Essie (Un)Guilty Pleasures

[Purchased, affiliate links used – Post Disclosure Page]

Hi friends! I am so excited to be sharing with you all a NEW to the blog brand, Essie! Obviously, Essie is not at all a new nail polish brand but they are a brand that I have never featured on any of my socials before. I last tried Essie many years ago when I first got into painting my nails. I wasn’t terribly impressed to be perfectly honest. I hated their skinny brush, the formulas weren’t great and I only used them for sponged gradients.

Well, that was several years ago and I had heard that everything I disliked about Essie had improved over the years. And that leads up to how I ended up purchasing this collection to see if Essie really had gotten better since I last tried.

I purchased these polishes from Amazon but they seem to be popping up at other retailers now. As always, I will have links to where you can purchase these polishes at the end of the blog post. Don’t forget to check out my live swatch video to see how these apply!

Live Swatch Video

https://youtu.be/-T-xesa5yoo

Essie is a US based mainstream brand. Their polishes are in 13.5ml bottles, 8 free vegan and cruelty free.

Caught in the rain

Description: a muted neutral sage green with gray undertones

Caught In The Rain had a great formula. It self leveled BEAUTIFULLY and was very opaque. Out of all of the colors in the collection, I would say this was the color I was least looking forward to. Sage greens are not my thing at all.

This polish does seem to dry down just slightly darker than it first applies. I would say the official description was accurate. It is very cool toned.

My photos show Caught In The Rain in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. This polish dried down fairly glossy on its own.

Home By 8

Description: faded, soft black with red undertones

Home By 8 had a fantastic formula. This polish applied beautifully and was very opaque. It was slightly on the thicker side but I found it a dream to work with.

I am struggling so hard with describing what color this is. Amazon is calling it black, Essie says it’s a “soft black” but I am seeing a muted greyed out dark purple. Looking at this polish in the sun, I can see the red undertones Essie is referring to but indoors, it looks like a very dark purple that has a lot of grey in it.

This was the first polish from this group that I swatched so I would say this was the one I was most looking forward to. It didn’t disappoint. I love this color and I am not generally someone who likes colors like this.

My photos show Home By 8 in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. This polish does however dry down fairly glossy.

No To-Do

Description: deep coffee brown vegan nail polish with red undertones

No To-Do had a beautiful formula. The base didn’t feel overly thick or thin and I didn’t have any application issues.

While this is not a color that I thought I would like, there is something very pleasing to the eye about a brown creme. I *always* want to add a gold topper to them. I would call the color a warm toned medium brown.

It does seem to be darker on the nail than in the bottle. In the bottle, I wouldn’t have called it a chocolate but on the nail, it is very chocolatey colored.

My photos show No To-Do in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. This polish also dried down fairly glossy.

Snooze In

Description: warm, pinky coral with yellow undertones

Snooze also had a fantastic formula. I kinda expected this polish to have a chalky or well honestly bad formula (coral tend to be very hit or miss) but it applied really great. It took a little bit longer to self level than the other polishes in this release but it did self level nicely.

The base color is a coral than leans orange toned. In natural lighting, it seemed to lean more pink toned than orange. I don’t really care for colors (I prefer my corals to be neon) like this so this one wasn’t for me.

I do think this will be a 2-3 coater depending on personal preference. I initially thought it was opaque on me in 2 coats but I noticed after I added top coat that I had some light spots. I also noticed that my top coat brush seemed to get a lot of the polish on it so it is also possible that that is what caused the light spots.

My photos show Snooze in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. Again, this polish dries down pretty glossy on its own.

To Me From Me

Description: softened deep indigo blue with white undertones

To Me From Me also had a (noticing a theme?) fantastic formula. This was another polish that was very opaque, I could see people with short nails being good in just 1 coat with this polish.

I would describe the base color as a dark denim blue with some grey undertones. I love colors like this. This is one of those colors that I forget how much I like until I see it in front of me.

My photos show To Me From Me in 2 coats plus glossy top coat. Again, it dries down glossy.

(Un)guilty Pleasures

Description: a rich teal green with blue undertones

(Un)guilty pleasures had a fantastic formula. This polish was a 1 coater on me, which is very impressive. Everything about this polish was perfect.

The base color is a beautiful teal shade. It does lean a little bit to the green side but overall it is teal. Essie described it perfectly. I love love LOVED this shade of teal. Usually green leaning teals aren’t for me but I just love this color.

My photos show (Un)guilty pleasures in 2 coats plus glossy top coat.

Final Thoughts

Color me shocked. I was so impressed by the formulas of this collection! Like these performed so perfectly, I honestly feel stupid for not giving Essie a second try sooner.

The color story feels very Winter to Spring transitional to me. According to Essie, the inspiration for this collection is saying yes to things that make you happy and leaving guilt behind.

My top picks were (Un)Guilty Pleasures, To Me From Me and No To-Do but honestly, if you don’t already have colors similar to these in your collection I recommend all of the polishes!

Essie
13.5ml, 8 Free, Not Tested On Animals & Vegan
Website | Instagram

Sale Information

The (Un)Guilty Pleasures collection is available right now in all of the places where Essie is sold. I purchased mine from Amazon.

If you would like to purchase the collection at a discount and help support the blog, consider shopping on BeyondPolish.com and use my affiliate code NicoleLovesNails to save an extra 10%. Or use any of the following affiliate links to shop Essie online Walmart, Ulta, Walgreens or CVS. I really appreciate the support!