Review: Essie Summer 2012 Collection

Essie is a brand that’s contantly floating around the blogosphere, and with good reason as the polishes are amazing. Today I’m reviewing the Essie Summer 2012 Collection* from John & Ginger.

I won’t bore you too much with writing, here are the swatches.

Essie Off The Shoulder - £9.95

Essie Mojito Madness - £9.95

Essie Bikini So Teeny - £9.95

Essie Fear or Desire - £9.95

The polishes all apply really well, but I found that three coats were needed for all opacity – although that seems like the norm for Essie.

Off The Shoulder looked very pastel-y in the bottle, but with three coats I found it was more of a bubblegum pink. Fear or Desire is almost like a jelly and I really liked that! Bikini So Teeny is slightly iridescent but you can only tell if you pretty much put your finger in your eye! Mojito madness is probably my least favourite out the set, I just find it too green – I was hoping it’d be lighter and more of a pastel green.

All of the colours were very glossy, which is such a bonus. I’m a shellac kind of girl and part of the shellac appeal is the high shine, but the Essie polishes surprised me and matched the shine – even without a topcoat.

I applied the polish over shellac so that probably warped how long it lasted, but generally speaking Essie polishes last 3-5 days without chips/tip-wear if applied with a base & topcoat.

Bottom line: Very impressed. Even with three coats they all dried really quickly – something I find very important when it comes to nail varnishes, as I’m so impatient!

What are your favourite Essie polishes?

The Essie Summer 2012 Collection is available from the John & Ginger website, priced at £9.95/each.

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