My Essie Nail Polish Collection: Photos + Reviews

Happy Friday everyone! We did it! After two weeks of silence I'm back and better than ever. On Wednesday I published a post about my favorite new spring/summer Essie nail polishes. That was so well received that I thought I'd celebrate and share my Essie Nail Polish Collection. OPI is my true nail polish love but Essie is a close second. Essie has an AMAZING range of colors that only gets better and better with each collection they release. Essie colors cab be bright and bold or subtle and timeless. Essie literally has a color that will please everyone--for a semi-affordable price. What's not to love?

My Essie Nail Polish Collection

Here is a quick overview of my collection. I was able to split the shades into four categories: neutrals, brights, berries, and blue/greens. I will go through each group one by one and give each polish a quickie review (if you want to hear more about a certain color, I've linked to full reviews). I promise to try to be brief. Okay, let's get started. 

My Essie Collection: Set in Stone, Sand Tropez, Buy Me A Cameo, Lady Like, Figi

 Before Essie was known for their bold and bright polishes, they were the master of neutral polishes--especially their wide range of baby pink polishes. Starting from the left, Set in Stone is a glitter polish that I received in my Birchbox months ago. It is a beautiful color to give a manicure a little extra bling. Sand Tropez  is the only nude polish I wear. It is a great polish for a polished and subtle look--but it doesn't give me mannequin hands. The search for the perfect nude is a hard one and I highly recommend this one. Buy Me a Cameo is a shimmery dark nude. I wear this color to formal events like weddings or graduations. It's a subtle glamour. Lady Like is the purple side of nude. It is an interesting color but I don't find myself reaching for it very often. I prefer Sand Tropez or Buy Me a Cameo. And last but not least, Figi. This color is an Essie legend. Everyone loves Figi and for good reason. It is the perfect baby pink color. It does take A LOT of coats but if you're patient, the end product is stunning. 

My Essie Collection: Lilacism, Van D'Go, Tart Deco, Cute As A Button, Pansy

 Now onto the pastels and the brights. Lilacism is another Essie legend. It is the original lilac nail polish that almost all beauty bloggers own and love. In recent years almost every brand from Maybelline to OPI has released a similar shade. Lilacism is a lovely color but there are less expensive optionis out there. Van D'Go is a perfect creamsicle orange. The first time I wore it I was a little wary but the more I wore the color, the more I love it. It isn't available at drugstores but many salons like Ulta still have this limited edition polish in stock. Tart Deco, another limited edition color and another favorite. Even when I abhorred orange nail polish, I loved this one. If you are hesitant about orange nail polish, try this one. Cute As A Button has recently received a lot of attention on the blog-o-sphere and I can say that it is well deserved. Check it out the next time you're at your local drugstore. Pansy is a medium pink color. Quite honestly I forgot that I had this color in my collection. It is a nice color but nothing special. I can think of a half-dozen polishes that are very similar. 

My Essie Collection: Splash of Grenadine, No Boundaries, Watermelon, Head Mistress, Scarlet O'Hara

 Now, the berry polishes. The first up is Splash of Grenadine. As you can see from how much I've used up, this polish is well loved. It falls somewhere in between a purple and a pink. This color is perfect for spring and summer. No Boundaries is a shade that I've recently rediscovered. It doesn't look like much in the bottle but on the nails, it's exquisite. Watermelon as the name suggest this polish is the bright pink of summer's favorite fruit. It is lovely but it isn't anything terribly unique. Head Mistress is a color that has a funny story. I bought it mostly because I was looking for a great winter color. I thought it was perfect because it's very similar to the burgundy color of  Gryffindor and since McGonagall was Head Mistress after Snape, I thought it was extremely fitting. I bought Scarlet O'Hara because I'm a little bit obsessed with Gone with the Wind. I think Rhett and Scarlet's relationship is so iconic (although I think the movie is way too long to watch in one sitting). Every beauty junkie needs a nail polish named after the only woman who can pull off a dress made of curtains.

My Essie Collection: Wrapped in Rubies, Mojito Madness, Turquoise & Caicos, Borrowed & Blue, Dive Bar

And last but not least, the blue greens. The first polish, Wrapped in Rubies, is a gift from my aunt. I'd been lusting after this color for months before she was kind enough to give it to me. It is a lovely duo-chrome red/gold nail polish. It is a color that I love to wear in the fall and winter because it will go with everything. Mojito Madness is the only true green that I own and I love it. It looks wonderful in the spring and I especially love accenting my ring finger with a white and green chevron design. It looks so chic and modern. A lot of women are hesitant to wear green nail polish. So if you're rocking this color during the summer, you won't have to worry about someone matching you. Turquoise & Caicos is another one of those Essie legends. When it was released it was ALL OVER YouTube and beauty blogs. You know why? Because at the time there was nothing like it. Even now, I can't think of any dupes. This color is bold and perfect for the beach. Borrowed & Blue was released ages ago in one of Essie's bridal collections. I don't know if I would ever wear blue nail polish to my wedding but I have no problem wearing it everywhere. I've used almost the entire bottle and I don't think this color is available anymore. Sigh. It really is something special. I picked up  Dive Bar after I saw Amarixe's blog post about this nail polish ages ago. It looked so good on her. And I've learned that this girl knows a thing or two about nail polish. Whenever she recommends a nail polish I know I can trust her opinion. 

My Essie Nail Polish Collection

My Essie Nail Polish Collection

And that was my Essie Nail Polish Collection! I did recently buy three shades from the Essie 2013 Spring and Summer Collections but I decided not to include them because they threw off my organizing system. But you can click here to check them out! I hope you enjoyed this. Leave a comment below if you want to me do a similar post with my OPI or Julep or Sephora by OPI polishes.

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