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!
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.