Products received as a gift

Picture-heavy post

I was lucky enough to win a christmas giveaway on the blog Spinthebeauty. I won 14 Essie nail polishes! I won the entire fall and winter collection from 2015 plus two polishes from the new(er) lux effects collection. Thank you so much, Maria and Essie Denmark!

I got them in these awesome collector’s boxes that are super cute, and honestly, if they sold the polishes in these boxes out in the stores, I’d probably be buying full collections more often!

Now, I know the collections are not new, but they are still available lots of places, so I thought I’d show you swatches and provide you with my review in case you were still interested in picking some of these up.

Essie Fall 2015

Leggy Legend

2 coats. This is a bronze metallic color with a pink shimmer in it. Like most metallic, this dries with quite a lot of brush strokes, so you have to be careful to make even strokes to get the best look. The pink shimmer disappears a little, but it is still visible if you catch the right light.

Color Binge

2 coats. This is a orange-red creme leaning to the red side. This red is so bright, it might as well have been a part of a summer collection, but somehow it works really well with the other fall colors. Smooth formula, almost a one-coater.

With the Band

2 coats. A darker, more dusty red creme. Smooth formula.

In the Lobby

2-3 coats. This is a dark purple creme. It is dark, but definitely not one of those polishes that could be mistaken for black. I write 2-3 coats because on some nails it was a little patchy at 2 coats, so I needed a third, but if you are careful when applying it, you could do with 2 coats.

Bell-bottom Blues

2 coats. This a blue metallic with blue and teal shimmer. There are some brush strokes when it’s wet, but they disappears as it dries.

Frock’n Roll

2 coats. This is that undeterminable color between black an purple with some silver shimmer in it. It looks more purple in the bottle and more black on the nail. You could do with one coat, but when you add that second coat, the silver shimmer gets a brown/purple tone to it that brings even more definition to the polish.

Overall

When this collection came out in stores, I was not particularly impressed and I did not want to get any of them, but once I’ve seen these on the nails, I really like this collection! I even had trouble picking just one favorite, so I had to settle for four: Color Binge, In the Lobby, Bell-bottom Blues and Frock’n Roll.

Essie Winter 2015

Haute Tub

2 coats. This one is very similar to Frock’n Roll. This is a black creme with purple shimmer in it. The shimmer loses some of its purple color when you apply it so it looks more silver. Very pretty, but if you already have Frock’n Roll, I don’t think you’d HAVE to have this as well.

Apres-chic

2 coats. This is a silver metallic/foil polish. This has quite a lot of brush strokes and it is that kind of polish that reveals any imperfections on the nails, so you would probably want to use a ridge filling base coat. It is opaque in on coat, but I added a second coat so it did not show as many imperfections as it did with one coat.

Virgin Snow

2 coats. This is a periwinkle creme. I was super impressed with this one! Usually with colors this light, it is going to take a lot of coats to get it opaque and not patchy, but not this one. The formula is thick enough that you might even be able to get it opaque in one coat (!), but not so thick that it is impossible to work with.

Peak Show

3 coats. This is a very light pink creme. I was not as impressed with this as I was with Virgin Snow. It has the same consistency as the other, and the color was opaque with one coat, but it was patchy and I had to apply three coats to even that completely out. 2 coats might do if you’re careful.

Altitude Attitude

2 coats. This is a bright, slightly dusty red creme. Smooth application.

Shall We Chalet?

2 coats. This is a dusty, bordeaux creme. Smooth application. Almost opaque in one coat.

Overall

To me, this collection is a little bland. The colors are pretty and it is a good place to start if you are just starting out your collection because it has a lot of the ‘standard’ colors. However, if your collection is just a little bigger, you’ll most likely have dupes for these already – I know I do. The formulas were great, but the only ‘unique’ color is Haute Tub. My favorites are Haute Tub and Virgin Snow.

Lux Effects

Frillin’ Me Softly

1 coat over Shall We Chalet?. This is a silver glitter topper with hex and bar glitters. This glitter is very dense! I did not have to fish around for the glitters, and with just one coat I was able to get the result you see in the pictures. Application was smooth and even.

Tassel Shaker

1 coat over Peak Show. This is a glitter topper with gold and rose gold bar glitter. Very dense just like the other one. Smooth and even application

 

So that is it! I was most impressed with the fall collection, and I’m sad that it was about to fly under my nose without me picking any of them up, so I would definitely recommend that collection if you can still get your hands on it! Common for all the cremes was that they dried a little dull, so a shiny top coat does wonders!

Which collection or polish was your favorite?