[Purchased by me, affiliate links used]
Hi friends! Today’s blog post is for a new-ish release from Essie. As a new Essie fan, I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to try out their extra lines. This line, Expressie is supposed to be a quick dry line. They also have a “gel-like” line called Gel Couture, which I will have a post up for sometime next week.
To be perfectly honest, I don’t really love when brands make all of these off shot lines because it gets confusing as a customer and well most of the time, there aren’t any real differences between the lines that are easily discernable as the consumer aside from the price point. One difference between the Expressie line and the regular Essie line is the brush is crooked, on purpose.
All of that was to say, I did a poll during one of my livestreams on YouTube and folks said to try the line so that’s what I am doing. So this collection is called Word On The Street. I am a little confused at what the inspiration for this one but we have 6 cremes in Essie’s quick dry formulation. These are all available right now on and as always, links and sale deets can be found at the end of the post.
Live Swatch Video
Essie is a US based mainstream brand. Their polishes are in 13.5ml bottles, 8 free vegan and cruelty free.
Outside The Lines
Description: a deep yellow with strong orange undertones
Outside The Lines had a great but thicker formula. The application was good but streaky which isn’t surprising given this is a yellow.
The shade of this is a deep almost mac & cheese kinda yellowy orange. It’s not quite a mustard yellow, it feels more golden than mustard to me.
This was the first polish from this line that I have tried and the brush felt a little weird. I knew when I bought the collection that this was going to be one of the colors that I liked the most. It’s really pretty in person and compliments my skin tone nicely.
My photos show Outside The Lines in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. If you aren’t super picky about dark spots, coverage is decent in 2 coats. This polish is very pigmented and is a stainer. My thumbnail has been stained a beautiful yellow since I swatched this polish over a week ago.
Send A Message
Description: a classic, fiery red with black undertones
Send A Message had a very squishy, crelly like formula but very good. It was slightly less opaque than I expected it to be but coverage was still great.
It is slightly brighter than I would say a brick red is. It doesn’t feel like a seasonal red to me. Color me surprised but I really liked how this one looked on my nails!
My photos show Send A Message in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. I did have some hints of VNL with this so if that kind of thing bothers you, I would suggest a third coat.
Spray It To Say It
Description: a midtoned berry red with yellow undertones
Spray It To Say It really wowed me. This one had a fantastic formula. It was very opaque, on me it was just shy of being a one coater. I do think with either thicker coats or after a few uses, it will be a one coater.
I found this applied buttery smooth and is the formula I have come to expect from Essie cremes lately. The color of this isn’t the most unique but it is nice nonetheless.
My photos show Spray It To Say It in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.
For my comparison, I have Spray It To Say It on my pointer finger, Zoya’s Ono (Classic Leathers Fall 2022) on middle finger and Zoya’s Elowen (Toasty Transitional 2023) on my ring finger. Spray It To Say It is more muted with a hint of duskiness than Ono. I have a feeling in yellow/warm light sources, these will look like dupes.
Unapologetic Icon
Description: a crisp, canvas-white creme
Unapologetic Icon had a pretty streaky formula. It wasn’t bad but it was just very streaky. It seemed to dry down sheerer than it applies so there were a lot of dark spots after 2 coats. I added a third coat but found as the polish dried, the dark spots returned.
Next to a true bright white, this one seems almost dingy. On its own, it looks like a true white. I am not really a fan of white cremes as I find the formulas irritating to work with. So yeah, this wasn’t for me.
My photos show Unapologetic Icon in 3 coats plus glossy top coat. I found even with three coats and floating my brush on, I still had some dark spots.
Word On The Street
Description: a bright sky blue creme
Word On The Street was on the thinner side as well as being streaky. I wouldn’t call it watery but it was thin enough that with thicker coats, you will flood those cuticle crevices. I also found that it ran down the stem of the brush quite a bit.
I love colors like this and I can look past the thin/runny/streakiness for such a bright and fun color. My only complaint is that it seems like it is likely to be a solid 3 coater to cover up dark spots.
My photos show Word On The Street in 3 coats plus glossy top coat.
So I messed up when I was doing my comparisons and forgot to write down what it was that I was actually comparing. I *think* I pulled out Orly’s Sky’s The Limit (Lisa Frank collab) and China Glazes Blue Raspberry (Dippin Dots collection). However, I was on day 1 of taking cold medicine and I failed to write down what it was that I actually pulled out. I vaguely remember thinking of those 2 polishes but 1) I still have a head cold and everything is fuzzy and 2) I am still on cold medicine. Whatever it was that I pulled out, they weren’t dupes for this polish.
World As A Canvas
Description: a soft grey with violet undertones
World As A Canvas I was a little nervous about World As A Canvas on the first coat. It was runny, and a little streaky but overall the formula was pretty good. Do not dry to work in thick coats with this or you will be in for a bad time.
This is the first Essie polish that I have tried (if you’re new here, I only started trying this brand a few months ago) that I found so streaky. To minimize the streaks, you will want to float your brush over the nail.
As someone who loves grey polishes, I did love this polish but since I have recently swatched so many different greys (looking at you Zoya) I was kinda bored by this polish. The description is accurate, it is a lighter grey with cool/violet undertones.
My photos show World As A Canvas in 3 coats. As I mentioned, this was a very streaky polish and despite me floating my brush I had quite a few light spots with 2 coats. It seems to dry down slightly sheerer than it applies. If you aren’t overly picky or do a better job with floating, this would be a 2 coater.
For comparison, World As A Canvas is on my pointer finger, Zoya’s Carey on my middle nail, China Glaze (Eco Glaze line) Peony Express is on my ringer ringer and World As A Canvas on my pinky. Next to a grey, it looks purple, and next to purple World As A Canvas looks grey.
Final Thoughts
Overall this wasn’t a bad collection. I do think if you have any similar colors, these are a definite skip. I was a little bummed so many of the polishes were streaky and 3 coaters as that has not been my experience with Essie lately.
It took some getting used to the angled brush. I don’t think it made the application any easier, it actually took some getting used to. As far as the quick dry claims, I didn’t notice these drying any faster than a normal nail polish by any brand. They do all dry down pretty glossy but that seems to be the norm for Essie as far as I have seen the past few collections.
Despite not personally owning any exact dupes for any of these polishes, I still feel like I have seen all of these colors before. I feel a little burnt out on berry, grey and red cremes and I really hope I don’t have to swatch another one for a while.
I don’t love that these are priced at $10 for a 10ml bottle. The bottle size is smaller than Essie’s regular line but priced the same way. The price point is probably my #1 complaint about this line followed by not loving the skinny bottle and not finding the brush weird.
All that said, my top picks are probably going to be Word On The Street and Outside The Lines.
Essie
13.5ml, 8 Free, Not Tested On Animals & Vegan
Website | Instagram
Sale Information
This collection is available right now. Each polish is priced at $10 for a 10ml bottle. I purchased mine from the Ulta website. I have seen them online on Amazon, Ulta, Walgreens (FYI, Walgreens is doing a buy 2 get 1 free on nail polish at the time of posting), Walmart, Target and CVS. As far as I can tell everywhere the regular Essie line gets sold.
I do have an affiliate code for Beyond Polish where Essie is sold but at the time of posting, this collection is not available there. If you still want to check out Beyond Polish, use code NicoleLovesNails to save an extra 10%,
