Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie Set in Stones

Hello!

Essie Set in Stones. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Today, I have a quick swatch of a polish I've been using quite a bit of lately. This is Essie Set in Stones.

Set in Stones is simply a mix of three different sizes of silver hex glitters in a clear base. I always want to call this Nothing Else Metals, so pardon my previous and future errors, please.

Essie Set in Stones. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Swatches today are one swiped on coat of Set in Stones over yesterday's Rainbow Honey 488nm swatch plus one coat of NYC In a New York Minute Topcoat. This provides a nice glitter density, and I found it had the right clear base-to-glitter ratio for easy application.

Essie Set in Stones, matte. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

I believe this was a part of the first Luxeffects line Essie came out with a few years ago. I've had this one for a long time, but I would bet I purchased my bottle at CVS back in Maryland. It's a solid, staple polish, and I think this is still available.

Essie Set in Stones. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

More soon! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie On a Silver Platter

Hello!

Essie On a Silver Platter. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

This is Essie's On A Silver Platter.

Essie On a Silver Platter. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

On a Silver Platter is a crazy mix of shimmer and glitter. There are two sizes of cobalt blue, holographic hex glitters swimming in a heavy shimmer that shifts from silver to a greenish-gold. It is incredibly sparkly and totally awesome! My pictures don't tell the complete tale well because my camera refused to acknowledge the gold shift on the nail (but you can see it in the bottle!). :(

Essie On a Silver Platter. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Swatches today are one coat of On a Silver Platter plus one coat of Gelous and one of NYC In a New York Minute over Saturday's OPI This Gown Needs a Crown swatch. I didn't have any issues with application. I did try to layer this up on it's own, but it is surprisingly sheer at first. I think you could get to opacity in three coats, but it might end up getting a bit chunky and the snazzy blue glitters would get lost in the sea of shimmer.

Essie On a Silver Platter. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

I think this looks fabulous over the silver foil, and it keeps it true to in-bottle look. In person at this angle, the gold color shift was really noticeable, not that my camera cared... /grump.

Essie On a Silver Platter. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

I purchased this bottle just last weekend at CVS.

More soon! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie Sable Collar

Hello!

I have a polish from a new collection to show you today! This is Essie Sable Collar!

Essie Sable Collar. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Sable Collar is a taupey-purple with plum shimmer. This is a unique color to my stash of 375 or so polishes, and I love the warmth of the shimmer.

Essie Sable Collar. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

Swatches today are a base coat of Seche Clear, two coats of Sable Collar, and one coat of NYC In a New York Minute. This has what I find to be the typical Essie formula -- it is thin and watery, but surprisingly opaque needing just two coats. I don't much care for this type of formula, in fact it put me off Essie as brand for a long while, but even so, I had no problems with application.

Essie Sable Collar. Indoors, filtered sunlight (window), no flash.

I picked this up recently at my local CVS. I had a coupon plus some Extra Bucks to burn, so this one came home with me. This should be readily available now; I think this is from Essie's winter collection, which was just released.

Essie Sable Collar. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

More soon! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie Sand Tropez

Hello again!!

Essie Sand Tropez. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

I have another Essie today. I have to be honest here, I don't have much love for Essie. The first three I ever tried had bad formulas and did not match bottle color to what they actually looked like on at all. After reading about other blogger's love for this brand, I was less than impressed and a bit disappointed, to say the least. So, I pretty much wrote them off my wishlist. Recently, I've been getting a lot of those CVS Reward coupons. I swear I don't intend to go in there and purchase the required items, but a few happy coincidences left me with $30 worth of going-to-expire coupons. So, I used them to get a few Essie polishes for 'free' technically and give them a second shot.

Essie Sand Tropez. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

This one is Sand Tropez. It is a neutral creme polish--almost what I expected China Glaze Sunset Sail to look like, actually.

Essie Sand Tropez. Outdoors, sunlight, no flash.

So, how did this one do? Well, formula is not great. It's a little streaky and took three coats over a base of Sinful Colors Nail Hardener to level out. Even with the one coat of Seche Vite I topped this off with, the dry time was long. I'm still sort of 'meh' about the brand. As Gold As It Gets, from last week, was another coupon purchase and that one, I have to say, is probably worth the price tag. This one... again, meh. It's a creme, so the streakiness is to be expected. It's a nice neutral, if a bit boring.

Essie Sand Tropez. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

More soon! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie As Gold As It Gets

Hello again!

A quick one today. This is Essie As Gold As It Gets from their Luxeffects Collection.

Essie As Gold As It Gets. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

This is one coat of As Gold As It Gets over last week's swatch of Suzi Says Feng Shui plus a coat of Seche Vite. This has a ton of gold shimmer and some tiny gold flakies in a clear base. One coat was plenty of shimmer for me over the blue, but I bet layering this up over a gold base might be fun, too. Formula was fine--nothing to report there.

Essie As Gold As It Gets over OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. Indoors, artificial light, with flash.

Overall, this is a fun addition to my collection. It's got some versatility to it, and I think it's going to be great for the holiday season.

Essie As Gold As It Gets over OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. Outdoors, natural light, no flash. I put this on here so you can good idea of what the shimmer looks like up close.

I found mine at CVS recently but have also spied the displays at Walgreens and Target. It should be easy to get your hands on!

Essie As Gold As It Gets over OPI Suzi Says Feng Shui. Indoors, artificial light, with flash.

More soon!! ^_^

Stash Swatch Initiative: Essie Armed and Ready

Hello again!

Here is Essie Armed and Ready.

Essie Armed and Ready. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

This is a deep, murky green-grey with copper shimmer. The shimmer on this one is really very subtle. This isn't a color I'm terribly fond of... greens just don't do it for me. However, I think it's a nice fall shade.

Essie Armed and Ready. Indoors, artificial light, no flash.

The only other time I wore this, I had terrible issues with the formula. I thought it was awfully thick and it bubbled. This time, however, I had none of those issues. Maybe I've gotten a little better with application? Or perhaps I was too rushed the first time? I don't know. Anyway, this is a base of Seche Clear, two coats of Armed and Ready, and one of Seche Vite.

Essie Armed and Ready. Outdoors, natural light, no flash.

The shimmer is very shy, and in most light, this just looks somewhere between grey and green. I didn't have much sun this past weekend, so I tried to use the camera flash to compensate in the last picture.

I think this was a part of the Go Overboard collection, and I bought my bottle either earlier this year or last year when it first came out from my local CVS. Last time I was there, this was still in the display. So if you're after it, you can probably find it still!

Essie Armed and Ready. Indoors, artificial light, with flash. Just a hint of shimmer!

More soon!! ^_^