing to try them, but that also also means I have tried enough of them that at this point that it can't be chalked up to user error or a bad batch.) There are three things in general that I dislike with Essie polishes, with varying degrees from bottle to bottle: 1. The colors always seem to come out differently than what the bottle would imply - sometimes it's slight, sometimes it's dramatic, like with Angora Cardi, but it's always noticeable; 2. the brushes are really thin. I realize this is a personal preference - some folks like the thin brushes, while others, like me, prefer the thicker, fan-like brushes - and makers will never be able to make everyone happy. But I can *typically* deal with thin brushes even if it's not my preference provided the bristles are supple and the formula is decent. And finally; 3. I find their formulas generally hard to work with. Sometimes they're streaky, requiring more than the standard two coats, and I've had a few where the first coat gets lifted during application of a second or topcoat. Maybe they take longer to dry than other popular brands, but even if it's a case of user error here, that is still an issue to me because I just don't have the time to wait for however long I am expected to for these polishes to dry to whatever nebulous point in time is required before I can apply subsequent coats. My manicures already take a couple of hours after all is said and done, and I don't mind spending the time, but why spend extra time I don't need to? Breaking it down based on the three issues above, here are my thoughts about this particular color: 1. Color - Essie actually did great here. The color was true to what was in the bottle after drying. It is nice and opaque, and the perfect shade for my pasty self. I have long been looking for a nude, but every one I have tried has either been too peachy or pink or beige, or too sheer, or otherwise just not quite right. This one actually was perfect, and I thought my search was finally over. BUT... 2. The brush in this particular bottle seemed worse than normal. In addition to its normal thinness, it was stiffer than normal, so it made applying this polish about 10 times harder. Speaking of application... 3. This formula is just awful. It's not thick and goopy (which, you know, with the stiff brush, would make one think that this had not been stored properly and had possibly dried out. I suppose it's *possible* that someone threw some thinner in there to thin the formula out after the brush dried, but given this was sold by Amazon and not a 3rd party seller, I think that's pretty unlikely.) But it was just really hard to apply - the second you overlap with another stroke of color (which happens, even when applying thin coats) it would turn into a sticky, lumpy mess. Most polishes allow for at least a little correction as you go - you can go over a spot more than once in order to get a spot you missed or what have you, and it doesn't really start to set for a minute or so. But this stuff seemed to start drying within seconds. I've had instant dry polishes that didn't do that. I ultimately had to go thicker on my second coat, and then cover with a shimmer coat by another brand just to hide the imperfections. And I still have big gaps on the sides of several nails just because somehow, despite the thin brush, I just couldn't get in there because of the lumpiness. It's like I finally didn't have an issue with the color, so they decided to double-down and make the other two things worse than normal. Maybe this was a perfect storm of a bad batch - but that goes to a quality issue. And everything else I dislike about these polishes just means that overall, it's not worth the benefit of the doubt to me. Maybe I could try another bottle of this color, but I am still going to have to deal with things I already know I don't like. I'd basically be paying for another opportunity to settle. It's not the most expensive polish by any means, but I have had better experiences with both more and less expensive polishes. Maybe you love their polishes, and have been able to get them to work well for you, and if that's the case, good for you. I'm not here to convince you otherwise. But if you're on the fence, or have tried one or two of their other products and been just as underwhelmed as I have been but are thinking "maybe it was just those items" I am here to tell you - nope. I am done giving Essie chances and money. Read more