Essie Going Guru collection: Taj-ma-haul

purchased by me

Taj-ma-haul is a mid-toned orange crème with a nice formula that covered easily in two coats.  It's not my favorite color, but it's a good version of a spring staple.

Taj-ma-haul and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Going Guru collection: Nama-Stay-the-Night

purchased by me

Silly name aside, I pretty much knew going into this collection that Nama-Stay-the-Night was going to be my favorite.  It's a cobalt blue crème with a flawless formula that was opaque in one coat and didn't stain.  That's my idea of a perfect blue!

Nama-Stay-the-Night and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Going Guru collection: Going Guru

purchased by me

Going Guru is a medium yellow-green crème.  The formula is very good, smooth and opaque in two easy coats (I didn't see the bubble until I got this post ready, and I'm pretty sure it's a bit of cotton ball and not the polish!).  It's definitely a sweet and hopeful spring color.

Going Guru and the rest of the collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Going Guru collection: Delhi Dance

purchased by me

Essie Delhi Dance is a vibrant pink crème, the color of the pressed-sugar wintergreen lozenges my grandparents used to have in a dish on their coffee table.  The formula is lovely, well-behaved, nice viscosity, and quick-drying.  It wasn't quite opaque in two coats (still a bit streaky) but that's not visible at conversational distance.

Dehli Dance and the rest of the Going Guru collection are available at Head 2 Toe Beauty and Ulta, but the only place I've seen the set of 4 mini polishes is at Ulta.

Essie Sequin Sash

purchased by me

In addition to Starry Starry Night, I also grabbed a bottle of Sequin Stash from the Essie Retro Revival collection.  It's described as "sheer glittery bronze" but to me it lacks the greenish tones of a bronze and feels more like a sheer, glittery peach.  It's quite pretty, behaves well, dries quickly but is still sheer at three coats.

Sequin Stash and the rest of the Retro Revival collection are available at Head2Toe Beauty for $8.00 each + shipping.  I got mine at Beauty.com, where they're currently out of stock.

Essie Virgin Snow

purchased by me

Virgin Snow is a white-based pastel blue crème.  The formula is smooth, opaque in two coats and surprisingly non-streaky and non-chalky for such a pale color.  It does show off the flaws in my nails, but it's still very icy and pretty.

Indoors with flash:

In the sun:

Virgin Snow was part of the holiday 2015 collection, but it's still available at Ulta, Head 2 Toe Beauty and other e-tailers.

Essie Starry Starry Night

purchased by me

The last time Beauty.com did a 20% off coupon I stocked up on Essie nail polish, because that stuff never goes on sale.  So of course the first thing I put in my cart was Starry Starry Night.  What a lovely polish!  I've read that it's not identical to the original, but it was pigmented, deep blue and loaded with silver mini-flakes, so I'm a happy camper.  Starry Starry Night took only 2 coats for opacity and dried quickly.  It was a teensy bit gritty, but top coat fixed that.

In the sun:

With flash:

I'm happy with this pretty polish, and it is available right now on Beauty.com for $8.50 + shipping.

Essie Rock at the Top

purchased by me

Rock at the Top is a clear base with multiple sizes of gold glitter.  It has good viscosity, a nice spread and a good ratio of glitter to base.  One coat over Cocktail Bling:

Essie Cocktail Bling

purchased by me

Cocktail Bling is a soft blue-toned grey crème.  It was well-behaved with a nice viscosity and bottle color in two coats.

Essie A-list

purchased by me

A-list is a nice classic red crème, opaque and shiny in two coats.

Essie Mind Your Mittens?

purchased by me

I found a set of four mini Essie polishes at Duane Reade in NYC when I was there, and although the packaging clearly says this pretty little green-leaning dusty blue is "Mind Your Mittens" the original polish with that name was a dark teal and this is probably actually "Parka Perfect"!  Oh well, it's still a pretty color that's opaque in two coats and very wintry-feeling.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 24, Inspired by a Book

purchased by me

When I saw the prompt for Day 24, I mentally ran around screaming, "Inspired by a book?  One book?  How can I pick one book?  Then I sucked it up and decided to go with the book I'm currently re-reading, All the Stars in the Sky by Sarah Lyons Fleming.  There is a scene in the book where the main character watches the Northern Lights, something I've always wanted to see.  I used Zoya Dream, Essie White Page, OPI Primarily Yellow and OPI Landscape Artist.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 23, Inspired by a Movie

purchased by me

My movie inspiration was a movie that has made its way so deep into popular culture that it's become a verb, but that so few of my family and co-workers have heard of--Gaslight.  I used Essie White Page, Sally Hansen Wet Cement and Cult Nails Fetish.  I'm super-pleased with my foggy needle marble, but I have to laugh at my attempt at a gas street lamp!

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 21, Inspired by a Color

purchased by me

Indigo is one of my favorite colors, so it was my chosen inspiration for Day 21.  I used a base of Essie White Page and then did multiple fan brush strokes of Sinful Colors Matte About Blue.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 14, Flowers

purchased by me

Very abstract flowers, but I loved the colors.  I used Essie White Page for my base, and then used a small eyeshadow brush loaded with Essie Highest Bidder and Essie Flowerista, then brushed the whole thing with top coat while it was still damp.

31 Day Nail Art Challenge: Day 8, Metallic nails

purchased by me

Essie's fall collection includes a gorgeous medium copper metallic called Leggy Legend.  If you didn't know I'd choose a copper for Day 8, you must be new around here. Leggy Legend is a bright, shiny medium copper that is opaque in two coats.

Leggy Legend is available now wherever Essie polishes are sold.

Essie Cashmere Matte Brights Mini Nail Polish Set

purchased by me

For summer, Essie came out with four soft, fun colors in a satin matte finish.  I like all four, and have enjoyed wearing them as well as swatching them.  All four were opaque in two easy coats and dried quickly.

Hip Tide is a medium, cool-toned pink.

Sea the Sights is a sky blue.

Soft as Sand is a pale, pink-toned lilac.

Yespadrilles is a medium mint green.

The Cashmere Matte Brights set is available at Ulta for $13.00 + applicable tax and shipping, where single bottles are available for $8.50 each, or you can get individual colors at Head2ToeBeauty for $8.00 each + shipping.

Essie Silk Watercolor Abstract Floral Nail Look Kit

purchased by me

It seems as though everyone's getting into the sheer, blendable polishes these days.  OPI Color Paints were, to the best of my knowledge, the first, but Sephora and Essie weren't far behind.  I grabbed one of the Essie sets of mini polishes at Ulta so I could try them.

I didn't swatch the OPIs because there were so many good swatches out there, but I did swatch the three Essie polishes I got.  They differ from OPI in two ways.  First, Essie suggests using a white base and includes one in the sets of minis.  Second, the Essie polishes are sheerer than the OPIs, which can be either an advantage or a disadvantage, depending on how opaque you want your polish.  The Essies are not, however, as sheer as the OPI Sheer Tints, their first, disastrous attempt at colored top coats.

Highest Bidder is a bright fuschia.

Pen and Inky is a blue-toned turquoise.

Point of Blue is a soft indigo.

White Page is a decent, two-coat white.

I haven't played with the Essies like I have with the OPIs, but I'm excited to experiment.  I prefer the chrome base to the white, though.  The sheerer tint gives me some great ideas about combining them.  The Silk Watercolor Abstract Floral Nail Look Kit is available at Ulta for $13.00 + applicable tax and shipping, or you can get individual colors at Head2ToeBeauty for $8.00 each + shipping.

Essie Spun in Luxe

purchased by me

Spun in Luxe is part of the 2015 Cashmere Matte collection from Essie, and the only one I got because the color was so dark and different from any of the other satin mattes I own.  The formula was nice--well-behaved and opaque in two coats.  Sadly, between the very dark blue and the satin matte finish, Spun in Luxe just looked black on my nails.

However, put some top coat on it, and suddenly it's a different, much prettier animal!

A rich, shimmery navy that just begs to be admired!  So despite my love of satin matte finishes, I'm only going to wear this with top coat from now on.  Spun in Luxe is available wherever Essie polishes are sold.

Essie Stroke of Brilliance

purchased by me

Stroke of Brilliance is a clear base filled with various sizes of periwinkle glitter.  It's a bit on the thick side because of all the glitter, but not goopy or unworkable.  Swatches are one coat of Stroke of Brilliance over No More Film.

Indoors with flash:

Indoors without flash:

Stroke of Brilliance can be found wherever Essie is sold.