Essie Luxeffects Glitter Topcoat Collection Holiday 2011 Swatches and Review

Essie has a whole collection of glitters for holiday this year. Is that a shock or what? I can't really remember the last time Essie did a glitter. I know they've had a few in the past, like the legendary Starry Starry Night and Ruby Slippers, or the lesser-known Glass Slipper. Then there's the silver, gold and hologram sheer glitter topcoats from the permanent line (Gold Nuggets, Silver Bullions, Carnival), but other than that, it seems that Essie just doesn't do glitter. So, awesome, way to go Essie! We nail junkies love our glitter, and these new Essie glitters are pretty nice.

The Essie Luxeffects collection is a set of five multidimensional glitter topcoats. They're intended for layering over other polishes, but they look pretty good by themselves, too.


Essie A Cut Above. This is a pink glitter in a clear base. There are several shapes and sizes of glitter in here. Small, medium and large round and hexagon glitter pieces. This pink has a little bit of copper to it that makes it a little different from the standard faded warm pink glitter. It's almost a copper rose more than a true pink.



Essie As Gold As It Gets. This is gold flakes in a clear base. Lots of different shapes and sizes of flakes, too. Some of the particles look like very small round glitter, and there's a bit of iridescence in some of the particles that reflects red and bronze when the light hits the polish just right.


Essie Pure Pearlfection. This is a very fine silvery-white irregular sparkle particle in a clear base. It's similar to other clear sparkle topcoats like Zoya Sparkle Gloss or Nubar Pixie Dust. The particles are mostly a cloudy clear color, but in certain lights they have a prismatic effect and sparkle in a rainbow of colors.



Essie Set In Stones. This is a silver glitter in a clear base. It's the silver version of Essie A Cut Above; multiple shapes and sizes of glitter including round and hexagon. It's very shiny and bright, but not particularly sparkly.


Essie Shine Of The Times. A multichromatic flaky glitter topcoat. This shifts to every color except purple, but the dominant colors are red/orange and green. The blue tones show up at extreme angles but aren't as obvious on the nail as they are in the bottle. There's a heavy amount of flake in here and it provides very good coverage with only one coat. It is similar to other shades like Nubar 2010 or Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure, but the flakes in this one have a wider size range and the coverage is more dense with this one.


As much as I like the way they look solo, I had to try them out over some other colors. Each of these are one coat of the Essie over their respective base colors.


Essie A Cut Above over black. The black base provides a nice contrast with the lighter color of the glitter so all the shapes and sizes of glitter stand out. Almost looks like paint splatters, doesn't it?


Essie As Gold As It Gets over dark brown creme. I like this even more over brown than I do over black. The brown brings out the red tones in the iridescent gold flakes. I think this polish would look good over anything, really. It's beautiful.


Essie Pure Pearlfection over mint green creme. I had a hard time thinking of layering combinations for this one, but I think this one looks pretty good! The delicate, light-colored sparkle in this looks especially nice over pastels. Layering it over black is a given, but it's not all that interesting that way.



Essie Set In Stones over a dark teal shimmer. I was hoping for a starry sky look, but this is good too. The dark base amplifies the differences in the glitter. Over a lighter color, it's not as easy to tell that there are different shapes in here. Over a dark color it really stands out.

And I saved the best for last...


Essie Shine of the Times over a white shimmer. I am in love with this look. It looks like real opals! It's so glowy and sparkly, and then when you move your hand, you get the color shift too... Ahh, so good. I think I'll be wearing my nails like this for a few weeks.


And, just for reference, here they are over a black base:

Left to right:
Essie Shine Of The Times (one coat) over black
Essie As Gold As It Gets (one coat) over black
Essie Pure Pearlfection (one coat) over black
Essie Set in Stones (one coat) over black

The formula on these was good. I didn't have trouble applying any of them. The texture was a little thick, but not thick enough to give me a problem. The polishes are sheer, but they're supposed to be because they're made for layering. I did two coats of each in the non-layered pictures and I really like how they look alone. Drying time is average. They dry smooth, but not very shiny, so I used one coat of topcoat on these as well.

The one thing that gets me about this collection is that Essie claims that "the look is unparalleled depth and dimension." Truthfully, there are lots and lots of other polishes like these. The claim about adding depth doesn't really jive with me. These types of topcoats sit on top of a color and don't add depth. Sparkle, yes, but depth, no. They are a very obvious layer sitting above another layer. That's why I wasn't crazy about the CND effects, either. They just sit on top of the polish and have no depth. I'm not saying these are bad, in fact, I think they're awesome, I just think that the 'unparalleled depth' claim is a bit of a stretch, that's all.

Overall, though, it's a nice set and something that I think Essie really needed in their line. Every other major polish brand has seen huge success with the glitter shades they've released in the past two or three years (think Lippmann Happy Birthday or the OPI Alice in Wonderland collection) and it's about time Essie added some sparkle to their otherwise conservative color range. The colors themselves are very pretty and they look great layered or alone. My favorite is Shine of the Times, but As Gold As It Gets is a close second. The formula is good, they're nice and smooth, and so far they've all looked great over every color I've layered them with.

So now we've seen Essie do glitter and flakies... We've seen them do neons. They've even done a few blues and greens. I love seeing them slowly stepping out of that pale-pink-sheer-beige image that we all used to know them by!

These are officially supposed to be released in December, but I already saw them out at Meijer a few days ago, so you should be able to get then right now.

(This was sent for review.)