Essie Nail Polish Review

I picked up a pack of 4 full sized Essie polishes in a pack for the crazy price of $4.99 on 1day. Because it was a pack I didn't get to choose my colours, but I'm pretty happy with what I got. I've been happily playing with them for a couple of weeks and developed different opinions on all 4, so I'll review them individually.

The shades in the pack were ignite the night, lots of lux, stroke of brilliance and belugaria.

ignite the night is a clear polish crammed full to bursting of small silver glitter pieces. Because they're so fine they layer up and you get a disco ball effect on your nails - metallic silver sparkles everywhere! It manages to have a matte finish but still be sparkly, which is impressive. Essie call the silver colour hematite, and I can see that.

lots of lux is a bright (think lapis lazuli) blue polish full of superfine glitter in the same colour family but with reflections in other shades of blue and green. It is another matte but sparkly finish polish as with ignite the night, and is totally gorgeous with a teal polish as an accent or feature, as well as on it's own. VERY blue, but blue is back on trend, and this is stunning.

stroke of brilliance is just that - a stroke of sheer genius, actually! It's a multidimensional top coat full of platinum silvery blue glitter flakes which sparkle, and tone in well with blue, green, purple, silver - and shine over black and white. Even on it's own this polish makes nails look pretty and special without being OTT. Subtle sparkle in a gorgeous colour.

belugaria is my pick of the four. I adore it. it's a deep jet black nail polish that has a matte finish, is textured, and is full of holographic rainbow glitter flakes. Your nails look black until you move your hands, then they throw off little unpredictable rainbow sparkles in several directions due to the rough texture left by the gritty particles embedded in the polish. It's crazy gorgeous, edgy, and sassy. LOVE.

As with all polishes like this longevity is affected because (in my opinion) the structural integrity of the polish is damaged by the instability of having so much going on in terms of glitter etc. BUT because they're so unusual you can touch them up without it being noticeable. You can't really use a top coat of clear with any of these except for stroke of brilliance, but you can use a base coat and I recommend you do because the colours are strong and the glitter adheres to nails without it making it tough to remove. They do chip, but you just have to live with that for this type of finish, I think.

They only lose points for me because I don't like paying over $20 for a mail polish - I know I didn't pay that much for this set but replacement would be expensive and I don't know that I'd pay full price, as much as I'm loving them right now.

I have my 2 Essie polishes in Chinchilly (a cool toned grey) and No Boundaries (a bright fuschia). I love the simple packaging with the white cap and clear glass bottle as it looks sleek and allows you to see the colour inside.

The brush is also very good, dense enough to pick up enough polish and broad enough so that it doesn't cause any streaking.

The formula is also amazing, both are opaque with 2 coats and while it does take a while to dry, I find that it is one of the formulas which lasts on me and I can wear it for more than a week withouth it chipping. With the bright colour, I also find that it remains bright and vibrant for a good week - which is quite rare with my other bright polishes.

Overall, yes it's a bit pricey but for what you're getting, it's definitely worth it!

Like most Essie nail polish this ones great. The brush gives you a perfect application. These plenty of different nail designs you can do with this nail polish.

My favourite being Galaxy nails. Using black and a light blue in the centre, then using on a sliver platter on top give you the perfect galaxy.

This nail polish is also great for an accent nail.

Only down side is like glitter nail polish this is impossible to get off.

I have two Essie nail polishes which I purchased recently from a sale. They are "using my maiden name" (a lavender shade), and "ruffles and feathers" (an amazing bright green).

They have quickly become my favourite nail polishes! They apply really easily and streak-free, the brush is a good medium size, it dries reasonably fast, and I find two coats is plenty.

I love how long it lasts on my nails without chipping, a good 3-4 days which is amazing for me personally as I have quite a physical job and my hands get put through a lot of stress.

The bottles are really cute and look great in my collection. Highly recommended!

I love this nail polish soooooo much-I have no idea what formula Essie use but for putting on nail polish yourself-I feel like this is the best nailpolish out! AND THE COLOUR SELECTION IS AWESOMEEEEEE

I purchased my first Essie product off Trade Me for about $7, I was really stoked to try something new and I was rather happy with the results. I found this nail polish really easy to use, it wasn't gluggy or watery - just the right consistency. It was quick drying, being white it was overly streaky but definitely needed 2-3 coats to get good coverage. The brush was easy to use & glided across my nail well, the bottle was easy to handle and attractive. Unlike other brands of nail polish, Essie lasted nearly a week without any chipping or flaking off.

Despite being a polish fan, I only recently purchased my first Essie Nail Polish during Farmers Beauty Week after being swayed by the triple points. I have it in the very trendy colour 'Dress to Kilt', a dark red.

Essie's packaging is simple and chic, the rectangular bottle is fantastic for storage and display, showcasing the polish colour perfectly without any distraction from fussy packaging.

The brush is probably the best out of any polish I have tried, including my beloved OPI. The shape seems squarer and has a good width allowing it to glide across the nail effortlessly, covering the surface in a couple of strokes.

The formula is a nice consistency, a little thinner than some but not too runny so that one coat of Dress To Kilt creates an opaque finish. It also dries very quickly which means if you do want to pop on a second layer, which other shades may need, it will be very easy to do without waiting about for ages.

I'm really happy with my purchase and the only thing that would put me off purchasing more Essie polishes is the price, they're a little more than some polishes but I've seen Farmers sometimes has specials with them so I'll keep an eye out!

All through my high school and teenage years, the best nail polish was always OPI.. it was almost the cool thing to have. It was pricey which meant it had to be good quality right, and it does have an awesome range of colours, I can agree on the aspect. So for the past 5 years, I really hadn’t considered looking into other brands of nail polishes until I was gifted an Essie nail polish set for my birthday.

The set came with three colours, and the nail polishes were almost ‘mini’ size, with the bottles being about half the width of a regular Essie Nail Polish. These nail polishes are packaged in see-through glass so you can see the colour within the bottle, and they come with a white lid, which of course has the brush attached on the inside. The bottles still has the Essie print in the glass, as well as the Essie print on the glass with white text.

There are two main things that I love about these nail polishes. Firstly, I love the design on the bottles. There so simple, and understated yet really classy so I love placing this somewhere in my room where their beauty can shine. Secondly, there is such an amazing range of Essie Nail polishes available. Literally, you can get every colour, and pretty much every shade, tone & hue that you could think of. Thirdly, I love the brush that the Essie nail polishes come with. In fact, I’m not sure if the brushes vary from the mini bottles to the larger bottles (although I now own both), but as I have been using the mini bottles more frequently, I’m more aware of the brush shape which is perfect. It glides over nails perfectly, and is the right shape to get up nice and close to my cuticles, and evenly coat my nails. This, of course has something to do with the lovely consistency of Essie Nail polishes. They are a bit thinner than OPI, and two coats and essential, not optional to achieve that opaque look. However, its so easy to apply two thin coats, and the coats dry really fast so I’m pretty happy with that. One downside is I find these chip faster than I expected. They last about 2 days before looking crap, and that includes using a top coat so that is one downside.

I said there were two main things I liked about Essie, but that turned into 4 things. Whoops. All in all, I really do like Essie nail polishes and find them more affordable than OPI. I have already purchased some more colours for the Essie range and now own 7 of their colours, and I’m sure that number will be increasingly steadily as well.

I must admit I am more of an OPI girl, though I do have a couple of Essie polishes. I like their new bottle design - it's very minimal and the square shape makes them easy to store. The two I have are the old bottle design, where the Essie logo was ridged into the glass, which I also like. This older design bottles are quite weighty and feel like good quality.

I find application to be easy, though I prefer the wider curved brush of some other brands. I tend to do two coats for the shades I have, and follow with a top coat. Wear time varies for me and I tend to remove the polish after three days. I am very hard on my nails however.

The two shades I have are Haute as Hello, a gorgeous pastel coral which makes your skin look more tanned, and Vermillionaire, a bright orangey colour. In summer I like wearing Vermillionaire on my toes and Haute as Hello on my fingers.

These polishes are both from a summer 2010 collection (eeep) and have only recently started to become gluggy. I have used both of them past the halfway mark as the colours are so great.

I have been eyeing up some more shades as I find their range to be really good, especially of paler shades where OPI can be lacking.

I have only recently jumped on the Essie train and I have to admit their colours are gorgeous. I like the brush, it applies smoothly and the coverage is great (two coats for decent pigmentation or one coat for sheer).

The lasting power if this polish is on par with some of the other leaders in the market but without careful attention it does chip after only two days.

the shine doesn't last very long either which is a bit disappointing however easily remedied by a good top coat.

No staining of the nail beds with the darker colours either. My Favorite at the moment is Sexy Divide a deep true purple.

I only have a small amount of Essie bottles in my collection but would love to add more in the future.