Wednesday, November 30, 2011

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.)

54 comments:

  1. Omg! Shine of the times is freaking amazing!! I LOVE IT. Need like 4 back-ups

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  2. drool!!!!,your posts are so &*#! drool worthy..go on with your bad self!!!

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  3. These look nice, but I kind of feel that Essie are very late to the glitter and flakie party. You can find these from other companies, so I'll pass on these.

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  4. TheVanityChest, (Is that you, Radha? :D) It is super gorgeous in real life!

    Aaminahs Mom, wow, thank you so much <3

    Viktorija, you're absolutely right, everyone has been doing these for years before Essie, they are very late to the party. They're still nice, but I agree!

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  5. fun! I typically dont associate essie with fun glitters/topcoats but am glad this came out.

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  6. Have they done a metallic yet??? I can't think of one. I wasn't too impressed with this collection of glitters. I'm excited that Essie thought outside their box, but I wish they would have gone a bit further out of their box:) Still love Essie though!

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  7. I wonder how As Gold As It Gets compares to Chanel Illusion D'or, which I missed out on, sadly.

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  8. I wonder how As Gold As It Gets compares to Chanel Illusion D'or, which I missed out on, sadly.

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  9. I was planning to buy As gold as it gets and Shine of the times.. but now I want Pure pearlfection too... or maybe all the collection, just to have it complete!!!
    Beautiful swatches, and thanks for layering over light colors!!

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  10. Liz, same!

    Beckycakes, hmm... You know, I don't think they have! At least not that I can remember.

    Becca, ooh, I think I might have Illusion d'Or, I remember it had blue glitter in it. I'll have to find my bottle (if I have it) and compare.

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  11. Love your swatches, as usual! I feel like as Gold As It Gets is what I wish Nubar's Gilded Gold looked like, without the added gold shimmer to cloud the color in the base.

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  12. Hi Scrangie, what is that white shimmer that you are wearing under SotT?

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  13. The Nail Polish M.D., me too! I like both, but I prefer the cleaner flakes in the Essie.

    Kristel, it's Duri Icicle :)

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  14. These look awesome! I originally only wanted Shine of the Times but I might have changed my mind just by looking at these swatches.

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  15. Just got Pure Pearlfection yesterday. I love it!! It's my favorite of all of them.

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  16. Nubar has something extremely similar to Shine of the Times, though the name escapes me at the mo. The flakie is too similar to their 2010 to be tempting, and the big mixed-glitters... LA Girl Glitter Addict and KleanColor have pretty much the same thing in like a dozen-plus colors for half the price. So, eh. Also the whole owned-by-L'Oreal-who-does-animal-testing issue. Amazing swatch pics, though, and I LOVE the combo you picked for Pearlfection -- I bet that one would be great over a muted navy like Zoya Cynthia!

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  17. Ooooh I really like As Gold as it Gets!

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  18. These are beautiful. Shine of times reminds me of Nubar 2010.

    I like how you swatched over light colors and then black.

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  19. I got SotT this past weekend. I've seen them at every Walgreens I've been to.

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  20. Thank you for the great pictures. I just ordered Essie Shine Of The Times.

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  21. I bought Shine of the Times and As Gold As It Gets. I'm kinda new to collecting polishes and I had nothing else like them in my collection. I also don't really like ordering polishes online for some weird reason; I guess it's because I enjoy the thrill of the hunt or something. XD

    The mixed glitters I can live without because I found some similar ones from Love & Beauty. I might go back and pick up Pure Pearlfection though.

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  22. Such a great collection!!
    I love them all!!
    Maybe the big glitter ones are not really original...

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  23. Shine of the Times looks so much like GOSH Rainbow! I have to admit, I wasn't blown away by any of them.... until I got to the pictures of them over black! I want them all now, you are doing nothing for my self-imposed spending ban! ;-)

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  24. OMG If I don't get shine of the times I am going to fume! I have wanted a flakie FOREVER but haven't been able to find one.
    Beautiful nails as always

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  25. Shine of the Times must be mine soon! I keep coming back to this post and marveling at how gorgeous it is. Thanks for sharing!

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  26. I just ordered Shine of the Times yesterday from Transdesign! Now I wish I would have got the gold and the pearl. These are all awesome!

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  27. Have you seen the CND Fall/Winter 2011 set with the gold sparkle effect? I have that coming to me (darn UPS) and based on other photos I've seen, it seems similar to As Gold As It Gets. I'm hoping one or the other will suffice.

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  28. I bought Shine of the Times on Monday and applied it last night over OPI Sapphire in the Snow. It's actually my first ever Essie. I pretty much avoided that brand due to lack of exciting colors, but they have really stepped up their game over the last few collections. I am really loving the look of Shine of the Times over a dark color, but I will absolutely have to try it over white. It really does look like opals!

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  29. Scrangie, do you think you could do a comparison of Shine of the Times, Nubar 2010, and Sally Hansen Hidden Treasure? That would be great! Love your blog!

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  30. I wore Shine of the Times over Essie Little Brown Dress and it was so gorgeous even my husband had to comment. Heck, even the lady at the Dior counter at Neiman's remarked on its beauty. I'm currently sporting it over Deborah Lippmann's I Know What Boys Like and it is stunning; I can't take my eyes off of my nails!

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  31. oh I love "Essie A Cut Above over black"
    the combination of these two made a gorgeous polish!!! so so so pretty!!!

    nice post!

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  32. OH SCRANGIE! Y U SO AWESOME! My goodness, these are just gorgeous and I want every single one.

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  33. I love the Shine of the times!! Thanks for the review! Love love love!!!

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  34. I do like the flakie over the black! It just glows :)

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  35. Nice collection but don't I already have these by others? I'd love to see them do some holos!

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  36. A chanel swatch comparison would make my head pop off...thank you!

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  37. I was at Ulta yesterday and saw an Essie display with four of the five. Ulta, Y U NO have Shine of the Times?

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  38. These are so cool! Did you use another topcoat on top of these? Or would it be overkill to use another topcoat on top?

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  39. Shine Of The Times and Pure Pearlfection are amazing!

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  40. I grabbed Shine of the Times at my local Walgreens yesterday, and just did an "opal" manicure! I did two coats of Zoya "Gaia" and two coats of "Shine of the Times." I can't get a good photograph of it, but I LOVE it! Thank you for these swatches and review, I wouldn't have known about SotT without it :-D (SQUEE It looks like I have opals on my fingers, teeheehee!!)

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  41. Inspired by your opal manicure, I also put Shine of the Times over Zoya Gaia (like Jill, above!) and then added a coat of The Old Vic (blue flakies) from the Nails Inc duo collection. Awesomeness!
    Love your swatches, as always!

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  42. I didn't realize you commented back! Yes yes its me. (fan girl alert) =P

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  43. Can I make a request to see a cut above over size matters! i would love to see how these luxeffects play with the winter collection.

    the boyfriend better get the hint this christmas all i want is essie!

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  44. How gorgeous are these?! I am in luxeffectland with shine of the times. awesome swatches!

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  45. Thank you so much for such a detailed post. After I saw these pictures, I bought Essie Shine of the Times (after looking for it for a little while . . . it wasn't in the drugstores at first), and I ordered Duri Icicle online. I wore Essie Shine of the Times on my toes over Sephora by Opi I'm With Brad while I waited to get Duri Icicle. In fact, that is still on my toes, and we're in January, and that combo has been on my toes most of December. Beautiful, like fall leaves, and very long-lasting. I really want to thank you for showing SOTT over Duri Icicle. I just got my bottle of Duri Icicle in the mail today, and it's unbelievably gorgeous! The shimmer seems multi-chromatic or holographic or something like that, just a lot of tiny-tiny-tiny little specks of different colored sparkle. Love it! Thank you!

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  46. P.S. I know you did one coat of Essie over the Duri Icicle, but how many coats of Duri Icicle did you use? I use a base coat with a little bit of color to it (Sally Hansen's discontinued Age Correct Growth base coat which dries sheer but with just a slight tint of a whitish pink at one coat and looks like a pinkish nude if I use more than one coat), so maybe just one coat of Duri Icicle will be enough? I hope that my base coat doesn't change the look too much from what is in your pictures.

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  47. P.P.S. Well, I am trying the combo of Duri Icicle with Essie Shine of the Times on top and went with *three* coats of Icicle because it is very sheer. I still have vnl, so hopefully the SOTT on top will cover that a little more.

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  48. Crested Dog Mom, I did three coats of Duri Icicle, it was a little sheer but I liked how it looked at three and didn't want to chance a longer drying time with four plus the Essie :) And thank you so much!

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    1. Thank you! I was doing my manicure when I posted my question, so I had to guess at what would work best. I think I saw in a post you did on Duri Icicle that you used three coats, yet it was still not completely opaque. I ultimately went with three coats of Duri Icicle, too, and had to do a little extra work because my cuticles were getting flooded. When I was done and showed my husband the very vnl, he said, "oh, that's not supposed to be a French manicure?" Sigh. I quickly got over the vnl because the manicure is very pretty, and I often stare at it, especially in the sun where it's dazzlingly brilliant. I've had the manicure six full days and no chips and only minimal tip wear on some nails from typing. Thank you do much for your great post and gorgeous pictures.

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  49. Scrangie, your post inspired me to finally use A Cut Above!! It's gorgeous but I was hesitant to layer it. It looks marvelous on my almost-black! Thanks!

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  50. I've been trying to find a good dark brown creme like the one you have on under As Gold As It Gets, what is it that you have on here?

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  52. I would love to see Essie do some holos. They do well with everything else...I want them to step up and do some outrageous holos...something that not everyone else is doing!

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